Two weeks left to the August 14 Democratic primaries with candidates for governor leading the ticket. Sleepy, low-turnout summer primaries are capricious ducks with electors focusing late on the candidates as campaign spending and outreach intensifies.
The marquee matchup in the state’s largest city features Mayor Joe Ganim challenging party-endorsed Ned Lamont who enjoys spending and institutional campaign support. Lamont has waged two statewide primaries prior in 2006 defeating incumbent U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman, only to lose in the general election, and in 2010 when he lost a gubernatorial primary to Dan Malloy. This is a new role for Lamont, cast previously as a party outsider, as the endorsed candidate. Lamont’s leveraging millions of his personal wealth as Ganim tries to puncture through contrasting Lamont’s Greenwich ties with his connection to urban voters.
Ganim is clearly the underdog in this contest waging a second-chance message focused on a Connecticut economy that works for everyone. Barring a dramatic turn of events or an emotional issue that resonates with primary voters this primary appears to be Lamont’s to lose given his spending and organizational advantages. Ganim is strongest in urban areas, but how is he being received in suburbs and rural areas of the state?
Electors tend to vote on the future, and one area skilled retail politician Ganim lacks is telling voters where he’ll take the state. He’s also money challenged.
August 14 primaries also features two key legislative races, an open seat in Connecticut’s 23rd State Senate District between party endorsed Dennis Bradley, a member of the Board of Education, and Aaron Turner who hopes to follow in the footsteps of his former boss Ed Gomes who decided to retire from the position. State Rep. Charlie Stallworth faces party-endorsed Shante Hanks for the 126th State House seat.
This is Bradley’s second crack for State Senate. He lost a primary to Gomes two years ago. Most of the party regulars are supporting Bradley. Turner hopes to overcome that by stitching together the organizational strength of Gomes’ labor pedigree as well as efforts of Connecticut’s Working Families Party that helped return Gomes to the State Senate in a 2015 special election.
The district covers about two thirds of Bridgeport and a portion of western Stratford.
Stallworth faces a second contested primary, but this time from Hanks, former deputy district director to Congressman Jim Himes. Two years ago school board member Maria Pereira waged a close contest in the district that covers Whiskey Hill and portions of the North End and Upper East Side.
Will ballot placement matter? Bradley, as the endorsed candidate, appears on the top line, but he’s supporting Ganim on Line B. Turner who hasn’t latched onto a gubernatorial candidate, appears on Line B two places from Ganim who must make Bridgeport ground zero in his gubernatorial quest.
Then of course because this is Bridgeport absentee ballots come into play. More than 1,000 requests for absentee ballots have been mailed out by the Town Clerk’s Office with many more to come.
Mayor Joe Ganim, what do you plan on doing about this problem in the debate? Here is why the Black and Hispanic need to see and to understand about Joe Ganim that he has not done his job in protecting them and their children because he’s to busy around the state trying to be governor. Mayor Ganim needs to be called out this failure of the Bridgeport Police Department in these debates, by the media and by the community.
“Bridgeport cops fall behind on traffic-stop reports”
BRIDGEPORT – A 1999 law targeting racial profiling by cops bears the name of the late state Sen. Alvin Penn, who represented Bridgeport and was a crusader against discrimination in policing. Now Bridgeport could lose state grants for failure to comply with that Penn Act and require officers record each traffic stop for analysis by a special racial profiling board. “Nearly all departments now electronically transmit this data on a monthly basis,” William Dyson, chairman of the Connecticut Rac…
https://www.ctpost.com/local/article/Bridgeport-cops-fall-behind-on-traffic-stop-13113694.php
BRIDGEPORT — A 1999 law targeting racial profiling by cops bears the name of the late state Sen. Alvin Penn, who represented Bridgeport and was a crusader against discrimination in policing.
Now Bridgeport could lose state grants for failure to comply with that Penn Act and require officers record each traffic stop for analysis by a special racial profiling board.
“Nearly all departments now electronically transmit this data on a monthly basis,” William Dyson, chairman of the Connecticut Racial Profiling Prohibition Project Advisory Board, wrote June 21 to Mike Lawlor, who oversees criminal justice policy and planning for Gov. Dannel P. Malloy.
But Bridgeport, Dyson wrote, has had “continued challenges” because its police department has relied on paper, not electronic, record-keeping. And those paper records have proven unreliable, according to an audit by the advisory board and its staff that found a wide discrepancy — in the thousands — between the traffic stop reports submitted by Bridgeport and police dispatch records reflecting the true number of stops.
Does anybody think Lamont will win Bridgeport in the primary? Wish I could vote in the democratic primary but can’t I’m a registered republican and have no plans on voting for any republican come November and a good chance I won’t be voting in the republican primary. I wish ned and zimmerman win this election. I use to see Bradley and Turner at the gym together all the time before knowing they were politicians. hmm strange would have thought they were friends.
Don,Ned doesn’t have a chance in Bpt, Mario has an absentee ballot operation that is second to none,as you know, he even has cops picking up and dropping them off all over the city.No way Ned can contend with that.Bridgeport’s election results are determined by Mario.
Joe Ganim will need a Barack Obama turnout of 70% of Democrats in his favor in Bridgeport, New Haven and Hartford to really be in the running and that’s going happen because there’s no fire and desire to rush out to vote for Joe Ganim and remember Obama’s numbers were in a Presidential election and not a off year primary. I Joe Ganim is no Barack Obama.
Joe can’t lose Bridgeport. If he does he’s almost guarantied to lose the mayoral election in two years. With Chris and Moore nipping at his heels,forget about it. Ned gets at least 20% of Bpt. Ned wins Hartford, Stamford with a higher %, They split New Haven, I can’t see Joe getting any significant votes outside the three main cities. But in the world of Trump, and even Joe’s come back win, people are scathing their head. 🙂 https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=14&v=SHG0ezLiVGc
Ned’s going to beat Joe Ganim in the primary by 18% then win the General Election by 20% so Stevie A. Get out your Mob.
I think it is possible ned can get at least 40% in bridgeport.
Donj,
Ganim’s disrepute is on everyone’s mind. A convicted felon and disbarred attorney running Connecticut’s largest and most mismanaged and corrupt city. Little Joe is a large part of the problems here. Stephanie A. likes Ganim because he represents Caucasian hegemony.
*** donj, you ask hundreds of questions about politics & the candidates, etc.. to get some ideas on which way you might vote, then turn around & vote for a tri-state real-state con-man like Trump who the rest of America knew only as the big-boss on the Apprentice Show on T.V! Trump has been a silver-spoon con-man in the business world for a long time & booty chaser from way back. You & most of white america has been had bad! *** Shame, shame, shame ***