The Republican Town Committee in New Hartford, a reliably red community in Connecticut's 8th Senate District, has stopped publicly backing its own party's state Senate candidate, Mike Criss, over a personal-injury lawsuit he filed against the town and its school board. The committee pulled support for Criss's campaign, including the display of his campaign signs, as his case over a 2023 fall at an elementary school has dragged on and expanded to include a local youth sports nonprofit.
Criss, who has served as Harwinton's first selectman since 2011 and is a fifth-generation resident of the town, sued New Hartford and its Board of Education in 2024 for negligence and recklessness, according to ctinsider.com. The lawsuit stems from a fall Criss suffered on Aug. 30, 2023, on a metal walkway at Ann Antolini Elementary School in New Hartford. He injured his right knee, which required surgery less than three months after the fall, and the 58-page complaint states he incurred hospital, medical, medicine, diagnostic-test and therapy expenses, with the possibility of more to come.
This past summer, Criss amended the lawsuit to add New Hartford Youth Football & Cheer Inc. as a defendant, after a judge approved his motion to do so. The amended complaint alleges the nonprofit owned, possessed, managed, maintained or controlled the walkway area where he fell. New Hartford has denied the allegations of negligence and recklessness and argued the town is barred from the lawsuit entirely because of governmental and recreational-use immunity, per the same report.
Republicans Cite Depositions and Dissension
New Hartford Republican Chairman Greg O’Brien said, per a message reported by the Hartford Courant, that the committee withdrew its public support because of impending depositions and the ongoing litigation. O’Brien added that the committee was baffled by the continuing lawsuit and said the controversy was causing dissension and concern among New Hartford residents. Criss did not return email and phone messages seeking comment, the Courant reported.
Criss has defended the case as separate from his political ambitions. He told CT Insider in a text message that his personal-injury claim was entirely unrelated to his Senate campaign and arose before his candidacy began. The distinction matters in a town where Criss would need every bit of local goodwill: New Hartford's registered voters were 31.5% Republican and 25% Democratic as of 2024 state data, making it one of the GOP's more dependable bases in the 11-town 8th Senate District, which stretches from Avon and Simsbury to Torrington and Norfolk in Litchfield County.
A District Still Up for Grabs
Criss is running to unseat Democratic Sen. Paul Honig, who is seeking his second term after narrowly winning the seat two years before this story's publication in a race that required a recount. Republicans had dominated the 8th Senate District for more than 50 years before Honig's 2024 victory, which flipped a seat the GOP had held for 57 years, according to the CT News Junkie. Honig defeated Republican Lisa Seminara by 319 votes in that recount, per the outlet, though CT Mirror has separately reported the margin as 320 votes — a discrepancy that remains unresolved across the public record. Honig declined to comment on the Criss controversy through a spokesman.
The district has been trending more Democratic in recent years, especially in the Farmington Valley towns, the same CT News Junkie report noted. The Farmington Valley suburbs of Avon, Canton and Simsbury are the district's largest source of votes and are heavily favored by Democrats in presidential years, according to CT Mirror. Two years earlier, Seminara had defeated Honig by 125 votes in their first matchup; CT News Junkie gives the margin as 125.
New Hartford's Local-National Divide
New Hartford itself has not voted for a Democratic presidential candidate since Barack Obama in 2008, and Donald Trump has carried the town in all three of his presidential runs, winning it with 52.3% of the vote in 2024 compared with 46% for Kamala Harris, per ctinsider.com. Seminara herself won 54.6% of the vote in New Hartford in 2024 even as she lost the district overall to Honig — underscoring just how reliably Republican the town remains even as the broader 8th District shifts.
Criss has campaigned on housing and development issues alongside other state Republicans. He appeared with state Sen. Ryan Fazio at a Simsbury park in August to advocate for affordable housing and raise concerns about the state's 8-30(g) affordable-housing law, which has also been cited in a contested development proposal at the former Hartford insurance company site on Hopmeadow Street. Whether the lawsuit controversy dents his standing with New Hartford's Republican base, or with the district's broader electorate, remains to be seen as the race heads toward November's election.
