This year’s local elections in Connecticut are anything but dull. The primaries held earlier this month saw three incumbent Democratic mayors lose to their challengers.
New London Mayor Daryl Justin Finizio conceded to his challenger Mike Passero for the Democratic nomination.
In Hartford, Mayor Pedro Segarra packed in his re-election campaign and called on his supporters to back rival Luke Bronin.
And then there’s Bridgeport.
Mayor Bill Finch lost the Democratic nomination to former Bridgeport mayor and ex-convict Joe Ganim. But Finch is not giving up. Last week, Finch said he would run under the independent Job Creation Party, but Connecticut Secretary of the State Denise Merrill said Finch couldn’t appear on the ballot as a third party candidate because the members of the Job Creation Party missed the deadline to endorse Finch.
Now Finch says he will challenge Merrill’s decision in court.
WSHU's Tom Kuser speaks with Professor Gary Rose, the chair of the Department of Government, Politics and Global Studies at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Connecticut about all the drama unfolding in the Mayoral elections in Bridgeport.
INTERVIEW EXCERPTS:
Have you seen an election season quite like this before?
I've never seen anything like this. Normally, of course, the percentage of incumbents who are re-nominated by their party is extremely high. It just seems like there's this tremendous frustration and this desire for change in Connecticut. Although I will say Bridgeport is a unique case. I'm not sure if that's a desire for change or a willingness on the part of the voters in Bridgeport to take a few steps back, go back in time. But nevertheless to see incumbents go down, sure this is really an anomaly
What are Mayor Finch's chances in Bridgeport if he's not affiliated with any party?
I think the Mayor's chances are very good. Let's remember he did lose this primary contest by a handful of votes, 452 votes. It was a very close primary. And he does have a base of support within the Democratic Party and this was a primary contest. So now in the general election in November, he will be able to build a broader coalition. As long as he's able to keep his Democratic base in tact. And if he could reach out to unaffiliated voters who are allowed to participate, And perhaps even cobble together some Republican voters too. I think that Joe Ganim's base is largely confined to the people who nominated him within the Democratic Party. But I think Finch could actually cast a wider net in the general election contest.
How does Joe Ganim's past, both as a Mayor and as an ex-felon play with the voters? It appeared, at least in the primary, to make him more popular.
A number of people in Bridgeport, when they hear the name Joe Ganim, you know, there are mixed feelings. But a good number of them do remember when Joe Ganim brought jobs to the city. They remember during the Ganim administration there was some very serious economic development that went on. Even though, of course, Ganim himself was the beneficiary of some of that. And also, Joe Ganim, even though I know he hasn't been able to get his law license back because the commission has said he isn't contrite enough, he started this whole campaign by appearing before a church, expressing remorse over what he did. And I think some people in Bridgeport, they take the economic development part of it and they also piece it together with what seems to be contrition on his part and they probably say let's go with him because he actually can be a really effective leader.
