Ganim Gears Up For Governor, Formal Announcement Next Week

UPDATE: video from Doing It Local. He ran on a second-chance message that resurrected him as chief executive of Connecticut’s largest city in 2015 and now Mayor Joe Ganim is gearing up for a 2018 statewide run in which he’ll tout a new Connecticut economy with cities as the economic drivers. Ganim is expected to announce his official run for governor January 3rd. Ganim opened a Twitter account on Thursday after a fake feed had appeared.

Eight months ago Ganim filed paperwork for an exploratory committee for governor, testing the waters for fundraising and Democratic Party support. He did so under the leap of faith he’d quality for the state’s voluntary Citizens Election Program of publicly funded races that would avail roughly $1.4 million for a primary.

The State Elections Enforcement Commission denied Ganim’s participation in the program based on his 2003 conviction on public corruption charges. Ganim challenged the decision and a federal judge upheld the prohibition ruling Ganim’s rights were not violated because an avenue exists for him to raise money.

So Ganim will be back on the stump raising money the old-fashioned way from large money donors to finance outreach in the short term to Democratic delegates to the state party convention in May where he hopes to achieve support from 15 percent to qualify for a projected August primary. The maximum personal contribution to a campaign for governor is $3,500.

Connecticut’s highest profile state pols such as Governor Dan Malloy, Lieutenant Governor Nancy Wyman and Attorney General George Jepsen have opted out of respective statewide runs. Ganim is among several current and former municipal chief executives seeking/exploring the Democratic nomination including Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin and Middletown Mayor Dan Drew.

Ganim is the mayor of Bridgeport, but when not there he’s toiling in the political lands of Connecticut’s cities, most prominently delegate and voter rich New Haven where he’s built an alliance with Mayor Toni Harp on regional job creation. He was also recently in West Haven, see video above from his campaign Facebook page where he addresses his past. On Facebook he declares:

“I haven’t been to a home, city or town where I’ve met a group of people who said they’ve done everything perfect. But I have family and friends, and people I met along the way that want and deserve a second chance. Thank you for also looking past the mistakes and seeing the best in people.”

Ganim is no stranger to a statewide run. In 1994, shortly after he was reelected to a second term as mayor, he launched a gubernatorial bid ending up as the running mate to party nominee Bill Curry who lost a close contest to Republican John Rowland. Ganim continued to work Democratic insiders for eight years and was tracking to be the party standard bearer for governor in 2002 until derailed by the federal corruption probe. He spent six years in federal prison. Released in 2010, Ganim contemplated a run for mayor in 2011, but felt the timing wasn’t right. On January 1, 2015 he commenced his public outreach for a return at an East End church.

Against the odds, facing well financed incumbent Bill Finch, Ganim executed an extraordinary public outreach campaign coupling his accomplishments as mayor from November 1991 to April 2003 with a second-chance message that galvanized large blocs of African American voters carrying him to a tight primary win on his way to a big general election victory.

Once again, against the odds, Ganim is expected to seek the state’s top spot running as a Hartford outsider pursuing a city-centric message to transform Connecticut’s troubled economy.

The Republican side features a mega field including Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton, Shelton Mayor Mark Lauretti, former Trumbull First Selectman Tim Herbst and Bridgeport resident David Walker, the former U.S comptroller general.

At this early stage both parties are headed for August primaries.

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73 comments

  1. I can assure you that the Bridgeport African American voters especially the black female voters will not support Joe Ganim for governor simply because as mayor of Bridgeport Joe Ganim has done NOTHING for the black voters in Bridgeport, Ganim took their votes and gave them NOTHING in return.

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      1. Kid, I don’t think we’ve ever met, but we do think alike. I respect and admire Ron Mackey more than anyone who comes to mind. He’s a good, smart man who I consider myself blessed to know. But, this time, while I don’t completely disagree with him, I completely agree with you. Ron, one thing I know about Joey G. is that he doesn’t discriminate when it comes to loyalty in the political arena. Not only did our minority community fall prey to his promises, we all did. He can’t help himself, it’s how he’s wired, and those around him who think they’ve benefited by his regime, first and second, are living in lala land. I’ve heard it said in Bridgeport’s political arena that if Joey G. resigned as Mayor while pursuing his dream of becoming Governor of Ct, they would support him. I think it’s called “up and out.” So the question is this, do we let him have his cake and eat it too, or do we make him an offer he can’t refuse.

