Stop the presses. Workers in the Town Clerk’s Office who processed roughly 1000 absentee ballots for the September 10 tsunami Tuesday Democratic primary that wiped out all endorsed candidates are in shock. As of Wednesday morning a grand total (drum roll please) of six absentee ballot applications had arrived so far for the November 5th general election. What’s the point of city politics if no one’s playing absentee ballot games?
Maybe it’s because so many organizational Dems were defeated in the primary. The conventional wisdom (me too) for the primary was the three Democratic school board challengers Andre Baker, Howard Gardner and Dave Hennessey could win on the machines, but perhaps not withstand the mighty absentee ballot operation from the party apparatus backing the endorsed Dems. The challenge slate croaked the endorsed Dems by a margin that rendered the absentee ballots meaningless.
Only in one City Council district did absentee ballots matter. You gotta love City Councilwoman Lydia Martinez, the city’s queen of absentee ballots, who was not party endorsed and ran on line two dominated by the school board challengers. Queenie rarely disappoints. Once again she lost on the machines, but her absentee ballot operation was enough to counter her opponents Maria Valle and Aidee Nieves. And Queenie’s running mate Milta Feliciano managed to win by one vote over Valle. Feliz Navidad, baby!
Queenie, for now, is giving her absentee ballot operation a rest. She enjoys a massive registration advantage over her Republican opponents in the City Council’s 137th District covering the East Side.
There are a few dynamics at play here:
Lydia is so arrogant she feels she does not need to go through cumbersome AB machinations to win in the General.
Lydia is also keenly aware the 137th was reported for highly suspect AB volume and miscellaneous individual AB irregularities.
The powers that be at City Hall are also keenly aware there were multiple appeals and complaints filed for suspected AB shenanigans.
They also know the Bridgeport Democratic Registrar of Voters was named in some of the complaints for not following the proper processes in a few circumstances.
Maybe it’s a combination of these dynamics at play and probably a few others that are accountable for the low AB application volume thus far.
No need to bring a gun to a tiddlywinks game when you have all the winks.
*** If the SEEC does “not” move forward or “doesn’t” find anything that proves A/B incriminating concerning Ms. Martinez in the past (Sept. 2013) election; then it’s time to chalk it up to just “good old-fashioned” A/B voter work on her and her workers’ behalf and leave the lady be already, no? *** Nice target shoot, but “no” cigar! ***
*** AND AS FOR THE NOV. 2013 ELECTION, YOU DON’T BRING SAND TO THE BEACH, NO? ***
I would think a very small amount of absentee ballot requests for the general election would make the abundance of absentee ballots cast in the primary look even more shady.
Just a thought, I think now is the time for Lydia the flat washer opponents to mount their own AB operation, which would catch her whole group and the Testicle’s gang off base.