More Political Chaos – Marilyn Moore Announces Retirement From State Senate

Breaking

: In a shocking development one week from the nominating convention, throwing the race wide open, Democratic State Senator Marilyn Moore, 75, announced on Wednesday she will not seek reelection in the city-suburban 22nd District.

Why now? Hard to know but the timing certainly specious.

Whatever the reason, Connecticut’s 22 Senate District comprises roughly one third of Bridgeport, all of Trumbull and a piece of Monroe.

Right now it’s one gigantic swirl to figure out the pieces and potential candidates in advance of the May 14 convention in City Council Chambers.

Names that come to mind: recently resigned City Councilman Tyler Mack who just moved into the district, Carmen Colon the long-time executive director of the Central Connecticut Coast YMCA, former Mayor Bill Finch who won the seat in 2000 leaving it after his 2007 election as chief executive, 2023 mayoral candidate Lamond Daniels, Trumbull Democratic Town Chair Ashley Gaudiano, two-time State House candidate Sujata Gadkar-Wilcox from Trumbull, ex occupant of the seat Anthony Musto whom Moore defeated in a 2014 primary.

Underway is a mad scramble to schmooze delegates to next week’s Democratic convention. This announcement also provides Republicans engagement to field a strong candidate in the November general election as Democrats presumably duke it out.

In the past few days word had filtered out that Moore was contemplating retirement. Several who asked the often tight-lipped Moore said it was phony news. Well, it was not. She announced on the floor of the Senate on the final day of the legislative session she’d not seek reelection.

How this works:

At next week’s convention, delegates from the three towns will meet to endorse a candidate. How ever that transpires, opponents need 15 percent delegate support to qualify for a primary. Considering this unexpected announcement and personal relationships among the potential candidates it’s possible for a multi-candidate field. Those who do not qualify for the 15 percent can signature onto the August primary ballot via the arduous signature process.

This stunning Moore announcement will now make it extraordinarily challenging for candidates to meet the threshold to qualify for a public grant under Connecticut’s Citizens Election Program of publicly financed races with a potential primary three months away. Qualifying for the grant injects the campaign with roughly $110,000. But securing the numerous small dollar donations, in a compressed timeline, will be no picnic. For one thing, a key fundraising operation across the district must be in place to move ahead. Most won’t get there, maybe not even one.

Moore won the seat in 2014, defeating incumbent Anthony Musto in a primary, running as a reformer against the political establishment. It’s never easy taking out an incumbent in a legislative race, especially a city-suburban district, but Moore’s messaging and anti-establishment ties ran up huge pluralities in Bridgeport to offset suburban losses.

Once elected, Moore had little trouble winning reelection, except for an outlier primary challenge from Marcus Brown in Covid era 2020.

In 2019 Moore scared Mayor Joe Ganim in a Democratic primary, winning the walk-in vote surpassed by absentee ballots. While Moore enjoyed little public scrutiny as a state legislator running for higher office exposed organizational skills. Fundraising and lasting relationships were never her skillset; she relied on political operatives to piece it together. Glaring was her inability to qualify for a second bite of the apple running on the Working Families Party line in the 2019 general election that would have made her relevant. She botched the signature process leaving only a write-in option that she chose and lost handily to Ganim.

She was not done running for mayor nor too her disorganization. Last year she tried again to primary Ganim and once again fumbled the signature process. She failed to qualify for the primary. Remembering 2019, and other disagreements, Working Families Party did not endorse her. She sat out the primary and general election opting no candidate endorsement.