Democratic Town Chair Mario Testa is a throwback politician, the kind who believes in respect, embraces the political action, the glory of power politics. He’s a competitor who wants to be relevant not just in city politics but throughout state Democratic circles. You do for me, I do for you is Mario’s political mantra. After all what is a political campaign if you cannot reward friends and reassert your standing among the political players after a primary win? To Mario’s way of thinking, ‘Now they have to come to us.’
Mario Testa has succeeded in city politics, irrespective of the bumps along the way (he has suffered his share of losses as well), because he keeps his head in the game from his Madison Avenue restaurant that serves as the mothership of city politics, even when he may not love the candidate he’s pushing. For most of their political careers Mario and Bill Finch were not close, but Mario isn’t so stubborn that he cannot embrace a larger picture. And the mayor showed a pragmatic side after supporting the John Stafstrom wing of the party over Testa in 2008, it was better to keep the peace. Mario and Finch have found a common-ground relationship that currently works for both.
2012 is a big presidential campaign year featuring a candy store of state and federal races. Finch’s primary win over Mary-Jane Foster, although not the 2 to 1 blowout Mario had projected, was a nice win for Mario and Finch’s campaign team. Finch campaign operatives effectively juiced his 2007 primary performance from roughly 4500 to about 5400 votes. Mario, as party chair, engineered a mighty absentee ballot and election day operation, working in harmony with the Finch campaign.
Mario was feeling both tipsy and titillated primary night. Now he can work from a position of leverage. Part of Mario’s strength as chair is the access he provides to little people and the big people. Other than his customary afternoon siesta, when not even a tsunami can drag him away, he’s always available at his restaurant for his Testacrats and those who want to be. If you’re a Democratic candidate for state and federal office in 2012, or a campaign operative who wants his support, Mario will be waiting with wide-open arms. As he says, ‘Now they have to come to us.’
A lot more on this in the coming weeks and decisions Testa will be weighing.
Ned Lamont! lolololololololololololololololololol
The Bridgeport Democratic party is badly split. A good party chair would try to pull people back together, mend the fences. But we’re talking about Mario here.
Mario did a good job of coordinating two goals:
–The Finch administration wanted party renomination (and that primary was probably the reelection as well).
–The Democratic Party wanted to stay in power.
You may think they are one and the same. Some people have to be reminded of that from time to time.
Fighting? Somebody is always going to be fighting with someone in politics. As the mayor and administrator, Finch is going to be making enemies right and left. It’s the nature of the beast.
I’ll grant you Bill has a remarkable talent for making some enemies he does not need to make. Someone had to smooth some of that over. I’m sure Mario wasn’t the only one, but there seems to be no record of someone complaining Mario wouldn’t allow people to work out differences. Mario Testa deserves props for that.
Oh, one more thing. Good party chairmen supporting a candidate, particularly one already in office with a record of his own, love it when opponents light into the political leader rather than the candidate on the ballot. Maybe “love” is too generous a word, but they’ll take it. The party leader is not on the ballot.
“The party leader is not on the ballot.”
That’s true! However, those who chose “the party leader” should always be and at times are on the ballot. The members of the Democratic and Republican Parties should and at times appear on the ballot when there are Town Committee primaries or elections. I think the party leaders to be should be on the ballot in Town Committee races and the one who gets the most votes is the leader. In a party with over 46,000 registered or affiliated members, the leadership should never be picked by 46 affiliated members. That scream you just heard was Mario Testa.
What Finch’s win means is the occupation is coming to town ahead of the circus:
www .cnn.com/2011/10/03/politics/occupy-wall-street/index.html
Off Topic: Lennie, do you have statistics on the percentage of the registered voters who typically vote in a general election, and the breakdown by affiliation?
The city has roughly 43,000 Democrats, 4,400 Republicans and 20,000 Unaffiliated registered voters. In the old days Republicans voted in higher percentage numbers but they too have trended toward the pathetic turnout of the entire registration. A general election turnout of 20 percent would represent roughly 13,000 voters casting a ballot. Turnout in the 2007 general election was about 25 percent.
Thanks!!!