If Richard DeJesus were a candidate in the higher-turnout 22nd State Senate District his candidacy would be toast, done, stick a fork in him. The good government activists in Black Rock, Brooklawn and North End would fillet him for his back tax issue and a pending investigation into election fraud. But he’s still in the game because he has one decided advantage running in the 23rd Senate District: the dubious campaign operation led by the city’s queen of absentee ballots, City Councilwoman Lydia Martinez.
Queenie has been stung a few times by elections officials for her unique brand of campaigning including romancing senior citizens with field trips and absentee ballot applications in the waiting. And oh yes from her perch as chair of the City Council Committee handing out Community Development Block Grant loot to her needy and poor constituents. Lydia takes care of her peeps.
Lydia, in recent years, has tried to take a lower public profile running up absentee ballots for herself and her candidates. She sends in surrogates to the Town Clerk’s Office to sign out hundreds of applications. And already 1000 absentee ballot applications have been signed out of the Town Clerk’s Office for the February 24 special election pitting DeJesus, Ed Gomes, Ken Moales and Charles Hare. Botched paperwork has foiled Republican Quentin Dreher from the ballot. He’s seeking a court order for reinstatement.
Lydia is not alone in working absentee ballots. Before he was appointed commissioner of the Department of Motor Vehicles, Andres Ayala rivaled Lydia as well as former State Rep. Americo Santiago as the kings of absentee ballots. All of them working for the same candidate is a mighty thing to behold.
Operatives systematically knock on doors: here’s an absentee ballot application. Gee, says voter, I can make it to the polls. Well just in case you can’t, sign here. Presto an absentee ballot arrives in the mail. And the voter isn’t even a senior citizen, or disabled.
The late Town Clerk Hector Diaz used to say funny business is going on when the absentee ballot results are proportionally higher than the machine percentages.
Lydia, and candidates she supports, have lost many races on the machines, only to bludgeon opponents with absentee ballots. Then the folks who want to play by the rules start saying hey, if we don’t start doing what they do we’ll get mauled by absentee ballots.
The February 24 special election turnout could be just 10 percent. Banking hundreds of absentee ballots could make the difference. Stay tuned.
Tom Swan, a campaign strategist for Ed Gomes says …
The Finch political team should really think twice about whether this is a fight they can win. The Gomes team will run an aggressive voter integrity program challenging their absentee ballot shenanigans and even if they prevail on February 24th, how much damage will be inflicted on Bridgeport in the state budget after other legislators see the underhanded tactics the mayor’s people used to send a tax scofflaw to Hartford?
Everybody thinks local corruption is the problem in Bridgeport–the impediment to our redevelopment/resurgence, but they are wrong.
The real problem is the hegemony of Stamford-Greenwich/The Gold Coast regarding Bridgeport. They need servants quarters/dumping ground–Bridgeport. Why support local workforce housing, jails, social services, power plants, regional recycling/incinerators, etc., if they can use Bridgeport for a free ride in this regard?
Finch and company do the bidding in Bridgeport for the Gold Coast, hence we sent their boy Dan to Hartford, twice.
DeJesus will win because Dan Malloy/The Gold Coast want him to win. If we didn’t have Lydia, Americo, Andres, et al. to rig elections, Malloy and company would create them here.
If things are to ever change here, we have to make life miserable for the Gold Coasters rigging the game against us in Hartford and DC.
I have an idea! Let’s call Denise Merrill–oh, wait. We did.
Like I said. The “cheat” rolls uphill.
Blaming the “Stamford/Greenwich gold coast” is typical of the malaise in Bridgeport’s politics.
There is no one with a backbone in Bridgeport’s government who will stand up and honestly fight to rid Bridgeport of the cast of usual characters. And anyone who doesn’t “toe the party line” is thrown under the bus for disrupting the status quo.
Bob: people with a backbone have stood up and taken issue with our problems, but the media and political power structure are bought off by the bid money, and their message/support is always squashed/bought off. In a desperate city like Bridgeport, it isn’t hard to buy off the opposition.
Would you lead a politically radical to topple the corrupt, big-money-supported power structure?
Do you live in Bridgeport?
My association with Bridgeport goes back to 1974. I officially moved away three years ago. I’m not running for office, but I have long had a connection in Bridgeport. I know most of the characters personally and have watched this once great city decline into the morass where it is. I know the answers to rehabilitation, but the Democrat Party is only interested in control and continuing paying each other at the expense of Bridgeport’s citizens.
Jeff, next time I’m in Bridgeport I’ll look you up and we can sit down and discuss what really needs to be done. I just finished up a consulting job in New Haven that took nearly three months, so my return may be sometime in the near future.
And Lydia Martinez needs an ankle bracelet keeping her and her associates out of all the senior housing around Bridgeport.
I’d be happy to talk with you, Bob. JPKOHUT1@aol.com
Gold Coast? Seriously, Jeffrey? So now all the historic cheating thieving problematic mechanizations can be traced back to outside influences and Bridgeport’s own stellar crew of political wunderkinds bear zero responsibility? Dear God man, just take a look at the 129th. An effective sitting State Rep. was removed to make room for a young lad whose uncle is one the largest power brokers in the city, and oddly enough the State. Positive change begins when those who become elected serve in a capacity that benefits community first and party second. Never a huge fan of Ms. Grogins, but from time to time the reflective nature of Mr. Smith goes to Washington has shone through and I believe that has allowed her to have been an effective spokeswomen for the area.
Community first, Party second. When you find and promote those who understand and excel within that dynamic you will have begun the path to enlightenment. That my dear friend shall set us all free.
Gabriel, you have taken the first step toward seeing the light and connecting the dots (that lead “down county”–if you prefer).
Does John Stafstrom have close connections to Stamford/Dan Malloy? How close? How extensive?
From whence does our economic development director hail?
Where have other economic development directors/high-level officials gone after leaving Bridgeport? Where did they come from before landing in Bridgeport? (Do the names Mike Freimuth and Nancy Hadley ring a bell?)
Why was Bridgeport never mentioned as an alternative site for the new Bridgewater HQ after Stamford rejected them? Was Bass Pro too attractive an option as compared to Bridgewater?
Think, Gabriel! You are intelligent. Use that intelligence! Open your eyes. (Or would you rather keep them closed for some reason?)
Nope. I’m just a squirrel looking to gather a nut. What I do know and what I do see is a powerful uncle clearing a legislative path for a nephew, who grew up in Greenfield Hill by the way, to run the family bushiness. Now I’m all about family business, but when the prime function becomes brokering deals with City and State tax dollars, well
I do have to wonder. For an elected official I think we call that conflict of interest. Please see Sheldon Silver the recently indicted State Assemblyman leader in NY. You really just can’t make this stuff up.
Malloy’s office should be picketed by Gomes supporters so the special election is very closely watched/scrutinized/investigated.
The onus is on Hartford to do their job on behalf of our distressed municipality, but I’m sure our election is going “according to plan” and will get no honest oversight. Friday night’s decision in Hartford–“no conflict of intere$t”–said it all.
We need state oversight, but we get Denise Merrill!
We also need the FBI to come in and arrest Lydia Martinez and Americo Santiago for voter fraud. Let’s call it what it is and throw them the hell in jail.
BIB the FBI? Go to the Town Clerk’s Office and check out the people who signed out AB applications. You do not see Lydia’s name, only those who are working and taking orders from her. So it appears her hands are not in the baked pie. You want to catch those who are doing the wrong thing with ABs, go back and check to see how many signed the bottom of the application. Very few. I believe that is a violation!