Sully Packs It In–‘No Mud-wrestling Match With The Banshee’

Curses, we were looking forward to the mud-wrestling match between Bridgeport Banner editor Rob Sullivan and State Rep. Auden Grogins, the Blonde Banshee from Black Rock. Sully today officially dropped out of his quest to wage a Democratic primary saying he would not have qualified for Connecticut’s public financing program to make a competitive race. Sully tells OIB “I’m sorry that mud wrestling match with the Banshee isn’t going to take place.” Today is the deadline for candidates to submit petition signatures to qualify for the Aug. 14 primary. Statement from Sully:

It is with deep regret that I am today announcing that I am officially ending my candidacy for State Representative in the 129th District. I would like to briefly explain the two reasons I decided to end the campaign, briefly touch on the reasons I wanted to run and thank some very significant people.

I am abandoning my campaign for two reasons. The first is pretty obvious and that reason is money. Although, I was well on my way to collecting the 300 signatures needed to qualify for the ballot, and I have no doubt that I would have done so, I realistically do not think there is any chance that I would have reached the $5,000 necessary to qualify for public financing. In that case, there is no way I could possibly win. Landing a place on the ballot without public money against a well-heeled incumbent would be a sham. Such a primary would cost the city money, the Registrar of Voters office time and manpower and my campaign volunteers their time and talent. Although I wanted to continue, I came to the realization that it was best for myself, the city and the district that I withdraw. I made this decision over the course of last weekend.

The second reason is time management and this is my fault entirely. This is not an advertisement for the Bridgeport Banner, but we have a lot of exciting things going on that require a lot of time and attention. Add into the mix my freelance writing assignments and running a serious campaign and I just botched it. I couldn’t budget my time the way I needed and I wound up being less than 100% at all my responsibilities, especially the campaign. I am not suggesting at all that others who run for office have nothing to do but focus on their campaign. There are exceptionally busy people who handle everything with grace; I just have to learn how to do that. I hope to run for office again, and I will take this as a lesson learned.

All right then Sully, why did you want to run for state rep in the first place? Although there are many issues I would have liked to have discussed with my would-be opponent, my main interest has been the low turnout rate in Bridgeport elections. The 18.5% turnout in the last mayor’s race is horrible. And that’s only 18.5% of registered voters. There are an infinitesimal number of people who are selecting the leadership of this city. And that’s just wrong. I would have liked to have debated my proposal for the state to take over Sikorsky Airport, the dire state of our city schools and the need for an elected Board of Education and many other issues, but at least I can still write about those issues.