In his first general election mail piece, Democratic nominee Joe Ganim takes the high road reminding voters about his accomplishments as mayor in the areas of taxes, public safety, jobs and schools.
With 10 days left to this historic election, the big three of the race, Ganim, Democratic petitioning candidate Mary-Jane Foster and Republican Rick Torres have kicked up visibility heading into the home stretch. The Ganim mail piece features a background image of the Webster Bank Arena built during the latter years of his mayoralty.
Ganim’s primary mailers generally hit on positive themes except when drawing a contrast with Mayor Bill Finch in the final days leading to Ganim’s victory. The Ganim campaign riding the Democratic line will likely stay positive in its mail plan unless the campaign senses Foster and Torres coming too close for comfort.
Charlie Coviello, Tony Barr, Christopher Taylor and David Daniels, lesser known and cash poor, are also in the race for mayor.
Ganim’s biggest accomplishment is getting rid of Finch and Stafstrom.
Ganim’s biggest accomplishment was getting away with murder for as long as he did before getting caught. Unfortunately, his biggest accomplishment was directly followed by a seven-year stint in federal prison.
You Torres people could care less what you say. Most of it is so ugly, it leaves one to wonder why a halfway decent candidate would surround himself with vindictive, bad mouthing and arrogant supporters.
Is this what Bridgeport can expect if hell freezes over and Torres wins? Are you who will be helping to run our City? How are you any better than Adman Wood, Anastasi, Nunn, Kabel and the rest of those bullies? Or could it be Rick attracts to him that which he is?
Mr. Ganim is no more a murderer than Torres is an arsonist.
Mr. Ganim is a convicted felon and a documented liar. He lied after swearing to God he would tell the truth.
Getting away with murder is an expression. He got away with his crimes for a long time before getting caught. Does that clear it up?
I’m gonna leave the rest of what you said alone because you clearly know nothing about my family.
I think Adam Wood did a great job serving Bill Finch and the city of Bridgeport. I do not think Joe Ganim is a murderer and I agree with John Torres, it was just a figure of speech. I may also say I do not know the Torres family on a personal level, though I have been in their company and do know many who know them. I have only heard nice things about them. I agree, obviously with Bridgeport Kid’s comment. “Mr. Ganim is a convicted felon and a documented liar. He lied after swearing to G-d he would tell the truth.” Joe Ganim himself could not deny that comment as fact, though many of his supporters would.
This is not about wasting breath on disparaging Joe Ganim. This is not about insulting the son of Mayoral candidate Rick Torres.
This is about the future of the city and electing Mary-Jane Foster, Row G. If you are a Foster supporter you have only one goal. Remind people Mary-Jane Foster is a Democrat and teach them the alphabet and they will find the only woman on line G. If this is a personality contest, Ganim wins hands down! If they were to ask which candidate would you want to have a beer with, Ganim wins hands down. If you ask which candidate least deserves to be be Mayor, Ganim wins hands down. Mary-Jane Foster is the winner who will come from behind. I believed this four years ago, I believe this now. I believed Mayor Finch was a fine Mayor who has put our city on the right path. His support of Mary-Jane Foster was not necessary, but with that support comes the six thousand votes. Personally, my goal is to get MJF elected, first because I believe in her. She is honest and sincere. Second because Mayor Bill Finch, a Mayor I believed deserved a third term has endorsed her. This election is about our future and I believe today this is Foster’s election to lose. Ganim is losing steam. Foster is gaining serious momentum. Name and face recognition could be an issue here and there, hopefully we will not be talking about that on November 4th. Foster and Finch have surprisingly developed great chemistry, I’d work it. This is the general and Finch is more popular than Ganim. Row G. Get it? Got it? Good!
That’s correct. But Torres people are nothing but inflammatory. (Oops, should I say inflammatory when he has a burned-out blight bus he hasn’t removed in five years?)
No, he wasn’t convicted of murder but the Hartford Courant did note Ganim “was convicted by a federal jury on 16 felony counts of bribery, extortion, conspiracy, and tax evasion after accepting more than $500,000 in expensive wine, tailored clothing, home renovations and other favors. A former attorney who comes from a family of attorneys, Ganim was unsuccessful in getting his law license back.”
The man in question barely qualifies to sell used cars.
The man has spent time in prison. Choose your words more carefully.
Fayerweather Friend, it is awfully odd you are fighting for Ganim. Everything Bridgeport Kid is saying is true. How about Mary-Jane Foster, Row G???
Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, good job!
