Illegal Coordination Dogs Gomes And Gen Now Votes One Week From Fourth Mayoral Vote

Mayoral candidate John Gomes calls himself Mr. Transparency, but the facts belie his veracity and that too of the anti-Ganim community group Bridgeport Generation Now Votes that preaches the same doing something very different that extends a pattern of illegal coordination between the two against Connecticut law, including a meeting last week in Gomes car parked illegally.

Last summer OIB pieced together Gen Now Votes dubious coordination with its preferred mayoral candidate State Senator Marilyn Moore who showed up for an endorsement Downtown in which thousands of dollars were spent in the effort to buoy her campaign. Gen Now Votes even mailed 20,000 absentee ballot applications they had hoped would manufacture votes for Moore.

Gen Now Votes had $200K wired for her campaign, financed by organization treasurer Niels Heilmann, according to campaign finance reports. OIB’s reporting provided pause and they pulled back from coordination. Moore failed to qualify for the Democratic primary for mayor.

State law prohibits coordination of independent expenditures between parties – something leaders of Gen Now Votes have an awful time comprehending – because it provides an unfair advantage. An organization can spend unlimited amounts in the cause of electing or defeating a candidate, but the expenditures cannot be partnered.

What does this mean? A representative of the expenditure cannot meet with a representative of the campaign to make battle plans how the money is spent. When Moore’s campaign failed, Gen Now Votes hostility toward Mayor Joe Ganim runs so deep it decided to pivot to another opportunity to control a candidate, this time Gomes who will appear on the Bridgeport Independent Party line Feb. 27.

Let’s examine the facts:

Leaders of Gen Now Votes have made personal contributions to Gomes campaign, including founders Niels and Callie Heilmann.

Leaders of Gen Now Votes have frequented Gomes fundraisers, including Callie Heilmann and Gemeem Davis.

They also attended a boutique campaign event in Black Rock.

They’ve utilized social media pages to barb Ganim to benefit Gomes.

Now, let’s get to the really good part one week from the February 27 vote.

Two eye-witness accounts share the following, Davis inside Gomes’ vehicle parked illegally next to a fire hydrant.

On February 12th at 4:15 p.m. Driving South on Main Street passing Elm Street I noticed John Gomes Range Rover parked in front of a fire hydrant on my left hand side I went down and turned around to drive back North on Main Street to take a picture of him parked in front of a fire hydrant. I saw Gemeem Davis coming out front walking across the street I could not adjust my camera because it was fixed in the windshield at that point I took three pictures of John Gomes car in front of the hydrant parked across from Bridgeport Generation Now downtown office.

I went back around with the 999 Broad Street I was talking to someone out front for a few minutes when someone asked me if I got a picture of her getting in the car. I said no, but at that point I thought maybe I can get one. At that point at 4:35 p.m. 20 minutes after I saw Gemeem get in the car I parked facing south with John Gomes’ car facing north, I waited for a few minutes wanting to get a picture of her getting out of the car after about 5 minutes she did not get out of the car and John Gomes pulled away traveling north on Main Street took a left on Golden Hill and at that point I knew she didn’t want to get out of the car and he was going to drop her somewhere.

I thought at maybe the steps and walk up Elm Street so I proceeded to move my car about 100 ft to the southern direction at the corner of Elm and Main so I could look down Elm to see her walking up.

I waited there for a few minutes, nothing as I was going to pull away I saw John Gomes car take a right out of Fairfield Avenue on to Main Street.

I then proceeded to pull away as I saw Gemeem Davis walking up Main Street towards Bridgeport Generation Now office I pulled up and rolled my window down and said hi and she said hi I said why didn’t you just get out of the car when you were across the street and she looked at me like  she didn’t know what I was talking about.

I said  I have a picture of you getting in the car.

The look on her face was priceless she knew I f****** had her anyways at that point.

Gemeem Davis issued this statement:

Yes, I spoke with John Gomes on Main Street in broad daylight. Last I checked  it is not illegal for me to talk with people. At Gen Now Votes we are well aware of the rules…

Nope, leaders of Gen Now play by their own rules. Why get in the car (in broad daylight).

OIB reached out to Gomes. No response.

Why did Davis get into his car?

What was discussed?

Davis did not reply to these questions.