A keenly contested Democratic primary in Bridgeport on Tuesday could determine if the city’s controversial long-term mayor Joe Ganim holds onto his seat.
His opponent, John Gomes, is a 52-year-old Bridgeport Democrat of Cape Verdean descent who supported the mayor’s comeback in 2015 and reelection in 2019.
He fell out with Ganim last year and decided to challenge the mayor.
“I felt that he overlooked, disrespected and didn’t appreciate the second chance, he went in for himself and accomplished his set goals. And thus, I am here,” Gomes said, as he described his reason for running against Ganim.
The usually high number of absentee ballots — more than 4,000 — that have been requested for the election, are a major concern for the challenger.
He has written to the Secretary of the State asking for an election monitor, Gomes said at a media briefing at his campaign headquarters on Thursday.
His campaign manager Christine Bartlett-Josie gave a specific example.
“Anna Morales of 430 Grand Street, Apartment 406, stated that a woman came to her door, with the opposition shirt on and asked her for a ballot,” she said.
“She told her that she would fill it out for her. Anna then said it's my ballot and will complete it for myself,” Bartlett-Josie said.
Bridgeport Generation Now Votes, an advocacy organization sued the Ganim campaign four years ago alleging absentee ballots were manipulated and votes stolen.
“And we proved that in court,” said Gemeem Davis, vice president and co-director of the organization.
“What the judge said at the time was that the state of Connecticut needed to make sure that they change the laws around absentee voting because there’s clearly malfeasance happening," Davis said.
Gomes has adopted a social media campaign to encourage more voter turnout at the polls and anecdotally it might be working, said City Council President Aidee Nieves, a Ganim supporter.
“Gomes has, you know, done a lot of social media,” said City Council President Aidee Nieves, a Ganim supporter.
“I know the Ganim campaign has done social media, and its radio ads, and I think a lot of people are paying attention because there were four candidates, and now it’s gone from four to two, so they want to see what the outcome is,” she added.
“My sense is that Ganim has not changed his ways,” said Cass Shaw, an activist with the Council of Churches of Greater Bridgeport.
Many voters are against Ganim because of his leadership of the city since he returned to office after serving time in federal prison for corruption, adding that they believe it has cost the city state development dollars.
“One of the reasons we don’t get the money is partly Ganim’s background and criminal past that they don’t trust coming into Bridgeport and doing business,” Shaw said.
But East End city counselor Ernie Newton, a Ganim supporter, doesn’t buy that.
“I think Joe will do well because of the progress we are making. And if he didn’t do anything else but talk about Stratford Avenue and the East End, we never had this amount of development going on in this city in the last 40 years,” Newton said.
At the announcement of a new gas station on the East Side, Ganim touts several commitments from developers including the promise of a $40 million Fillmore East entertainment venue by Live Nation, the operator of the city's downtown amphitheater.
“A hundred and fifty to 200 events a year. Five hundred to 600 jobs. Again, it’s not the East Side but it's right over there and it’s part of the Bridgeport redevelopment renaissance.” Ganim said.
However, Ganim downplays the absentee ballot controversy.
“I’m not sure you are going to see 4,000 or 3,000 or even 2,000 come back. So at the end of the day, I don’t think it’s going to be much higher than in prior years,” he said.
In 2019, Ganim won after he received 967 mail-in votes in the Democratic primary, enough to erase his opponent’s victory from the machine vote count.
Polls open in Bridgeport for the primary at 6 a.m. and close at 8 p.m. Only registered Democrats are allowed to vote.