He spent time in prison, yeah. Has he repented for his crimes? No. Has he sought redemption beyond 10 Hail Marys and 10 Our Fathers? No. Other felons have been allowed to resume the legal profession. Why is it the CT Supreme Court upheld the lower court’s denial of Ganim’s law license? Because he is still a lying motherfucker, that’s why. (Sorry Lennie. Mea culpa.)
Enrique attracts the crazies. Savor the comments so you can read over them when he loses. Over a fine beer.
Take your own advice and shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. How do you know what is odd for me? Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
Mary-Jane’s biggest accomplishment is wishing she could get rid of Finch and Stafstrom!!!
Mary-Jane Foster’s biggest accomplishment is marrying into money.
And your biggest accomplishment is? Since you are getting personal.
Getting personal? Take a pill and lie down.
Marriage is pretty damned personal. So what’s in your accomplishment book?
Take a hike, Fayerweather Friend. I’m not the public figure running for elected office. If you’re going to act like a miscreant, get out of the room.
Stafstrom was Ganim’s bond counsel.
You’ve got a lot of balls, Claude.
You lie to support your candidate just like your candidate lied to support his lavish lifestyle. I do believe people can change but Joe has shown no proof of changing.
With all that money he’s raised he couldn’t hire a decent graphic designer? I will say, I do like the way whoever designed this played with the negative space of the sky and Ganim’s forehead. It’s inspired, really.
That mailer is very effectively designed and good. Good writing, succinct, good picture, good use of space on the mailer. In fact, it looks much better than any other mailer I’ve gotten from Torres or Foster–unfortunately.
I also love how he features Harbor Yard there. He and Mary-Jane are fighting over who developed a “business” that hasn’t turned a profit for 18 years.
Daddy must be really proud his son has his back. Too bad you’re embarrassing the two of you! It’s petty for a candidate’s family to come on a site like this and trash daddy’s opposition. Sad days indeed.
It’s pathetic and sad. And shows a real lack of support of the sane supporter. But what can you say with that? I mean look who the guy is!
Let’s see what seems pathetic and sad, oh yes, people who use ‘phony names’ to tear down those who post in their own names. Sad, pathetic, sane? Stevenl, Fayerweather Friend, Phantom, ready to come out and share your name with the readers? “Vindictive, bad-mouthing, arrogant” as descriptions by FF earlier in this thread? Perhaps you have been staring into the mirror too long. Why don’t you use your real name and gain some points for credibility? Time will tell.
JML, amen.
Phantom- -you are an anonymous Ganim supporter. It does not get any more embarrassing than that. At least young Torres is proud of his name and doesn’t hide behind a handle. It is ironic, all these undercover handles that have just recently appeared. Just who is allowed to have an undercover handle and allowed to be condescending to others on the blog? There is not one individual, whether they are working for the city or bagging groceries, who should have that luxury.
Steve. Aren’t you the idiot who predicted a Finch landslide? Now you’re supporting another loser in Mary-Jane Finch. Anyone who pays you any mind is as nuts as you. Now that you’ve removed your lips from Finch’s buttocks, you’ve planted them on MJF. Now that’s pathetic. Buy yourself a life and stop voting for losers like yourself.
Phantom, I can understand your angst. I am the idiot who predicted a Finch landslide, that is true. I worked very hard for him. Sadly he had some people above me who did not do their jobs. That is not my fault. I cannot be sure what you contribute to Ganim’s campaign other than providing him oral relief but I maintain Mary-Jane Foster is the best choice for this city. When I say that, I use my name. I am not a paid canvasser and I have never received anything for my time or effort.
And you must resemble your mother, being a son of a bitch and all.
I think one of Joe Ganim’s biggest personal accomplishments was to reduce his prison sentence by claiming substance abuse. We are talking about a real role model here! The mailer is very attractive. Simple and easy to read. It shows a well-rested Joe Ganim. A man convinced he is going to win.
Joe Ganim’s biggest accomplishment is fooling one of the people all of the time.
Joe’s biggest accomplishment is making black leaders believe this rich white guy understands their plight or will change their circumstances in any way once in office.
According to an editorial by Michael J. Daly.
“… After a press conference on the steps of Bridgeport City Hall at 45 Lyon Terrace, we stepped aside from the crowd. I reminded him that he’d called me in June 2001, when the first individuals started falling in the investigation, and said, ‘just wanted you to know that I didn’t do anything wrong. I can’t control what other people say about me.'”
