From the CT Post:
Mayor Bill Finch, in a hastily called press conference, said that the city’s share of the cost of President Obama’s canceled visit is “irrelevant.”
“We’ve hosted 100 or so Presidential visits in Bridgeport’s history, and we’ll host 100 more, God willing” Finch said. “We’ll spare no cost to protect our commander in chief.”
Finch did not provide a cost estimate of the work done to spruce up Central High School and its grounds for Obama’s visit.
Full story here.
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The cost is relevant. This is a partisan political gathering, not a presidential initiative or major announcement of domestic or foreign affairs.
Taxpayers should not be paying for the cost associated with this political rally. Finch should be insisting Malloy’s campaign pay for all expenses but there is no chance of that happening.
Tom, is there any truth to the rumor the printing of the tickets for the POTUS visit was done by the city’s printing department?
It doesn’t matter who the President is, Mayor Finch is correct on this one, it could President Chris Christie.
Wait, has Bridgeport really hosted 100 or so presidential visits?
Bill Finch, I agree 100 percent. These Republicans are totally ridiculous. Whether it is a Republican or a Democratic President, it is an honor to receive them in our city and the cost is not relevant. The Commander in Chief. It’s an honor and a privilege to host the most powerful man on the planet in our city. To the haters, get over it!
Ahhh, sad you could not wear your rainbow tie for Obama to see? Haters? The pot calling the kettle black.
Joel, why not cut off another finger? You are an idiot. I’ve told you that before, no?
IDIOT–I Don’t Impose Obama Tricks
Thank you Steven Auerbach for defining me in one word. You are a prime example of a Gullorant sucker. For the record, I reserve copyrights to this and other terms and definitions presented only here on OIB. I’m no fool either.
🙂
I agree with Tom White, the cost is relevant. Steve, stop the sanctimonious bullshit. The only Republican on this post is JB. I call $50K for police OT significant. This was a Malloy campaign stop and the president was here for Malloy so Malloy should have picked up the tab.
I’m still hovering around, too! The beauty of this visit is smart Dems are running away from this president in droves. Malloy should too, but again I did say “smart Dems” of which he is not. Hope the visit bites Malloy in the bum.
It is a get-out-the-vote rally for Malloy, however this is our president (the world’s most powerful, charismatic, handsome world leader and manly man), so I would like to see the campaign pick up the lion’s share of the cost and the city pitch in a bit also. 2/3 – 1/3 would be my first offer, submitting a PILOT request for our 1/3 of course.
Will someone please do the math on presidential visits? I can find verification of Lincoln, Kennedy, Bush and Obama, so they have been here about 25 times each? Hello historians…
In all seriousness, no one wants anything tragic to happen on their watch, so while the cost is a problem for our strapped city, nothing can interfere with protecting our president. This does remind me of days of yore when the king would visit his appointed Dukes, Earls etc. estates for weeks on end and the major problem was how to entertain the royalty who had given the title and land–without going broke.
I support the City pitching in for the security. But that’s the job of the Secret Service Agency. The city of Bridgeport could have been monitoring the internet for threats to the POTUS. How many city employees spend their time on Facebook alone? Who was that guy who posted: “I’ll pray for an assassination” to an announcement of the pending visit of the POTUS to Bridgeport?
Doesn’t he have his own jet? How would Ebola infect Airforce 1? Isn’t the cancellation about him getting briefed on the seriousness of the Ebola matter for citizens of the US and creating strategic prevention strategies?
Yes, Mustang.
I have two questions:
1. How much will it cost the city? and
2. What was done four years ago?
Someone come up with those answers and we can intelligently discuss.
Jennifer, invite the mayor on your show next week to discuss. If he won’t appear invite McCarthy. If he won’t appear invite the chairs of the B & A committee. If they won’t appear then have Andy and JML come up with educated guesses.
Yeah, your guest list is a great idea but they always refuse our invitation, however I do have a source who can find the cost four years ago. Great idea.
Is anyone else questioning the math of 100? I may be catching OCD over this issue.
Ask Charles Brilvitch or Mary Witkowsky. They should be able to help you with the answers.
BW,
Andy and I have been searching for one of the two B&A chairpersons. He has not been seen at the latest committee meetings and that means he has not been heard nor has he heard the discussions this past Monday evening about making the monthly financial report a more readable and usable tool for all.
We will continue to pursue this subject as taxpayers are due timely information, fairly presented, and reviewed by representatives who understand the story being presented. (It is obvious the 80-90 pages presented monthly escapes the review of 90% of Council members. Consult the minutes of meetings of the past two years and you will see the trail I reference.)
Where there are NO WATCHDOGS, the people will be attacked and preyed upon. Time will tell.
There is precedent for a political campaign reimbursing a municipality. According to the Connecticut Post, Stratford Mayor John Harkins insisted on reimbursement and Malloy’s campaign did so the last time Obama visited for a political rally.
