Mayor Bill Finch’s Communications Director Brett Broesder says say it ain’t so Joe. He shares his thoughts about Joe Ganim seeking a comeback.
It must be hard for Joe Ganim to watch an administration that is succeeding by creating jobs, and making smart and sound investments in the future.
Over this eight-year period, it must have been really tough to watch while still serving time for his public corruption conviction.
And, it’s likely still hard for him, living in Easton–without his law license–collecting a city pension, and watching the city he ripped off overcome the legacy of public corruption he left behind.
Let’s be clear about who Joe Ganim really is: he’s a corrupt politician who ran a nearly one-million dollar criminal pay-to-play scheme out of the Bridgeport mayor’s office.
He gave a sweetheart deal to a developer at Steel Point, serving as the biggest setback to creating jobs on the waterfront and costing the city millions in attorneys fees. He mismanaged the city’s finances by betting big on the stock market with taxpayer dollars, costing the city $350 million. He went to prison on 16 counts of public corruption charges. While serving time, Ganim’s seedy behavior continued. He founded a company aimed at helping the worst-of-the-worst white collar criminals shave time off their prison sentences.
Following a nine-year prison sentence, he went to work at a law firm where one of the highest profile cases he worked on was defending a white supremacist.
We’re all for second chances in life, but a corrupt politician shouldn’t be allowed to pick the pockets of taxpayers again. It’s common-sense.
And these are just a few of the reasons Ganim has a following on this blog and the black ministry. Who else has their hands out hoping this upstanding citizen runs for Mayor? I just cannot imagine what his platform will be. This is only the tip of the iceberg.
All Mayor Finch is doing is consistently acknowledging Ganim is a threat, relevant and he is deeply concerned Ganim has a real shot at defeating him in the fall. If Ganim weren’t relevant Mayor Finch wouldn’t bother taking shots at him. For heaven’s sake, Ganim hasn’t even announced.
Let’s be clear about who Brett Broesder is. He’s been in CT less than a year and only to service the school privatization lobby. When Ganim was in office he was in high school, out of state, unaware.
He is Bill Finch’s shill, parroting and in all likelihood making sane whatever birdbrain has to say.
White supremacist? Broesder can’t be that politically astute if they are shooting off their whole impotent wad in March. These guys are scared. Run all of those out-of-towners (Finch included) back out of town, Joe!
Daisycutter, Brett may have been unaware of Ganim and in high school while Ganim was Mayor, although that is totally irrelevant, it should also be noted there are a few thousand voters who were in elementary school who have no clue who Ganim was and I guess this will be a year of excruciating and redundant news bringing yet another black cloud over the city. This will be a humiliating defeat for Ganim.
Arnold Horshack is an absolute carpetbagger. How can a carpetbagger call someone else a carpetbagger? He earns approximately $100,000 a year and then takes 95 North home each night. I think it takes real nerve for Arnold to attack anyone else for “sweetheart” deals.
Joe Ganim was in the past an out-of-towner as well. He moved to Bridgeport when he originally ran for mayor. Prior to that he was living in Easton.
Seems like Ganim is only tied to Bridgeport when he needs a job.
It seems like it’s perfectly okay for Stamford city council members to pick Bridgeport’s pockets, though. Move here, or move back to Montana and raise a crop so lonely dental floss. I hear there is an opening for a dental floss tycoon in Bozeman.
Ah good old Bridgeport boy Brett, you sure are a convincing spokesperson for someone from Montana.
I heard Ganim has moved to Bridgeport, have you?
Ganim has not moved to Bridgeport and Brett is not running for Mayor. The Ganim supporters on this blog are like characters out of the third installment of the “Omen.” The factual comments do not register and the rationalizations are extremely strange.
Mr. Broesder is just delivering the message Bill told him. What this tells us is Finch is afraid, very afraid of Joe running again, and he should be.
I have been told oe Ganim is a resident of the 132nd district.
What I find so lame is Bill Finch will not say this. What’s up with THAT, Bill? Too scared, are you?
Joe Ganim lives in Bridgeport!!! You must have an ineffective pipeline, Mr. Carpetbagger. Bill is scared to death. If he has the you-know-what to debate Joe, watch the infamous twitch he gets when he’s shaken and nervous.
Or maybe Bill won’t issue this criticism because he’d have supported the bonding of the unfunded pension plan while on the City Council. And furthermore the bond counsel who recommended bonding the unfunded pensions was none other than John Stafstrom who Mayor Bill Finch hired and has retained as bond counsel for the city. What do you think of that, Brett???
Old Billy Boy set you up with that line, eh?
Bubba, just to confirm, Joe is a resident of the 132nd district. I’m sure he’ll have no trouble getting to know his neighbors.
I’m just wondering–that must have happened very recently. He was residing in Easton just a couple of weeks ago.
Now enters Mary-Jane Foster, the one candidate the Finch team can’t badmouth and who has the ability to win against Bill Finch.
