City Councilwoman Eneida Martinez, a supporter of Mayor Joe Ganim, reports she will file a complaint with the State Elections Enforcement Commission charging that campaign operatives of mayoral candidate John Gomes collected absentee ballots from senior citizens against state law in her East End district.
Martinez posted this on her Facebook page:
So the seniors at 1491 Central Ave just informed me that John Gomes team/supporters were in the building yesterday and today collecting ballots and giving them literature on how to cast their votes. This is some of the evidence. We have a few seniors that reported that the Gomes operation took their actual ballot and told them who to vote for. It’s our turn now for the FUN….
Kim McLaughlin at 430/440 Grant Street knocking collecting absentee ballots and acting like she was doing applications. Seniors call to report a Caucasian woman knocking on there door asking if they received there ballots. Let me add to the story she was Intoxicated. She thinks she is privileged. The audacity of John Gomes Supporters to continue to go on the news or social media bashing Mayor Ganim, supporters and or administration, but look at what we have here. I guess they think they are privileged to do whatever. Well Kimberly McLaughlin you were caught RED HANDED TODAY FEBRUARY 9, 2024 @ approximately 5:50 pm.
The seniors in the 139th 01/02 district informed me that John Gomes was knocking on their doors this morning at 430/440 Grant St. He trying to clean up Kim McLaughlin mess from last night, when she was caught collecting ballots. No need to try to have conversation with the seniors, the complaints are coming. We have PROBABLE CAUSE & EVIDENCE!!!!!!
With just over two weeks left to the Feb 27 special general election, campaign backers of both Gomes and Ganim have turned up the heat over absentee ballot harvesting. Dozens of complaints have been filed with the state election watchdog overwhelmed with investigations.
Gomes himself took to social media a few days ago blasting team Ganim for absentee provocation. Tit for tat, says Martinez who expects to file a complaint on Monday. The Gomes campaign also filed a SEEC complaint against Martinez in connection with last September’s Dem primary that resulted in a court-ordered redo last month won by Ganim. Martinez was one of many political operatives from both sides seen on video surveillance placing absentees into designated drop boxes.
Martinez says Gomes backer Kim McLaughlin knew Martinez was taking photos of her outside a Grant Street senior complex and at one point spread out her arms in a pose. Martinez claims McLaughlin had “ballots in her car and jacket.”
Those ballots have been destroyed without a doubt. Notice Kim had no gloves. For years I been addressing the matter of destruction of Absentee Ballots, especially when voters tells or give an indications to operatives as to who they voted for. Where’s Judge William Clark Kent and the State Elections Enforcement? They’re waiting until the damage is done and adding insult to injury. These activities are right in line with the obvious disemfranchisement of voters by John Gome’s Campaign, State Court, and the Secretary of State in clear violation of the First and Fourteenth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution.
Lennie, here’s a video I recorded 10 years ago. See the usual suspects, pay attention to what the alleged witness/complaint says about the teens who just asked to sign and date AB applications. What happened to the date of birth, address, name and other information required to have an AB mailed to them. Pay attention who she names and was not present as she has always worked behind the scene–Kim McLaughlin:
https://youtu.be/BoOaH1ALfA4?si=G2EPvIB_s15c7X4d
Joel, take a closer look you idiot! Kim invited Eneida to document her allegation. Problem is … there are no ballots in any picture that Eneida took, only legitimate campaign materials.
There is no proof, only the word of a person who: 1) ran an illegal club, which resulted in a young man’s death (which she is now admitting & asking for probation); 2) who has been referred to the Chief State’s Attorney for Campaign fraud in 2019; and,
3) who was featured in the ballot stuffing videos in the September primary so much so that she wisely “took the 5th” at the trial.
My wife has more integrity in one finger than Eneida has in her whole being, a fact that is generally recognized by all sides in this contentious campaign.
PS: In your video, the witness spoke about DTC operatives pushing blank AB apps. She called my wife, a longtime friend, for advice.
Kim has not “always worked behind the scenes”, though she has been an organizer most of her life (even working with Cesar Chavez when she was young). She was the top vote getter at the polls for our “Education First/Educacion Primero” BOE campaign in 1999, until the ABs were counted!
