Phil Miller Wins 36th Assembly Seat in Close Race

Longtime Essex First Selectman Phil Miller defeated Republican Janet Peckinpaugh in a special election Tuesday to fill the vacancy for the General Assembly’s 36th House District seat. 

 Final, unofficial tallies are Miller, 2,741 (52 percent), and Peckinpaugh, 2,521 (48 percent).

Upon hearing the results a relieved Miller called his mother in Florida to deliver the good news from the home of campaign manager Lon Seidman, whose Essex home served as headquarters for the race.

Miller carried all District towns except Haddam, where Peckinpaugh received 855 votes to Miller's 658. In all four towns, Democrats outnumber Republican registered voters.

Peckingpaugh conceded defeat a little after 9 p.m. in a speech to friends and supporters at the Griswold Inn wine bar in Essex. A tearful Peckinpaugh said it was a close race.

This was the second defeat in three months for Peckinpaugh, who lost her bid last November for Connecticut’s 2nd Congressional District.

Miller, who acknowledged the election was a close one, beat Peckinpaugh by just 245 votes. 

Surrounded by friends, supporters and well-wishers at the Griswold Inn Wine Bar in Essex on Tuesday night, Peckinpaugh said she knew going into the election that she faced an uphill battle.

“It’s a heavily Democratic district, like the rest of Connecticut,” she said.

Teary-eyed, she thanked her supporters shortly after calling Miller to concede the race.

“From the bottom of my heart, thank you guys,” she said. “It was so close. We worked so hard on such a short campaign.

Still, the mood in the wine bar was upbeat, even after Peckinpaugh got the first of the returns just after 8 p.m., showing that she was trailing Miller.

 “It was a fairly close election and I’m just grateful for the win,” Miller said.

Peckinpaugh, a former Connecticut television news anchor who lives in Essex, won her party’s endorsement in January to run for the 36th District, which includes Haddam, Chester, Deep River and Essex.

The special election was called to fill a vacancy created when James Spallone, the 36th District representative, was tapped by Gov. Dannel Malloy to become Deputy Secretary of the State.

Miller said he was eager to get to Hartford to begin working on the problems facing the state. His first task, he said, would be to determine the scope of those problems.

“I’m squarely focused on finding solutions to our challenges,” he said. 

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