Former State Rep. and two-time mayoral candidate Chris Caruso is urging State Senator Marilyn Moore to “publicly denounce and distance her mayoral campaign” from the dark money independent expenditures supporters plan to spend on her candidacy.
Bridgeport Generation Now Votes leaders Gemeem Davis and Callie Heilmann have poised nearly $100,000 from its organization funds to support Moore’s candidacy. The source of the money, however, was not disclosed on the recent campaign finance report that also raised additional questions about illegal coordination between Gen Now Votes and Moore’s campaign.
Davis served as Moore’s campaign manager for mayor in 2019. In addition, Moore attended a public endorsement rally last month hosted by Gen Now Votes with Davis and Heilmann front and center in which thousands of Gen Now Votes dollars were spent. Moore also wore Gen Now regalia in support of her candidacy.
Under Connecticut law it’s illegal for an organization such as Gen Now Votes to coordinate expenditures with a candidate for public office it supports.
Caruso backed Moore for mayor in 2019 running on her losing ticket as the town clerk candidate.
This cycle Caruso has not endorsed a mayoral candidate.
A significant number of campaign operatives who supported Moore in 2019 have fled Moore for other candidates. On Tuesday Democrats will convene to endorse candidates for municipal office.
From Caruso:
As a friend and former running mate of Senator Moore, I encourage her to publicly denounce and distance her mayoral campaign from the independent campaign expenditure advanced by “Gen Now Votes” and executed by a Los Angeles based advocacy group especially in light of the fact that the name of the donor or donors of the expenditure have not be released, underscoring a lack of public transparency. Every voter has the right to know who is financially supporting a candidate.
Connecticut’s election laws are clear and unambiguous that any independent campaign expenditures must be separated from and uncoordinated with a candidate’s campaign committee. However, by some, such firewalls can easily be circumvented blurring the line and potentially violating the law. Already, Gen Now Vote’s political activities in support of Senator Moore are in question as they relate to the independent expenditure.
I also call on Senator Moore to not allow under her name Gen Now Votes (through the independent campaign expenditure) to distribute 15,000 absentee ballot applications which place in question the integrity of the election process. The last mass distribution of absentee ballot applications was understandably during the COVID pandemic, but those were mailed by the Office of the Secretary of the State without allegiance or support to any candidate.
The adage, “if you can’t beat them, join them,” is a poor excuse to continue the escalation of absentee ballot use and potential abuse especially among elderly and disabled voters. Sadly, Bridgeport has had a long history of absentee ballot abuse with subsequent convictions of political operatives. Don’t escalate the problem. A voter who legitimately needs an absentee ballot can get one, but those not eligible should be encouraged to go to the polls and vote in person. The so-called “banking” of absentee ballot votes prior to the polls opening is appalling. It retards the integrity and fairness of the electoral process and directly affects each and every Bridgeport candidate seeking elected office. IT MUST STOP!
Senator Moore has a solid record of advocacy and action on behalf of her constituents. I encourage her to avoid political engagement advanced by others that will sully her good record of accomplishments and undoubtedly be used against her by her opponents. The Senator has a good record to run on and as I know first-hand, thousands of voters who believe in her will cast their votes for her.
Caruso never spoked with forked tongue, heed the warning!
It’s too late.
Marilyn Moore has already cozied-up with questionable allies. She can’t distance herself from Gen Now because she depends on them.
She can’t ditch Gen Now unless she’s gonna take the money and run .
It’s ironic that a youth-seeking, chest-beating, fire-breathing, election-seeking, twice-repeating, never-conceding organization like Generation Now is backing/supporting/endorsing a septuagenarian like Marilyn Moore.
Only in Bridgeport.
Ya gotta remember that Gen Now is a women’s group who is involved in politics but doesn’t admit to being a woman’s group. You can find lots of these women’s groups, involved in politics, hiding in the weeds on platforms like Indivisible. There is a fundamental problem with women’s groups involving themselves in mainstream politics, which is why many of them choose not to reveal themselves as gender partisan. Women working against men, in the public square, just because they are men, harmfully and unnecessarily divides us all, when what we should be doing is working together to solve the many problems we face together as a society and as a country. I know that militant women’s groups like this idea of working against men but society in general and the country itself are not served well by women and men working against each other in the public square. To be against men just because they are men is bigotry. Women’s groups working for the rights and the betterment of women is a good thing and more needs to be done with that but competing against men in politics, is wrong on so many levels. What if men competed against women in politics just because they are women. That would be equally ridiculous. We need to work together more, not divide ourselves further than we already have. The fragmentation of American society, on so many fronts, is harmful to the necessary cohesiveness of a successful democratic process.
