Machinations beckon as the 90-member Democratic Town Committee is poised Monday night to vote on the respective delegate lists for upcoming conventions for state and federal offices.
Most of the selections will be formalities with one clear outlier: delegates for Connecticut’s 23rd Senate District, the seat occupied by Dennis Bradley under federal indictment for alleged violations of Connecticut’s system of publicly financed races.
Assistant Chief Administrative Officer Herron Gaston, a city minister, is building establishment support to win the party endorsement in May. The looming question: will Bradley achieve 15 percent delegate backing at the May convention to qualify for the ballot? If not, he’d need to secure thousands of validated petition signatures to wage an August primary, assuming he’s acquitted of the charges if his trial moves forward with jury selection scheduled for late May, or his trial receives another delay beyond the primary date.
Politically this is a perplexing strategic time for Bradley juggling his public office future and election calendar while navigating the stressors of a pending trial. Then there’s also his law practice.
A lot of this delegate selection depends on Democratic Town Chair Mario Testa who is supporting Gaston. Testa is combing through names of potential delegates recommended by district leaders. The chairman occupies a mischievous side that sometimes keeps party regulars guessing. Does he craft a list to hand enough delegate support to Bradley or force him to hustle signatures? If so, what kind of blowback will he field from pols loyal to Bradley?
Ultimately, the town committee must approve the delegate lists.
The 23rd Senate District covers roughly two-thirds of Bridgeport and a portion of western Stratford. Bridgeport is accorded 52 delegates and Stratford 6 based on the turnout in the last presidential election. In multi-community districts opponents to the endorsed candidates need 15 percent support at the convention to qualify for a primary. So the magic number appears to be nine.
What will the Stratford delegates do?
Conventions for state constitutional offices and U.S. Senate will take place May 6-7 in Hartford. The state party will set dates for State Senate endorsements.
The town committee vote Monday is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. at Testo’s Restaurant.
State Senator Dennis Bradley already a record running for political office, first for the Board Of Education and for the state senate and he was elected to both positions and he does have DTC members who have supported Bradley in the past. Gaston Herron has never run for elected office here in Bridgeport or in Florida were Gaston came here from about years 7or 8 ago. Gaston will need a lot of arm twisting from Mario Testa on DTC members to give Gaston enough votes.
I wonder who Ralph Ford the 139th district leader will support, Gaston reside less half block from Ford. Bradley was Ford hope to be mayor. What about City Council member Ernie Newton, Ernie was a former state senator and state representative and a very good friend of Ralph Ford who helped Ernie win those positions.