Sure, Rob. Now, we have a clearer understanding of what John Gomes meant when he stated time and time again that he was Rob(bed) of the primary and elections.
You and your wife are in “bed” with John Gomes and many others in the Gomes campaign. You guys have an explenation for everything.
If this was a situation where Enaida Martinez caught and old lady allegedly or suspected of shoplifting from her store, all the old lady had to do was empty her pocket book, bag or purse, submit to a pat-down, etc. Dispell all suspicion, especially on camera.
Then for John Gomes to return to the scene of the crime and confront victims? How did John Gomes know who to go pay a visit to? Rob I bet you destroyed the evidence.
I’m not sure how to answer such nonsense. As Kim said, let Eneida file the charges! She has no proof. Kim is perfectly comfortable with that.
Oh, and Joel, it wasn’t Eneida’s store, it was a housing development where her people pretended to be management and tried to order Kim around as they do the residents … until she called them on it.
“Oh, and Joel, it wasn’t Eneida’s store, it was a housing development where her people pretended to be management and tried to order Kim around as they do the residents …”
The State Elections Enforcement Commission relies on citizens like Miss Cooper to report and watch for people like you bunch of clowns. Your group of unknown illegal Dominicans can act as the security force of the senior housing unit? Show us proof that management has hired you bunch of clowns to act as the facility’s security force. Why isn’t your wife speaking for herself? I know she has been a Speedy Gonzalez followers for over a decade. I give her permission to reply to my and all other OIB poster’s comments.
Let me set the record straight here Mr. Traber. Now would I be that dumb to post pictures of the ballots your wife had in the car as well as in the front pocket of her jacket? Trust me I have the probable cause at hand as well as the photos. I owe it all to SEEC. It’s a different ball game when you all on the other end are doing, you try to come up with justification. Play CHESS, not CHECKERS, be an open book just as I am. As for an illegal club, I don’t owe you or any one else an explanation on anything pertaining to my business. Time will show all the evidence at hand. Camera footage can’t be tampered with and records can’t be change when stamp with dates and times. I will leave that there, marinate that one. Your wife has integrity or intoxication at hand, as that’s all she smelled like a 5th of VODKA. You can’t even categorized yourself with Integrity. A retired educator, rather than practicing how to move the Board of Education forward, you tipping your head back taking your nips. So before you try to detail the definition of integrity look in the mirror. Neither yourself nor Kim have been working in any campaign in years. Remember myself, Jimmy Cooper along with others on the East End made you all popular with the working family party when your daughter spare headed it back 10 + years ago, so don’t come at me about politics, I been in this game longer and for sure run a good CHESS GAME in the 139th. You all think you can attack others, but you all are doing the most corrupt within your day to day. Look in the mirror🪞 please. HELLO!!!!!
Ms. Martinez, since we’re being formal, to answer your question … yes you do seem to be that dumb. You do not have an x-ray camera on your cell phone? You do not have pictures of ballots. There were no ballots. As Kim said to you, file your charges, you have nothing!
As to your political background, I was the point person on the “Vote No” campaign, which we ran with money from the Teacher Unions that paid for the WFP canvass and for that work in the East End.
We followed that win the year after when we ran our BOE slate, again working with WFP. We won so big that a number of new folks were elected including you and Mary Lee, who all rode on our coattails to get elected to the Council!
Since then I’ve worked on several other campaigns. So I’ve worked on campaigns long before “Vote No” and after that. And again, I don’t have a clue what you are speaking about how long you’ve been around politics or playing chess&checkers.
I do know you’ve been breaking the election laws; and ultimately, you’ll pay for that. I suspect we’ll be hearing about some others too.
PS: Your attempt to discredit my wife as intoxicated is an example of how low you will sink to protect your corrupt political scams, like the “wedding market” at our City Hall.
Money from teachers union? What ever happened with the money I contributed?
