Once-and-future state Sen. Edwin A. Gomes, left, a retired Steelworker, was able to salute Bridgeport Democrats as only he can, with his big win Tuesday to regain the 23rd District seat representing Bridgeport and part of Stratford. While the Working Families Party is touting Gomes’s success as a come-from-behind win that’s their first big victory nationally, in fact, the seat was Gomes’s to lose from the get-go, but during the nominating convention, a deadlock played into the hands of the tax-challenged Richard DeJesus. Be that as it may, the election result sent the Blogster to the great Legislative Library, where the helpful staff pointed out that the last time third-party members (actually, the only time third-party members served dating back to 1887) were in the state Senate was in the depth of the Great Depression, when three Socialists from Bridgeport were there: Audubon J. Secor, 48, an engineer; Albert E. Eccles, 52, a English-born engraver and Nathan Spiro, a Polish-born artisan, 36, according to the State Register and Manual. That was in the early days of the 25-year mayoral reign of Bridgeport’s Socialist Mayor Jasper McLevy. (photo from Wikipedia). By 1939, Secor and James Tait, 35, a Scottish-born plumber (ah the days of the citizen-lawmaker!) were the two remaining Socialists in the Senate. By 1941, it was back to the Rs and Ds. Gomes, who started in the factory and finished his career as a no-nonsense Steelworkers union negotiator, is a throwback in more than one way.