Ambitious to take over City Hall with a candidate they control, the so-called community reformers of the Unrig Bridgeport coalition led by the conflicted Bridgeport Generation Now and its sister organization Bridgeport Generation Now Votes both of which raise money on a disingenuous non-partisan platform then use those funds to blowtorch candidates not in favor have – shock – endorsed State Senator Marilyn Moore’s flagging campaign for mayor after supporting her four years ago.
Backed by a small crowd of acolytes Downtown Saturday morning, Gen Now leaders Gemeem Davis, who served as Moore’s campaign manager four years ago, and Callie Heilmann, screeched and preached platitudes into a speaker unnecessary for a small audience.
They “stand on the values of transparency,” but don’t practice what they preach. Where do they get their money? No one knows, except them.
They put out something called the “People’s platform” most of it boiler plate laziness.
They asked the four mayoral candidates to pledge for the platform including a survey and then claimed they deliberated as a coalition.
Did they release results of the survey publicly? Who crafted Moore’s responses? Members of Gen Now? Did she even respond?
A quick peek at Moore for mayor four years ago.
–Her campaign platform: I’m not Joe Ganim.
–No original ideas where she’d take the city.
— Failed to qualify the simple signature process to appear on the Working Families Party line in the general election.
— Moore fined $300 by the state for improper circulation of petition signatures in that effort.
— Leveraged, and still does, taxpayer money to prop up her election ambitions, a clear violation of the spirit of election laws.
–Co-existing Moore for Senate and Moore for Mayor Facebook page. Which do you want to be?
First of all, I’m pretty sure that “HONESTY & INTEGRITY” are the same thing, so we can discern right now, that attention to detail is not Marilyn Moore’s strong suit. Second of all, how does Gen Not know what Marilyn stands for, since she never put out a platform of her views on the issues? Third, I don’t like mandatory pledges for candidates and the fact that Marilyn Moore has pledged to uphold Gen Not’s vision for all of us, puts her in a box that I would mark “Do Not Use”.
Is it difficult in this City to practice democracy which includes a fair dose of listening to neighbors? Do we have conversations that highlight details of democratic process and representation and celebrate those who carry such a torch for all of us in the City? Do we often discuss principles of honest governance that include open, accountable, and transparent values? Any responses??
Jon, we need more folks who stand up and speak out in the COB about public safety, education, housing, and gun violence among other big topics. Honesty would include stating facts that are current or reliably reported in the past without significant challenge. Integrity would be of a higher level, indicating that a person is reliably honest but also in making statements and pronouncements has no reservations and no unreported conflict of interest that may impeach their comments. Just saying…
For all of the negative words from the desk of OIB on Gen-Now is there anyone else teaching basic democratic practices to the public? Does the Democratic Town Committee hold any such meetings? Is there a Republican Town Committee or a League of Women Voters group doing such work on behalf of encouraging citizens who are registered voters to become better informed on issues and how various candidates respond throughout the year?
Lennie, do you have anything positive to say about Gen Now? Where does one go to learn about the practice of democratic process? Time will tell.
John, the leaders of Gen Now can’t have it both ways. They cannot preach government transparency when, as a political organization, its shut down tighter than an Andersen Window. Show us their donor list, show where they spend their money, post Marilyn Moore’s responses to their survey. Stop calling itself a non-partisan organization, and raising money off that declaration, when clearly it’s as partisan as they come.
As a rejoinder to your question about saying something positive about Gen Now, do you have anything positive to say about Joe Ganim?
Why don’t you scrutinize pols like Marilyn Moore as rapidly as you do Joe Ganim?
As the mayor of Bridgeport Joe Ganim is centerstage — we pontificate here — and JML is one of your chief content creators. Journalistic impartiality is in short supply anytime Mayor Ganim is the topic. You’re quick to his defense and always ready to dismiss Gen Now.
Anybody who knows me, knows that I’m all about discussing good government and good government policies, including oversight, transparency and accountability. Gen Now has many laudable attributes but solid leadership is not one of them. I wish it was. We need more concerned citizens working together, trying to make Bridgeport a better place to live, work and visit. Honesty is telling the truth, integrity is telling the truth consistently. One can make the case that they are different but as a political slogan, they are so alike, that the author of such a slogan, is not someone who thinks deeply about that which they are writing. “Honesty and Capability” would have been a better pairing. We do need more groups of concerned citizens John and as I said, Gen Now does do a lot of things right. The problem is that the leadership of Gen Now will not allow it to get to its ultimate goal of making a positive, material difference in the lives of the people of the City of Bridgeport. That’s the problem, both for Gen Now and for Bridgeport.
Co-existing Moore for Senate and Moore for Mayor Facebook page. Which do you want to be?
What about when Ganim challenged Lamont in a primary? Ganim wanted both jobs!
That’s political schizophrenia.