City Councilman Jorge Cruz has filed the paperwork in the Town Clerk’s Office pursuing an exploratory run for mayor to gauge public support in advance of the 2027 municipal cycle.
Cruz represents the 131st Council District, South End, West End and Downtown, that features many city assets including the amphitheater, arena, University of Bridgeport, Seaside Park, new Bassick High School, central business district and the property of the former power plant under cleanup following its implosion.
Mayor Joe Ganim is expected seek another four-year term. Ganim’s 2023 rival John Gomes is also positioning to run again.
From Cruz Facebook page.
Good morning my beautiful family and friends on Facebook. Well I’m so happy to share with you this awesome news that on January 6th I submitted my paperwork for my Exploratory Committee for Mayor of Bridgeport CT.
I’m truly honored and excited to take this bold step forward to engage with our beautiful diverse communities in the city. I’m looking forward to hearing your feedback on your perspective and how you feel about the current administration. We need to stop being abused by landlords raising rents to a point that becomes unaffordable.
We definitely need to stop developers from building without the input from residents of Bridgeport CT. The bottom line is that its very expensive to live in Bridgeport CT. Our children are not getting the proper education because we are always ignored by the governor who for some reason we continue to help him get elected. That scenario must come to an end.
So I am looking forward for your suggestions and advice on what needs to get done in Bridgeport CT. And lastly, I don’t belong to entrenched clicks or entrenched politics. Administration after administration has been helping the self interest groups and not focusing on the real problems facing our people. If you want to get together with me please inbox me your number so we can discuss what’s on your mind. Thank you.
I’m GLAD to see a Councilmen from my home district where I started my journey through the troubled waters of Bridgeport Politics.
A Councilmen who experienced growing up in P.T. Barnum where I was born and my mother was evicted from, with four (4) boys and three (3) girls, not long after my father left to Puerto Rico. A Puerto Rican with the COJONES to go against the grind and stand for something. Today, we have the highest number of Puerto Ricans, African Americans, and Women combined than ever before. I shall watch who will be afraid to leave the Colony among the Puerto Ricans and those have benefited from the 🗳 of the minorities.
Jorge you better set that Cruz control straight to the trenches. In Bridgeport, we don’t play handball for now, we play hand grenade. So get ready to get dirty in the trenches.
Jorge,
Good wishes on following your instinct to explore a run for Mayor of Bridgeport. While you are not one of my Council representatives from 130, we have worked together to provide a fair and just voice to those who rent with Section 8 vouchers, who likely have no stream of income except for Social Security, and depend on Medical Care through Federal programs. Attempting to assist those residents in “neighborhood self-governance” and listening to and recording their serious problems, issues, and concerns, have grounded both of us in public service opportunities, just by listening and paying attention.
You knew of my interest in serving Bridgeport’s Charter Review process, and when others may have ignored this interest and knowledge, you spoke up and “made it happen” in spite of issues including party balance. (Neither party seems to attend to the number of registered voters, who are unaffiliated. If a City leader were to create and promote a short CIVICS sharing opportunity targeted on this group, I believe that hesitancy to find citizens without “conflict of interest potential” might be resolved.) Thank you.
But it is the major “foot dragging” to honor the past when we had a Fair Housing Commission that was allowed to die from failures to appoint necessary citizens willing to serve, that bothers me. I have attached my comments to the City Council on Monday evening for readers to see what has been ignored. Time will tell.
City Council Comments January 5, 2026
Greetings Council members and friends I have yet to meet. I want to comment on the level and nature of citizenship here in Bridgeport as we start another calendar year but are midway in the City fiscal year.
There are new Federal and State rules that apply as of January 1, 2026, as well as revisions to our CITY OF BRIDGEPORT CHARTER document. As we meet new people, keep in mind that they may see your role in a different light than previously. Where do people gain their perspectives, info, and opinions on opportunities here in the City? Do you encourage better citizenship behavior in Bridgeport? Personally, I have observed your early effort ASK THE COUNCIL and participated in April 2025 to share the project, Casual Civics Conversations with a broader audience. But after viewing all of the entries, I wish to ask why many of you found no questions to become public, find an answer worthy of the question, and provide an entry, a table of contents, and dates when answers are provided? How many of your constituents know about the tool?
Housing is a significant subject nationally, statewide, and locally at this time. But locally we have no Fair Housing Commission, with membership for reviewing the situations of folks who are unhoused, to those across the whole spectrum of contemporaries of mine who may own and hold on to homes because they see no attractive alternatives available to them to sell and create an opportunity for others to own? Why do so many depend on HUD funds in Bridgeport with Federal administration of housing subsidies, Social Security, and healthcare programs like MEDICAID/MEDICARE? Why no City encouragement to practice self-governance? Why do high-rise residential units get scant attention from the Park City Communities Commission? It is authorized to have only five members to manage 2600 units plus the other urban scattered site opportunities, and two positions are VACANT and why are three people currently serving expired terms? PCC meets monthly and virtually on the first Monday, but no time or linkage is presented. Why not? Time will tell.
Jorge, What’s your plan, for the (Joe Ganim) Poli/ Majestic Theatres?