Strap in for another wild election season. When it comes to campaigns, Bridgeport is the city that never disappoints, right? Trumbull’s Board of Finance Chair Elaine Hammers has been endorsed by Republicans for Connecticut’s city-suburban 22nd State Senate seat. Whom will she face in the general election? Stay tuned for Bridgeport’s favorite sport, an August Democratic primary.
On May 23, 6 p.m. at Testo’s Restaurant Democratic delegates will likely endorse City Council President Tom McCarthy over freshman incumbent Marilyn Moore who will need 15 percent of the delegate support to wage a primary. In lieu of that she can petition her way onto the ballot. This is not new territory for Moore who has an independent streak outside of the party establishment. McCarthy has been working party regulars for support.
Connecticut’s 22nd State Senate District is one of the state’s most diverse encompassing all of Trumbull and portions of Bridgeport and Monroe. In 2014 Moore upset incumbent Anthony Musto in a primary. This race is shaping up as a competitive battle. Moore has an advantage as a first-term incumbent building prestige with constituents. McCarthy, however, is a stronger retail politician than Musto. Moore will elevate her voter performance in the suburbs. By how much? McCarthy will perform stronger than Musto in Bridgeport? By how much?
Hammers is a familiar face in Trumbull politics. She served a term in the State House and challenged Bill Finch in 2002 in his first reelection as the incumbent senator for the district. She also served as Trumbull’s finance director.
Following the likely McCarthy endorsement, incumbent Ed Gomes and school board chair Dennis Bradley will fight it out for the endorsement in Connecticut’s 23rd State Senate District at Testo’s. Most political operatives say Bradley has an edge for the endorsement. Either way a primary looms. The district covers about two thirds of Bridgeport and a portion of western Stratford.
But before that on Thursday, 6 p.m. at Testo’s Restaurant, Democratic State Rep. Charlie Stallworth, a staffer for Mayor Joe Ganim, will receive the party endorsement in the 126th State House District. He faces a primary challenge from school board member Maria Pereira who’s well on her way to qualifying for the state’s Citizens Elections Program of publicly funded races. The district includes portions of the North End and Upper East Side. Stallworth has never faced a relentless campaigner such as Pereira, an establishment fighter seasoned in education issues.
In Connecticut’s 124th State House District incumbent Andre Baker is being challenged by multiple mayoral candidate Charlie Coviello.
Things change every day.
Elaine Hammers is this year’s Trumbull Republican sacrificial lamb. Now that it is so easy to qualify for government campaign financing, the Republicans will not let seats go uncontested. Tim Herbst will be busy trying to show the JR Romano-led party he can deliver a win.
I’ll do my best to make sure Elaine gets hammered in November, we already have all three Trumbull State Representatives as minority party members with no real power, bringing next to nothing back home.
And the alternative is a Dan Malloy water carrier. No way that will fly in Trumbull and Monroe.
Monroe doesn’t have enough votes in the 22nd District to make much of a difference. Trumbull often votes R, but Ms. Hammers has made lots of enemies these past two years as chair of the BOF. Parents are up in arms about low school budgets, passing $175,000 in exploratory money for an unneeded senior center, etc.
Bridgeport controls the vast majority of the votes in D22 which is how Moore ousted sitting State Senator Anthony Musto. Musto had enough popularity in Trumbull to turn around and defeat sitting Republican Town Treasurer Ponzio during Herbst 2015 squeak to reelection.
Try as Republicans may to link all Democratic candidates to Governor Malloy, the people are too smart to fall for that trick. It was a pleasure to attend the State Democratic Convention with Malloy absent a week ago. If the Republicans had a better candidate in 2014, chances are we’d have an R governor with D Secretary of State, Atty. General and Treasurer, it’s happened before. I would love to have a better choice for Governor next time around, but the R candidate was a joke.
Ed Gomes has been showing his warrior spirit in the GA this year, and I would be planning to vote for him if he were in my district.
