Using the existing campaign committee for his losing primary to Joe Ganim last week, Mayor Bill Finch, fighting for his political life, is still appealing for money even though he technically does not have a ballot spot for November. The committee spent about $600,000 in a primary loss. It appears what’s left of Finch’s political organization is headed for a write-in campaign appealing for campaign cash from the city’s business community in an effort to stop Democratic nominee Joe Ganim.
Whether poor messaging, poor positioning, or a number of political gaffes, Bill Finch became the first incumbent mayor in city history to lose a primary. And for Finch it’s even more galling that he lost to Ganim, a cunning campaigner who has outflanked and outworked Finch in numerous neighborhoods exploiting Finch weaknesses on public safety and taxes.
Finch’s messaging so far has been mostly about why Ganim is bad for the city rather than why Finch is better. It’s a difficult sell to many voters, particularly a majority of African Americans who don’t trust this mayor. Finch must do a complete messaging overhaul to win them over.
Finch hopes a court will place his name on the ballot but he must convince a judge he has standing through a shadowy minor political party that was the creation of Finch’s operatives in which they enlisted a Republican used-car salesman from Black Rock as a placeholder who state election officials ruled missed a key deadline for ballot approval. It’s gotten so desperate, Finch appealed to local and state Republicans to lean on GOP mayoral candidate Enrique Torres to cede his ballot spot to Finch. Torres said no after meeting with Finch Monday night.
Meanwhile Ganim is also going about his business raising money, cultivating voter relationships and schmoozing the trepidation of Finch political supporters.
Mary-Jane Foster is weighing whether to launch a full-fledged battle in November as a petitioning candidate. Can she raise the money and be seen as a viable alternative to a bleeding Finch?
What a crazy election cycle. And who knows, maybe a few more bizarre twists and turns.
The Finch Campaign has no viable portal by which to re-enter this election cycle. Charlie Coviello isn’t about to cede his spot to the “Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight.” Charlie still has politically viable friends he won’t risk losing–especially in support of that losing cause.
Really, by way of political metaphor, no one–-political hitchhiker, incumbent seeking Bridgeport votes, or viable newcomer seeking political entre to Bridgeport–is about to venture onto the political highway by jumping onto Bill Finch’s campaign bus for the remaining stretch of this election. The Finch campaign bus has been tilting to one side and traveling an erratic path–without brakes–since June, and is headed downhill on a 60-degree angle directed straight toward a hairpin curve and bedrock ledge on both sides of the road…
If one listens, one can hear the screams of the handful of remaining occupants and watch as they try to squeeze through windows and kick open doors to jump before they hit that hairpin curve.
No. No one is going to jump onto Bill Finch’s campaign bus at this point.
And no judge is going to get involved in legally twisting a crystal clear, Connecticut elections-law statute at the behest of any attorney, politician, or combination thereof, so Bill can be the Jobs Creation Party’s candidate. No Jobs Creation Party. No New Movement Party. No Republican Party. The Party’s over.
It’s Rick and Joe in November. (It will be a productive, interesting contest for Bridgeport, and it will make Joe’s mayoralty that much better after he secures an unequivocal victory on November 3.)
Your wishful thinking is not contagious, thank God Almighty. Finch is acting out of desperation, is acting out of haste. Neither motivation results in perfection; something is bound to be overlooked.
Steve Auerbach, come back to OIB, paging Steve Auerbach, paging, Steve Auerbach, we need to hear about the Mayor Bill Finch landslide and that the primary will be a sleeper. After all, crime is not at a 40-year low, Bridgeport is getting better with the 2,000 new jobs and all those new schools and all those new parks and water pads, how in the world did Bridgeport voters vote against you and voted for a convicted felon? Come back Steve and tell us how this write-in victory will happen.
Ron, someone told me Stevie was seen at Home Depot purchasing a gallon of Liquid Drano, not the crunchy type!
Can you imagine what’s going on upstairs at the Morton center at this point? Finch angry, McCarthy depressed about losing his CC seat, Anastasi feverishly combing over old law books, looking for loopholes to get Finch on the ballot, all Finch’s cronies nervous about Bill selling them down the river in attempts to get a spot on a ballot. Yes sirree, you could probably cut the tension in that building with a knife.
Actually there are a lot of smiling faces at the Margaret Morton Center.
