Commentary from City Council leadership:
We, members of the Bridgeport City Council leadership, are respectfully calling on
candidates John Gomes, Lamond Daniels, and David Herz to withdraw from the race for Mayor pursuant to Judge Clark’s order so that we may finally begin the work of unifying the city and save the taxpayer the significant expenses which are involved in setting up yet another special election. It is our collective view that the people of Bridgeport have spoken and that another general election will only cause further division and further pressure on our municipal budget.Each election that we have is an incredible drain on the time, energy, and funding
allocated to the Registrar of Voters, the Town Clerk’s Office, the Police Department,
among others. Given the fact that early voting will start this year with the presidential primaries, these offices are already burdened beyond the state and city resources that have been allocated to them. Our election officials have made these concerns clear to us, and it is important that they be known by the public and all candidates as decisions are being made about another special election.These budgetary issues are made worse by the fact that many in the public do
not know that another election is required, and will be frustrated to hear their
participation is being requested again in another election cycle. The resounding
message that we have received from the voters who have heard about the potential
general election is that enough is enough. That was the well-articulated sentiment of Mike Daly in his recent column in the CT Post. Similarly, Governor Lamont has urged us to “turn the page” on this election because there is a lot of important work that we need to do on behalf of the people of Bridgeport.To Mr. Herz’s credit, he has already submitted to the Town Clerk’s Office his
conditional withdrawal from the general election if the other candidates withdraw. Now is the time for the other two candidates to join him. A decision to pursue this election any further would be one driven by ego and self-interest, rather than a genuine interest for the people of Bridgeport. Now is the time to begin healing our city. We’re asking the candidates to take a leadership role in making that happen.Aidee Nieves, City Council President
Joined by Ernest Newton, AmyMarie Vizzo-Paniccia, Jeanette Herron,
Rolanda Smith, and Richard Ortiz
great another effort to suppress votes. and how ironic that Ganim would have been on another ticket should he have lost, quite a double standard. they should have thought about all this when they structured their campaigns. nope but now its an issue because its suits their purpose. even Ganim addmitted being unaware of how people on his campaign are trained. I guess it’s the price we pay as tax payers for their lack of due diligence. there has only been only legally valid primary. so no the public had not spoken, the process is sometimes more important than the outcome. this all just shows me that these people still don’t get it. at a time rife with fraud this is not how you gain the public trust.
Ask Joe Ganim and Mario Testa to resign, and the cheating team of ballot stuffers who got us here.
Let’s see if the new ballots from this past primary will tells a different story !
I’ll ask but you have to stop putting G2 and Mario in the same camp. While they might be playing in the same sandbox I wouldn’t say they are in the same camp. JS
I think charter states that Mayor Ganim should vacate the Mayor seat until he wins the General Election, Aidee Nieves should be acting Mayor at this point.
Now; just who are these CC clowns, Republicrat Governor, and emeritus suburban newspaper editor trying to “snow”?!
“…It is our collective view that the people of Bridgeport have spoken and that another general election will only cause further division and further pressure on our municipal budget.
“…These budgetary issues are made worse by the fact that many in the public do
not know that another election is required, and will be frustrated to hear their
participation is being requested again in another election cycle. The resounding
message that we have received from the voters who have heard about the potential
general election is that enough is enough. That was the well-articulated sentiment of Mike Daly in his recent column in the CT Post. Similarly, Governor Lamont has urged us to “turn the page” on this election because there is a lot of important work that we need to do on behalf of the people of Bridgeport.
“…A decision to pursue this election any further would be one driven by ego and self-interest, rather than a genuine interest for the people of Bridgeport. Now is the time to begin healing our city. We’re asking the candidates to take a leadership role in making that happen.”
What bullshit! But not surprising — coming from the Bridgeport Bullshit Brigade (bettor known as the unduly-elected, Bridgeport City Council)…. The “expense” of the court-ordered general election re-do — $100,000 — is Bridgeport “chump-change” when compared to the regularly-occurring costs of buying-out contracts for high-level city jobs to make room/jobs for more-favored patronage contributors (not to mention paying for sexual harassment lawsuits, police brutality lawsuits, employee-injury lawsuits, sidewalk-fall lawsuits, etc., etc….).
And the CC is worried about a divided populace — even as they expertly manipulate that populace, as part of the Mayor’s perpetual re-election platform of divide, deceive, politically-debilitate (via lies, ward-heelers, etc.) the residents/voters of this long-suffering city)?!
And where is Mike Daly’s memory of his past editorials railing against Joe Ganim and others (especially the signatories of the quoted document) regarding their antics and disservice to the people of Bridgeport?!
