UPDATE: Debate organizers say forum is booked to capacity (300) with 345 people registered. Walk ins will not be allowed. Radio Cumbre 1450 AM will broadcast live in English.
The first mayoral forum sponsored by AARP of Connecticut will take place August 26, 7 p.m. at the Bridgeport Holiday Inn, 1070 Main Street Downtown. The Greater Bridgeport Latino Network and Greater Bridgeport NAACP are also coordinating the event. Only candidates appearing on the September 16 Democratic primary ballot will be allowed to participate. Bill Finch, Joe Ganim and Mary-Jane Foster have committed to the forum. Foster is awaiting word from elections officials about her signature drive to qualify for the primary.
The public is invited but advance registration is required, according to event organizers. The public can register in advance by calling toll free 1-877-926-8300 or online at aarp.cvent.com/BPTMayorForum.
Connecticut Post political reporter Ken Dixon will serve as moderator. Questions will be determined by event sponsors and moderator. Audience members may submit questions in writing selected by Dixon.
If you’re thinking about bringing campaign swag, leave it at the headquarters. No political materials allowed at the forum. Candidates and operatives may distribute materials outside the event room after the forum.
Finger foods, coffee, beverages and dessert will be served.
No cell phones or notepads should be used by candidates! Finch!
Jimfox, that was my same thought. During a debate in the last election Bill Finch relied on Adam Wood who would text him from the audience how to answer. So Finch kept looking at his phone. Imagine if this happened in a presidential election. How unprofessional. And think about the message this gives of the city’s leader. I am not confident in my own answers. Very lame. YES, NO CELL PHONES PLEASE!
JimFox and BptPorter, I too was at that debate when Adam Wood was feeding Finch responses via cell phone. Mary-Jane finally called them on it in her ladylike way. I would have pulled the phone from Finch’s hand and ended it that way. But that’s me, I admit without reservation I have no patience for cheating or ignorance.
Without Adam “Pecker” Wood texting the answers to him, essentially pulling the strings to make his mouth move, Finch will come across as clueless. I second that, no cell phones or tablets, no index cards.
Hizzoner is up against some formidable speaking talent. Mary-Jane Foster and Joseph P. Ganim are both skilled orators, as is Harold Gardner.
No form of communication but their mouths.
Hector, you were referencing an oral delivery connected to their brainpower and experience I will guess. Or perhaps the mayor might wish to engage Adam Wood for the session and we could then judge for ourselves, perhaps, who has been directing municipal affairs in recent years. Time will tell.
I am hopeful the candidates will lay out their vision. I would like to believe anyone in the audience will leave with a clear-cut decision. This will be Foster’s opportunity to reintroduce herself. Hopefully before all the audience swoons over Joe. Finch just needs to continue with his accomplishments and plans to rectify issues already being addressed.
I understand there will be an individual doing sign language. The same guy from Africa who did not know sign language, but will look impressive.
I would like one major rule imposed and I will be happy.
Absolutely no applause, cheers or jeers for the entire debate. I would like it respectful and informative!
This one’s for you, Steven.
www .theonion.com/article/god-announces-plans-slowly-wean-humans-religion-51104
Bridgeport Kid, that was excellent! 🙂
Absolutely, Steve. It would give the audience an opportunity to process comments and answers without the distraction of “who can yell the loudest.”
Finch will have a monitor in his ear so Adam “Pecker” Wood can answer the questions for him.
I saw Finch in a three-way debate with Jeff Kohut and Mary-Jane Foster in 2011. Foster and Kohut held their own; Finch was evasive and redirected the discussions away from critical issues so he could brag “I did this” and “I did that.” Never took the questions about tax relief or any other major issue.
Finch is holding the line on taxes and Joe Ganim has turned over a new leaf.
A fig leaf?
TBK, I witnessed this with Finch also during the debate with Bill, Jeff and Rick Torres at the Black Rock Community Center. There was a question from the audience about the missing government grant money for the Congress Street Bridge. He sounded like the teacher from Peanuts.
maybe somebody can ask about the “Tornado” money?
Hahahaha, that’s right. I remember now. That was the debate I saw.
NAACP is a joke,it has not done a damn thing for blacks.
Does anybody know if questions will be allowed from the audience?
