February 2015 News Highlights

— Just two years after he was serenaded for his public service following a Democratic primary loss, Ed Gomes returned to the State Senate on Friday following his mighty special election win running on the Working Families Party line to replace the man who defeated him, Andres Ayala, now the commissioner of the Department of Motor Vehicles.

— It’s not often the person you replace in the state legislature issues the oath of office. That happened Friday when Steve Stafstrom raised his hand before his predecessor, Superior Court Judge Auden Grogins whom he followed to represent Connecticut’s 129th State House District in Bridgeport.

— Connecticut’s chief elections official Denise Merrill, who’s elected by the people, is proposing to do away with elected registrars in favor of one serving that role as an appointed official. In a news release, Merrill says “Connecticut is the only state in the country that leaves election administration to two partisan locally elected officials.”

— Riding a 100-strong ground operation, name recognition and the tax baggage of his chief opponents, 79-year-old Ed Gomes easily reclaimed the State Senate seat he lost in 2012 in a historic win running on the Connecticut Working Families Party line, over Democratic-endorsed Ricky DeJesus and petitioning candidate Ken Moales, a member of the Board of Education, both of whom at one time had the backing of Mayor Bill Finch’s political operation.

— Former Democratic City Councilman Steve Stafstrom has narrowly defeated Republican Enrique Torres in the State House special election, according to unofficial returns from the Registrar’s Office: Stafstrom 776, Torres 720. Torres won on the machines by 20 votes, according to returns. Absentee ballots placed Stafstrom over the top.

— State Senate candidate Ricky DeJesus owes the city roughly $140,000 in personal property taxes. He also owed a whole bunch more in real estate taxes sold off in tax lien sales.

— With African-American officers calling for action, State Police have launched an investigation into a racially charged letter placed in a police officer’s workplace mailbox last week.

— Who says New Haven owns the monopoly on the best pizza in America? Former City Councilman Marty McCarthy’s Fire Engine Pizza Company on Fairfield Avenue in Black Rock slices into Connecticut Magazine’s list of best pizza in Connecticut.

— Former State Representative Chris Caruso, who’s maintained a low public profile since joining Governor Dan Malloy’s administration in 2011, is actively supporting Ed Gomes in the February 24 special election for State Senate.

— Is the Rev. Ken Moales misunderstood? If so, why? The State Senate candidate, in this video produced by his campaign, shares thoughts about what he says are misconceptions about his need for power and positions on education.

— Retired FBI agent Ed Adams who managed the investigation more than a decade ago that toppled the mayoral administration of Joe Ganim submitted testimony Friday morning at a legislative hearing in Hartford in support of House Bill #5886 to enforce the Bridgeport City Charter barring city employees from serving on the City Council.

— More back tax issues for Democratic-endorsed State Senate candidate Ricky DeJesus. In addition to owing $140,000 in back personal property taxes, he owes another $15,000 in delinquent real estate taxes for properties on the East Side, according to city tax records as of Thursday.

— Deirdre M. Daly, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that two former Bridgeport Police officers were sentenced today in Bridgeport federal court for violating an individual’s civil rights by using unreasonable force during the course of an arrest.

— United States Attorney Deirdre M. Daly and representatives from five federal law enforcement agencies today announced the formation of the Connecticut Public Corruption Task Force to investigate corrupt public officials, the misuse of public funds and related criminal activity.

— The campaign of State Senate candidate Ken Moales says they welcome the support of political activists turned off by the $140,000 that Democratic-endorsed Richard DeJesus owes in personal property taxes on businesses, as well as his child support issues. Turns out Kingdom’s Little Ones Daycare for which Moales serves as chief executive officer owes $10,000 in personal property taxes going back to 2007, according to city tax records.

— We generally pay tribute to people when they die. How about doing it while they are still among the living? If Bridgeport had a Monument Park for politicians, former Governor Lowell Weicker, now 83 years old, deserves one measuring his full 6’6″ stature. He was the closest thing the city’s ever experienced to a benevolent dictator.

— Bridgeport native Germar Terrell Gardner, who plays corrections officer Charles Ford in the hit Netflix series Orange is the New Black, won a coveted 2014 Screen Actors Guild Award for outstanding performance by an ensemble at the organization’s gala last Sunday.