Updated sound clip: Being an effective mayor requires strong relationship building to bring home bucks from a governor and state legislature that finances the city budget and support development proposals to keep down local taxes. Speaking on John Dankosky’s WNPR show Governor Dan Malloy wasn’t exactly doing backflips of support when asked about Joe Ganim’s potential return as mayor and if he’ll make an endorsement. Malloy and Mary-Jane Foster, Ganim’s chief rival in the general election, are friends.
“Not at this time,” responded the governor. “I know the candidates. I know Mary-Jane very well … She didn’t do well in the primary but she was running against two other folks. Perhaps in a smaller field she can do better. I’m gonna watch that race … see what goes on. But at this point it’s obvious I’ve not endorsed any candidate.”
Dankosky asked Malloy if he was comfortable with Ganim running Bridgeport, a city that requires and receives major state support.
“I have not endorsed his candidacy, nor did I in the primary. It is is an unusual circumstance that someone who has gone to jail because in essence they stole money from the public won a primary. But that’s apparently what people in Bridgeport decided they wanted to do … someone who has not had his license to practice law been restored … he can’t have that profession but the profession he can have is one at the ballot box. It’s an unusual set of circumstances. I have not made an endorsement as of yet. I’m watching the race.”
Listen to Malloy’s comments here
Ganim’s application to practice law again was rejected by a panel of three judges who ruled Ganim showed no contrition following his conviction on corruption charges in 2003. For 14 years Ganim said he did nothing wrong including repeated failed legal appeals to overturn the conviction in which his sentencing judge also ruled he had lied under oath.
Facing diminished economic potential after rejection of his law license, Ganim finally issued a public apology for breaching the public trust January 1 in an East End church. It started his first public process to regain his old job. Campaigning around the clock, Ganim built a mighty campaign organization that defeated incumbent Bill Finch in a Democratic primary. Foster is trying to frame herself as the viable alternative to a Ganim comeback.
After a former Governor endorsed Mary-Jane Foster, Governor Malloy is wise to mark his time.
It seems everywhere in Bridgeport, Mary-Jane Foster’s Spanish-speaking supporters are saying the same thing: Solo uno. Solo uno. Maybe this is why:
www. solounopuedeserelmejor.com/
Shhhhhh. Ganim is hoping Foster is fast asleep. His game plan is to continue making Foster the invisible candidate, as he receives obligatory sloppy second endorsements by the very people who endorsed Mayor Bill Finch five weeks ago.
Well, you say you are working on her behalf. I applaud your efforts to get an honest person in the seat. So where is she if she is not very visible?
I think she is meeting Democrats and Republicans who are determined to put the lady in office or she is sipping a blueberry smoothie at Fruitopia or eating amazing cookies at Lakeisas Bakeria. I don’t think she is repairing a fence at Trumbull Gardens making a mockery of those living there. I don’t think she is giving out false hopes to those less informed individuals. I would say Foster is building coalitions and taking her show on the road. I would assume she is reminding people she is an accomplished attorney, an executive officer with the University of Bridgeport, an advocate for woman victims of domestic violence. Why anyone thinks she was an average actress making commercials in the first chapter of her life was like discussing Joe Ganim shoveling shit at his neighbor’s horse farm.
Nice.
I shoveled shit at a horse farm too. That is one way to come to recognize it when others are shoveling.
One must wonder why our Gold Coast Governor won’t endorse the Gold Coast candidate for mayor in Bridgeport–even while he condemns one of the “second chance” people he so stridently championed in his media-drenched legislative initiative.
Obviously he speaks through both sides of his mouth and has very little political courage. With “friends” like that, who would want to be close to him?
He won’t endorse his party’s “second chance” candidate for mayor. He won’t endorse his friend, Mary-Jane, another Gold Coaster, whom he “knows very well.” And he won’t advocate for any meaningful help for Bridgeport, beyond establishing more Charter schools and building more “transit-related development”/workforce housing for Stamford.
