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WSHU's coverage of 2105 election races.

Finch Backs Out Of Bridgeport Mayoral Race

Davis Dunavin

Bill Finch says he’s ending his campaign for re-election in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

Finch is the current mayor, and was the Democratic Party’s endorsed candidate heading into the party’s Sept. 16 primary. He lost that primary to former mayor and convicted felon Joe Ganim. University of Bridgeport Vice President Mary Jane Foster came in third in that primary. She’s now running as an independent. Finch said on Tuesday he’ll start campaigning for Foster.

“I predict Mary Jane Foster is going to run strong. I predict she’s the next mayor of the city of Bridgeport,” he said. “And we’re going to do everything we can in the next two months to assure that.”

Finch had tried to keep running as a candidate under a third party that was created this year. Connecticut Secretary of the State Denise Merrill told Finch he couldn’t appear on the ballot in November because that third party didn’t meet a deadline to endorse a candidate.

Ganim is the Democratic nominee. He served as mayor of Bridgeport from 1991 to 2003, when he was convicted of 16 counts of corruption. He spent seven years in federal prison.

Ganim and Mary Jane Foster are running against the Republican nominee, Enrique Torres.

Davis Dunavin loves telling stories, whether on the radio or around the campfire. He started in Missouri and ended up in Connecticut, which, he'd like to point out, is the same geographic trajectory taken by Mark Twain.
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