Just for the record for the Ganim cheerleaders. Saying he lives in the 132nd is unacceptable. Mr. Walsh, Ms. Parziale, please identify the home Mr. Ganim purchased in Bridgeport. If you can’t supply an address, refrain from attempting to start a rumor. A Mayor doesn’t rent!
Stevie Boy,
I am not a Ganim cheerleader. I have posted here I will vote for neither Bill Finch nor Joe Ganim. However, if I see lies being posted here I feel obligated to correct them.
But is this another, new, requirement for Finch & Company. He must own and cannot rent? I do not know whether Ganim owns or rents. Why don’t you ask Brett?
Bob Walsh, I requested an address and maybe to some people it wouldn’t be an issue but for most taxpayers a Mayoral candidate who screwed the taxpayers, becoming a carpetbagger and running for Mayor is a joke, no?
It is 80 Cartright. I walk my vicious pit bull lap dog by the condominiums. 🙂
Is it true Ganim is renting a room from Bob Halstead?
Everything Caretaker Finch is working on, someone else started!
That’s why we call him Caretaker Finch, so show us where those 3000 jobs you created in Boomtown are, Billy?
Show us where those 4000 housing units are in Boomtown, Billy!
Or our long-overdue $600 tax rebate, Billy?
All the new schools came to us through Joe Ganim and John Fabrizi. Not you!
Lie after lie, as a matter of fact every new project Finch claims he started belongs to Joe Ganim!
Finch hasn’t balanced the city budget in seven years, not once!
He raised everyone’s rent and taxes for the past seven years.
His plan for Steelpointe is a bad Jjoke, no one in business would ever wait 20 years for a return on their money, and so why should the taxpayers of Bridgeport?
Finch’s Idea of a major project in this city is to put up a green sign on every corner, that proclaims a new paving project, or to fix up a tennis court, and then put McCarthy’s and a few City Council slugs names on it, like hey! We’re working for you! You happy taxpayers!
The only thing Finch is great at is raising our taxes and lying through his teeth!
Why is it every one of Caretaker Bill’s future projects all come in after the Novembers 2015 Election?
The good people of Bridgeport know Joe Ganim, and trust Joe Ganim. No one can trust a liar.
That’s why Bill Caretaker Finch will go the way of Tony Musto.
Don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out, Billy!
With Caretaker Finch things are getting Bitter every day!
Boring. Need new, not the same old. I am for second chances, but don’t need you as mayor. There are other qualified people. For starters, the body language of the open-jacket chest-pumping picture Ganim is in with Blumenthal and his brother says plenty. Cocky. If you want to start again, do so by earning a position somewhere, not just hoping the gamblers in Bridgeport will pull the nostalgia lever. Personally, wish you the best, but not as mayor the second time around. The city can hardly afford that publicity.
And Bill (Mr. Mayor), have your speaker above spend a little more time crafting letters. His conclusion is weak and tossed in as if in a hurry to finish the note before going to bed. Trying to postulate the knee-jerk fear of white supremacy as a reason not to choose Ganim is silly. He left a short list of Ganim’s failures to toss in that aside and had nobody edit for continuity. Goodnight.
“He mismanaged the city’s finances by betting big on the stock market with taxpayer dollars, costing the city $350 million.”
Brett Boaster may be wrong on this issue. I remember when Bill was running the first time he was boasting how he was going to be investing with Hedge Funds.
I guess that’s the payback by Steve Mandel and the Hedge Clippers!
Also, Finch et al. have dried up the “Rainy Day Fund.”
The late Jerry Baron was a fiscally fit guy. Brett Boaster needs to grow a pair before he gets on OIB. Take the muzzle off, Bill!
First off, who does the mayor’s spokesman know who got him this job/? He did not ride here from Montana to this job.
It’s time for the mayor and his spokesman to tell us where all these jobs are they talk about. If they are the school construction jobs forget it, most of those workers live outside the city.
Answer this: how does an elected official from Stamford function as the city’s economic development head?
Brett Broesder is the former communications director for ConnCAN. ConnCAN is a pro-charter school organization founded by millionaire Jonathan Sackler who also was involved in the creation of Achievement First Charter Schools. If you recall, he made the single largest contribution of $50,000 to the Vote YES campaign where Mayor Finch tried to take our right to vote for our BBOE members.
Every word Broesder–while on the job in his taxpayer-funded position of “Communications Director and Spokesperson at City of Bridgeport Connecticut”–speaks against Ganim as a prospective mayoral candidate is a gross misuse of public funding, unless Broesder is being paid by the Finch campaign to do so.
Any thoughts on that, Brett?
Beware the fine lines, fellows. US Attorney Daly is surely watching.
Pete Spain, don’t worry. Hamilton Burger will have a legal answer for you and of course it’s about doing City business. Time will tell, LOL.
