As of Wednesday evening, there were 8,154 registered Democrats in the 92nd state house district and 6,003 registered Democrats in the 97th state house district. That means that candidates who don’t receive the local Democratic Party’s endorsement Thursday in their bids to represent those districts will need to gather 407 and 300 valid petition signatures, respectively, between May 26 and June 9 if they want to make it onto the Aug. 11 Democratic primary ballot. Those voter registration numbers were provided to the Independent on Wednesday night by city Republican Registrar of Voters Lisa Milone. (City Democratic Registrar of Voters Shannel Evans also provided similar registration counts to the Independent earlier in the day; Milone’s numbers show that a few more people registered to vote by the end of Wednesday.) The Democratic registration numbers in particular will soon be quite relevant for three of the five Democrats seeking to represent the 92nd and 97th state house districts — as the New Haven Democratic Town Committee (DTC) plans to meet at the Betsy Ross Parish House Thursday evening to formally endorse a candidate for each state-house seat. Eli Sabin and Justin Farmer are challenging incumbent Pat Dillon for the Democratic endorsement for the 92nd district, which covers parts of Amity, Westville, Edgewood, Dwight, West River, and the Hill. Wildaliz Bermudez and Alder Leland Moore are vying for the Democratic endorsement to replace (Democratic state Senate nominee) Al Paolillo, Jr. as the representative for the 97th district, which covers parts of Fair Haven, Fair Haven Heights, Quinnipiac Meadows, the Annex, and Morris Cove. The registration numbers provided by Milone show that, in the 92nd district, there are currently 8,154 registered Democrats, 528 registered Republicans, 3,714 registered unaffiliated voters, and 136 registered third-party voters, for a total of 12,532 registered voters in the district. The 97th district, meanwhile, currently has 6,003 registered Democrats, 1,096 registered Republicans, 4,198 registered unaffiliated voters, and 136 registered third-party voters, for a total of 11,433 registered voters in the district. Whoever wins Thursday’s endorsement votes will automatically secure a spot on the Aug. 11 Democratic primary ballot. Non-endorsed candidates, meanwhile, will have to gather petition signatures from 5 percent of registered Democrats in their respective districts by Tuesday, June 9 at 4 p.m. if they want to make the primary ballot. Petitions become available on Tuesday, May 26. Based off of the numbers provided by Milone, that means that non-endorsed candidates in the 92nd district will need to gather petition signatures from around 407 registered Democrats in the district, while the non-endorsed candidate in the 97th will need to gather petition signatures from around 300 registered Democrats in the district. The Secretary of the State’s election-results database, meanwhile, shows that, in the most recent general election in each of these state-house districts — in November 2024 — Dillon, a Democrat, won 6,844 votes to Republican challenger Morris Sumpter’s 842 votes in the 92nd district, and Paolillo, a Democrat, won 5,610 votes to Republican challenger Anthony Acri’s 1,947 votes in the 97th district. The post The 92nd The 97th, By The #’s appeared first on New Haven Independent. ...read more read less