The lineup for November’s mayoral election is set following the Sept. 10 Republican primary. Steven “Big Steve” Tracey, currently a Town Council representative for District 4, defeated his primary challenger with 727 votes to Sal Maltese’s 448 in a race in which 1,178 or 32 percent of the town’s 3,636 registered Republicans participated in the election.

With his primary win behind him, Tracey will be one of three candidates on the ballot in the general election on Tuesday, Nov. 5 when he will face off against Joe Carfora, the candidate endorsed by the Democrats and the District 3 Town Council Representative, and petitioning candidate Oni Sioson. Mayor Joseph Maturo, Jr., has announced he will not seek a 10th term as East Haven mayor. See page 7 for his announcement.

In the run up to his primary win, Tracey earned the support of the Republican Town Committee (RTC) at its July convention, but quickly faced challenger Sal Maltese, who was making his third bid for mayor and his first as a Republican.

Maltese won in his home district, District 2, with 161 votes to Tracey’s 157 votes. In that district, Maltese had 47 absentee ballots to Tracey’s 11.

All other districts in town went to Tracey, securing him the primary win.

“My team worked really hard. We knocked on doors and made our phone calls,” Tracey said. “I just wish that the Republican party would unite and come together to move on to the next chapter in the race.”

While Tracey said he was thankful to those who came out to support him, he wished more people came to the polls.

“It was terrible that not a lot of people came out for a primary,” Tracey said. “It’s not unusual that we only had 1,100 people [but] I think…more people should come out.”

Now that the race has narrowed to three candidates, Carfora said his campaign is pursuing plans to hold a debate.

“There’s a lot of issues in town. I think the people need to hear from us candidates what our plans are for the town,” he said. “It would be great to hear from us in a debate.”

Tracey said that education and infrastructure top his list of priorities for the town.

“We need to be a partner with the Board of Education [BOE],” he said. “If we make the BOE our top priority, it’s going to affect the whole town. People will want to move to East Haven. Property values will go up. There will actually be people who want to come to East Haven instead of leave East Haven.”

Carfora agreed that education and infrastructure are important areas in which the town needs to improve. He is also advocating for transparency.

“A lot of people are concerned with our government being as transparent as possible and I’m striving to give them that,” he said. “I want to run an administration that’s very transparent. I think the people in town deserve that.”

Debates or no debates, Carfora said he hopes the race continues to be a clean one.

“I love East Haven,” Tracey said. “I moved here 22 years ago to raise my family here. I want to get back to the way it was. People were happy.”

“I take this town to heart. I came here when I was eight months old, so I consider myself born and raised here,” Carfora said. “We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us, whoever wins. I can’t wait to take on that task.”

Maltese did not respond to requests for comment.