No questions from the audience. You will, however, be allowed to hurl projectiles at the mayor. I recommend bruised tomatoes, rotten eggs, feces and balloons filled with urine.
If not, perhaps written questions to be asked?
Very surprised Finch’s advisers are gonna let him do this, Joe and Mary-Jane will talk circles around him.
I agree with you Harvey, but I don’t see any way he can get out of it.
Bill Finch was standing behind the door during elocution class. Joe Ganim and Mary-Jane Foster are both attorneys with courtroom experience. Hizzoner is going to look like a bumbling fool, which he is to begin with. This “debate” will only confirm what is a commonly held belief.
Lennie, swag is the way you are, how you walk, talk, dress and present and represent yourself. I don’t think the younger generation meant swag as being campaign literature.
I’m trying DD, I’m just too old to be cool. I’m a dreamer.
“Audience members may submit questions in writing selected by Dixon.”
Ahead of the debate? How?
Pete, generally in these forums a time is set aside for audience members to submit questions in writing to the moderator for inclusion.
A day in the life of Mayor Finch
Mrs. Finch: Honey, you have two more endorsements I think, in the mail today!
MF: Oh! That’s good news, who are they from honey? Please read them to me while I shave, I’m running late!
Mrs. F: Here goes! The first one is from The Half Ass Voters society of Grovers Ave.
Where’s that, dear?
MF: Some small street in Black Rock!
Mrs. F: They go on to say after seeing what a Half Ass job you did on paving Grovers Ave this year, all the neighbors came up with forming this new committee to endorse you or someone else for mayor, so our 90 neighbors on Grovers Ave will put your name in a hat along with Joe Ganim and Mary-Jane Foster. Each day you do a half-ass job Mayor Finch, the society will remove one of your names from the hat. So as of late, we are sorry to inform you we removed ten of your names from our hat for doing a half-ass job, paving our lovely Street Grovers Ave. and Trumbull Gardens half-ass investigation, not to mention do we have a budget surplus or deficit? Or just more of your half-ass antics?
As of now both Joe Ganim and Mary-Jane Foster have 30 names each in our hat, on September 15th we will shake the hat over our heads and pull that lucky candidate’s name from our hat and that’s the one we will endorse and vote for as a ninety-vote block.
Mayor, best of luck,
The Half-Ass Voters Society of Grovers Ave
Black Rock, 06605
MF: Those rich SOBs that’s all they do is complain, they want their flucking street paved with gold!
Mrs. F: Honey, the second endorsement comes from a group of Black Rockers who call themselves ‘The Masochistic Taxpayers of Black Rock’
Dear Mayor Finch;
We hope this letter finds you in good spirits, as you well know Mr. Mayor at first we had our differences over taxes in Black Rock, ever since the 2008 Revaluation, so many Black Rockers started to complain about high taxes, but as the years came upon us, our mortgages went down while our small tax increase by you each year, slowly climbed up, just as you said it would, Mr. Mayor. “Some will go up and some will go down” just like John Stafstrom’s, the former DTC Chairman!
Now that most of us are living with homes upside down in value and on a fixed income, how can we complain when we can receive a Reverse Mortgage instead of leaving our homes to those flucking ungrateful kids of ours!
So in the event we need more tax money for the 2016 Revaluation, well just call those sweet people at the Reverse Mortgage store, Henry Winkler sends his best, Mayor Bill!
Your Happy Masochistic Taxpayers of Black Rock
Can someone tell me where I can return a Finch lawn sign to? It was one of the four I have seen up in my neighborhood. I convinced the homeowner to vote for Joe, therefore she/he asked me to remove it from her/his lawn. I put it in the trunk of my car and replaced it with a Ganim sign.
Steve Nelson told me a homeowner/voter was quite upset because someone put a Finch lawn sign in her bushes on the corner. She asked Steve to bring her a Ganim lawn sign. When Steve arrived she took Finch’s lawn sign and threw it in the forest/brush next to her home. She then had Steve put the Ganim sign in the same spot.
Maria, I believe there is a collection site for any Finch materials on Asylum St.
Just throw it in the trash. All the lawn signs will end up in the trash.
A number of concerns have been listed here that are very serious and unfair so those running this debate need to make the rules of the debate known to the candidates and the public.
Ron, right on!
