Above: Stamford Democrats get ready for a full morning of

registering voters.

Above: Jim Diamond discusses the importance of voter registration with volunteers.

Above photos: Di Longo registers new Democrats at Stamford supermarkets.

Above: Alice C. Fortunato,

Democratic Registrar of Voters.

With the popular and successful mayor, Dan Malloy leading Stamford, and Republicans in Hartford and Washington becoming increasingly unpopular, local voters are overwhelmingly choosing the Stamford Democrats.

According to Alice Fortunato, Registrar of Voters, in the first half of 2004, 35 percent of  the voters turning in registrations forms in Stamford enrolled as Democrats compared to just 16 percent for the Republicans.

Ellen Camhi, Chairwoman of the Stamford Democratic City Committee, believes that the Democrats' success is attributable to a variety of factors. “The message of the Democratic Party has broader appeal than that of our opponents,” she said.” When the voters look at the growth and quality of life in Stamford compared to other places, voters give credit to the leadership of Dan Malloy and his administration. Additionally, voters look at people like Senators Dodd and Lieberman, and Attorney General Blumenthal and compare them to John Rowland and it's easy to choose the Democratic Party.”

Camhi also gave credit to her Voter Registration Committee, which has been working hard since the spring to register Democrats. According to Philip Berns, Chairman of the sub-committee, the Democrats have taken an aggressive approach to signing up new Stamford Democrats.   “We've been staffing booths at the supermarkets and going door-to-door with our voter registration forms,” said Berns. “To be honest it's been remarkably easy this year. There is a great deal of dissatisfaction with President Bush and the Republican agenda in Washington.” Camhi said that the Stamford Democrats have also had great success recruiting volunteers. “We had 50 volunteers show up at 9AM on a recent Sunday morning to do door-to-door voter registration,” she said. (See top photograph of volunteers, above, left.)

Sanchia Spandow, a member of The Democratic State Central Committee representing Stamford, believes that the voter registration surge will help all of the Stamford Democratic legislative candidates running this year. “With all of these new Democrats”, said Spandow, “Andrew McDonald, and all of our   legislative candidates will have a great advantage.”

Above: Harriet Scureman and Bob Johnson knock on doors in downtown Stamford to sign up Democrats.

Above: After registering voters, volunteers are treated to a barbeque at the home of William and Elizabeth Tong. Left to right: Kara Prawl (candidate for Board of Ed.) State Rep. Carlo Leone, State Sen. Andrew McDonald, William Tong and Archie Elam (candidate for Board of Ed).