Dubitsky wins Republican nomination in 47th state House primary
Doug Dubitsky emerged as the Republican nominee in Tuesday’s three-way primary for the party endorsement in the 47th state House of Representatives race that covers eight rural towns and the northern portion of Norwich.
Dubitsky, 51, an attorney with an office in Windham, received 556 votes, while Noah Enslow of Sprague got 404 votes and Michael Meadows, also of Sprague, received 195 votes in the primary. Dubitsky now faces Democratic state Rep. Brian Sear of Canterbury. Sear defeated Enslow in the 2012 district election.
Dubitsky carried the night with landslide victories in Lebanon, where he outpolled his closest opponent by 48 votes; in his hometown of Chaplin, where he won by 88 votes; and in the one Norwich voting precinct that covered the 47th House District, where he won by 21 votes. Turnout was low throughout most of the district, with a few dozen votes making the difference in most towns.
“I feel great,” Dubitsky said after all the numbers were in. “We’ve all worked very hard, my team, my family. It just shows that running a nice, clean campaign without attacking my opponents was the way to go.”
Enslow’s campaign manager filed two election complaints against Dubitsky during the primary campaign alleging violations of state election law. Dubitsky called the complaints “bogus” and baseless.
Enslow could not be reached for comment Tuesday night.
“Hard work and a message that resonated,” Dubitsky said of how he won the primary.
Dubitsky also is working to place his name on the ballot as the endorsed candidate in the Independent Party. He said he submitted petitions with close to 200 signatures — he said he needed 109 signatures — to be placed on the third-party ballot line. Dubitsky said he received a “very gracious” call from Meadows but had not heard from Enslow.
Meadows thanked his supporters at his post-campaign party at TJ’s Café in Baltic, and supporter Steven Everett, Republican candidate for the 19th state Senate seat, quickly announced that Meadows would be his campaign manager.
“I’ve seen a lot of dedication and drive in Michael,” Everett said.
c.bessette@theday.com
Twitter: @bessettetheday
How towns voted
47th House District primary
Dubitsky Enslow Meadows
Canterbury 91 142 48
Chaplin 145 57 18
Franklin 42 19 11
Hampton 47 56 5
Lebanon 67 19 15
Lisbon 45 35 13
Norwich 42 16 21
Scotland 37 23 10
Sprague 40 37 54
Total 556 404 195
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