Gimme Me All Ya Got–The Push In Mayoral Primary Between Ganim And Moore

BRIDGEPORT — As the city last week mourned the death of Charlie Tisdale, its first black mayoral candidate, one community leader accused Marilyn Moore — who is campaigning to become Bridgeport’s first African American chief executive — of not being black enough.

“If she was really black I probably would support her,” Councilwoman Rev. Mary McBride-Lee told Hearst Connecticut Media last Thursday as she helped Mayor Joe Ganim knock on North End doors and campaign for re-election. “I think, sometimes, she forgets she’s black. I really do.”

Ganim and Moore will face-off Tuesday in the Democratic Party’s primary.

McBride-Lee’s comments shocked Moore.

“What do I have to be? What do I have to look like? I’m as dark as dark can get,” Moore said. “That comment is degrading to black people and it’s insulting.”

Moore said that unlike McBride-Lee, who often dresses in colorful African clothing, “I don’t need to wear it to show I’m black. I know who I am.”

McBride-Lee elaborated that she does not believe Moore — a state senator who represents the North End, Black Rock and the West Side, along with Monroe and Trumbull — has been involved enough with or done anything substantive for “our community.”

“If she were friendly and I thought she cared I’d go for her, because we’d make history in Bridgeport,” McBride-Lee said.

Moore admitted that “my (state Senate) constituency is mostly white.” But she also touted the shelves full of awards she has received from various black organizations for community service.

“I’m one of the most influential black women in Connecticut. I’m on two national organizations for black women legislators,” Moore said. “What else could I do?”

Still, McBride-Lee’s criticism sheds light on one of Moore’s challenges as she takes on Ganim — overcoming divisions among black residents, who represent 35 percent of Bridgeport’s population, to help achieve the electoral victory denied Tisdale, one of Moore’s mentors, in 1983.

Ganim’s campaign, for example, last week announced he was endorsed by a dozen minority female pastors, McBride-Lee included.

Told about McBride-Lee’s comments of Moore, George Mintz, head of the Bridgeport NAACP, said, “So they’re going there?”

Mintz said he was aware of similar behind-the-scenes criticism of Moore by some in the black community but was unsure if it would go public. He said he was troubled by Lee questioning if Moore is “really black” but also acknowledged, “The communities of color don’t know her. And that’s her biggest challenge.”

Suburban versus urban

Ralph Ford, a black political leader in the East End, said Moore, who has a reputation as being independent of the city’s Democratic movers-and-shakers, did not do enough “to personally unite the black community behind her — to get black leadership behind her candidacy.”

“It’s the same with the ministers,” Ford said. “Those are two key groups.”

Moore said were she to try to tap into some of the existing Bridgeport power structure that “continues to perpetuate poverty and crime because they’re not doing anything to fight against it,” she would threaten to undermine her credibility with voters.

“People would believe you’re gonna get the same old thing,” Moore said. “I have regular, everyday men and women, working-class people supporting me.” And, she recalled, when she ran and won her Senate race in 2014, some black leaders had refused to back her, arguing she could never win support from Trumbull’s and Monroe’s white voters.

Although Moore proved those doubters wrong about suburban support, Ford said McBride-Lee was right that Moore has not had a presence “in the urban community.”

“You don’t see her in the neighborhoods — at least the poorest,” Ford said. “That’s a problem. People don’t see you, they don’t know you.”

Unlike Ganim, who, at least at campaign time, is a familiar face in inner-city neighborhoods, Moore has relied on surrogates like activist Tony Barr for aid when seeking votes outside of her legislative district.

“We walked down East Main (Street), went into six or seven restaurants, they all knew him,” Moore told Hearst in early August.

Ironically, Moore was born and raised in Bridgeport, while the mayor grew up in Easton.

And Ganim has been criticized for only caring about urban areas while campaigning. That was one of the reasons State Rep. Charlie Stallworth, pastor of the East End Baptist Church and a one-time Ganim supporter, has stated he would not support the mayor’s re-election. Stallworth has also declined to endorse Moore.

Moore has sent mixed messages about the significance of her candidacy. For example, she has recently described her campaign as an “Obama moment” — a reference to Barack Obama being elected president in 2008.

But when asked by Hearst if she was referring to the possibility of making similar history in Bridgeport, Moore said no. She said she meant this mayoral race is an election “where people have somebody that’s different, that they can really believe in and come out and support.”

And yet Moore also chose the symbolism of launching her candidacy on Martin Luther King Day in January, and in a recent interview said she promised Tisdale before his death on Aug. 25, “I’m going to do what you did for all of us.”

Planning for a black mayor?

Khalilah Brown-Dean, an associate professor of political science at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, spoke to Hearst on the subject. She recently wrote a book, “Identity Politics in the United States.”

“Too often, we assume because people share some type of group identity that will mean people have the same political preferences,” Brown-Dean said. “People were excited in 2016 about the possibility of electing the first woman president (Hillary Clinton), but that alone is not enough to make people vote.”

Told about McBride-Lee’s criticism of Moore, Brown-Dean said, “What it means to be an African American resident in Bridgeport is not monolithic. … There’s tremendous diversity that exists in black communities in Bridgeport and across this country.”

Brown-Dean continued, “It’s highly inflammatory, problematic and wrong to suggest someone is not ‘black enough.’ … People questioned whether Barack Obama as a multi-racial man was black enough.”

Shayla Nunnally, associate professor of political science and Africana Studies at the University of Connecticut, said while McBride-Lee’s comments “can be disappointing to hear” she believed the point was “not just anyone can have access to that major election in (Bridgeport) history. … That person who becomes the first black mayor, in (McBride-Lee’s) eyes, should be the one who fits and works the most in the interests of black constituents.”

“I want to emphasize black constituents do not necessarily have monolithic interests … But, ideally, that candidate is able to reach across all of those intersections to help best represent that group,” Nunnally said.

Mintz questioned whether this election “was the right moment … for a black to come forward as mayor” in Bridgeport.

“Have we planned for this — having the leaders … sit down and talk as leaders in the black community (about whether) Marilyn Moore or whoever is the best thing for the black community?” Mintz said. “I don’t know if we’ve done that.”

Moore said her philosophy has been, “You’ve got to be able to represent everybody.”