Socialism in State Politics

This section shows the endeavors and successes of socialists in Connecticut politics in the last century. Many officials ran for and were elected for positions on socialist platforms at a time when socialists were portrayed as violent sewers of discord and threatening to the American way of life. None the less men like Jasper McLevy, a first generation Scottish American and roofer, became the socialist mayor of Bridgeport from 1933 to 1957, and lost the race for governor in 1938. Frederic Cole Smedley was a an anti-war advocate who ran for comptroller of Waterbury in 1939 and later for the US Senate, unanimously nominated by his party, on a socialist platform.