Dan is done. Last term as governor. He knows his Bridgeport margin of victory won’t be handed to him from Mayor Ganim. (Knowing he’s politically “cooked,” he should at least show some moral courage and endorse his Gold Coast friend, Mary-Jane, just for friendship’s sake, even though he knows she’s going to lose.)
What a useless politician! (Maybe he’ll get a job in Hillary’s administration and do Connecticut a favor and resign as governor by early 2017–or sooner!)
Jeff, Malloy’s “second chance” people he so stridently championed in his media-drenched legislative initiative, was for his son, not Ganim!
If Lt. Governor Wyman can endorse the Democratic primary winner, why not Governor Malloy???
onlyinbridgeport.com/wordpress/wyman-on-ganim-versus-finch-lets-wait-for-party-endorsement/
The hypocrisy is sickening. Malloy judges Ganim about stealing taxpayer money when his two massive tax hikes, even though he swore he wouldn’t, produced the same outcome. Because Democrat policies refuse to cut spending, therefore increasing the need for more borrowing and more taxes, Malloy is reaching into the pockets of hardworking citizens and virtually stealing their money. Whether one politician steals our money through “pay-to-play” or through irresponsible and immoral spending, the pain on us is the same!
That is a slippery moral equivalent.
During the primary the majority of Joe supporters said endorsements mean nothing, the voters decide. As it turns out, you were correct. Foster, by all logic and reason would by now have endorsements from every Finch endorser. That is not happening. The Carpenters Union has switched from the Finch/Foster team to the Joe team. So why the uproar now that the Governor will not endorse Joe since they mean nothing, and why are the Finch endorsements not with Foster? Who is the real spoiler in this three-way race? And why oh why do Joe supporters want both Foster and Torres in this race? Figure it out people, before it is too late!
Foster who is proven to be irrelevant needs to drop out soon so Torres who is catching fire can get some of her 1200 supporters.
Yes, I hear Torres is catching fire, Foster is on vacation in Puerto Rico and Ganim is getting sloppy seconds, obligatory endorsements that mean nothing. I especially love Jeff Kohut’s opinion of these endorsements when Finch got them on August 12.
Torres has less of a shot than Foster ever did. You want to attend the inauguration of Mayor Joe Ganim? Vote Torres and I am sure Joe will send out an invite post haste.
No idea what numbers you have in your voter ID bank, but you are wrong.
This just in–Quinnipiac is seriously considering doing a poll for Mayor of Bridgeport. Stay by your phones!
Yawn.
I should have added that Governor Malloy’s “second chance” initiative would actually mean something if he backed up his stated philosophy about “second chances” with a real initiative to create living-wage jobs in Connecticut’s urban centers, where most of the people needing “second chances” live and need to make a living. The term “second chance,” without complementary “real opportunity,” rings truly hollow.
Steve: Endorsements that aren’t backed up by money and other support usually aren’t worth much (and could actually become liabilities, especially if they’re from endorsers with a lot of their own baggage). That being said; the choice by endorsers to endorse (or not), the timing of the endorsement, and the choice between candidates of similar political affiliations, can give a lot of information about the motives of the endorser (if not about the endorsed). The choice of Mayor Finch over Mary-Jane Foster in the primary provides a lot of information about the culture and fidelities of the Connecticut Post under the Hearst Corporation, although it obviously didn’t do much to rescue the candidacy of their choice for endorsement. It will be interesting to see their pick for the general election. There are obvious, significant differences between the candidates in terms of what they are bringing to the table. Will that be enough to get the Hearst Corporation to venture out on a limb for any of the candidates?
Did anyone expect Malloy to endorse Ganim? He hired Stafstrom’s husband to a cushy job for big money as a thank you for getting him elected the second he took office. Malloy has given more no-show jobs than Finch has.
Malloy doesn’t want to have anything to do with the situation down here. He might have to explain the political corruption in Bridgeport helped him to a second term.