Obama is visiting in his role as the highest ranking member of the Democrat party. Appearing at a political campaign rally is not a presidential duty.
That’s true, every effort should be made to have the Party pay for the cost but the City should do its part and not wait for the funding, which will come later.
You bunch of Gullorant (simultaneously gullible and ignorant) fools. As soon as this mythical POTUS visit to Bridgeport was announced, I was skeptic about this obvious scam in the making. The first sign of this scam was the selection of Central High School over the Arena as the venue for the presidential visit. If the goal of such a visit were to pump up the Democratic voters, why settle for less of a target audience of 2000 compared to 10,000 four years ago? The principle of supply and demand was at work here. By announcing the seating was limited to 2000 people, they created a higher demand for tickets.
The Bridgeport Democratic Machine had been experiencing difficulty in identifying Number one voters (those most likely to vote Democrat). This scam was put together by Dan Malloy, Nancy DiNardo, Bill Finch and John Stafstrom. We announce the President is coming. We select a small venue and inform the public tickets must be picked up at Bridgeport Democratic Central, 908 Wood Avenue. Once there to pick up the tickets, Name, address, and phone number was what the Machine needed. In return, a bouncing ticket to Central High School for the POTUS visit was handed out. While there may have been only 2000 tickets handed out, thousands of other people called for tickets and the calls kept coming in. “May I have your contact information?, I may be able to find some tickets for you.”
This is not the first time the Machine found themselves in a tight situation and used OBAMA as a way to get voters to support their hidden agenda. “Bullshit, Speedy!” That was Godiva2011 you just heard. Oh yeah, Godiva2011?
www .youtube.com/watch?v=e6Apk3JAQqU
Folks, it’s that time of year. I’ll leave you with this OIB classic and I hope you really start to think about how you’re going to vote.
I NEED VOLUNTEERS TO HELP ME BREAK DOWN THE SANTIAGO MACHINE IN THE 130TH DISTRICT. CALL ME AT 203-360-6094.
onlyinbridgeport.com/wordpress/speedy-gonzalez-breaks-down-machines/
Ah hah, here’s the best line from that article by Finch. “There’s not a day when we’re not on the phone with someone from the White House.” I can only imagine those phone calls.
As I am reading this and thinking more about it, I believe Finch volunteered to have the city pick up the tab. Why would he seem so defensive about this if that were not the case? 100 or so presidential visits is the past, pull-ease. We will spare no expense to protect the POTUS. And let’s not forget the OT payday the mayor is giving the BPD.
My thinking is any elected official who is standing on the stage and addressing the crowd ponies up money AND that would include Mayor Finch who has a campaign war chest set up already for next year. But until the city comes up with a valid estimate of what the real expenses are going to be, I could not even begin to suggest how that should be divided up. But between Malloy’s campaign, the constitutional officers, the state Democratic Committee and the Bridgeport DTC as well as the Finch campaign there are many sources of funding to be found.
Also Finch should tell Malloy our police department is severely understaffed and he expects the state to supply half of the necessary manpower required for routine traffic control and crowd control.
I notice there been no discussion about Gov. Chris Christie, the head of the Republican Governors Conference and the fact he cancelled his trip to Connecticut to support Tom Foley.
Oh and one more thing. If Mayor Finch makes a stupid comment like “guess who’s coming to dinner” or thinks it would be funny to make a joke about Ebola or says or does anything to embarrass Bridgeport, then his campaign has to foot the entire bill.
“Those who were planning to attend tonight’s rally will have priority to attend when the President returns later in the campaign by visiting a Democratic Party field office, dropping off their tickets, and providing their contact information.”
This Machine just won’t stop trying to collect more contact information from the Gullorant. IDs of number-one voters is critical for Malloy to have a chance of winning. This is not about Ebola–this is Dbola, a virus much more dangerous than Ebola.
onlyinbridgeport.com/wordpress/obama-postpones-bridgeport-visit-due-to-ebola-response-plans-return/
I am still not clear where Mayor Finch was coming from. How are we protecting our President? What are we protecting him from? He did not cancel because of the risk of flying with Ebola threats being what they are with regard to air travel. He has his own jet.
Finch’s position makes no sense and we should seek reimbursement for the expenses incurred preparing for this event. Trash your press guy, Finch. This ill-though-out statement is an insult to our intelligence. One thing has nothing to do with the other.
Finch should submit all bills to the DNC for payment. If I remember right we had the same problem when Ronald Reagan came to Fairfield back in 1984, it cost the town $36,000 back then, eventually the RNC picked up the tab.
With public financing of campaigns I would believe they asked all the candidates who would benefit from the visit to pony up. The money raised would then be distributed through the DNC for campaigns in need. If the money could not be raised then they WOULD CANCEL. Funny, THERE WAS NO PROBLEM GOING TO A PRIVATE RESIDENCE IN Greenwich a week ago … ummm.