Joe Ganim is a crook. Using the neutral language of politicians, Governor Malloy called Bridgeport’s voters fools for choosing a crook. One of The Crook’s dubious accomplishments is fooling some of the people all the time. Ron Mackey is obsessed with demanding to know what Rick Torres knows about the plight of the black community. I have to ask, Mr. Mackey: What does The Crook know of the trials of life in Bridgeport’s African American community? Mr. Ganim appears to have more than a few supporters there. What makes him so attractive? While we’re on the subject, what does Mary-Jane Foster, a woman from the upper middle class, know about the trials and tribulations of blackness?
DB, I could care less but Rick Torres needs to be obsessed with getting blacks to vote for him because otherwise he will not win, in fact the only thing he will win is the title of mayor of Black Rock.
Ron, I’m new here. Are you a Ganim supporter?
I’m a Mary-Jane Foster supporter if you must know, but I like Joe Ganim because of my dealings with him and he was always straight with me and he never lied to me.
Bridgeport Kid, this is a Mayoral election, not an effort to find the next African Queen. Personally, I am grateful Mary-Jane Foster does not have a black power tattoo on her forearm. She could be a strong black woman, a soul sister if you will, trapped in the body of an attractive white woman. She can embrace her blackness if she needs to. She has many friends and supporters who are members of African, Jamaican, Cape Verdean, Dominican, Haitian etc. etc. etc. communities.
As for Joe Ganim, he thinks he is black when he is in Bridgeport, much like the white woman who was the head of the NAACP. The difference is she actually believes she is black. Joe Ganim goes home to Easton and voila–white again!
In a situation like the one you described, I think you have to count on your heart. Your eyes can show you the trials and tribulations. It is your heart that will make you feel it. Malloy’s concerns are justifiable in my opinion, Ganim’s ability to attract State and Federal Funds, which is the heart blood of Bridgeport’s economy based on his past mistakes. Gamin was mayor during an economic boom. The state and Federal government gave Bridgeport a lot of money. Those funds do not exist. And a Ganim mayor is going to have to fight for the limited funds with other mayors who did not do what he did. Conroy was an investor who got screwed by Gamim. Investors are business people. What happened to Conroy and Trump could happen to them. Why take a chance on Ganim? If State and Federal officials didn’t endorse him, you expect them to fund you? Yes, the Bridgeport police and Firefighters endorsed Ganim. To be honest, the firefighters endorsed Finch who endorsed Mary-Jane because Finch’s lack of fate was disturbing and they missed the filing date to get on the ballot. If he were on the ballot the firefighters would still be endorsing Finch. Also the police only endorsed Ganim because they hate Finch. I say this because I believe the Police endorsed Mary-Jane when she ran against Finch. Mario hates Finch. So that scenario could apply to Mario. At the end of the day it’s about funding and who is in better position to achieve it. Who is going to have a better working relationship with the State, Washington, and Investor? Image is everything.
My response is to your comment.
Torres’ biggest accomplishment is making a good croissant.
Wearing your hair like Albert Einstein doesn’t make you an Einstein either. It makes you look like a nut!
You two clowns have to have your morals questioned. Your boy is a crook. He was denied his law license because he’s a liar. Whatever your opinion of the legal profession, the judicial process has to be protected from a man who used his position as a public official to enrich himself and then lie about it after being caught, thereby violating the oath he swore to uphold the laws of the state of Connecticut and the United States of America. He cannot be trusted. He must be losing traction or you would not be lobbing insults at the son of one of his opponents.
Rick Torres for mayor. He’s the only choice, THE ONLY CHOICE.
The only choice of a Democrat, independent, honest woman being supported by politicians and businessmen across the state was your other option. Most Republicans would agree we must vote Foster, Row G.
I wonder how much the Democratic Town Committee is spending to try to return its convicted former Mayor to office.
Well, he is on WICC every 10 minutes taking credit for Finch’s accomplishments!
Cut crime dramatically* (*except for my own), would have resonated with me.
Sometime this morning someone from Ganim’s team covered all the Torres signs in the lower East Side up with Ganim signs.
Was it poor sportsmanship, desperation or dishonesty?
It is Ganim’s brilliant marketing campaign of putting out 2000 signs on public property to show momentum. Desperation is also part of it since people are not begging for Ganim signs on their property other than slumlord rentals and former city employees. But Quentin, Torres is using the Ganim game plan of putting up signs on public properties in the North End competing with Ganim. Signs don’t vote but people vote for the names these see most often. Mary-Jane Foster’s signs are on private property!
We do our best to tell people please–not on public property. I agree they are annoying. I spoke with a city zoning official about sign placement, essentially almost every yard sign is a violation of setbacks for signs. When I mentioned this to an attorney, he said freedom of speech would probably be violated if the city tried to enforce the zoning rules for signs. Giving up on making any sense of this city.
