Bacchiochi Easily Re-Elected to 52nd House District Seat

Republican incumbent Penny Bacchiochi easily defended her 52nd House District seat against Democratic challenger Chris Grohs and Christian Center Party candidate Daniel Traceski.

The now six-term state representative received 6,892 votes while Grohs received 3,171, and Traceski 93.

Bacchiochi said that even though she’s been doing this a long time, she still gets the jitters and excitement that she did the first time she ran. She said she’s glad that this campaign is over because she thought Grohs ran a negative campaign and didn’t really address issues.

She said she wasn’t sure how the vote would turn out, but in the end, she believes that people agreed with her and want to focus on issues and solutions.

“I don’t think people want that,” she said of negativity and attacks. “They want issues and what’s important to them.”

Bacchiochi said that if she could do anything productive in this next term, it would be to try to find a way to get both parties working together.

“We would be so much better off,” she said. “I would like to try to be a positive force of change in the area of gridlock and the partisan battles. The day after the election, I’m not a Republican and you’re not a Democrat, we’re elected officials, let’s do our job.”

She is known as being a moderate Republican who crosses the aisle more than most.

“If I see something that is good for my district or for the state of Connecticut, I definitely am going to work on it, regardless of party,” she said.

She knows it won’t be easy.

“We have some hard work to do and some tough decisions to make,” Bacchiochi said.

For Grohs, he obviously would have liked to win, but he said that he’s not distraught and is using this as an experience that he will build on. He said that he is looking at the municipal elections next year and may run for the Planning and Zoning Commission, but says that there is the possibility of him running for this 52nd House District seat again.

Grohs said that he and his staff did a lot of hard work this campaign.

“I’m pretty happy about that,” he said.