🤣
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNh3ZWw9MJg
ALERT:
Maria Pereira is now working the 131 st. District with Former Councilwomen Mary L. Bruce, Councilmen Jorge Cruz and Mack Taylor, in and around downtown senior housing.
Speedy, no doubt about that, Ports AB game has to be cleaned up. However, her Post seems to come off as racist, with the choice words she used, caucasian, and privellage.
At any rate, someone has to explain why the Port has its St, Patrick’s Day parade celebration on a weekday when most people work and not on a weekend like normal cities. What the Hell is going on in the Port, people.🤣
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBpErTJwaso
On a happy note. 🙂
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-diB65scQU
Come on now. Dozens of suspicious ballots from Gomes don’t even make a faint stain on his campaign compared to the bales of ballots being stuffed into ballot boxes at the Morton Center by the Ganim Gang in the predawn hours of September 5, 2023…
Besides the Ganim Gang election-rigging scheme, there are other, very important reasons to votes for Gomes instead of Ganim on 2/27/24… To that point, I would repost my response to Joe Mclane’s OIB post of 2/8/24:
So, Joe McLaine says: “…If Bridgeporters want someone constantly seeking revenge and alienation from those who can help the city then look no further than ??? ?????…”. I would use a different name in that space — that I refilled with a suggestive pattern of question marks. I would use the name, Joe Ganim…
It is too easy to overlook and forget the “politically-exiled” “independents” that have charted their own courses in pursuit of appropriate handling of problematic areas of their neighborhoods and their city, the latter of which was/is based on their knowledge from living the “Bridgeport” life, per their drug-gang controlled neighborhoods and exploitative/harmful treatment of their neighborhoods/city by suburban neighbors/”region”/State of Connecticut…
Policy under the 20 years of JG has been to disregard concerns for neighborhood safety/integrity and allow for neighboring towns/the region to exploit Bridgeport by pirating services and infrastructure, even as suburban development has caused severe damage to the safety and quality of life of the residents of many Bridgeport neighborhoods. Traffic-safety and flooding problems in the North End, Black Rock, Upper East Side, and West End have severely impacted safety and quality of life issues in those neighborhoods even as offending municipalities (Trumbull, Fairfield) and institutions (SHU) have been given the political blessing of Joe Ganim and high-ranking members of the Connecticut State Democratic Party (that he represents)…
SHU parties-on without resistance, even as Bridgeport taxpayers foot insane BPD overtime bills to baby-sit SHU houses/neighborhoods in Bridgeport during their 4-day “party weekends” which extend throughout the school year… Trumbull builds massive commercial and residential infrastructure on our border, pirating our infrastructure and services to do so, even as that development overtaxes our sanitary infrastructure — polluting our recreational and drinking water [e.g., Lake Forest/Trumbull border (Trumbull side) chronic sewage leak — and massive flooding/severe home damage]. Token speed humps and lip service have been given to the Lake Forest neighborhood to placate voters, even as electoral redistricting has kept that neighborhood politically hobbled for the past 10 of the 20 years of the JG regime(s).
Many neighborhoods throughout the city can cite similar political situations — destroyed neighborhoods with hobbled/intimidated political representation — e.g., besides the 135th, much of the 138th (Beardsley/flooding/drug-gang activity), all of the 134th (SHU effects/new Westfield-Madison mega-apartment complex, etc.), 130th (flooding/traffic-safety), 136th/137th (traffic-safety/shootings/drug-gangs), and let’s not forget the 132nd and 13rd (drug gangs/flooding/traffic safety), and 131st, which contains our “war zone” downtown, with its illegal, after-hours bars and shootings/murders — in the heart of our entertainment/municipal government center!!!
