Joe Ganim asked for Mayor Bill Finch’s support then criticized it when Finch supported Foster. Republican Rick Torres asked for Finch’s support and Foster’s backing too then criticized it when Finch supported Foster. For all of Finch’s perceived baggage following a primary loss, he brings key ingredients to the table: finances and campaign troops. For Ganim it was a way to coalesce the party and be done with it. For Torres it was a chance to cross party lines and bring much-needed resources to the table. Foster is getting out of it what she needs, money and campaign bodies.
Not all of Finch’s folks are following the mayor’s lead, some have shifted to Ganim, but with less than four weeks left you take what you can get. Personal popularity is rarely transferable in campaigns but money and ground troops can be transferred to good use. And that’s the case with Finch’s endorsement of Foster. If Foster’s going to defeat Ganim in the general election, barring a major unknown development, it will take a monumental effort, just as Ganim ran a near-perfect campaign to take out Finch by 400 votes out of more than 13,000 votes cast in the Democratic primary.
Finch is not just sticking his toe in the water in endorsing Foster, he’s urging some of his supporters to step up to raise much-needed cash, the mother’s milk of campaigns.
Doug Wade, who owns a growing dairy on the East Side, fears a Ganim mayoralty will dry up investment. In an e-blast to his contacts, Wade urges them to attend a fundraiser next Thursday for Foster at the offices of Downtown architect Antinozzi Associates.
“Let’s send a strong message to the citizens and business investors that honesty and ethics are of paramount importance in our city governance,” Wade writes. “Mary-Jane Foster is the right choice for our next mayor. Please show your support by making a donation and attending a rally on Thursday.”
Many business community members don’t live in the city, but they can write a check, as Antinozzi suggested in his invitation to contacts. And in this kind of race, checks matter to finance mail pieces, staff, canvassers, get-out-the-vote operations.
“If you’ve been following the news in Bridgeport you know there’s a critical election coming up,” Antinozzi writes. “For all of us with a stake in Bridgeport’s future I think it’s important to rally behind Mary-Jane Foster. It’s crucial that the momentum of positive change continue. Mary-Jane is a proven leader and a well-respected business person. In addition to that, you’ll really like her when you meet her.”
If Mary-Jane is going to be successful in her effort to stop Ganim, money and campaign bodies represent a lot of Foster care.
FROM MY PERSONAL point of view and mine only, I hated to see MJF accept Finch’s endorsement at Timpanelli’s office. I thought (wrongly) this primary loss would get rid of Finch and that bunch of nasty people involved in his campaign. I see the first picture has MJF standing with Carmen Colon having a wrestling grip on MJF. Here is a women who twice worked against MJF and lied about where her boyfriend (Andres Ayala) lived. She just took over and moved loyal workers out of the picture. I have to wonder what Timpanelli got out of this. I am really disappointed in this whole thing.
Andy, Finch’s Foster endorsement was not at Timpanelli’s office. It was in the high rise 10 Middle Street where the BRBC is located but in vacant office space on a different floor near the offices of Steel Point developer Bridgeport Landing. Timpanelli has announced he’s retiring as president of the BRBC sometime next year.
Lennie, it may not have been directly in his office but it was in the building he works (haha) at. Why not at her headquarters? I have had enough and I mean enough of Timpanelli, Finch and Finch’s campaign workers.
Mary-Jane sold out, just to be a Stafstrom, Finch, Timpanelli SOCK PUPPET!!!
So tell me if I’ve got this right. In politics there is no such thing as supporting someone who has challenged someone, if you accept that support then you have sold out? Did Ronald Reagan sell out to George H. Bush when Reagan won the primary but Reagan appointed Bush to run as his vice president?
Mary-Jane had no slate, she was available as another possibility if Finch lost the primary to Ganim, the Finch polls numbers proved he was not going to beat Joe! She became the lady in waiting, as Finch tried to get on the November ballot even first as a Republican! Knowing well she already cut the deal with Stafstrom and the boys back in the spring. It’s always better to have two horses in a race than none!