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          1. Some of them must live in some pretty swanky trailer parks.
            After Donald Trump appeared to endorse Ron DeSantis’ campaign for Florida governor last week, a handful of the biggest and most influential billionaires in Republican politics threw their support behind the three-term GOP congressman, upending the race in the nation’s biggest swing state.
            The stable of billionaires and millionaires listed on DeSantis’ “Finance Leadership Team,” obtained by POLITICO, include casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, hedge fund heiress Rebekah Mercer, investment tycoon Foster Friess and other donors who have funded the conservative Koch brothers’ network and President Trump’s campaign. Just last week, Trump weighed in on Twitter to say that DeSantis “would make a GREAT Governor of Florida.”

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          2. Jennifer, thanks, these same donors who support 45 and his policies will certainly support David Walker in Connecticut. Does Connecticut need that type of influence here?

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          3. Ron, my point was, not all Trump supporters are the ignorant white trash poor.
            Ron, CT needs something very different. Understanding the left leaning voters don’t like big money in politics, Unless it’s left leaning money, which you’ve had Plenty of in CT, perhaps a more conservative infusion of policy and procedures is now in order.
            Big money in politics, one can argue, undermines one person one vote on both sides. The difference in the parties boils down to how much government regulations and control of your money and day to day living do you want in your life. Yes, the Koch brothers are libertarian, and support legislation that benefits their industry. Just as big pharma, tobacco, insurance, etc do. It’s a mixed bag of influence and benefits vs costs. Here’s some of the good done by these libertarians.
            * The Kochs “support university programs and think tanks that try ‘to understand the nature of human freedom and how that freedom leads to prosperity…’”
            * They’ve given major grants to medical research, including cancer treatment and joint replacement.
            * Elizabeth Koch, Charles’ wife, oversees funding to the arts. This includes sponsoring young musicians and dancers.
            * David Koch supports the PBS series, Nova, and has made generous donations to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History for a Hall of Human Origins.
            * Wildlife Habitat Council president Robert Johnson states that the Koch brothers are leaders in environmental issues, as they have done everything from planting saplings on protected land to helping to preserve prairie land in Kansans to making sure many of their buildings are certified by the Wildlife Habitat Council in ‘promoting biodiversity, wildlife habitat enhancement, land restoration and conservation education…

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          4. The people you named are not supporters of Donald Trump. Adelson, et al, are billionaires overjoyed that one of their own is sitting in the oval office. A case in point: after the Macono well blew out on April 20, 2010, dumping 5,000,000 barrels of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico (1 barrel=42 gallons) the Obama administration issued restrictions on deepwater oil drilling. Mr. Trump just rolled it all back. Now oil companies can drill for oil and pollute the environment with hydrocarbons, with little oversight. 

            While I’m on the subject, there are more than 10,500 oil and gas wells in the Gulf of Mexico, including 3,500 or so that have been abandoned and not permanently sealed. Over time the effects of sea water and the negative pressure cause the seals to fail, emitting crude oil, methane and other flamable and toxic gasses to escape. Oil sheens are a common sign off the Louisiana coast. 

            Large corporations tend toward unscrupulous behavior if the government is not monitoring the situation. 

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          5. The wealthy people that funded Trump’s campaign expected a quid pro quo arrangement for their financial largesse. The people that actually voted for him are ignorant. Some are white trash living in trailer parks, many are bigotted rednecks that cheered the violence in Charlottesville. He conned them all. They bought the bullshit and flash of his “reality star” image.

            Now, after his attempts to block immigration from Muslim nations was beat down in the courts, after he couldn’t build a wall along the southern border to keep them danged Mexicans out, after he tried to deny his working-class supporters a basic right like healthcare, after he signed into law an overhaul of the tax code that benefits the 1% atthe expence of the 99%, well shoot…

            The GOP is the party of Donald Trump not Abraham Lincoln. It is the party of angry white people.

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          6. Derick, wondering if you’re spending too much time with Attorney Meyers, his favorite battle cry is more regulations so Business don’t kill us. If corporations all practiced out side of safety practices that benefit both their workers and consumers, it wouldn’t take long for all of us to be dead and they would have no customers. It took 6 years for those drilling rigs regulations to be put in place. 6 years without the regulations and what major blow up happened? Apparently the oil industry learns from their mistakes, care about employees and the environment and spent 6 years safely operating, without the regulations.