Really, chs? I wonder why that is? Wait, don’t tell me. All the people who work there are rehearsing to sing an anvil-chorus of “Ding dong, the asshole’s gone!” sung to the tune of a song from “The Wizard of Oz.”
CT Post says Ganim has the majority of signatures on the fake Jobs Creation Party and Ganim is the nominee if somehow it gets a spot on the ballot, which Ganim said it shouldn’t.
The man is making Finch look more incompetent by the minute.
From the CT Post today:
In a five-page package he said would be hand-delivered to Merrill and Bridgeport Town Clerk Alma Maya Thursday morning, Ganim has attached a handwritten document reading: “We members of the party designation committee for the … Job Creation Party hereby vote to nominate Joseph P. Ganim as the party candidate.”
www .ctpost.com/news/article/Job-Creation-Party-to-meet-Thursday-Ganim-claims-6525578.php
Cue the Bridgeport Kid’s conspiracy theories, like I said last night Kid, try and spin this.
This lack of understanding law and process has to make voters wonder about the mayor and his team in the dealing of contracts and deals involving the City. What else has the Finch administration overlooked?
A $400,000 driveway in Stratford?
www .ctpost.com/local/article/Bridgeport-Stratford-sign-agreement-on-airport-4442976.php
Laugh. Out. Loud.
Check. Mate.
In the name of the second chance society, I think Joe Ganim should transfer his ballot spot to Mayor Finch in exchange for a job within his administration. Think of the future.
And think of the federal grand jury that would be impaneled if that happened.
I have to give it to Joe’s team. Again ahead of his Democrat opponents for sure. One week after the primary, with both his opponents on the record saying I will be in the general election, and yet Foster is in, no she is out, no she is considering running, is that a strong campaign? Finch and his straw man party, of course the reach to Coviello we all expected, but the Republicans? That was a gift to Joe. And Joe is out there as the endorsed candidate going about getting his message out. Well-played machine politics at their most diabolical. Good luck Finch and Foster supporters as you spend even more time deciding who will take the most anti-Joe votes, and they are out there.
Let’s say Foster decides against running. Let’s also say Finch finally gives it up. Are statements like this how you intend to secure support for your candidate?
Really? Because I point out the obvious, Ganim’s base is the anti-Finch vote? There are a lot of anti-Ganim votes out there, and a lot of anti-machine voted out there. My candidate has a pretty strong record on the city Council with regard to waking up other members and having them stop giving outrageous tax abatements. For one. Do you not recall Finch manhandling someone he thought was a sure vote because Torres made him understand the burden on individual taxpayers the tax abatements were causing? Torres also lobbied the city until they applied for a land use tax pilot, which had been languishing at city Council for three years before he was elected. Once again a true and tried message for relieving the burden of homeowners taxes. Don’t believe me? Look up the city of Pittsburgh.
Nobody likes getting played. Foster was undermined by Joe and his operatives quietly and effectively before he even entered the race. His operative said look, Foster doesn’t have name recognition, Ganim does. Foster lost to Finch in the primary. Foster has never been elected. Joe has been elected. Joe has name recognition. Taxes were not raised for 10 years while Joe was in office. So Mary-Jane supporters whether they were loud, or just hard workers were cherrypicked and convinced by Joe and went with Ganim. That caused a lot of head-scratching from people who had supported Mary-Jane before. Joe ignored her during the debates in the primary, and sadly so did the voters. Except those with integrity and brains. And that is how Joe works his magic. Nothing would make me happier than to see a Torres/Foster race right now. Because that would say the voters of the city were informed, engaged and we had two strong candidates with great integrity, no ties to the political machine, and had the wherewithal to roll up their sleeves and put the city on the right track.
Well I guess that’s a yes, then.
Jennifer is right on many points. One thing that hasn’t been said is Mary-Jane Foster ran a lackluster campaign. She also rubbed more than a few loyal Democrats the wrong way, coming off as brusque and/or dismissive. She lost the primary, polling less than 10% of the votes cast. Hell’s bells, she didn’t even win in her own voting district! Does she really think she can best either party-endorsed candidate? If Ms. Foster re-enters the race at this point she will look like an opportunist.
The people gave her a clear, unequivocal message: don’t quit your day job. There’s nothing else to read into it, no one else to blame. Foster’s campaign was underfunded and badly managed, end of story. No need to weep and moan about Joe Ganim. Have another martini and get over the loss. Move on.