Tom McCarthy and Marilyn Moore have both shown there is a serious need for a third candidate for the State Senate 22nd at the convention, with the McCarthy-led wholesale giveaway of the upper North End/Veteran’s Memorial Park to Sacred Heart U, and Marilyn’s stinky sewer deal with Trumbull. Maybe the Party can produce an alternative as the Bridgeport Democratic offering for the 22nd at the convention. We have to be able to do better for Bridgeport than the two present candidates.
Jeff, deal with what we’ve got, we have the current State Senator with Moore and we have McCarthy, there is no third Democrat candidate, deal with it. You couldn’t even put out a name. Jeff, don’t let the perfect get in the way of the good. This is a no-brainer, the district will best be served with Senator Moore.
Jeff,
I am digging into the SHU real estate “DOUBLE DEAL” with the City of Bridgeport. A “sale” of some open space type property from our golf course in Fairfield we will sell fast apparently so the revenue can be applied to the 2016 deficit before June 30. But of which we have seen NO fiscal analysis as to the price or whether an equivalent revenue stream with opportunities to increase the revenue in the future as the “leverage” this property in the hands of SHU provides value to them in Fairfield Zoning matters? If there is a concern on maintenance regarding property that is “open space” it should be minimal and transferable to the Lessee as would any or all liability. Isn’t that what occurred to City of Bridgeport with the solar deal at Seaside Park? (Of course, having no documents in hand does put this reader at a distinct disadvantage. Sorry.)
More on the other property later when the terms of that deal become more clear.
However Jeff, regarding the Sewer Dealings of which very little has been revealed, why have you thrown that issue on Marilyn Moore’s doorstep? Hasn’t this been a City issue for a very long time? How does a State Senator who did not hold a City office in that time period and was not present at many of those public meetings get stuck with the “negativity” of whatever deal is moving forward? Please explain. Time will tell.
Time for everyone to drop the small-minded misgivings and get behind Moore or be a party to ensuring the 22nd district gets Hammered in the General.
Tell them, Frank! I’m getting tired of trying, but I’m an active, effective member of the 22nd, and I’ll help deliver Central for Moore! I constantly receive political feedback from my area; I don’t solicit except when necessary, but McCarthy’s in trouble when he goes to the voters in Brooklawn.
Even if McCarthy wins the primary, he can’t win the general. It’s not only the voters in Brooklawn to credit for that, either. He can’t win and will be responsible for a Republican win.
Okay Frank, you’re probably right!
*** So the 90-member DTC is going to endorse McCarthy who is usually a political puppet over “short term” election fill-in Senator Moore? Why, has Senator Moore not done a good job during her “short term” time while in the State Senate or is she anti-the Bpt political power machine? Or are there too many dark-skinned Bpt politicians up at the State Capitol I wonder? Maybe just good old-fashioned CT Dem. politics where anyone who’s a State resident can run for a political office, no? *** WHOOP ***
John: Marilyn came out endorsing the idea of a regional WPCA, including Trumbull, last year when the new, court-ordered sewer deal proposal between Trumbull and Bridgeport emerged from the bowels of the regional political deals digester.
To this long-time observer of Bridgeport’s abuse and exploitation at the hands of the region, it was the wrong position for any Bridgeporter to take. Our representation should be protecting our interests, not playing into the hands of our abuser/exploiters for election-year votes. Advocating for a regionalization of our assets is contraindicated by history. Anyone who would represent our interests had better know that and act accordingly.
Let Marilyn disavow her support of further helping Trumbull leverage Bridgeport asset, i.e., reject any WPCA regionalization out of hand, and I will support her. Until then, I have to judge her by her previous, stated endorsement of the idea, and I have to oppose her continued representation of my district. This is a big, practical issue for anyone who knows and understands the implications of such a deal on the Bridgeport grand list/tax base. (It is a really big issue for anyone who knows the history of the Trumbull-Bridgeport relationship covering the post WWII era to the present.)
