Balletto in Italian means ballet. Mayor Joe Ganim’s trying to land a campaign toehold in a letter to Nick Balletto, chair of the Connecticut Democratic Party. Ganim, a candidate for governor, has issued a missive to Balletto about the “the lack of diversity in the audience at dozens of Democratic Town Committee 2018 statewide candidate forums that have been held throughout Connecticut. It is obvious to any observer that those in attendance at these forums are almost all white, even though almost 33% of Connecticut residents are black or Latino.”
Remember 2015 mayoral candidate Ganim who patched a fence at a city housing project to deter perpetrators? It’s time to make some noise, mix it up, and position for delegate support at the state party convention in May. Who knows, maybe Joe will don tights soon. His letter:
Dear Mr. Chairman:
The 2016 national Democratic Party Platform states: “Democrats are a party of inclusion.”
As Democrats, this is a core value that we all should share.
That is why I am writing you today regarding my concern about the lack of diversity in the audience at dozens of Democratic Town Committee 2018 statewide candidate forums that have been held throughout Connecticut. It is obvious to any observer that those in attendance at these forums are almost all white, even though almost 33% of Connecticut residents are black or Latino.
It should be unacceptable that a party with inclusion at its core–that also heavily depends on participation from minority voters to win elections–has not yet made a sufficient effort to hold candidate forums in communities of color, or done its utmost to be more inclusive. These communities in Connecticut equally deserve to hear and question the candidates on issues affecting our state, particularly matters important to their own communities.
As Chairman of Connecticut’s Democratic Party, I urge you to use your good office to lead the effort to set up statewide candidate forums that specifically reach out to Democratic voters in communities of color in order to increase access and participation by all in our state. The Democratic Party has historically been a leader in encouraging greater political participation by all Americans in the political process.
We in Connecticut can and must do better. I stand ready to help in that effort.
Many of these forums are hosted NOT by the state party but individual or groups of Democratic Town Committees. They hold the forums for the benefit of voters in their towns.
On Sunday March 11th the Town Committees of Fairfield, Trumbull, Weston, and Wilton held such a forum at Fairfield Woods Middle School. The audience reflected the makeup of those communities. Perhaps, if the BRIDGEPORT DTC hosted or co-hosted such a forum the audience might reflect Bridgeport’s ethnic mix.
Instead of blaming the State Party, why doesn’t Ganim get his own Town Committee into action?
Marshall, right on!! There are many in the community interested in participation, but leadership has not been. They have not engaged in bridge building, contrary to the arguments of some. They do not show a practice of sitting down at a big table or in a big tent to listen to the talk. Rather they issue challenges to how fast they can terminate a public meeting, leaving issues unaddressed and business not considered. Is this a consensus builder? Can he be trusted to know what to do to increase trust on the part of taxpayers? Time will tell.
Joe Ganim has ABSOLUTELY nothing to say about diversity. He used people of color in his redemption tour but as I drive around the East Side etc, I do not see any improvements at all. Fixing a hole in a chain link fence is Joe Ganim’s bid for diversity.
No Black and Tan Belletto’s for you Joe, you turned your back on the Bridgeport Belletto’s once Too often.
Keep Stroking the Norwegians, you still have a lot of fences to mend.
Little Joe has a way of avoiding tough questions and objective scutiny. The people of the city of Bridgeport will read his letter and say “Wait just a minute. What about OUR diversity?”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrAf-O_L-08
Joe Ganim, you have access citywide to Democratic voters in communities of color in Bridgeport and as mayor you have done nothing with that access to the black communities in Bridgeport to improve their life and communities, nothing, “now isn’t that special.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msDcShv_r20
Little Joe is all about Little Joe. “Diversity, what’s that?” all those moments of “redemption” captured by a camera toting campaign staffer were all for show. Mending the fence at Trumbull Gardens? From what was reported the hole in the frnce magically reappeared after he and his posse left. Reverend Charlie facilitated Little Joe’s “redemption” before a congregation of worshippers looking for a respite from the bleakness and despair of life below the poverty line. Ganim never admitted to any wrongdoing but, through oratory leger-de-main the congregants heard what they wanted to hear. He played on their ignorance and disenfranchisement to get what he wanted, a job with a six-figure annual salary.
Joseph P. Ganim is a huckster, a con man. A hundred years ago he would have been selling Hadacol, Pepticon or swampland in Florida, maybe the Brooklyn Bridge too. What worked in Bridgeport, a city of 150,000, will not play in the rest of Connecticut. Legislators from suburban districts are not going to like his borrowed concept of urbsn empowerment.
According to a CT Post story written by Dangerous Dan Tepfer Superior Court Judge Dale Radcliffe overturned a ZBA varience to allow a Taco Bell at the Brookside Shopping Center: “No queremos ningún Taco Bell.”