The Day After: Finch’s Win, Foster’s Guts And John Gomes’ Message

Considering what happened in last year’s general election, considering the court action that placed Mary-Jane Foster on the ballot, the city’s business of running elections ran relatively smooth on Tuesday. Yes, there were some glitches, but Democratic Registrar of Voters Santa Ayala is probably breathing a sigh of relief. And that’s a good thing. Too bad only about 9200 of 43,485 Democrats decided to play.

Congratulations to Mayor Bill Finch. His campaign team definitely did not mail in this election. They assembled a mighty fine field operation required to identify votes and yank them out. The last thing they wanted was a close primary that could be scrutinized for this, that and the other thing. The mayor also wanted a nice win to avoid being stuck up by every party politician claiming to have thrown him a life jacket. It’s the nature of the beast, “I saved your ass!” Well, not this time. Too comfy a win. If Finch was going to have a primary he wanted a nice jump point into the general election where he’s an overwhelming favorite with a 10 to 1 registration advantage over his GOP opponent Rick Torres. Jeff Kohut, policy wonk extraordinaire, is also on the November ballot as a petitioning candidate.

Finch sounds like he wants to govern much more independently. We’ll see what happens. When you govern well, when you have the respect of the populous, no need to listen to the meowing of every party politician. This mayor has shown he’s not afraid to shake up the system. State control of city schools is just one example. And now he can plan the next four years of his life and mayoralty assuming nothing dramatic happens between now and the general election.

In every race there’s a sign, an opening, information intelligence for folks to examine where to get involved politically. One area of note where Foster ran well is the 131st District, home to South End and downtown residents. Foster won the machine total at Roosevelt and came very close at City Hall. She did so riding new voters at the University of Bridgeport and new voters living downtown. This voting area is the territory of District Leader Mitch Robles who has a darn good track record for delivering his candidates. What he cannot control is an active downtown and student population. If those downtown residents are worked and UB students worked it’s a way to add new blood to the political system. And that’s the whole point. Politics is a lot of work, cracking the political establishment is a lot of work. It don’t come easy and don’t come overnight.

Many candidates seeking high office, in this case the highest elected office in Bridgeport, don’t crack it the first time. Finch had been running for various elected positions for about 20 years before he became mayor. It’s a lot of work. He was a state senator when the party recruited him to run for mayor. Foster’s detractors, some of them her “friends,” said she was too soft, not tough enough, fish out of water, to run for mayor. Well, she was plenty tough. She showed a lot of guts. Building a citywide organization and following takes years. Foster’s name recognition outside of the business community and perhaps her home precinct Black Rock was non-existent when she announced her mayoral run.

The machine totals of Tuesday’s primary (take away the party’s potent and some places dubious absentee ballot operation, paging City Councilwoman Lydia Martinez) reflect a much closer race that was within the final OIB poll’s margin of error that had Finch leading by six points one month before the primary with a large amount of undecided. Foster was competitive in several areas from Black Rock, to Brooklawn, to the South End to portions of the East Side such as Beardsley School, Finch’s home precinct which he won by just 5 votes, and even Dunbar School, home to a predominant African American community that tends to vote party endorsed. For Foster supporters former State Senator Ernie Newton and City Councilman Andre Baker (and a few others) it was pretty much them against the world. They kept Dunbar close. Among the areas Finch ran up a large number was the 133rd District where City Council President Tom McCarthy has a strong following.

Foster, so unknown six months ago, put up a damn good fight, securing over 40 percent of the  primary vote against a well-financed incumbent mayor with the majority of the party apparatus and lots of jobs on the line. She may have lost but she’s no loser. She’s coming out of this thing with a lot more respect from folks who had snickered months ago. My sense is Mary-Jane gave it her shot, she’ll go back to her executive position at the University of Bridgeport and remain active in her community. But I doubt she’ll seek elected office again.

Someone whom I expect to stay active is John Gomes who dropped out of the mayor’s race to support Foster. If you examine the areas of the city, such as Beardsley School and Geraldine Johnson precincts where Gomes is well known, he had an impact. Foster scored well in those areas. In politics patience is a virtue. Generally it takes patience and timing. Gomes has a message for folks disappointed by Tuesday’s results. “Change doesn’t come overnight. Stay motivated. Reforming Bridgeport is a long-term process. Keep pushing hard and stay on top of the issues. It’s a process.”

Now on to the news you’ve all be waiting for: the winner of the OIB election contest, predicting the primary results just about spot on is … drum roll … Godiva2011!

Godiva gets dinner on OIB and a box of chocolates.