She became the Judas Goat of her supporters.
If she could keep her support and pick up the Finchettes, maybe Stafstrom could save the Pullman and Comely account, and a few other jobs as well. Sorry Ron, but that’s how I see it!
This is ground control to Captain Fox. You are totally out of orbit. Abort your flight and return to earth immediately.
www .youtube.com/watch?v=jI_BQcXrdig
Sonny, you need meds, serious meds.
Can I give some to Bob?
Actually, Bush had to agree to support the Regan platform 100% before he was named Vice President. This is a pretty great article from the man who got Bush on board.
www .nytimes.com/2000/07/30/magazine/george-herbert-walker-bush-the-accidental-vice-president.html
So the person who, to use your term, sold out was Bush.
However, Bush was the running mate of Regan. They were elected together. So if you use that example, Foster and Finch are not running together.
For me, and I have known MJF for years, worked with her on legislation we mutually supported, CW4BB in vetting candidates for endorsements, for example. I always thought she was anti-machine and about real reform. Letting herself be aligned with Stafstrom and his team, while I understand $$$ and boots on the ground, it is the price one pays, and we as taxpayers will also pay, in the long run that worries me. And, in this partisan town, Torres never asked expecting an endorsement from either Finch/Foster. They asked him, so he just asked the question right back to them.
“Republican Rick Torres asked for Finch’s support and Foster’s backing too then criticized it when Finch supported Foster.”
The quote is correct, but in response to being asked first by both.
When it comes to politics in Bridgeport, too much ain’t enough!
I’m still going to write-in for Bill. Steve and I already discussed.
Hilarious! As most of your writings are. Sorry Steve, and I know you can take it, but that is funny.
Frank, it is nice that you really respect Finch and want to write in his name. I think Mayor Finch would agree it would be a terrible waste of a vote. Mary-Jane Foster is a fine honest candidate. It is sad when voters like Hector Diaz or Andy Fardy, both were supporting different candidates, hold on to one issue. I learned one thing in politics a long time ago. You cannot please all the people all the time and some people are genuinely stupid. These are the facts of life in Bridgeport.
Lennie’s article is on the money. Foster definitely cashed in with Finch support, that doesn’t necessarily change having bad advisers and making bad decisions.
It does look like things are changing rapidly. I understand Ganim is getting paid to advise Foster. Hey, he needs money also for his campaign. Some key pieces of advice that will be embraced is the shhhhhh campaign. It is important to keep Foster’s name out of the limelight as much as possible. So Ganim ordered 4000 tee-shirts and Joe says enough people know Foster’s name. Do not have any press conferences, send a press release. Ganim feels he needs as much face time on News 12 so he can get 24 hours a day free press while he feels a press release read on News 12 is good enough. I will say they are apparently following Ganim’s advice. But those of us who are working diligently to get Foster elected are not allowing Foster to continue to follow the advice of Ganim. Mary-Jane is going to be in your face starting now. There are only four weeks and she has a determined group and if her advisers stop following Ganim’s lead of making her invisible and follow his game plan I am certain they will crush him.
Foster is clearly the best candidate, Joe had 12 years, Foster needs name recognition and those 4000 tee-shirts may help.
The Foster camp is energized and the volunteers are definitely growing. Many Independents and Republicans as well as Finch Democrats. This could be a huge election or a gross disappointment. I expect a huge election. I think the Finch/Foster Fusion is great. I am thrilled to see old friends and new friends as well as teamwork between the two camps.
Mayor Finch did not just give Foster lip service, he is committed to Foster’s campaign and that has made a huge difference. I think Mary-Jane is going to make history in a few weeks.
The audacity of Ganim and Testa on Steelpointe accepting the endorsements of the unions was a painful reminder of the Steelpointe scandal during Ganim’s last administration that sent him to prison for seven years. Yes, I believe after a few press conferences and in-your-face campaigning, people will see Mary-Jane Foster as the only candidate who can move this city forward.
