Voters in Bridgeport have returned former mayor and convicted felon Joe Ganim to office.
He won reelection with nearly 60 percent of the vote in unofficial returns. From the time he entered the race in May, Ganim painted himself as a comeback kid. In his victory speech on Tuesday night, he told his supporters not to call it a comeback.
“Some people call this a comeback but I feel like I never left," he said. "I never stopped caring about the challenges people face in every neighborhood.”
Despite his conviction on 16 counts of corruption, Ganim had support from Bridgeport’s police union, and one of the FBI agents who helped convict him.
It was a heated race that saw sitting Mayor Bill Finch barred from running. Finch endorsed his former competitor, Mary Jane Foster, who ran as an independent. Ganim beat Foster by nearly two to one. Republican Enrique Torres came in third.
Foster said the result left her worried about Bridgeport’s future.
“The mayor-elect has a lot of baggage, and that’s going to be difficult for him and the city to overcome, and we just have to hope that that happens," she said.
Greg Blakely lives in Bridgeport’s Black Rock neighborhood. After voting on Tuesday morning, well before the votes were tallied, he said he said he wanted more oversight of the city if Ganim were to take office.
“My hope is that if he gets in, is that we have a lot of watchdogs,” he said. “I understand second chances and I believe in that particular system in America, but if he wins this election, we need to monitor more closely than we ever have.”
But Ganim supporters like Kyle Kingwood say he kept the city running when he was in office. While celebrating after Ganim’s victory speech, Kingwood said Ganim can move the city forward again.
“He gave Bridgeport hope. He gave us dreams. He made things come true,” he said. “And when he was taken away from us, you’ve seen it regress. And now that he’s back in, we’re hoping for more progress.”
Ganim is a Democrat, but he wasn’t supported by the state’s Democratic establishment, including Governor Dannel Malloy. State Democratic Party chairman Nick Balletto attended Ganim’s victory party. He told the crowd that Malloy and other state Democrats plan to work with the new mayor to move Bridgeport forward.