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          7. Jennifer,

            You must be living in a perpetual state of bliss:

            In July 2010, three months after the Mocando blowout, a tugboat pulling a barge struck an abandoned well head near Bayou St. Denis in Barataria Bay, Louisiana, spewing gas and oil into an environmentally sensitive wetlands area. The wellhead was unknown to the navigator because neither the federal government nor the state of Louisiana thought to map where all the abandoned wells are located. 

            The Keystone pipeline has ruptured in April and November 2017 and April and May 2016. 

            A BP pipeline on Alaska’s north slope ruptured last April, spewing oil onto the tundra and methane into the air.

            On May 12, 2016, a release of oil from subsea infrastructure on Shell’s Brutus oil rig released 2,100 barrels of oil. This leak created a visible 2 mile by 13 mile oil slick in the sea about 97 miles south of Port Fourchon, Louisiana, according to the U.S. Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement.

            “For the love of money
            People will lie, Lord, they will cheat
            For the love of money
            People don’t care who they hurt or beat
            For the love of money…”

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          8. Less than two weeks after dumping nearly 90,000 gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, Shell Oil’s San Pablo Bay Pipeline, which transports crude oil from California’s Central Valley to the San Francisco Bay Area, leaked an estimated 21,000 gallons into the soil near in San Joaquin County. 

            California’s Central Valley is that state’s single most productive agricultural region and one of the most productive in the world, providing more than half of the fruits, vegetables and nuts grown in the United States.

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          9. From the US government site –
            While multiple factors can contribute to an accident, usually it comes down to someone making a mistake. Employee behavior often leads to workplace mishaps, whether they’re related to improper procedures, misuse or poor maintenance of equipment, fatigue or the lack of training. Despite the establishment and enforcement of Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) safety standards, the agency estimates the annual cost of known workplace fatalities alone at some $40 billion

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          10. My original post referenced Mr. Trump’s efforts to roll back safety and environmental regulations as a favor to corporate donors. His tax cuts were cut from the same moral fabric. It is well known that the corporate tax cut will benefit stockholders, not the employment rate.

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          11. the Obama administration issued restrictions on deepwater oil drilling. Mr. Trump just rolled it all back. Now oil companies can drill for oil and pollute the environment with hydrocarbons, with little oversight
            deep water drilling, your words.

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          12. Bob Graham, a former Florida governor and United States senator, and William K. Reilly, a former administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, were the co-chairmen of the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling. They wrote this for the New York Times:
            Seven years ago, a BP oil well blew out off Louisiana, causing the Deepwater Horizon drill rig to explode, killing 11 workers and releasing several million barrels of toxic crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico.
            As co-chairmen of the bipartisan National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling, we investigated the causes of the disaster and examined the offshore drilling industry to identify ways to reduce the risks it poses to workers, the public and the environment. Although Congress has refused to enact any of the commission’s safety recommendations, the Department of the Interior adopted many of them after extensive input from industry, government and the public.
            President Trump’s April 28 executive order on offshore energy threatens to abolish these safety improvements and, as he put it, start “the process of opening offshore areas” to energy exploration. He took a further step last week to expand oil and gas extraction in the environmentally sensitive outer continental shelf. The commission members are unanimous in their view that the actions proposed in the president’s executive order are unwise.
            As Americans flock to the nation’s beaches this summer, it is important to understand what Mr. Trump’s recent moves portend. Specifically, his executive order calls for the reconsideration of a critical safeguard that is the most important action the government has taken to reduce offshore drilling hazards. This safeguard, the well control rule, tightened controls on blowout preventers designed to stop explosions in undersea oil and gas wells. The rule was based in part on lessons the commission learned about the root cause of the BP disaster.
            Had this common-sense rule been in place on April 20, 2010, that calamity might well have been averted. Weakening or rescinding this rule would increase the risks of offshore operations, put workers in harm’s way and imperil marine waters and coastlines.
            Mr. Trump’s order also directed the Interior Department to review current rules on offshore drilling. Opening more areas to exploration, as the Trump administration moved to do last week, could threaten the fragile Arctic Ocean off Alaska as well as environmentally sensitive reaches of the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. A spill in any of those waters could threaten multibillion-dollar regional economies that depend on clean oceans and coastlines.
            Nothing has changed to justify these moves since the current five-year offshore leasing plan, which runs through 2022, was finalized after years of public and industry input. Broad public opposition to expanding drilling into frontier areas has not diminished. Nor are the identified potential harms to economies and ecologies any less significant.
            In short, drilling in the outer continental shelf remains risky business. Safety and oversight in offshore drilling continues to need improvement, not roll backs.
            President Trump’s executive order disregards these facts. It fails to account for the vulnerabilities of the ocean’s frontier regions, a lack of adequate federal investment in safety measures for Arctic conditions, or the danger to coastal economies. It will put workers’ lives as well as ecologically rich and economically important waters and coastlines at needless additional risk.