Ned Lamont is a whole other matter… His position regarding the election scheduled for 2/27/24 is truly scary! We can only imagine why he has cuddled up to Joe Ganim and resonated with the Ganim-propagated illusion of meaningful Bridgeport “progress” just in time for the D-Primary re-do even as he was preparing to speak against the fulfillment of the last, and most important part of the court-ordered Bridgeport mayoral election re-do… Who is he trying to help? Not the people of Bridgeport!! (He has been against any project for Bridgeport that would in any way impinge upon the Stamford/Greenwich labor market or transportation prerogatives (think DOA Bridgeport Casino proposal under his, and his predecessor’s tenures) — which anti-Bridgeport stance, while well-camouflaged, has nonetheless done irreparable socioeconomic harm to the city and its people… (But no complaints about such from the Bridgeport Bullshit Brigade/CC…)
Now the CC is concerned that Bridgeporters won’t know about this upcoming election and will thereby be disenfranchised in some manner! So, CC-LEADERSHIP, do your job and make sure that your constituents know about the election! Get off of your collective, incompetent, lazy asses and reach out directly to the Bridgeport public!!! That should not be a novel concept for such true servants of the people!
Also; the CC leadership feels that “the people” have spoken in regard to this election? Really?! Less than 9,000 votes out of a possible 40,000 — about 22% of the eligible Democrat vote and about 13% of the total eligible (registered) vote (70,000) in Bridgeport… Those numbers don’t say “THE PEOPLE” have spoken!… (Very, every far from it…)
But back to Governor Ned Lamont and his own disingenuous version of “the people have spoken.” Looking back on his past — and future — dependence on the Bridgeport vote, as well as to the “magical” bags of 6,000 Bridgeport ballots found just in time to salvage a razor-thin win for his predecessor, Dan Malloy (a Stamford/Greenwich guy), over Republican rival, Tom Foley (another Stamford/Greenwich guy), in the 2010 gubernatorial election, one has to allow for the distinct probability that Governor Ned wants to keep the Devil that he Knows in power for future electoral usefulness, even as he does his due diligence to make sure that the Devil that he Doesn’t Know doesn’t get his potentially-honest hands on the keys to Bridgeport City Hall(s). We mustn’t be fooled by Ned “Zone them out of Greenwich” Lamont. He’s no real friend of Bridgeport. He is of the Gold Coast, for the Gold Coast; we are only a convenient asset for his political ambitions… (Same as we are for “Easton Joe” Ganim…)
As far as Lamond Daniels goes, he should take these disingenuous calls to deep-six the redo of the General Election as a sign of his strength and the distinct likelihood of his posing a real threat to the re-election of Joe Ganim. If I were Lamond, I would take the smell of this political fear of his candidacy as a mandate to make a real run for the Mayor’s Office over the next four weeks. He can do it(!)… (And there is definitely no political job that he can be given that will further his political and financial future more than a political-upset win in the upcoming mayoral contest on 2/27/24.)
Go Lamond! The doors of both Bridgeport City Halls are being held open for you!!!
One door at City Hall (The one that hit Gomes on the way out) is the one Lamond Daniel’s should enter.
The second door is the one wide-open for State Senator which is more winnable than mayor.
Whorst Lamond Daniel’s can do is split the vote in Joe Ganim’s favor.
Here’s a little bit on the issue of voters defentrachisement. Keep in mind that by ordering re-dos of primary and or elections, the court in essence violates the Constitutional rights of those who voted without having committed any crimes. Why should I or anyone else vote a fourth time? The courts can not ignore the bmvotes of the innocent majority.
Despite the scant justification for U.S. criminal disenfranchisement laws, they have withstood constitutional challenge. Ordinarily, the courts carefully scrutinize state restrictions on the right to vote to assess their constitutionality under the equal protection clause of Section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. constitution.62 States must show that the restriction is necessary to a legitimate and substantial state interest, is narrowly tailored and is the least restrictive means of achieving the state’s objective.63 In Richardson v. Ramirez,64 however, the U.S. Supreme Court exempted criminal disenfranchisement laws from such strict scrutiny. It construed Section 2 of the Fourteenth Amendment as granting states an “affirmative sanction” to disenfranchise those convicted of criminal offenses,65 and therefore reversed theCalifornia Supreme Court’s ruling that the disenfranchisement of ex-felons was unconstitutional as a violation of equal protection guarantees.66
Eleven years later, in Hunter v. Underwood,67 the Supreme Court unanimously declared that Section 2 did not protect disenfranchisement provisions that reflected “purposeful racial discrimination” that otherwise violated the equal protection clause.68 The court held unconstitutional a provision of the Alabama constitution that disenfranchised offenders guilty of misdemeanors of “moral turpitude” after finding that the intent of the provision had been to prevent blacks from voting and that it continued to have a racially disproportionate impact.69
Criminal disenfranchisement laws may also be vulnerable under the Voting Rights Act of 1965, 42 U.S.C. 1973, which was adopted to remedy persistent racial discrimination in American voting. As amended in 1982, the legislation bars voting qualifications, practices, etc. that result in a denial or abridgment of the right to vote on account of race or color regardless of whether such a provision was
enacted with racist intent70 It is an unsettled question in the federal courts, however, whether the Voting Rights Act can be used to strike down criminal disenfranchisement laws.71
62 Section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment reads in pertinent part: “No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”
