By Tyler Lilly – Staff Reporter

Election Day was on November 4, and Milford was among the many areas to be electing new government officials. The mayoral race was between Tony Giannattasio and Rich Smith. Rich Smith won the election by almost 2,000 votes, which doesn’t sound like much, but there were only about 18,000 total votes. Smith was inaugurated on November 17, and became the mayor of Milford. An interesting note is that this was just one of many victories for Democrats across the country, and that Democrats seemed to dominate this municipal election. Regardless of voting in other towns and states, Milford is under new leadership, and is going from a Republican mayor to a Democratic mayor. 

The previous mayor, Giannattasio, is a Republican, and was mayor from 2023 to 2025. Milford has never been purely a Republican town, although there have been more Republican mayors than Democratic mayors. The mayor before Giannattasio, Benjamin Blake, was a Democrat and was mayor from 2011 to 2023. According to voter data from 2020, Milford has 9,247 Republican voters, 12,543 Democratic voters, and 19,065 unaffiliated voters. This means that an election can tip in any direction, as there are many voters who do not associate with any particular party. Of course, one election being in favor of Democrats does not indicate a shift towards that party, but there are many other factors at play that make Rich Smith’s victory unsurprising. 

One thing that is key to a successful election is a good campaign. Giannattasio’s campaign focused on how the Democratic Aldermen voted to raise taxes, and that voters should vote Republican. The Board of Aldermen is a key part of the Milford government, and serves as a legislative body. What Giannattasio was trying to tell voters is that voting Republican, and thus, for him, would help fight the Democrats’ attempts to raise taxes. This messaging was a bit convoluted. There are likely thousands of people who saw Giannattasio’s signs around Milford and had no clue what he was talking about. Part of good political messaging is being able to relate issues for the average voter, which Smith did a much better job at. Smith’s campaign also focused on lower taxes, with the key difference being that his messaging was a lot simpler. Smith’s main slogan was “Lower Taxes, Stronger Milford.” Smith’s campaign gets right to the point, and is much less complicated than Giannattasio’s. One thing the citizens of Milford can expect are lower taxes, reducing economic strain on people.

Some people might say that Giannattasio’s re-election campaign was good enough. And while the campaign wasn’t bad by any means, it just wasn’t perfect. While a good campaign with sincere promises and efficient messaging is a big part of winning an election, it isn’t the only thing that goes into it. Even if Giannattasio had a significantly better campaign than Smith, there’s still one more thing that needs to be addressed – President Donald Trump. While there are many people who like Trump’s policies, as evident by him winning the popular vote last year, there are as many people who hate him and his administration. Trump has had many controversies that impact the whole country, especially tariffs, which put even more economic strain on people. Trump is a Republican, and Smith is a Democrat. Smith being on the opposite party as the highly divisive President, along with offering some economic relief with lower taxes, apparently pushed many undecided voters over the edge to vote for him. And this is not just in Milford, but many elections around the country. Smith’s victory is not just indicative of the direction Milford is heading in, but the direction the entire country is heading in.