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          13. Kid, the big picture is – we fees the world. A few years ago at the Aspen Institute a former head of home land security was asked what kept him up at night, his reply was feeding the world. Farms consume a lot of fuel producing that food. Look around you, you’ll be hard pressed to find items that don’t have some form of fossil fuel products in them from shoes, to clothing to furniture. Having worked for large corporations that have produced both goods and services, the corporate heads are concerned with both employees safety and consumer opinions, and equally the world they are leaving to their children and grandchildren. I wish everything ran on wind and solar power. I wish everyone used and reused, recycled and stopped wasting food. I wish everyone used only public transportation. It’s not happening. Until the world stops the demands for products made with petroleum products, drill baby drill is the order of the day. And, it would take a lot of food producing land to grow the sustainable raw materials to replace the petroleum based products consumers demand. I don’t know if the repeal of the off shore regulations are more harmful than good. I do know the Government has quoted a hefty cost for disasters that have happened under their regulations. Trump is such a repulsive blowhard in his presentation that it’s difficult to separate the policy from the person. And I don’t disagree with a few of his policies.

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  2. Well this is about to get very interesting. I’ve been contacted several times by Black individuals as well as organisations from Hartford asking about both Dave Walker and Joe Ganim and Mackey and my opinion of them as gubernatorial candidates and should they support their endeavor.

    Why I feel this will be interesting is because after much dialog I came away understanding that Black’s in Hartford feel about Luke Bronin as Blacks in Bridgeport feel about Joe Ganim. Neither has confidence in either to lookout for the best interest of the Black community. A segment of the Black community in Hartford are looking for a viable alternative to the Democratic party using them and none worth voting for so that’s why they were looking for Mackey and I to meet with Dave Walker. Like my sister’s and brother’s in Harford I can’t vote for either Ganim nor Bronin, but unlike them I don’tsee Walker as a viable alternative to me.

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  3. Lisa and Derek, I understand your point and I agree but my comment is from purely an Afrocentric perspective because it was Re. Stallworth was the President of the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance Of Greater Bridgeport And Vicinity, Inc (IMA) and Stallworth is the pastor of East End Baptist Tabernacle Church on Central Ave. The IMA celebrates the Emancipation Proclamation because on January 1, 1863, Lincoln issued the final Emancipation Proclamation, which declared “that all persons held as slaves” within the rebel states “are, and henceforward shall be free.” It’s a very important day and Mayor Ganim speaking at the 2015 Emancipation event to give his apology of his wrong doing that cause Ganim to go to jail. Well, it was not a apology and a number of the black pastors had no warning ahead of time that Ganim would address the group. This event jumped started Joe Ganim’s comeback to get reelected as mayor and what has Mayor Ganim done for the black community who came out in big numbers to put Ganim back into office, he’s done nothing. Joe Ganim used Rev. Stallworth, the IMA and the black community to get what he wanted but nothing for those who voted for Ganim. Just listen to Ganim’s come to Jesus moment.

    Watch “Ganim at East End Baptist Church – Apology” on YouTube

    https://youtu.be/-mKgnlMNXmo

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    1. This video makes me want to stick a finger down my throat, make myself wretch. Little Joe Ganim’s pseudo penitence was the shallowest form of stage craft. Television preschers from Jim Bakker to Pat Robertson to Robert Tilton to Peyer Popoff have all used a similar shtick to persuade the blue-rinsed matrons of America to piss away their Social Security checks on “devotional” tithe.

      Ganim did the same thing. He upped the ante by going after welfare checks too.

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    1. Little Joe Ganim has chutzpah, a lot of chutzpah. According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary of American Standard English chutzpah is a Yiddish word meaning “Shameless audacity; impudence.” That about sums up our mayor.