63 See, e.g., Dunn v. Blumstein, 405 U.S. 330 (1972).
64 418 U.S. 24 (1974)
65 Section 2 reads, in relevant part: “When the right to vote…is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such state, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion whichthe number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such state.” The majority’s interpretation of the history of Section 2 has been strongly criticized by many. In his dissent, Justice Marshall insisted that Section 2 was not intended to exempt felons from equal protection coverage but was created as a special remedy of reduced representation to cure the disenfranchisement of blacks at a time when an explicit grant of suffrage to African Americans was not politically possible. Section 2 “put southern States to a choice—enfranchise Negro voters or lose congressional representation…[But simply] because Congress chose to exempt one form of electoral discrimination from the reduction-of-representation remedy provided by Section 2 does not necessarily imply congressional approval of this disenfranchisement.” Richardson v. Ramirez, 418 U.S. at 75-76 (Marshall J. dissenting).
Is anybody going to consider Gomes’ own lawyer,s claim that if G2 wins the redo primary there would be no need for a new general election? Or is the Port so corrupted?
At any rate, back to Morning Joe, Hope they get back to actual relevant insightful America/world news and move past Trump/R racism, pure propaganda.
If Haley best Trump America could see its first woman president. I would think,
OIB ESL Class is on winter recess. Speaking of class that new supt schedule was wack, However, is it about days or time? If anything perhaps, if LEGAL add 30 minutes to the regular schedule, everybody there, that would add up to at least 10 days, which you can work into days off for a year. JS
Peace Out Port can’t waste too much time as a retarded shit show, considering Gomes’s own lawyer stated there no need for a new general if G2 won the redo primary. Trying to learn over here, No time for Pocket elections shit show. I mean Gomes “lawyer” is going to unseal AB today for what purpose, G2 best Gomes at the polls and you stated there is no need for a new general JS
Play nice Port. 🙂
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tz_NxOF7RB4
Where did Joel do the legal research and why on the topic of ‘disenfranchisement’? And why does he cite the “rights of the innocent majority”? By the way there is no innocent majority in Bridgeport unless you count those citizens who have civil rights including the right to gather, to peacefully protest, and the specific right to vote, by registering as eligible (and then continuing to inform each other as to the facts, the trends, and the context of community at each election time) and then casting a ballot for their selected leaders.
If the court eliminated the results of a PRIMARY or of a GENERAL election, that is not a law for all time. It dictates a re-do with appropriate changes, perhaps about the length of time absentee ballots are in play and info at all levels for what the rules and limits are. Joel, long article, off topic.
Will Februaru 27 stand as a re-do general election? Will the City Council act, during budget time and beyond to create conversations with constituents in their Districts to educate, inform, and encourage learning about elections by eliminating confusions and mistunderstandings? Time will tell.
So it all comes down to, is Taylor really Porking Travis?
Sonny, I’ve never heard of them.
Lennie, you’re getting slow. Taylor is Jimfox’s alter ego. Travis is Maria Pereira’s alter ego.
I believe a CT Judge ruled that Ganim did NOT win the first two because of the volume of fraud. Those elections were corrupted by his teams illegal behavior, which Ganim himself ultimately “owned”. So the Judge ordered a new Primary and a New General Election.
So, even if you believe that Team Ganim played fairly in Primary #2 (and the jury is still out on that!), the entire voting population of our City is entitled to elect their Mayor, NOT JUST THE DEMOCRATS!
SEEC investigators are out investigating 23 people in the Gomes “Primary #2” campaign. Most Gomes ABs votes of “Primary #2 should have been invalidated.
Why didn’t Judge Clark invalidate them?
Answer: He had finally received notification of the words: Voter disenfranchisement. Why did he invalidate my votes and the votes of the majority three times?
I can’t believe what’s going on here. Just when you think you’ve seen it all, the people responsible for retarding Bridgeport’s growth and wellbeing for the last 20 yrs., now don’t even want the public to be able to have the right to vote in electing the next mayor of Bridgeport. The people of Bridgeport should be outraged at such a proposition. Aidee Nieves and the rest of those knuckleheads should be ashamed of themselves, that is to say they probably would be if they had any real moral character or sense of decency, which evidently, they do not. All those weak ass excuses in that joke of a letter above are a slap in the face to not only the people of the City of Bridgeport but to the sacred democratic process that millions of our brave soldiers fought and died so valiantly to protect. Is nothing sacred in this town? Is there nothing this corrupt administration and this city council won’t do to retain power? I guess the answer to that is no. I guess stuffing the ballot boxes in the primary wasn’t enough, hell let’s just do away with the election entirely they say. What a joke. I for one am done just talking. Within these next two to four years, I am going to do whatever I can to see that this bastion of political corruption comes crashing down like the rotting structure that it is. It’s time to organize the people of Bridgeport. It’s time to throw these bastards the hell out and give the people of Bridgeport the kind of government that will materially improve their lives and their futures.