Frank,
Bill seems so relaxed this week. Why would you do this as if your vote means nothing this year? What am I missing as I talk to registered voters or those as yet unregistered in terms of “your voice is your vote” or “those who do not vote remain silent.” Do you have a lesson for the youngest voters? Is this an example of being an ‘informed’ voter? Are you looking at your announced behavior as something worthy of emulation? Just asking. Perhaps I am missing something obvious. Time will tell.
Ron, I guess you can also say the same about Kennedy and LBJ. They hated each other!
In fact, rumor had it Kennedy was going to choose another running mate for re-election. Many people still believe it was LBJ who had Kennedy assassinated. Or maybe it was old man Bush who was head of the CIA at the time.
Time will tell!
I think you will find it was Bobby Kennedy and Johnson with the real history of hate.
www .nybooks.com/articles/archives/2012/may/24/americas-nastiest-blood-feud/
You know it’s okay when your candidate makes a deal but it’s not the same for the other candidate, not just you Jennifer, but anybody.
Aw, I am not a fan of deals being made when it is a huge compromise to a candidate’s core beliefs. If Finch had supported Torres and signed on with either Testa or Stafstrom, I would sell my house to Joe for $1.00 and never looked in my rear view mirror heading out of town. I understand deals are made all the time, in the name of getting the person elected. I am very happy to not be mired in one right now, that’s for sure. I was much happier in some aspects when I was completely unaware of politics, deals, and the inner workings of the political system. Once bitten …
To be clear, I am not saying MJF has necessarily compromised her core values, I just believe her core values are different from what I thought they were.
And you are supporting Torres so it doesn’t matter. 🙂
Supporting Torres because she thinks that IS what matters.
You’re right about the Bobby part, but
“President John F. Kennedy was so “worried for the country” about the prospect that Vice President Lyndon Johnson might succeed him as president that he’d begun having private conversations about who should become the Democratic Party’s standard-bearer in 1968, Jacqueline Kennedy recalled in a series of oral-history interviews recorded in early 1964.
She said her husband believed strongly that Johnson shouldn’t become president and, in the months before his death in November 1963, he’d begun talking to his brother, Robert Kennedy, about ways to maneuver around Johnson in 1968.
“Bobby told me this later, and I know Jack said it to me sometimes. He said, ‘Oh, God, can you ever imagine what would happen to the country if Lyndon was president?'” she said.
The president gave serious consideration to dropping Johnson from the ticket in 1964, Jacqueline Kennedy recalled. He did have some talks about how to avoid having Johnson run for president in 1968, at the end of what would have been Kennedy’s second term, she said.
“He didn’t like that idea that Lyndon would go on and be president because he was worried for the country,” she said. “Bobby told me that he’d had some discussions with him. I forget exactly how they were planning or who they had in mind. It wasn’t Bobby, but somebody. Do something to name someone else in ’68.”
MJF = Mary-Jane Finch!
Ganim convicted on 16 counts of felonies. Do we need to identify them? MJF = Mary-Jane Finch? Well maybe a few of her 1100 votes are disappointed. Maybe 6000 of Finch votes are disappointed but combined it is an amazing combo and just add in the Independents and unaffiliated and it is magic. Oh, this can be a huge huge problem for Mario and Joe. Huge!
How many times did Joe win elections? Six. Seems to me we have forgiven him five times already, five times to redeem himself. That worked out really well for us, didn’t it?
I am totally confused by the Foster bashers. They are obviously Ganim and Torres supporters. The incumbent mayor loses an extremely close election. He has a back-door plan to get onto the ballot. That fails. He lowers himself to the point of asking the Republican candidate to withdraw so he could run as a Republican. No way Torres says. He tries the same with Coviello. Again no way. Realizing his only options are to simply walk away, endorse Ganim or endorse Mary-Jane, he endorses Mary Jane and somehow that makes Mary-Jane a sellout. A political whore.
