Middletown residents elected a new mayor on Tuesday. Republican lawyer Seb Giuliano beat Democrat incumbent Domenique Thornton by a margin of nearly 1,000 votes. He received 53 percent of the 11,000 votes cast and will be sworn in Tuesday at noon.

“We won the big districts because we went out to all of them,” Giuliano said. “Our door-to-door campaign was amazing. We were out there ringing doorbells all of the time, and that clued us in to where we were strong and where we weren’t.”

His top priority will be meeting with the police department to take a better approach towards preventing crime. He will also ask for a pause in construction of the new high school while he looks into replacing members of the building committee.

“What I’m looking forward to doing the most is working with all of the people you get to work with as mayor. You work with other elected officials in common council, paid employees of the city, people who are involved with business community, the board of education and teachers, the universities…all those institutions that have an impact on city,” Giuliano said.

He intends to develop a strong connection with the University and strengthen relations with the town.

“I think just in terms of my relationship, I have nothing but respect for the University and I would like to spend more time up there and see more of it,” Giuliano said. “The best way to improve relationships with the people who live here is to find ways to expose the University to them. It’s unfortunate for people to see Wesleyan as something to accommodate as opposed to something that raises the level of community. Without Wesleyan, Middletown is Meriden.”

Giuliano recalled a story from a number of years ago, when the University put on a theatrical production called “The Saint Sebastian Project,” which centered on the history of a group of Middletown residents from Sicily. This highly successful play brought together students, professionals, professors, and townspeople.

“This is an example of a big positive, but is that something you can do all of the time? Probably not, but there are other ways. You need to reach into hearts of the people who live here, and once you have done that, you’ve got a friend for life,” Giuliano said.

Thornton said that a lack of campaign funds contributed to her defeat.

“We did a lot of things that we had never done before,” Thornton said. “We were forced to because he had so much money and came out early with his campaigning. We had to respond the best that we could, but we didn’t meet his level of exposure because he had more money than we did.”

The Hartford Courant pointed to Thornton’s relationship with Tomasso Brothers Inc. (TBI), the construction company for the new high school, as a possible factor to swing voters against her. TBI was tried in the corruption scandal with former Connecticut Governor John Rowland.

“Definitely TBI was an issue. I think people associated them with the Rowland scandal and associated them with our project but obviously that wasn’t the case. Nonetheless, in the eyes of the people there was this association because of the prolonged investigation,” she said.

She also addressed the role that her DWI arrest played in voters’ decisions.

“Even though I was completely exonerated, in the eyes of the people I did something wrong because I was arrested. It was an emotional issue, but once it is in public domain and in minds of people, it creates doubt. Sometimes that’s difficult to overcome,” she said.

According to Thornton, her future plans may include returning to practicing law or doing advocacy work.

Also on the Middletown ballot were two referendum questions that voters passed. These referendums authorize bonds for city sewers and roads. The money will be put towards patching and replacing sidewalks, eliminating flooding in several areas, and creating a road leading to the new high school.

On campus, many students did not go to the polls, despite the Wesleyan Democrats’ (WesDems) efforts to increase student voting,

“Only one student took us up on our offer to drive voters to the polls, which is extremely disappointing,” said WesDems President Betti Packman ’07. “About 270 students are registered to vote in Middletown.”

Even the few students who did cast ballots were unsure if their votes affected the outcome.

“I voted for Domenique but I’m pretty sure none of this matters as we are all clearly doomed,” said Douglas Walters ’08. “It’s just a drop in the bucket. That’s what my professor told me. He said my vote doesn’t really mean anything.”

Packman said that it is too early to tell if her group will forge a relationship with Giuliano.

“I think it is extremely important for the town and University to work together, and politics is a natural place for that to happen,” she said. “I’m interested in hearing his plans, but we still very strongly support the Middletown Democratic Party, regardless of who is in office.”