In Bridgeport, Connecticut the race for mayor remains undecided. Despite incumbent Mayor Joe Ganim’s narrow defeat of challenger John Gomes in Tuesday’s general election, the next mayor may not be decided until early next year.
That’s because a court has ordered a redo of the city’s Democratic primary in which Ganim beat Gomes by 251 votes based on alleged absentee ballot fraud.
Ganim again defeated Gomes in Tuesday’s general election by 179 absentee ballots.
Gomes questions Ganim’s win. That’s why his campaign is focused on the redo of the primary.
“They tried to suppress the voters,” Gomes said, referring to the Ganim campaign.
“And the voters were like 'we would not have it,' and they showed up twice and they voted. And we won again by a very big margin at the polls on November 7, 564 votes. You cannot contest that,” Gomes said.
Gomes said he has voter support for a new primary dismissing Ganim’s call for him to concede.
"They know that the reason why there is a new primary was because the opponent committed a crime. They stole this election. They violated the civil rights of every voter in Bridgeport,” he said, touting voter support for the new primary.
All parties have until the end of the week to agree to a date for the new primary, according to the Office of the Secretary of the State.
If there’s no agreement, they would have a couple of weeks to file their arguments.
That means the primary would most likely not happen until December. And if another general election is needed, it would take place in January or February.