Please. Grow up. Why would Ganim ask Finch to endorse him? And if Finch had he would have become a great statesmen in the eyes of most of the Foster haters.
Because Joe is the endorsed Democrat candidate, chosen by the people after the primary. Unite the party, the voters and win one for the good party. You are still the good party, right?
Finch should support someone, he has a lot of base support and those people deserve to know where his support goes. The fact it seems to go in all directions at once is another story. Woke up and realized I was a Republican? I don’t think Republican or Democrat makes much difference in Bridgeport excepting the huge fact most people are still holding onto their favorite team rather than picking candidates based on deeper reasoning. Of course that is Democrat here, but the chokehold on the party is in full view this year. Hiding in plain sight it appears.
It is one thing for the winner and loser in a party’s primary to embrace each other for the good of the party. It is another for two losers in a party’s primary to embrace each other. Two losers from within the same party just don’t add up to one winner in politics. There is so much friction and negativity radiating within and between the two political masses that have been jammed together in an unstable system, it is only a matter of days until critical mass is reached in the core of this defective political reactor and a complete meltdown occurs. I wouldn’t be shocked if the big-top folds on this political circus a few days before showtime.
Should we take the potassium iodide now? Will the fish begin to glow in the sound?
On this I agree with you. The vote splitting is what Joe is banking on, and if more people would listen to you and tell the party to unite behind their citizens voted for candidate. Defeated candidates leave and endorsed party candidates run. Oh wait, now everyone has the right to run, I forgot–we are one of four states in the USA without a sore loser law. Pretty great way to control what and who controls election outcomes.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sore-loser_law
Steve, do you get drug tested? 🙂
Just asking.
Quentin, you can feel free to drug test me any day of the week. I think any public figure should be drug tested without notice. I had to be drug tested for every position I ever had.
Mary-Jane Foster should be, will be, Our Next Mayor for Our City. She is Smart, Capable, Experienced in Leader capacity, A Businesswomen, All these things are what this city needs.
Vote for Mary-Jane Foster. Nothing more needs to be said.
MARY-JANE FOR MAYOR!!!
Pat Fardy, your comment is straight to the point. It speaks in support of MJF and it doesn’t attack anyone.
Pat Fardy, how about a Foster sign on your lawn?
Steve, it will be here soon, not to worry. My Friends and many Neighbors will know how to Vote.
Mary-Jane Foster for Mayor.
Mary-Jane Finch and Wonder Woman’s plane have a lot in common. They’re both invisible. Who has seen her anywhere? She occasionally puts out a press release and thinks that will endear her to the voters. She in no way relates to the typical Bridgeport voter. She is a Black Rock resident who seems to pop up for air once every four years. She’s the human version of leap year. Ganim is out there day and night pounding the pavement talking to the common folk and appealing to them. All Mary-Jane Finch has done is alienate some of voters by getting in bed with the likes of Carmen Colon, Lydia Martinez, and Finch et al. The very same people she proposed were ruining the city. Turns out she is no different than those career politicians she now has helping her.
Let’s get serious. And pray tell, where was Ganim the last five years after bring sprung?
It is just disturbing how so many swear they have this totally corrupt political system figured out. The system is disgusting, gross and a poor excuse for how to choose leaders. I’m sure our founding fathers didn’t intend it to be what it has turned out to be in CT and beyond. Seriously, you must be a good player, something I am not, but we all must admit whether we may have wanted or not, deep down inside you all knew Mr. Ganim had a decent chance of winning the primary. If you look at everything financially and all he accomplished in just a few months in respect to regaining trust and votes and having been a convicted felon, and having to compete with an incumbent who swears he was doing it perfectly wonderful for the city it should have been a red flag. no doubt he was a definite threat. Ya see, most people didn’t realize Mr. Ganim should have been considered an incumbent also. He was the previous mayor and although he left under the circumstances he did, the time he was in the office, the citizens of the city were visually stimulated to say the least on the turnaround of appearance of many parts of the city, new parks, new light poles, less crime, etc. They didn’t forget that. Deep down inside admitting it or not. Now, do we really feel MJF really can bring him down? Do we really feel RT can bring him down and when I say bring him down I mean win the election of course, let’s be clear. The Answer is truthfully deep down inside NO. Mr. Ganim is an extremely smart person, yes he was convicted so has probably over 1/2 the city of Bridgeport or someone related is or was. Yes he was convicted as a “corrupt” politician, do we believe the vast majority of people think any of them are not? Listen, the truth is we need to learn to work with whomever is in there and if we don’t like them step aside and let them do whatever they want and if they do wrong they will self destruct and if they do right you’ll be part of the festivities, but letting the bitterness over a candidate consume our brains is not an option for me.