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  4. Democrats for Dave Walker is a voting group still in its formative stage. Never has an electorate been so ripe for switching. Expect the pendulum to move strong to the right and avoid the middle.

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  5. It’s official: WCBS 880 AM is reporting Bridgeport mayor Joe Ganim, who was convicted of recieving a half million dollars worth of bribes in cash, wine, clothing and home home improvements, is seeking the governor’s office.

    They did not forget to note he was convicted of racketeering…

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    1. Derek, were those the charges against Joe Ganim when he was mayor? I didn’t hear Ganim say anything about those charges in his 2015 speech at Rev. Stallworth’s church on Emancipation Proclamation Day. Are you sure that those were charges that cause him to go to federal prison?

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      1. Joseph P. Ganim is just a brassy bullshit artist. Hair’s always oerfectly coiffed, expensive suits immaculately pressed. Looks great, just has nothing substantive to say. Certainly didn’t have anything to say to Reverend Stallworth’s congregation. (That performance would have made Pat Robertson blush.) But at least he looked good…

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  6. Correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t we inherit this bond debt from G1’s (.com) investment Fluck-up?!
      Ganim’s decision back then, to sell $350 million in pension bonds to fund the Public Safety Pension Plan A did cost the city more than it was worth.

    This is way the City Council needs their own Attorney! ASAP

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  7. Jennifer, what Do the Koch Brothers Want?

    As a result of the disastrous Citizens United Supreme Court decision, billionaires and large corporations can now spend an unlimited amount of money to influence the political process.

    Perhaps, the biggest winners of Citizens United are Charles and David Koch, owners of the second-largest privately run business in America Koch Industries.

    Among other things, the Koch brothers own oil refineries in Texas, Alaska, and Minnesota and control some 4,000 miles of pipeline.

    According to Forbes Magazine, the Koch brothers are now worth $80 billion, and have increased their wealth by $12 billion since last year alone.

    For the Koch brothers, $80 billion in wealth, apparently, is not good enough. Owning the second largest private company in America is, apparently, not good enough. It doesn’t appear that they will be satisfied until they are able to control the entire political process.

    It is well known that the Koch brothers have provided the major source of funding to the Tea Party and want to repeal the Affordable Care Act.
    What else do the Koch brothers want?

    In 1980, David Koch ran as the Libertarian Party’s vice-presidential candidate in 1980.

    Let’s take a look at the 1980 Libertarian Party platform.

    Here are just a few excerpts of the Libertarian Party platform that David Koch ran on in 1980:

    “We urge the repeal of federal campaign finance laws, and the immediate abolition of the despotic Federal Election Commission.”

    “We favor the abolition of Medicare and Medicaid programs.”

    “We oppose any compulsory insurance or tax-supported plan to provide health services, including those which finance abortion services.”

    “We also favor the deregulation of the medical insurance industry.”

    “We favor the repeal of the fraudulent, virtually bankrupt, and increasingly oppressive Social Security system. Pending that repeal, participation in Social Security should be made voluntary.”

    “We propose the abolition of the governmental Postal Service. The present system, in addition to being inefficient, encourages governmental surveillance of private correspondence. Pending abolition, we call for an end to the monopoly system and for allowing free competition in all aspects of postal service.”

    “We oppose all personal and corporate income taxation, including capital gains taxes.”

    “We support the eventual repeal of all taxation.”

    “As an interim measure, all criminal and civil sanctions against tax evasion should be terminated immediately.”

    “We support repeal of all law which impede the ability of any person to find employment, such as minimum wage laws.”

    “We advocate the complete separation of education and State. Government schools lead to the indoctrination of children and interfere with the free choice of individuals. Government ownership, operation, regulation, and subsidy of schools and colleges should be ended.”

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    1. From US News and world report –
      The sign of higher intelligence, it’s said, is the ability to hold opposite ideas in one’s head and continue functioning.

      Yet when considering Charles and David Koch, the industrialist brothers and conservative activists, liberals’ heads metaphorically explode before they can allow positive thoughts about the left’s biggest boogeymen. They argue the Kochs are the biggest threat to American democracy outside of the Islamic State group, powerful ideologues who want to create a tax-free corporate playground with next-to-no government – and who have the vast wealth, $28 billion and counting, to make it happen.

