Special Elections A Week Away

One week left to the special elections for State Senate and State House. What kind of mail pieces you receiving? Phone calls? Door knocks?

The advance forecast looks sunny and cold, if it holds up. What’s the over/under for 10 percent turnout? The State House race in Connecticut’s 129th District features the higher turnout areas of the city such as Black Rock and the West Side. Democrat Steve Stafstrom and Republican Enrique Torres both have large chunks of public campaign money to spend in the final days. But petitioning candidates Hector Diaz, Bob Keeley and Bob Halstead could also be factors in the race. The candidates will participate in a Black Rock Community Council-sponsored debate on Thursday 7 p.m. at the Burroughs Community Center on Fairfield Avenue.

The contest for Connecticut’s 23rd State Senate District has been an imbroglio of a dubious endorsement convention, tax revelations, back child support owed, voter registration gaffe, double dealing, campaign support bailout and horse switching. Hey it’s city politics, right?

Mayor Bill Finch’s political operation was initially behind Ricky DeJesus, then segued to help Ken Moales. Finch asked Dejesus to get out of the race, some of DeJesu’ supporters told the mayor to butt out.

Irrespective of campaign missteps, with such a low turnout expected, you cannot discount Ed Gomes, DeJesus or Moales winning. It’s a difficult chore for Republican Quentin Dreher and petitioning candidate Charles Hare because they are money challenged. The other three will have enough dough to make their case.

How ugly will it get in the final days of the campaign? Look for charges, counter charges, direct hits, indirect hits, independent expenditures from political action committees and respective party operatives.

Still a work in progress in the race, absentee ballots. The returns to the Town Clerk’s office have not yet materialized as expected with just over 300 absentee ballots in, a product in part of the supervised balloting ordered by elections officials at several senior citizen buildings. But with a week left there could be a last-minute dump coming.

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15 comments

  1. Well, speaking of mailers, I received a negative campaign one from the Stafstrom campaign against Torres. The only thing it was missing was the pitchfork and horns.

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    1. The Steve Stafstrom Apology

      “I take full responsibility for the mistakes that led to my suspension from the City Council and for the 2014 season. I regret that my actions raising taxes on the poor people of the 129th district made the situation worse than it needed to be. To Mario and DTC, and the dumb-ass taxpayers of Bridgeport, the Finch family, the members of the City Council and you, the Finchettes, I can only say I’m sorry,” that I got caught.
      Only me, with the help from my running mate, Sue “I’ll tax your asses off” Brannelly.
      “Only a dope like me would do that stuff and have the two worst statistical seasons of my political career.” Flucking Torres!
      “You had pocket aces!” Pocket. Aces. And somehow you blew the hand. You could’ve walked away two years ago. You could’ve grown a beard, gotten fat, and you’d have had a career to be proud of, I did get fat! And you’d be a lock for the Mayor’s job in 2016 said my uncle. But no. You had to … had to.”
      “It was gracious of Mario to offer me the use of Testo’s Hash House for this apology but I decided the next time I’m in Testo’s, I’ll try the Pappardelle with Garlic.
      I served the longest suspension in the history of City Council except for Paoletto of the 138th. Oh wait, he wasn’t suspended, he was given a three-month paid vacation thanks to Finch, McCarthy and Hamilton Burger!
      Tom McCarthy has said the matter is over. Finch has said the same. My uncle has threatened every member of the DTC with a property tax increase if they vote for Hector Diaz over me. My company Pullman and Comley LLC. has said the next step is to play baseball when I get to Hartford. “I’m ready to put this chapter behind me and play some ball, wink*. This game has been my single biggest passion since I moved from Fairfield two years ago. When I go to Hartford, I will do everything I can to be the best sell-out Speaker Sharkey will have, and I hope I earn a spot on the State Bond Commission.
      So please vote for me and stop all this talk about conflict of interest.

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  2. Lennie–All five candidates for the 129th General Assembly district will be participating in a Black Rock Community Council-sponsored debate on Thursday beginning at 7 PM at the Burroughs Community Center. Just wanted to let you and your readers know of this event.

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  3. There is only one clearly qualified candidate for state senate, ED GOMES! He’s been there, done that, and he is honest and has integrity. None of that can be said for any of the other candidates. Ed is the only one on my slate.

    Sidebar: Lennie, why would you even ask?

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    1. I totally agree. Ed Gomes has only ever done the right thing. Moales has clearly decided he can get away with not doing the right thing, not to mention doing, um, nothing. Unless you count all his issues where he defrauds everyone everywhere he can and treats everyone badly. Then there is DeJesus, who lots of people like, including me, who has made such serious mistakes he really needs to sit down. Vote Gomes.

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  4. I received my first mail piece for the Senate race in the 123rd today. It was for Ed Gomes. I also received my first robo call on behalf of Ed Gomes tonight. It was from Marilyn Moore. Needless to say I hung up once I realized who it was from. I also received a call from a phone canvasser from Ed’s campaign last night. I haven’t heard a peep from any of the other candidates.

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  5. I first met Ed Gomes in 1983 when we both ran on the Tisdale ticket–Ed for City Council and me for BOE. Ed is the real deal. His honesty and integrity are beyond reproach. He has always acted in the best interests of his constituents and the city of Bridgeport. If you examine the records of those running in the 23rd District, there is really only one truly qualified candidate and that’s Ed Gomes.

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  6. Just hope all the bloggers speaking so highly of Ed are also doing some work for him. As Lennie points out, low turnout means anyone can win.
    Sent 70 postcards out today for Ed. His HQ is on Stratford Ave. Plenty of time between now and next Tuesday to ID voters and to reach out to friends to make a big difference.

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    1. I worked on postcards for Ed for nine hours and was up until 2:00 in the morning. I have 624 postcards going out with 90% of them in Thomas Hooker. I tried to personalize as many cards as possible. It was pretty time-consuming and I hope it is effective.

      Bob, his headquarters is on East Main St. Does he have another one on Stratford Avenue?

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  7. John, my dad was on that ticket. With your help and the help of people like Ed Gomes he went on to serve for 30 years. I grew up watching these great men and learned the essence of public service from them. Sadly my father won’t be here (in the flesh) as he has gone on to greener pastures and now observes from a higher plane. He left us ironically on exactly the same date a year ago this election (Feb. 24) falls on.

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  8. MY BAD!!!
    MY BAD!!!
    I am so used to Ed having an HQ on Stratford Ave I was absentminded when I referred to that.
    Ed’s HQ is at 2335 EAST MAIN St. So please, everybody who does not want to see someone like Richard DeJesus or Rev Moales representing our city in a embarrassing way in Hartford, make some time in the next seven days to get to Ed’s HQ at 2335 EAST MAIN ST and help make a difference.

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  9. I received Rev. Moales’ mailer today and it had a lot of family pictures especially of his father, Bishop Kenneth Moales. I must say it reminded me of Clarence Thomas’ Senate hearing for him to become a Supreme Court Justice, where all Thomas talked about was his grandfather and what a hard-working honest man his grandfather was, hell I would have voted for Thomas’ grandfather instead of his grandson. Rev. Ken Moales is not anything like his father, no one would ever say anything bad about Bishop Moales.

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