I would be totally surprised if Mr. Ganim didn’t win, but what’s really sad is not the fact some didn’t support him, but those who publicly spoke against him and degraded him and just spoke venom would not put their arms around him and take pictures with him and “support him.” Really guys, sincerity is much more appreciated than being a hypocrite. Like someone forgets when people have been bad towards them. It’s easier to forget the good things someone has done for you many times but the bad, rarely ever forgotten. Do you think you will get far in his administration when you have been nothing but degrading and have committed disgusting actions and verbiage towards a candidate who wins? Think again! Just be honest. If you don’t support, you don’t! It’s simple and honesty and integrity. Oh wait, sorry I’m talking about politics. Scratch that previous statement as it does not truly exist in that realm.
JA,
“System figured out?”
The City of Bridgeport has 10 Districts, as does Fairfield though it is larger but less populous and Danbury has only seven Districts.
Those other towns have a working two-party system. Bridgeport really doesn’t though a minority will disagree. OK.
So how do most run for office? They are selected by the nine people on their District Town Committee. What does the DTC try to do in running people? Find folks whom they can control currently and into the future for this is the real puppet theater in the City.
How can a district have a very diverse population including country of origin, language, religion, culture and skin color and find themselves without some fair representation? Keep the mechanism of electing DTC members from even the membership and by doing so, maintain control? Will that continue? Time will tell.
Steve, just having a little fun with you! Your dedication is intoxicating. 🙂
Me too, I’m FAA certified.
Just Amazed, political public corruption and redemption is not in the Hero’s Journey, if you get the reference. Ganim is a leader, he proved that to a degree, he also was greedy apparently. We don’t live in a vacuum, Bridgeport will become known as the town that agrees with illegal public conduct, you will see it become national news. After that, no one really knows how badly it will harm outside involvement in Bridgeport, but it is a gamble at least. Perhaps he would do some public good. But the image of Bridgeport as people who elect dishonesty is already there and will strengthen. For many who get out of jail, including the people we all know as you say, there is no press coverage, union endorsements, etc. There is an uphill battle to get a job and a place to live. Ganim has much more of a free ride than those people you equate with understanding his struggle. Though I’m sure he would appreciate your playing that card for him.
It’s galling Joe Ganim, a crook, is presenting hisself as some sort of folk hero, as if he’s a political dissident imprisoned in the gulag archipelago for 30 years. He is not a folk hero, he is a crook, period. End of story.
Mary-Jane Foster is presenting herself as the best alternative to a corrupt machine and that’s more than a bit hypocritical–her campaign is receiving logistical support from the corrupt political machine that made Bill Finch an easy target. She carped on Tax Bill for seven years and now they’re friends because he has a few things she could use to prevail in the November election.
One of the most important words in politics is “deniability.” Elected officials holding high office surround themselves with several layers of underlings to insulate themselves from the vagaries of public life. Other people do the dirty work. Richard Nixon had Charles Colson; Bill Finch has Adam Wood and John Stafstrom, among others. Someone negotiated the nuptials of convenience between Foster and Finch, an arranged marriage that has to include a job for Tax Bill. Ms. Foster can honestly say “I made no offers” of a job to Mr. Bill. Someone did, however. Someone did.