It ain’t over ’til it’s over!
According to the Post’s story, Ganim is trying to head off a legal challenge. Finch is going to go to court (allegedly) and his attorneys would most likely expose all the DTC’s dealings, the crooked backroom politics and the buying of votes and manipulating absentee ballots. Ganim claiming the Job Creation Party nomination is an effort to keep the campaign’s secrets from seeing the light of day in a court room.
TBK: Joe Ganim’s primary campaign was strategically brilliant, and scrupulously legal. Bill Finch has nothing to tell any authorities they don’t already know. Did you forget Joe is under a state and federal microscope?! There wasn’t any malfeasance on the part of the Ganim Campaign. You’ll have to pin your hopes on Rick Torres. The small group of people remaining in the Finch Campaign are pulling out the pegs and getting ready to fold their tents.
I don’t know Jeff, there a lot of kids running around in new tennis shoes, their mothers with really nice manicures and pedicures and the restaurants have been pretty busy.
You must be talking about Fairfield, Jennie!
Hahaha! Palm plant to forehead!
Don’t forget all the new iPhones.
Jennifer is talking about the new Popeye’s.
Did the new-sneaker kids and manicured women manage to secure the Democratic Primary for Bill last week? I surely don’t see those women trudging to the polls on manicured feet with kids with new sneakers in tow on November 3 for Bill Finch.
Jennifer: A politically mortally wounded Bill Finch isn’t going to siphon significant numbers of disaffected Democratic votes away from Joe Ganim to create any sort of significant advantage for Rick Torres. And Bill is out of the race in any event. Rick will have to rely on determined campaigning and appealing ideas to offer a competitive campaign in this election. The race is between Rick and Joe. Bill’s “spoiler” status cannot be resurrected to anyone’s advantage.
I agree with you, I think!
Joe Ganim is not going to be elected. Too many Finch supporters are going over to the GOP candidate. The Kool-Aid is wearing off, people are seeing the folly of putting a crook back into office.
Wicca, no alternative motives. The current state of affairs in this city by 30+ years of Democrat policy failures should speak for itself.
So what was the Republican Party doing during that timeframe? They were sitting back doing nothing but losing voters.
The November election is going to boil down to this:
Are the people of the city of Bridgeport tired of corrupt one-party rule, or will they be content to return a narcissistic, greedy and selfish crook to office?
Make mine Enrique Torres, please. I know he’s honest.
There is no other Party in Bridgeport, there is a Republican Party in name only. The Republican Party shares blame for the ills of the City because they did nothing to make voters join their party.
The GOP at the state and local levels is not the same party at the national level. Unfortunately, loudmouthed bullshit artists like Donald Trump, Mike Huckabee, Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey and the rest of the political whores running for the GOP’s presidential nomination have been hogging all the spotlight. Hot button issues like abortion, gun control, gay rights and same-sex marriage may resonate with the evangelical Christian conservatives in Iowa, Nebraska, Kentucky and other provincial territories in the Bible Belt, but not here.
The Republican Party has been effectively shut out of the political process in Bridgeport, for decades. Torres will raise the standard. Now is the time for change. The people of the city of Bridgeport have had enough of the corruption, the self importance of public officials who think it is their birthright, the high taxes, the high crime. Joe Ganim won the primary in part because the minority communities don’t like Bill Finch. They know he is a racist who will sell their neighborhoods out from under them. There was some ballot manipulation of course, welfare recipients bribed with ten- or twenty-dollar bills to vote for The Crook. Every conscious voter was trucked to the polls–Danny Roach is particularly adept at rounding up nearly every drug addict and alcoholic in Black Rock and driving them to the local polling place. But the crux of the biscuit is Bill Finch is an asshole and nearly everyone in Bridgeport knows it.
So now, the Republican Party IS making an effort to improve the quality of people’s lives and here you are saying “Why vote for Rick? Republicans never did anything for me.”
Please, what effort, they get lost if they go outside Black Rock. The Republican Party has shut itself out of the political process in Bridgeport and as for “street money” that’s nothing new in large cities. The Republican Party at the national, state and city level will never get blacks and Hispanics in any kind of numbers because they don’t want to, oh yes, they will get a few here and there but Republicans do not have their issues in mind and they won’t even go into their districts.