LOL. Wow Maria ,my neighborhood is so boring compared to yours. No one rings our doorbells, no signs getting thrown in bushes, etc, etc; ho hum.
Hopefully the sponsors of this debate are reading this blog, and will mandate no cell phones be permitted for use in any way by any of the candidates. That is an easy-peasy non-partisan way to assure all the candidates are providing answers that are extemporaneous.
Will it be televised?
The revolution will not be televised.
Q: How do you know Bill Finch is lying?
A: His lips are moving.
The CT Post is stating the candidates will be allowed to use electronic devices at the debate, well that will save Finch from making himself a bigger ass than he really is.
Ron, what kind of electronic devices and for what reason?
From CT Post:
www .ctpost.com/news/article/Mayoral-candidates-to-stay-plugged-in-at-forum-6451048.php
Nora Duncan, state director of AARP Connecticut, which is sponsoring the 7 p.m. event with the Greater Bridgeport Latino Network and NAACP Bridgeport, said Tuesday the ground rules are still being finalized.
“I think we’re going to let them have notes and (wireless) devices,” Duncan said, arguing some candidates might choose, for example, to keep notes on an iPad.
Oh sure, all the candidates who will be in this forum are well over age 55. They grew up with pens/pencils and paper notepads. They can very well use those adequate note-taking materials, as presidential candidates do in their debates (last time I checked).
In light of the widely reported allegations of Adam Wood texting to Mayor Finch during at least one mayoral debate in 2011, it will be inappropriate for the forum organizers to allow the participants to use texting-enabled or Internet-connected devices during the debate. Therefore, if the forum organizers allow it, then I humbly suggest EVERY CANDIDATE IN THE DEBATE SHOULD AGREE TO:
1. Make a clear gesture of turning off his/her cell phone and any texting-enabled or Internet-connected device at the start of the debate and putting the device(s) away and out of sight.
2. State clearly and briefly in his/her opening statement he/she has done this to show he or she takes very seriously the honor of both being a candidate for mayor of Bridgeport and of speaking on his/her own to the people of Bridgeport, including to his/her fellow candidates–without assistance from a plugged-in politico.
Mr. Spain, I agree wholeheartedly. It is the sponsoring body’s OBLIGATION to ensure a fair and impartial debate and IT IS THEY WHO SHOULD BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE along with the cheater (whomever that is).
Hey Pete,
Do you want to make this the shortest debate in American political history?
Rule #1 No lies, no promises they cannot prove they can keep.
Rule #2 Break Rule #1 and you are immediately excluded from the debate.
Good idea, Bob!
I’d like to change the language feature on Adam Wood’s phone to French or Spanish. All the extra letters will make his texts to Billy come out all fucked up.
Bill Finch will be allowed to have his Game Boy and his iPod.
Bill Finch will be permitted to have his Game Boy and his iPod to amuse himself while listening to groovy tunes.
It will look like Finch is sitting in on a space shuttle launching, he’ll have four iPads, three phones, texts coming in from all over the room, etc etc. If they say no electronics, Finch would back out.
Bill Finch thinks the television remote is the kind of electronic device they’re talking about.
Happy to see it will be standing room only. I do wish it were in a larger capacity room so more people could attend.
They should move it to the Klein and book a comedian to warm up the crowd. This is going to be comical anyway. Hizzoner is going to be shown up, shown to be the mentally challenged dolt he is.
It is amazing how in a few short years he has gone from the candidate of choice to a challenged dolt. Considering what Finch faced his first day in office, about $50 million in debt to start, he has not done a terrible job. Has he made some decisions I don’t agree with? Sure. Has he disgraced this city and the office of mayor? I do not think so. Is our school system a shambles and underfunded? Yes, it has been this way for decades. Tom Mulligan can remember listening to the local radio as a student, hearing critics call the then administration basically communist for underfunding the Bridgeport public schools. Do I want my $600 and the solar park off SeaSide Park? You betcha. (Am I channeling Palin? Yikes!) As a Republican who votes across party lines, I find the character assassination of Finch very tiresome. The anyone but Finch just might get you good ole Joe. Until I see the test results that anyone is mentally challenged, I consider the source unreliable and can easily dismiss any other comments from them.
And I really do like you, Derek!
Very well stated, Jennifer Buchanan.