      What tends to go unmentioned: the owners of Koch Industries, one of the world’s biggest conglomerates, have kicked in an estimated $1.5 billion or so to an array of causes and institutions most liberals love: public television, medical research, higher education, environmental stewardship, criminal justice reform and the arts. Stung by a 2010 New Yorker article that framed them as villains, the brothers are assertively putting out the good word about their good works

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          1. “Citizens United”

            In its Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision, the court opened the campaign spending floodgates. The justices’ ruling said political spending is protected under the First Amendment, meaning corporations and unions could spend unlimited amounts of money on political activities, as long as it was done independently of a party or candidate.

            The result has been a deluge of cash poured into so-called super PACs – particularly single-candidate PACs, or political action committees – which are only nominally independent from the candidates they support. What’s more, the legal protections for corporations mean much of this spending, known as “dark money,” never has to be publicly disclosed.

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          2. I’m reminded of John D. Rockefeller, the founder of Standard Oil. At one point Standard controlled 70% of the nation’s refining capacity and only 14% of the crude oil supply. In 1911 the United States government prosecuted Standard Oil under the Sherman Anti Trust Act to break up Rockefeller’s-and Stanard Oil Trust’s vertical monopoly of the oil business.

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  8. Yes Ron, Citizens United is the law of the Land. It was signed by Obama as I recall. Granted his statement before signing it I completely agree with, however, sign it he did. And both parties use, abuse and enjoy the dark money of citizens united. It pretty much sucks for the rest of us.

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  9. Jennifer, why the concern about Joe and Democrat nominee for Governor? Your focus should be on David Walker and all of the Republican candidates running for any office in Connecticut because NONE of them have shown any moral leadership in speaking out 45’s comments about Charlottesville, VA, Steve Bannon and the ALT Right, Roy Moore are just a few items that will stay around the Republican Party. The big wave is coming in 2018 and 2020 and Republicans who don’t show moral leadership will definitely be out, they are either with 45 or they’re not and the Republican candidates in Connecticut are totally with 45.

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    1. Seems you’re turning the election into a partisan popularity contest rather than, how will a candidate’s policy work to improve CT under the Federal Tax Bill. Correct me if I’m wrong, but the moral high road, don’t elect a felon who stole from the citizens the last time he held this office didn’t end well did it?

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      1. Yes Jennifer because the Republican Party in Connecticut can’t seem to find their way to sit down with a all black audience and that’s partisan popularity of the Republican Party.

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        1. Ron, lumping all prep school educated, County Clul attending suburban raised people and implied to be repulsive to urban voters casts a pretty wide net in both parties, including FDR and the Kennedy’s, it’s not just a current republican typical candidate, this country has a long history of men of this heritage as president. Wanting any candidate for Governor of CT, oh pardon me, any Republican candidate to bash the national Republican Party is going to help CT how? It’s going to take federal money and support to help fix CT finances, your Democrat Federal elected officials haven’t brought back the funds, they publicly bash the current majority party – and look at how the current tax bill has impacted your state taxes. Your new Governor is going to have to lobby hard and diplomatically with the seated government in DC for rescue funds, or your fair share of federal taxes paid and returned to CT. And your state is about to send a boatload of cash to DC for the next few years. How do you expect anyone to be able to do that if they publicly go after any sitting elected official? Especially the king of punch back twice as hard sitting there. There’s a big difference between standing up for injustice and verbally attacking someone because you don’t like their style. I personally don’t like one party in the majority. I’m working here to make sure we keep one Democrat from Indiana in the Senate. I’ve challenged many people to look at the Senate races and send a minimum of $10.00 to the 15 senate races that could flip to Democrats. One group has 99,000 followers. You have one party rule in CT. Look at what that has done to you, feeling like your pension is in jeopardy every time the budget numbers come out and everyone wants to blame public retirees. Aren’t you tired of that? The big picture is, who has the experience, the background to work the government financial numbers, successfully lobby DC and stop the downward spiral of CT and protect your pension. Find them and get them elected. (Hint, Walker! She whispers and winks).

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    2. Thank you, Ron. Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell and the rest of the GOP’s gutless wonders on Capitol Hill made only tepid criticisms of the violence in Charlottesville, Steve Bannon, Breitbart News, white nationalists and the Ku Klux Klan. They have said nothing about Donald Trump’s obvious bigotry and xenophobia.

