State Senator Marilyn Moore’s path to qualify for the September 12 Democratic primary for mayor looks ominous, according to multiple sources.
She is several hundred voter signatures short of the roughly required 2,100, five percent of Democratic electors, to wage a primary against party-endorsed Mayor Joe Ganim and John Gomes who was certified by election officials this week.
In the arduous process measuring signature sheets against voter files, staffers in the Registrar’s Office will double check the review on Thursday for affirmation of numbers.
Historically, 25 percent or so signatures submitted to the office are rejected for a variety of reasons. They must be Democratic voters in Bridgeport. Campaign workers camped out at the local Stop & Shop don’t always know what they’re getting.
“Hey, we need your signature to get Marilyn Moore on the ballot for mayor.”
“No problem.”
They could be unaffiliated, a Republican or registered in another town.
Sayonara.
Ganim, as the endorsed candidate, is automatically on the primary ballot. Gomes qualified by reaching the correct threshold of signatures.
Groggy-eyed election officials are also reviewing the petition sheets of Lamond Daniels for mayor. His camp has submitted far more signatures than Moore.
The Moore camp signaled a distress call last week when it filed additional signature sheets on Thursday after Wednesday’s 4 p.m. deadline. They were invalidated.
Moore’s Achilles heel is organizational. She always needs someone to put it together for her. It was thought her allies with Bridgeport Generation Now Votes would be that something.
Something happened on the way to the dance. Founders Gemeem Davis and wealthy Black Rockers Callie and Niels Heilmann created a political structure that allows unlimited spending (by federal law) to support a candidate of their choice as long as it’s not coordinated, by Connecticut law. That means they cannot conspire: “Hey, Marilyn, we’re gonna spend all this money on you, let’s discuss how we are gonna do it.”
The state law exists, in part, to avoid unfair advantages among the wealthy.
In June, Moore and Gen Now Votes, with Davis and Callie Heilmann present, organized an endorsement on her behalf with thousands of dollars spent for the occasion, raising serious questions about coordination, as reported by OIB.
It would be newsworthy under any circumstances but more so because Moore trumpets herself as the “honesty and integrity” candidate with Gen Now Votes drumming the beat of disingenuous reform. Somehow, the trumpet and drum keyed out of tune.
After OIB’s reporting, Moore and Gen Now Votes retreated from being together in public.
Always fascinating when lawmakers such as Moore don’t understand the laws they pass.
So, here we are less than four weeks from a Democratic primary. Right now it’s Ganim and Gomes on the ballot. Daniels a possibility.
If Moore fails to make the ballot watch how she and Gen Now Votes coordinate endless meowing to save face: oh, the establishment screwed us, we had enough signatures, the fix is in.
Really? Was the fix in for John Gomes? He made the ballot.
Local Eyes is in jeopardy of qualifying for the primary
Marilyn Moore is in jeopardy of not qualifying for the primary.
It’s always fascinating when blogs such as OIB don’t understand the headlines they write.
Maybe the (Gen QAnon’s) will now use State Senator Moore’s Dark Money to challenge the Registrar’s numbers in a Court of Law, while the Gen Q’s keep skirting the Law?
The Rig Is Up!
While OIB continues to run a variety of stories on politics, elections, and the locals who populate that scene and take seeming delight in their responses to events rather than their plugging away at getting to “better governance” for “all of the people”, where is the 800 pound pachyderm today?
Three folks stepped out of the City Democratic bushes, to challenge, each in their special manner, the incumbent. Three + one incumbent all Democrats to face a CLOSED PRIMARY that isolates the tiny Republican ‘party’ and about 40% of registered voters entered as UNAFFILIATED. Those three already have raised relatively equal mountains of money to purchase promotional activity and attract votes. Petitions are the first order, and at least one candidate did not make the cut, yet. Whether she is prepared to stay in the fray on election day remains to be seen.
But money and manpower are critical when assaulting the current structure. Have folks sat down together at a table and had long and deep conversations about what they are attempting to change and how? Any disagreements? I’d be surprised if there weren’t but isn’t losing momentum a greater danger instead of ramping it up? If Senator Marilyn Moore maintains her influence, respect, and power of that office into whatever future she has the energy and care to expend, isn’t Bridgeport the better for it? Can we get off what some see as administrative deficiencies in her runs for municipal office, or I threaten to focus upon the administrative and decision-making failures of Ganim2 fueled by an initial phony statement of remorse to the public to unlock the door to his second term and then precious little to provide the community to show he was caring in using the tools of the position for their benefit?
How do Bridgeport registered voters, those without City jobs or other prestige attachments, free the Mayor’s office of old-style practices, ‘Acting’, “quickly departing”, or “retired but re-hired for the position” Department leadership, and listen to NEW priorities simply and accountably proclaimed by a Mayor who attends to the Charter laws, all the people of the City and who cares, 24/7/365? Time will tell.