Pete, that was a great post. I did not think of that but what is Broesder doing spending his (our) time blasting Ganim? As of now Ganim is an Easton resident and an undeclared candidate for mayor.
Giddy up, cowboy.
Just ride that pony of yours out of town and don’t look back.
Perhaps a future City chief executive will provide training for future Public Relations hires. May I suggest two months of cold-calling on prospective businesses who might come to the City and two months of contacting current existing taxpaying firms for their view of the City would be appropriate baptism to understand the real public relations issues.
Credibility? Do people trust the message? Will they put down hard cash or do they want subsidies and forgiveness from the start? When people ask about jobs, can you answer with solid statistics that are regularly reported and supported? Do folks trust the messengers? Time will tell.
Here is the question for the mayor’s spokesman.
Here is the big one, you people are going after Ganim, a man who served his time yet you allow a big-time poker player who at various times has owed a lot of money. He borrowed $25k from a friend of the administration and lo and behold this same benefactor gets a do-nothing big-salaried job. There is more on this city official like blackmail. Who pays the bar tabs for the high and mighty at city hall?
Andrew C Fardy, why isn’t this story being picked up and looked into? I know you would not come forward if it were not true. I haven’t read anything from Lennie about this story, somebody must know something.
They all know who I am writing about and they know it’s the truth. The newspaper knows, Lennie knows and many other people know. If I know the Feds know. Let’s assume the Feds don’t know, that means a lot of people know but just won’t speak up. My initial hope was more people would expose more corruption or cronyism. That did not work. This is why Bridgeport is Bridgeport.
Andrew Fardy–why haven’t you spilled the beans on this person?
I am so happy I can enjoy the next months until November reading all the blasting that is going to happen.
What great stories. Side note: Take a walking tour of the East and West End people of color and ask me about Ganim. 80/20 for him. Jail is not an issue with them.
People of color, MAGOO? You mean black people? 80/20? You polled black people in the East and West End? What is one to make of that, MAGOO? That black people can relate to him? Living in Easton? Drinking $500 bottles of wine? Sending their kids to private school? Wearing $2500 suits, getting developers to contribute $500,000 to his gubernatorial campaign and giving the Steelepointe? Or are you insinuating black people are ignorant or taking their lead from their ministers? I understand my posts have been read in some black churches and I am grateful for that since that is the community I find most baffling. Are people just clueless, MAGOO? The more Ganim’s past is discussed it is going to make people want to support him? Really? Love to hear that conversation going on around those “people of color’s” kitchen tables. My black friends, neighbors and acquaintances are repulsed. Just goes to show you. We live in a very diverse city and no minority or ethnic group is in the pocket of any politician.
On a side note I am hoping Benjamin Netanyahu loses in the Israeli election tomorrow.
Brett Broesder doesn’t even have to post here. He generates a reaction without needing an account. Consequently, I’m nominating him for OIB blogger of the day. In politics, winners make others respond to them! I admire the way he’s able to stiff-arm the blogosphere.
YAAFJ.
ACF: When it comes to Bridgeport, YAAMMAAL, which means you are a maggot, mooch and a leech.
Someday you can tell me in person.
You promised you wouldn’t respond to me!
Show up with 200 firefighters and I’ll show you what kind of rugged individual I really am.
BULLSHIT.
The Good the Bad and the Ugly … What is this now, a western movie? People want to fight over others’ caviar dreams? Ganim wants a free pass back into the spotlight, the good life rubbing noses with people who almost always are disconnected from the voting stiffs. Bridgeport possibly should wake up and vote for somebody they have never heard of before who knows nobody around here, but has a good resume. It is incredible! I saw a billboard looming over downtown recently where the FBI is asking for tips on public corruption. Coincidence that it happens to be posted in the Bridgeport area? I know it seems fun to know all the public figures and discuss them like the characters in the bad drama they are, but for how many generations? Throw them all out, even the few good ones and elect a bunch of strangers. Fold the hand, it’s not worth playing anymore. If only the Democrats who learned long ago to pull the party line lever could actually consider the worth of a candidate instead of being manipulated by 1950s naïveté … just vote the party line, we know what’s best for you. B.S.
Steve, the point was the people from most of the city’s neighborhoods are not concerned about Ganim’s past jail time. Remember, Bridgeport is an old, dirty industrial City with a major minority population.
I think if blacks and Latinos and Asians and poorer whites and any green stragglers out in the bowels of Bridgeport vote for Ganim it will be because there was work around when he was in. That was the larger economy as much as Ganim. He did bring a lot of attention and a ballpark and arena to Bridgeport. Yes, there is something endearing about Joe Ganim to the voters of Bridgeport, regardless of corruption charges. I believe it was he who needed to move the Mayor’s office to the Annex, upping the cost of government in Bridgeport. Perhaps necessary extra room. His office had expensive enough rugs in it and the wine was good. But those days are over.