Working Families Party

When Joshua Hall left his teaching position at Hartford's Weaver High School in 2008 to work for the Hartford Federation of Teachers, he didn't give up his salary. Instead, Hartford schools continued to pay him as vice president of the union, with the union only partially reimbursing the schools. The practice of Connecticut's near-bankrupt capital city paying union workers attracted little notice until April when Hall won a seat in the state house by special election as a member of the Working Families Party.

Connecticut is one of only eight states in the nation that allows “fusion voting,” a system that allows a candidate to appear more than once on the ballot and the nominee for two or more political parties. However, some experts say a bill passed in 2013 that placed restrictions on fusion voting could be illegal.