Jen,
If I were a zoning enforcement official, I would only concern myself with permanent signs for advertising and ignore temporary signs for politics. Since the first step for a nonconforming sign would be to tell the owner to remove it, and seeing as these signs are temporary, there’d be no point in bothering. Many states have established rules for political signs, and they’re all different. It appears the only rules the state of CT has is no signs within 75 feet of a polling place, and there are some other rules about reporting and valuing signs for the campaigns, and you can’t put a sign in a state right of way. After that, it’s open season. Bridgeport has no rules for political signs at present. Check out this link:
connect-bridgeport.com/connect.cfm?func=view§ion=News&item=When-it-Comes-to-Rules-for-Political-Signs-in-Bridgeport-There-Really-are-No-Rules3464
The zoning officials do ignore political signs–they have taken your advice! Thanks for the information.
It was Ganim being Ganim. Above the law.
Above the law, beneath contempt.
First, thank you for the information Lennie, it is important. And as much as I would like to show my support for my candidate, I understand why the rules have been put in place, as it helps discourage confrontation. A lot of people cannot even behave civilly on this blog, can you image the behavior if these rules were not in place? I will be at the debate and I am hoping people will follow the rules.
I
Where’s the accomplishment?
Taxes were never raised because Bridgeport’s cash inflow was huge, long-lasting and mostly out-of-town. Also, the S&L Bailout re-liquified the entire housing market just before his first term and Ganim became a fortunate bystander. Those were the early years. Then came prosperity and the corresponding reduction in crime. That’s when evil deeds were committed in the name of the public good and private gain became more important than public safety. His supporters tolerate that on the grounds “we all make mistakes.”
Rumor Mill: Overheard at all Ganim’s offices: I voted for him in the primary to show my support but now I’ve changed my mind.
Let’s not kid ourselves. This election is about this, safety of the kids. I truly believe this, just as much as I believe in Jesus. I not sure about the walking on water thing, unless it’s 32 degrees outside. As for Torres modeling his campaign after Jesus, I don’t even know what that means. From what I’ve learned, Jesus was sacrificed for the greater good of mankind. If Torres is going to model his campaign after Jesus, he’s going about it all wrong. If he believes Ganim is still corrupt, which is a very strong possibility, if he thinks the DTC is a corrupt machine, if he believes Ganim is a bad brand for Bridgeport, I strongly agree. If he truly cares about Bridgeport’s future, Torres needs to follow Jesus’ example and sacrifice his campaign and support Mary-Jane Forster. That’s what Jesus would do.
Mary-Jane Foster is running as an independent Democrat, Torres is running as a Republican Democrat, and Joe is running as a rehabilitated felon Democrat. As we all have eyes, we can see the Democrats are a crucial bloc in this election. Which Democrat who best represents Bridgeport as a whole is obvious. Image is very important, people. Just ask Torres. He would’’t model his campaign on a man who was born over two thousand years ago unless it gives his campaign a certain image. Am I right, Torres? Why not model it after Zeus? He was a god. I don’t care how much weight Jared loses, he’s not going to represent Subway after he gets out of prison and registers as a sex offender. Not an image Subway wants to send, it’s bad for business, so is corruption and “Republicans.”
I said this once and I’ll say this again, if God did manifest in human form and you beat and nailed him to a cross and God said I’ll be back, I think God is going to be the opposite of happy. I’m talking Old Testament, Jihad and Medieval. But what do I know? Except whom I’m voting for.
www .youtube.com/watch?v=XaVtSHrP888
Interesting story in this morning’s Post, all about Joseph P. Gamim’s financial “transparency.” His campaign takes in a shitload of cash contributions and then makes copying the financial disclosure reports too expensive to copy by listing one contributor per page. If he’s so goddamned honest, why does he and his posse find it necessary to hide details? Oh no, stevenl might say, all the information is in the disclosure reports. I’m sure it is, of course it is. But how the cash is spent is not reported. I’m guessing it will be used to buy votes at 20 bucks a throw, COD on November 3rd. I’m sure The Crook will have an open, honest and transparent administration after he bribes his way into city hall.
I noticed first how the PhotoShop job cut out any portion of the ballpark.
Just typical Joe thinking, a little cutting and editing can change the truth.
But more importantly, Joe must have forgotten how because he selected politically connected contractors who by the way were unqualified and/or incompetent ended up costing the city taxpayers more than $1.5 million in additional costs to fix the ball park and more than $3 million to fix the arena. Since these costs were bonded, no fault of the bond counsel, the actual cost was probably doubled and we are still paying for some of this today.
Kudos to Joe on a job well done. And he probably believes he is actually due credit for these fiascoes.