They claim brazenly “our organization has a very public history of working to end absentee ballot fraud and abuse in Bridgeport” but leaders of the Bridgeport Generation Now Votes dark money group, Gemeem Davis and Callie Heilmann, have a dubious power-grabbing history of saying one thing and doing another.
Last week the Marilyn Moore for mayor backers announced the mailing of 19,000 absentee ballot applications to Democratic electors in advance of a presumed September 12 Democratic primary, a record haul, according to officials in the Town Clerk’s Office.
In the announcement they wrote as cover “The letter accompanied by the application explicitly states that it is not nor intended to be in support of or against any candidate running for office and directs all further inquiries to the office of the Secretary of The State,” they wrote as part of the public announcement.
But actions tell another story, a classic case of nabbing yourself, posturing one way as the ministers of morality and doing another, flouting campaign election laws, claiming your non-partisan when clearly not, raising money off that declaration, demanding transparency of others then not doing the same including not reporting the source of the money that will benefit Moore, the so-called “honesty and integrity” candidate.
Bridgeport Generation Now Votes has committed nearly $100,000 from its organization funds to support Moore’s candidacy and defeat Mayor Joe Ganim. The source of the money, however, was not disclosed on the recent campaign finance report that also raised additional questions about illegal coordination between Gen Now Votes and Moore’s campaign.
Connecticut law prohibits organizations such as Gen Now Votes to coordinate expenditures on behalf of a candidate it supports. The law is in place to discourage unfair advantage and help level the playing field for candidates without the flow of unlimited money.
Moore, Davis and Heilmann have been tight allies for years. To imply there’s no coordination is like saying Donald Trump doesn’t confer with his mountain ranges of lawyers.
Davis served as Moore’s campaign manager for mayor in 2019. In addition, Moore attended a public endorsement rally last month hosted by Gen Now Votes with Davis and Heilmann front and center in which thousands of Gen Now Votes dollars were spent. Moore also wore Gen Now regalia in support of her candidacy.
Four years ago mayoral candidate Moore, with Davis as campaign manger, hired a women to lead the absentee ballot operation a woman who just a year prior was convicted of absentee ballot felonies for her role in a Stratford race.
The hypocrisy has not gone unnoticed, even from Ganim’s frequent critics.
OIB reader Eric Simmons wrote on Gen Now Votes Facebook page heralding the mass mailing absentee ballot applications: I’m all for unseating Ganim, but this doesn’t seem like an effective tactic for decreasing absentee ballot fraud in Bridgeport. I understand it’s legal, but unfortunately just exhibits more of the same in our poor city.”
Former State Rep. Chris Caruso, a Moore supporter in 2019 but backing away this cycle, wrote in an OIB commentary “The so-called “banking” of absentee ballot votes prior to the polls opening is appalling. It retards the integrity and fairness of the electoral process and directly affects each and every Bridgeport candidate seeking elected office. IT MUST STOP!”
Jeff Kohut, OIB comments section: Interesting tactic… It seems that Gen Now is not just hedging its bets against low voter turnout at the polls; it actually seems that they might be conducting an electoral “experiment,” per an attempt to circumvent one of the traditional pillars of election success — “door-knocking”/direct voter contact… It would appear that they might attempt a coordinated advertising/absentee blitz using the dark money flowing in from the Republicrat, monied interests supporting their efforts…
Make no mistake Callie Heilmann and husband Neils have ambitions to be a power couple, a la the Clintons… Neils Heilmann’s self-aggrandizing op-ed in the July 13 Connecticut Post makes that clear, with his fixation on the word “power” in that piece. His claims at working to position the disenfranchised for power — especially people of color — ring as disingenuous (per his highlighting of his own political resume and social/political largess in that piece).
Marshall Marcus, OIB comments section: The big question is how many will actually be filed?? I think most will go in the trash. In person gathering of applications has far better results than a mass mailing.
Jim Fox, OIB comments section: Why would the Moore’s campaign associate with (Gen QAnon) is it the money?
Interesting that Lennie has put my comment about the 19,000 AB Applications being mailed in the middle of one of his attacks on Moore’s candidacy.
Nothing in my comment is to be construed as negative in regards to Senator Moore’s campaign. It is not a secret that I have contributed to her race and have supported her campaigns for years.
My question legitimately asks about ROI….return on investment. Gen Now Votes is spending lots of money to mail these applications. 19000 x .64 postage = $12,160, add 4 cents each for the envelope = $760 and that’s a $13k expenditure without any labor cost included. I doubt all the labor is free. It’s not like the 1960s when my parents were ward Chairmen in New Haven and we kids got drafted to stuff envelopes and stamp them for free .
My comment is that it is my belief that in person contacts will yield a higher return of completed applications.
I don’t think this is a smart expenditure in terms of getting completed applications, but since I did not contribute one cent to Gen Now Votes (and never have) my opinion may be meaningless to them. That said, it has bought Gen Now Votes lost of free coverage in the media and possibly at a much lower cost than the $13K
lots, not lost……wish you added an edit function
Truly: how can organizations named “Generation Now” and “Gen Now Votes” — organizations that have a cross presence of membership and leadership so tightly and densely woven as to make isolation of independent entities/purposes essentially impossible — claim that there is no intentional, mutual support of political candidates that they support in common?! This situation is really outrageous and makes the CT Secretary of State’s office look really inept and ineffectual in their failure to thoroughly investigate this situation. And doesn’t the Bridgeport Registrar of Voters see anything possibly irregular about this organization and its absentee ballot adventurism?!
For Gen Now Votes to claim impartiality and separation from the activities of Generation Now is akin to the 2023 US Supreme Court claiming independence from the Federalist Society and its key supporters and bankrollers…
In any event, it would seem that the conflicts of interest between Generation Now and Gen Now Votes are so obvious as to be almost comical — same faces, and almost same names, but no connection?! Oh well! Only in Bridgeport!