And the 139th?! A new strip mall — but still dominated by the Stratford Avenue drug gangs (shootings, murders…)
And let’s not forget the “neighborhood removal” projects in the 131st and 139th that replaced vibrant neighborhoods with parking lots and tax-less, employment-less vanity JG, political-vanity projects…
Where are those that have taken issue with the polices that have destroyed our neighborhoods under JG?! They’re either politically buried or persecuted — or have given up and moved to other municipal locales/states…
So, Mr. McLaine; are we really taking a hard, objective look at the JG years — in the face of ridiculously high taxes, compromised public safety and quality of life, lack of affordable housing and living wage jobs, abuse by our neighbors/the “region,” and the state, and very poor prospects for any improvements in the latter in this century?! (It was Mary Moran’s Police Chief Sweeney that tamed the wild Bridgeport of the 90’s — only to have it regress to a place where the drug gangs are placated by “policy” in order to keep the murder rate from reaching 90’s levels again… This will change for the deadlier as the legalization of some drugs makes the need to enlarge territory for gangs necessary, per the reduction of the lucrative, illegal market to that of “other drugs”… “Beggar” Bridgeport will be the best place for that to happen, of course…)
We could go on here, but it is really up to the Gomes Campaign to “take off the gloves” and get down and dirty with JG. To this Bridgeporter, any change is positive, because it opens up the possibility for real change and Bridgeport shaking off the elitist, racist shackels that have kept it in a death-spiral for the past 60+ years. The Ganim Administration is a servant of an elitist, racist state and region that wants to keep Bridgeport status quo — the “garbage can,” and “servants quarters” for the region…
Votes John Gomes on February 27th… Vote for Bridgeport change and forward movement…
Jeff Kohut, if “Independents” really wanted to be of any help, then why not register Democrat and vote on Democratic Primaries? I’ll let this sink in if at all possible.
Jeff,
“but it is really up to the Gomes Campaign to “take off the gloves” and get down and dirty with JG. To this Bridgeport, any change is positive, because it opens up the possibility for real change and Bridgeport shaking off the elitist, racist shackels that have kept it in a death-spiral for the past 60+ years.”
That’s richer than Martinez calling out AB abuse after she had to plead the 5th at the onset of this AB drama election cycle that has given the Port 4 elections, to date. 🙂 Considering that the bales of ballots being stuffed into ballot boxes at the Morton Center were on behalf of the Gomes camp. ♟ perhaps, but they sacrifice Wanda like their ♕ in this chess game. That was pretty dirty what the Gomes camp did to Wanda to strengthen the hand in the first general, as well as for the third and fourth bite of this election apple. JS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybrY9JWVBv4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSV2IFNgqI4
BTW Jeff, just seeking a change of the status quo doesn’t always amount to positive results of the status qou for the Port? Though to be fair, it generally yields positive 💰 results for individuals. js
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-c7Yk1GBp8
Jeff in your world as you describe it I’m sure John Gomes would be a great mayor. Good luck trying to get the rational elector to drink the Gomes Kool Aid. For those living in the real world Joe Ganim is the only choice. When this is all over and Joe Ganim is re-elected maybe you and Gomes can take a nice long rest on Fantasy Island. Jeff give up on the fantasy of Gomes and enjoy a day of Football and fun.
THE PLANE, THE PLANE!
McLaine, I’ll give Jeff some valid points, in the Port perhaps there is a real effort from other towns and cities by its elected officials to keep the Port downtrodden. Whatever is going on downtown does have to be looked at, There has been a lot of shooting and killing.
However, some services are understandable for larger cities to bear so as not to devalue suburban communities. regionally speaking.
As for his Kool-aid, he needs to add some more sugar, when your selling point for Gomes is ” any change is positive because it opens up the possibility for real change and Bridgeport shaking off the elitist,”
The possibility of positive real change? He is not even sure 🤣 and most likely/definitely not.
That being said to Lennie point, anybody but Joe. HMMM! perhaps?
At any rate, this thread sums it up, in more ways than one, thanks.
Gomes’s/team’s campaign strategy to oust G2, a corrupt AB/administration system needing change. Wanda’s ♟ sacrifice to oust G2 has one more bite left. In the words of JML Time will tell. What is for sure. Win or lose that cheap underhanded move surely isn’t going to gain them any respect and loyalty to its pieces/game. JS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NeGeXTm7n0
Considering, Gomes and many of his “now” supporters once sported a G2 shirt. JS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3HBtzS_E1I&list=PLLsjr_hqBHTISQ-j0iD0sCyK3ixS2AoHn&index=4
It’s not the race for mayor that scares the shit out of Joe and Mario, it’s the forensic audit!
