Eyes On General Election And Primary Court Challenge Too

Four weeks from the general election, campaign finance reports for the quarter ending September 30 are due for filing with the Town Clerk’s Office on Tuesday, a likely reflection of the Ganim and Gomes campaigns emptying the financial tank during the September 12 primary.

Both campaign camps spent more than $400,000 respectively for the primary run including independent expenditures on behalf.

This peculiar political season, tainted by the legality of absentee ballots, focuses two eyes on the general election and one on the Gomes campaign challenge of the primary results that will play out in Superior Court Judge William Clark’s courtroom starting Thursday.

Ganim and Gomes are reloading funds for the final four weeks. What’s a reasonable general election spend? In the neighborhood of $100,000.

Ganim will occupy the Democratic and New Movement Party lines; Gomes the Bridgeport Independent Party line.

Campaign leadership of both camps must analyze the most effective ways to invest dwindling dollars reaching a larger universe of voters.

The modern era of campaigning relies much more heavily paying workers sans political involvement from decades past. So now it becomes surgical than shotgun approach. In this case a scalpel is a friend, depending where it is used.

Some of this is a leap of faith that the money will be raised to keep campaign operatives on board, albeit not as many, and implement the necessities to declare victory in November.

Meanwhile, petitioning candidate Lamond Daniels, who came up short making the primary ballot via signatures, is dialing for dollars as well. He had raised roughly $100,000, a solid majority of that spent on the signature process. He’s in a unique position, unsoiled by the absentee ballot specter, infecting Ganim and Gomes to draw a contrast.

Thousands of voters who did not participate in the primary will bring a new dimension to the general election. How will they break? And how much attention did they pay to the primary absentee controversy?

On paper, anyway, Ganim as the Democratic standard bearer, running on two lines, is advantaged historically by majority voters going to the Democratic line.

The backdrop of the court challenge, however, could feed into the Gomes narrative that his campaign was sabotaged. If that’s the case, perhaps he can galvanize the mantra.

Then, again, could it cut both ways, elevating Daniel’s narrative? Depends on the legal positioning of the respective lawyers and the evidentiary of what Judge Clark allows.

We are four weeks from a general election with the potential of a Democratic primary redo.