      I’ve talked to several Trump supporters. All of them are white, working class and angry at what they view as their culture being eroded by waves of immigrants from Central and South America, the Middle East, anyone that does not speak English and worship a white “Christian” god.

      None of the GOP candidates for governor comes from an urban environment. Every goddamned one of them looks, walks, talks and honks like a Republican from a prep school, country club background.

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      1. Oh, you mean like all the Kennedy’s. Absolutely should disqualify anyone based on appearance only. Excellent point, so glad you’re not an angry bitter man.

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        1. The Kennedys are not part of the present political discussion. That is the same as Donald Trump ranting on and and on and on ad nauseum about “crooked Hillary and the Democrats.” 

          Little Joe may have a good showing during the primaries but ultimately he will not make the final cut. People are fed up with morally bankrupt politicians. Roy Moore was twice removed from the Alabama Supreme Court for defying federal court orders. His being a chicken hawk pretty much ended a political career that was on the skids. Donald Trump has a well documented history bigotry; racial intolerance; molesting women; cheating on his wives–the only reason Melania puts up with The Donald’s infidelities is not having to sleep in the same bed with him. 

          Trump campaigned on a platform constructed of warped planks: build a wall; ban immigration from Muslim countries; repeal and replace ACA (after a while it was whittled down to “repeal Obamacare”). He played on the xenophobia and economic insecurities of the trailer park communities of America. They voted for him. He us repaying them by cutting taxes for corporations and the wealthiest 1% and eliminating tax breaks for the middle class. Gee, thanks.

          Little Joe Ganim is a crook, a convicted felon that ripped off the people of the city of Bridgeport. Does he deserve a second chance to be a contributing member of society? Of course. Does he deserve to hold public office? No. He campaigned on a message of pseudo redemption, played to the cheap seats of Reverend Stallworth’s East End church. Is anyone here in Bridgeport better off now than we were two years ago? No. All Little Joe can brag bout is the renovation of the Poli and Majestic theaters, a project that he has no right to claim. He made a public appeal with Toni Harp in a dog-and-pony show to attract Amazon to southern Connecticut. Oh, and let’s not forget the casino, the amphitheater, the absentee ballot fraud uncovered by Max Medina…

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          1. Oh, didn’t know you are in charge of who is or is not part of the current political discussion. Thanks for keeping me in my lane.

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          2. Jennifer, just like 45 and the Republicans ran on Hillary and chanting lock her up well the new chant is Roy Moore, the ALT Right, Steve Bannon and Charlottesville. The Kennedy’s, really Jennifer, this is one day from 2018 and you are talking about the Kennedy’s.

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          3. Jennifer, I’m not even talking about 45 and Russia, there’s enough going on with 45 that has nothing to do with Russia.

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          4. The Democratic Party had its time under the dunce cap was last year when the party nomination was jerked out from under Bernie Sanders. The nation was ready for a female president; Hillary Rodham Clinton was not the one. Meanwhile Donald Trump was holding rallies in down state Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia, encouraging the gathered hordes to beat up anyone that disagreed with his positions on immigration, healthcare are women. “Lock her up!” his minions chanted as he called for Ms. Clinton’s prosecution. “We’re gonna build a wall and Mexico is gonna pay for it!” he shouted as the crowds of bubbas grunted approval, “MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN,” hats perched on their heads just so. we’re gonna ban Muslims! We’re gonna repeal and replace Obamacare!” (The chants of “repeal and replace Obamacare” were shortened to “repeal.” Funny how Mr. Trump’s followers, many on unemployment benefits after the automobile plant closed or their jobs were shipped overseas, never thought repealing ACA would effect them. Weren’t they surprised.) Then Trump was elected. His first order of business as POTUS was to throw a Twitter tantrum over the press accurately reporting the size of the crowd attending his inauguration. 

            Donald J. Trump is the face and voice of the Republican party. He duped the angry white working class voters of America into thinking he would make everything all better. Instead he made it all better for the 1%, the wealthy donors that expected a quid pro quo relationship for their tithe. Betsy De Vos is a shining example: her husband made huge, ‘bigly’ contributions to the Trump campaign. Now Ms. De Vos is Secretary of Education, a position for which she is wholly unqualified. (Didn’t take her long to make policy changes that favor charter schools over public school systems. And what about that tax credit for private school tuition?) 