The last time that a mayor was elected in Bridgeport for the purpose of change Mary Moran was elected. I like Mary, she is a wonderful person. But Mayor Mary Moran was a total disaster. John Gomes would be an agent of change. Change for the worse. It would be like giving control of Bridgeport to Fredo Corleone. As much of a disaster as that would be, even Fredo would probably be better than Gomes. For those who truly want change, find a qualified candidate, not a dysfunctional candidate with a history of disrespect for police and public safety who feels position puts him above the law and like broken record only repeats I’m not Joe Ganim.
REMINDER TO EVERY PERSON REGISTERED TO VOTE CURRENTLY- AROUND 70,000 Folks….
1) Your voice is a voice, but to have it heard at election time you have to vote!!! Failure to vote loses democracy for all!!
2) Your vote should be “informed” and in alignment with your values, beliefs, and the context of events. Your conversations without regular voting are not listened to by those in power and are only “gossip” without your democratic action to use the ballot, in person, or absentee.
3) With 70,000 citizens with a valid registration to exercise a ballot, be counted, and know from the numbers voting when a MANDATE FOR CHANGE becomes present. If only 20% of the folks vote, why do those in power act to maintain the status quo and for no change?
4) Will you continue to gossip in the future, or vote to elect your candidate for Mayor? Will you encourage two neighbors to do the same? What will happen from your democratic behavior? TIME WILL TELL
Jeff in your post that you took the time to re-post YOU refer to Bridgeport as a “garbage can”. Shame on you. However if Bridgeport were as you say a “garbage can” John Gomes would be the best choice as he could preserve that status that you have labeled it with.
“One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.” Treasure Island is in the opposite direction to Fantasy Island. The McLaine, the McLaine!
A couple of Joe McLaine posts below — copied (complete) and pasted with posting times etc. to allow proper response/reference by anyone caring peruse such…
1)
Joe McLaine says:
February 11, 2024 at 11:09 am
The last time that a mayor was elected in Bridgeport for the purpose of change Mary Moran was elected. I like Mary, she is a wonderful person. But Mayor Mary Moran was a total disaster. John Gomes would be an agent of change. Change for the worse. It would be like giving control of Bridgeport to Fredo Corleone. As much of a disaster as that would be, even Fredo would probably be better than Gomes. For those who truly want change, find a qualified candidate, not a dysfunctional candidate with a history of disrespect for police and public safety who feels position puts him above the law and like broken record only repeats I’m not Joe Ganim.
We’ll; a few things here: Besides having the courage to call-out the State of Connecticut for Bridgeport’s (then 30+ years) of abuse and neglect by said state, with a de facto demand for remediation from said state — in the form of a highly-indicated bankruptcy declaration — she also managed to resuscitate Bridgeport public safety by searching for and securing one of the best police chief candidates in the country, Thomas Sweeney, who managed to bring Bridgeport’s decade-long upward, unmanageable violent crime spiral under control to the level where a long-missing normalcy to the quality of life in the city was able to return, as the spiraling murder/shooting rate was brought to levels below most other cities of Bridgeport’s size and description, including New Haven and Hartford… (But now, 30 years later, in ACT II of JG, sans the “Sweeney Effect,” even our downtown has become a danger zone after sundown…)
Had Mary Moran not grabbed the state and Lowell Weiker by the short hairs with her bankruptcy declaration, we wouldn’t have even gotten the paltry, desperately-needed (albeit disrespectfully-constructed) “aid” package that managed to create the appearance of viability that allowed us to stay incorporated as a municipality (against the fiscal/political indications that were, and still are screaming “Total state takeover + massive bailout or disassembly and reincorporation with neighboring municipalities!)