I haven’t proposed any alternative candidates, but I know there are several qualified (Bridgeport) individuals from the district waiting for a proper opportunity to enter the race. We need more than the one tired old face of city patronage, and the somewhat newer face of opportunistic politics as possible choices for representation in the 22nd.
You seem to conveniently miss the point the D22 State Senator is the representative of ALL the residents in that District, not a tool of the City of Bridgeport. It is not her job to favor Bridgeport over Trumbull. She represents only a portion of Bridgeport but ALL of Trumbull.
Marshall, now you see the problem that faces Bridgeport when these people think the Senator of the 22nd owes their allegiance to Bridgeport only and to hell with Trumbull and Monroe. That’s Bridgeport politics at its ugliest when they think, feel and believe nothing or no one is more important than their agenda.
John: Regarding the Sacred Heart double deal; your skills in defining not-so-obvious implications in regard to hidden/opportunity costs can only prove enlightening. Your analysis should be the clincher for those not sure they should oppose the deal based merely on the history of the series of bad, costly deals made with Sacred Heart by the city in recent years (as well as the first unwanted intrusion of that institution into Bridgeport’s North End that took the form of the erection of a ten-story dormitory in a prime residential neighborhood some 20 years ago). People will remember several, neighborhood-busting weasel deals involving Sacred Heart, such as the trick zoning deal involving the spot zoning of a medical office day facility that zoning officials assured the neighborhood could only help property values, which was quickly switched to Sacred Heart dormitory use once the zoning change agreement with the neighborhood passed muster.
So thanks from this Bridgeporter for your hard work and diligence on behalf of the city, John. I know it is appreciated, especially by the besieged neighborhoods of the 132nd, 134th, and 135th council districts.
Donald and Marshall. You guys are exhibiting an essential political cluelessness that is beyond naivete, and neither of you live in Bridgeport, so you’re playing on somebody else’s court on this blog. HELLLOOO!!!
In any event, here is the first rule of Politics 101. First, do no harm. (This rule applies to all those who minister to the well-being of others.) The second rule of Politics 101 is I must work toward the greater good of my constituents.
Anyone who has any grasp of the history of the decline of cities and the ascendancy of the suburbs (e.g., Bridgeport vs. Trumbull), knows the gain of the suburbs was, for the most part, the planned, connived loss of the cities. This has no more clear example than the situation of the growth and prospering of Trumbull and the collapse of Bridgeport. When Bridgeport allowed their sanitary waste facilities to be put at Trumbull’s disposal, the “whoosh” was audible as Bridgeport’s downtown emptied into the first major development in Trumbull, Trumbull Shopping Park, which wasn’t an option for Trumbull until they had the use of Bridgeport’s sanitary sewer system. To add insult to injury, Bridgeport taxpayers subsidized, and continue to subsidize this situation, even as we continue to hemorrhage tax base to Trumbull.
Now, according to rules 1 and 2 above, any politician who supports the growth of Trumbull’s tax base at Bridgeport’s expense isn’t honoring their principle duties to the people they serve. Of course, Trumbull constituents might not see it that way, but they are wrong, and we need someone to represent the district who isn’t afraid to state as much and act accordingly.
Marilyn Moore hasn’t shown herself to be that kind of strong leader, as of this point in time. As I said, when she asserts a position that demands justice, compensation and rectification of the unfair Bridgeport-Trumbull relationship, I will support her. In the meantime, I am looking for someone with a real agenda to address economic injustice in the 22nd to step up and seek election as the senator from that district.
Jeff, once again there are ONLY two Democrats running in this primary and you are having us believe McCarthy is your guy. You are letting the good of Senator Moore misguide you for the perfect you want and so you want the bad of McCarthy. No thanks, Jeff.
Ron, write this down so you don’t forget: At the present time, I don’t have a horse in this race. I’m hoping for a D I can trust to look out for the state’s largest city. We haven’t had that in the 22nd in decades. We don’t have it now.