I got so caught up in the women’s group issue that I totally ignored the idiocy of the comments made by Chris Caruso about Marilyn Moore and Gen Now. Marilyn Moore and Gen Now haven’t done anything wrong yet to merit such condemnation from Chris. Mr. Caruso has assumed that Marilyn Moore and Gen Now are going to do illegal things with the 15,000 absentee ballots that they secured the other day. You can’t accuse someone of an impropriety before they do anything. And Lennie, you’re running this crap without a care for the truth or the impropriety of it all. Chris Caruso gets a platform on OIB, to make outlandish accusations, on issues of importance to Bridgeport. Chris Caruso must sure not want Marilyn Moore to be Mayor of Bridgeport. I guess you don’t either Lennie. I wonder why that is. Who’s your guy in this race Chris and tell us why that is? Lennie, if you want to jump in and tell us who you like for mayor and why, feel free to do so.
Jon, you have a platform as well.
Jon speaks of the juicy stuff — your posts are as dry as toast without butter.
Ya Lennie that’s true, this page does give people like me a platform but there is still a big difference between an article and a comment. Publications generally have agendas which they push in subtle and not so subtle ways. Not for nothin Lennie but what’s the agenda of OIB other than that it makes you money, allows you the flexibility of living in Vermont and you enjoy it? What’s the mission statement of this publication? Because giving people like Chris Caruso a front-page platform to spew that nonsense, seems to me like there is someone’s agenda at work here, trying to make Marilyn Moore and Gen Now look bad and it looks politically motivated. Is that you Lennie? Are you trying to dirty up certain candidates and certain groups in order to fulfil a political agenda. Are you still working for “Little Joe” in subtle and not so subtle ways?
Good grief Jon, you sound like you took a bite out of a dented can of tuna. You’re doing the very things you’re accusing me. First of all, I don’t live in Vermont. OIB has been been around for 15 years now providing news, information and insight about government and politics in Connecticut’s most populous city. Yes, OIB is a business and I’m grateful for thousands of regular readers and my advertisers that help provide a platform for people like you. I’ve had a number of readers ask: why do you give that Pulverenti guy a platform? As for Caruso he has a valid argument, as I have written myself, regarding Gen Now’s hypocrisy, Moore as well, for saying one thing and doing another. The hypocrisy is so thick you could cut it with a machete. Every one of us has bias, everyone one an agenda, including you. It’s a question of how it’s used. Jon, I’m a strategist, not an ideolog. I often write from that perspective. Gen Now simply wants the power and glory to control City Hall and they see Moore as a weak tool to do that. If Joe Ganim asks for advice I give it. If John Gomes asks for advice I give it. If Lamond Daniels asks for a advice I give. I was a key advisor to Marilyn Moore when she defeated Anthony Musto in a 2014 primary. I got to know her well from a campaign perspective. Serving as legislator and chief executive are two very different worlds. She’s ill-equipped to be mayor and has proven that so many times which is why she has lost so much support including Caruso who supported her in 2019. The list of pols who have fled her is down the block, around the corner and into the next county. How’s that for subtlety?
Finally, the juicy stuff.
To tell you the truth Lennie, whenever I ask you a question, I don’t actually expect you to answer me. You have been very selective in the questions that you are willing to answer, whenever I have asked you questions before. So, I guess that I threw everything but the kitchen sink at you in that comment. I admit, my comment could have been a little more focused. That being said, my point was, why are you running propaganda, in this publication, against political adversaries of our shithead mayor? This piece by Chris Caruso could have been written by any blowhard. This article is more propaganda than news and because of that, I asked you what your agenda is, which you didn’t actually answer, again. Your comment seems more of a tactic, designed to distract from my original question.
Jon, does that mean the people who voted him in are shitheads as well?