A win is a win is a win, right?
Mayor Joe Ganim’s unofficial primary win, his second consecutive reelection scare, comes certainly with sobering numbers.
As a mayoral candidate you’d like to run ahead of everyone else to help buoy the ticket. Tuesday’s primary result showed Ganim ran behind many top line candidates on the machines. Some Democrats who voted for his primary opponent John Gomes on Line B jumped up to Line A to fill in the ovals of City Council candidates running with Ganim.
Examples include the North End. At Winthrop School, Ganim received 206 votes to winning council incumbents Michelle Lyons and AmyMarie Vizzo-Paniccia, 291 and 236 votes respectively. Similar results at Blackkham as well as the adjoining 133rd District.
See below charts of the unofficial machine results for mayor and City Council. These do not include absentee ballots by precinct.
Arguably, this was a referendum on Ganim’s mayoralty in a low primary turnout.
Can he resuscitate his standing? He can, but it will require a message tailored to voters who feel like they’re being left behind.
How bad is it?
Do you anticipate a famine for Ganim?
Lennie,
As you wrote your comments to this thread you asked a question about Ganim2’s standing in what amounted to a prelim for the real struggle in November.. For sure, there are independent, unaffiliated, and Republican registered voters who could not register their vision regarding Ganim2’s standing. We do not have an open primary system in CT at this time.
Two months from now, will the number of absentee ballots increase from those cast yesterday? Enough to counter the voters who could not vote yesterday and will do so in November? According to DATAHAVEN cirremt reporting, only 10% of Bridgeport registered voters showed up in 2021 for the last Mayoral election. Was yesterday’s turnout in absolute numbers less than 10% of all voters? Will 60 more days of campaigning get a greater number to the ballot box? Apparently 29% did vote in the 2022 State election which shows at least the influence of a competitive race and an active Republican party.
But “resuscitation” by “tailored message” does not always work. And the quiet message of Jorge Cruz and Tyler Mack by being present to folks with real life issues required no tailoring as they ran against the DTC nominees. Assaults of all kinds, motor vehicle damage and theft and burglary statistics are double for Bridgeport when compared by population to the State and quintuple for robberies. How do you change with spin these police numbers? And what do you say about the loss since the last election of operating first-run movie theaters, and a hotel downtown? And Ganim 2 paid no official attention to the “deceased” FAIR Rent and Fair Housing commission, over his most recent eight years? Perhaps that is why DATAHAVEN reports that only 30 percent of people indicate that “their local government” is responsive to resident needs. Perhaps a ‘miracle’ will just happen? Time will tell.
Voters know he only pops his head out every 4 years but at least with a fake head of hair this time