True: Mary Moran wasn’t the most sophisticated mayor to serve Bridgeport, but she was probably the most administratively and politically honest. The slick Connecticut AG at the time took advantage of her lack of sophistication in order to save his Greenwich boss some egg on his face and his Greenwich homies the hike in their capital gains taxes that would have been needed to put Bridgeport squarely back on its feet — which is something that just “wouldn’t work” for the Gold Coast/suburbs anyway…
And JG? Instead of picking up the fallen Bridgeport flag from Mary Moran and charging up the hill for his city, he sidled up to “the enemy” and instead of getting us real help for a real turnaround, he slickly suckered his constituents into drinking Weiker’s poison, bailout Kool Aide and even being thankful for it! (And who owns Beardsley Zoo and Beardsley Park now? Wow! What a great deal JG worked for Bridgeport!)
As far as Fredo Corleone — he was running Bridgeport up until Mary Moran took over, and he was such a por administrator that he couldn’t even put any sort of $number$ on the city’s financial plight and short-term/long-term outlook. Fredo left that to Mary Moran and she presented a number(s) to the state — all municipalities are children of the state — and appropriately couched the number in a bankruptcy declaration…
And John Gomes, despite his purported disdain for the law and the public, has never been prosecution and faced penalty for such…
2)
Log in to Reply
Joe McLaine says:
February 11, 2024 at 2:10 pm
Jeff in your post that you took the time to re-post YOU refer to Bridgeport as a “garbage can”. Shame on you. However if Bridgeport were as you say a “garbage can” John Gomes would be the best choice as he could preserve that status that you have labeled it with.
Putting my statement in context; “…We could go on here, but it is really up to the Gomes Campaign to “take off the gloves” and get down and dirty with JG. To this Bridgeporter, any change is positive, because it opens up the possibility for real change and Bridgeport shaking off the elitist, racist shackels that have kept it in a death-spiral for the past 60+ years. The Ganim Administration is a servant of an elitist, racist state and region that wants to keep Bridgeport status quo — the “garbage can,” and “servants’ quarters” for the region…” It is certainly obvious that it is not this LIFELONG BRIDGEPORTER’S opinion of his city that you quote out of context, but rather only the use of words that are chosen to accurately depict the lack of respect and regard for Bridgeport by the “region”/state, per our officially-designated role in the state’s socioeconomic hierarchy (see “One Coast, One Future”), and that you would use words taken out of context to distract from the issue of the real condition of Bridgeport and the related state/regional, racist/elitist political policies giving rise to our symptoms of municipal failure/socioeconomic distress…
Good night, Joe! Party on!!
###
Come-on, Gomes Campaign! Hit the streets and phones and Internet with your rationale for a high voter turnout embracing your agenda on 2/27/24! (You about 12 days to accomplish a needed miracle for Bridgeport politics…)
LOL Jeff I guess you really do live on Fantasy Island. For years I have read your posts and for the most part regarded you as a pretty smart guy. Come on Jeff admit it you are much too smart to truly believe that Gomes is a better choice. You just don’t like Ganim. John Gomes isn’t a better choice he’s just not Joe Ganim. I really do love the way you rewrite history with insignificant facts. I’m still laughing. Have the people of Bridgeport ever elected a mayor that has been fired twice by the city before running for office? You should know the answer to that question, you’re a smart guy.
Mr. Traber let the chips fall where they may. What was stated was that management will be notified regarding all those individuals going into the building confusing the voters about there votes. Your wife was asking the seniors about their ballots. Why would she be asking about ballots? Canvassing is one thing, asking and picking up ballots is another. You can deny all you want. The seniors don’t lie. The WFP had no respect anywhere when it was initiated on the East End. You nor anyone else help me into any political seat. My kids father ran a great campaign line on the East End. Jimmy Cooper was my educator, Ralph Ford and his team got me elected, so get your story straight. We help your daughter run the WFP on the East End out of the old post office on Stratford Ave. Do you need additional reminder. As for weddings, any STATE OF CT JP can marry anyone, it is not against the law, whether it is at City Hall or outside. Take that and marinate it. As for going low by stating intoxication, it is FACTS. ACCEPT FACTS AND REALITY, don’t be a baby. Call it for what it is. You all like to throw shots, but can’t accept when it hits you all in the face. Now carry on and have a phenomenal day Mr. Robert Traber.