Five months from a Democratic primary, all four mayoral candidates have filed their campaign finance reports for the first quarter ending March 31 with expectations and surprises.
The biggest surprise: State Senator Marilyn Moore, who scared incumbent Joe Ganim four years ago in a Democratic primary, is last with money on hand finishing behind unknown Lamond Daniels, the former Bill Finch administration official, who has $76K on hand to Moore’s $63K.
Moore banked essentially the same amount in the first quarter as four years ago raising questions about her ability to expand fundraising opportunities.
Mayor Joe Ganim, no surprise, has raised in total since his reelection announcement, about $327,000 with $286K on hand.
His closest fundraising rival John Gomes has collected about $201,000 since his December filing with roughly $113K on hand.
In total Daniels raised for the first quarter of the year about $53,000 the balance of his $79,000 collected rolled in from his exploratory campaign, a solid figure considering he’s new to the electorate.
Up Next: full reports where candidate money is raised and spent.
It appears that a full report of amounts collected less those spent will reveal how much is actually on hand for the primary run this September, 2023. The incumbent has raised $327,000 as you report while the three Democratic opponents have raised about $340,000 in a similar time period, though probably the incumbent has been raising funds for a longer period. More to come in your next article.
Has Bridgeport ever seen such a situation previously? I defer to political historians for a good answer. The community has multiple reasons for dissatisfaction with the incumbent and three local folks with varying public familiarity but credible experience in local governance have put their hats, hearts, and reputations in the ring to secure a win in September. A win may mean different things as you consider matters. A win could be outright dominance at the polls. Or a win might mean that the non-Ganim vote dominates. And that might encourage candidates to agreement to campaign with one purpose and under one banner, perhaps for the November election.
Nothing has been said about Republican opposition. Do they have a candidate this year? With a 10-1 registration disadvantage will it matter? What about other minority party endorsements? Time will tell.