The Connecticut Democratic party will hear a complaint about the Bridgeport Democratic Town Committee on Friday night.
The complaint accuses DTC Chair Mario Testa of running the city’s party “like a secret society.”
It was filed by Bridgeport Democrats Gemeem Davis and Callie Gale Heilmann. They say the DTC isn't meeting in a public location, meets less than four times a year, doesn't provide treasurer reports and more.
“We see them moving in ways that are very Trumpian, that are very authoritarian,” Davis said. “That’s only about a small group of them holding on to power and shutting everybody else out of that power.”
Davis is the president and co-director of the nonprofit community organizing group Bridgeport Generation Now Votes. She said Testa has violated the party rules for over 40 years.
“If the majority of people in Bridgeport are Democrats, we need to make sure that they are upholding our Democratic Party values, our rules, and are behaving in a democratic way,” Davis said. “But they are not.”
A panel of three State Central Committee Members will hear the complaint on Friday night.
Davis said she hopes the meeting will result in clarifying the party’s rules and how the city’s residents can ensure they are being followed.
“The best case scenario, from my perspective, is that they disband the Bridgeport Democratic Town Committee and we get to start all over,” Davis said. “They bar people who have been involved in absentee ballot harvesting from being party leaders. If this party, under the leadership of Mario Testa, has violated these rules for 40 years, they remove him as the chair and bar him from ever being chair again.”
The hearing isopen to the public and will be held on Zoom.
WSHU requested Mario Testa’s information from CT Dems to contact him for comment. At the time of publication, his contact information had not been provided.