            Then there was Roy Moore, Trump’s second choice to fill Jeff Sessions’ former Senate seat. Several women came forward with stories of Moore’s boorish behavior. Didn’t matter to Trump; he needed the vote to pass legislation. Didn’t matter that Moore is a chicken hawk that was barred from a shopping mall in Gadsden, Alabama, for trying to pick up teenage girls. “Judge Moore denied everything!” Trump sputtered, as if a simple denial negated a formal investigation. 

            Yep, Donald J. Trump is the face and voice of the GOP. God speed, Robert Mueller.

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  10. Derek, you make some good points, 45 convince poor and some middle class whites that others were taking things from them that was theirs. Those blacks, Hispanics, Muslims, women and gays had taken over America and 45 told them that he was going to take America back to the good old days of America where blacks, Hispanics, Muslims, women and gays were second class citizens. The good old days of a Roy Moore or matches like in Charlottesville was the American way, where there were two school systems, one black and one all white. But where are the moral voices of the Republican Party, where is David Walker’s voice? The only Republican who has challenge 45 and has spoken out against 45 is Ohio governor John Kasich.

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    1. When Donald Trump was elected the crackers  down there in Neshoba County, Mississippi, must have thought “Hey y’all, we can put up the ‘white only’ signs on the water fountains!” 

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    2. Ron,
      Where is the moral leadership ofthe GOP? Forget about David Walker, he’s just one man running for the Republican gubernatorial nomination. Tim Herbst, Mark Lauretti and a couple of hedge fund managers from Greenwich are also seeking the nomination. Not a one ofthem gives a rat’s ass about civil rights. Lauretti is “Build baby, build!” Herbst has the Nixonesque habit of using law enforcement agencies to keep tabs on his percieved enemies. Walker is an anomoly, a phantom. No physical presence. Retail politicking is not his thing. 

      The CT. Democratic Party is not faring any better. The party’s highest profile candidate is Joseph P. Ganim, a disgraced former attorney and felon convicted of racketeering. Joe Ganim,  a product of a political machine so corrupt it would make William M. Tweed blush. His hair is always perfectly coiffed, his suits immaculately pressed. It don’t hide the slime.

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      1. Derek, I agree with you especially about Bridgeport’s own two candidates for governor, Republican David Walker and Mayor Joe Ganim. You said, “Walker is an anomoly, a phantom. No physical presence. Retail politicking is not his thing” and ” Joe Ganim, a product of a political machine.” I truly believe in giving people a second chance, I support Joe Ganim during his first time as mayor and I had no problem in criticizing him but now this Joe Ganim is different, everything is about little Joe and his future and not about the Bridgeport school students who have no hope or the hard working residents or those who are living on a fixed income.

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        1. I appreciate your afrocentric POV. I’m concerned with the working poor in this town, the people living on fixed incomes, feeding their families with EBT cards. What chance do they have when the mayor cares more about his image and a foolish gubernatorial campaign? He conned a good bunch of them into believing he was a changed man, changed for the better. Now they are blinded by the truth dawning through the east window…

          My criticism of both major parties in general and the GOP in particular is unadulterated. the Democrats, smarting after the right good chapping they recieved last year, are gearing up to retake majorities on Capitol Hill next November. After two terms of Dangerous Dannell Malloy the state party and Little Joe Ganim’s candidacy the state Democratic Party has an image problem.

          Donald Trump’s brand is poison to any conservative Republican seeking public office. (In fact the Trump name is so tarnished it was removed from one of his Manhattan hotels.) It couldn’t help Luther Strange win a primary. The Trump name helped Doug Jones, a Democrat, win a seat in the U.S. Senate in one of the reddest states below the Mason Dixon Line. (Roy Moore’s prediliction for nubile teenage girls also played a part.)

          Citizen’s United has enabled wealthy Americans to manipulate the political system, a game they play more for sport than any altruistic desire to help people.

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  11. NBC News is reporting that Jesus Christ and Mickey Mouse were among the write-in candidates for Alabama’s Senate Election, ” anybody but Roy Moore or Doug Jones.” More than a few of those ‘Bama crackers couldn’t bring themselves to vote for a chicken hawk or a dad gum demmercrat.

    If Little Joe Ganim actually manages to secure the nomination it is conceivable similar write-in ballots in Connecticut’s gubernatorial election. Mickey Mouse, Jesus, Freddie Kruger, anybody but a convicted felon or a goddamned Republican.

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