Bridgeport, Connecticut’s largest city, once again does not disappoint for its whiplashing politics. Four years ago it was the surreal world of Joe Ganim reclaiming the mayoralty. Now it’s about him trying to secure another four-year contract from voters following a contentious primary, lower court action that went his way with an appeal now before the Connecticut Supreme Court.
Tuesday night’s vote tally will take a while to complete because of the write-in campaign of Marilyn Moore who lost a close primary to Ganim.
Moore, MaryAnn McLaine, Jeff Kohut and Ethan Book all have registered with the state to qualify as write-in candidates.
When the polls close Tuesday at 8 p.m. the optical scan voting machines at more than 20 precincts will produce a tape reflecting the results of each candidate on the ballot. Results of write-in candidates won’t be known immediately because they must be hand counted by elections officials at the polls.
“In a write-in candidacy, the tabulator automatically sorts ballots that have the write-in bubble filled in into a special container so that the write-in votes can be hand-counted at the end of Election Day,” says Gabe Rosenberg, communications director for the Connecticut Secretary of the State. “All ballots where the voter’s intent to vote for a registered write-in candidate is clear should be counted.”
Precincts where Ganim runs strongest won’t have a lot of write-in ballots. Areas enthusiastic for Moore such as Black Rock and West Side will have more to hand count.
Distinguishing voter intent will come into play. If an elector writes in Moore, it’s clear. If another voter writes in MM, it will be accorded to no one because those are the initials of MaryAnn McLaine as well.
Did you expect a tamping down of absentee ballots in the general election after the primary results and a subsequent lawsuit contesting them? Hasn’t happened. According to calculations by the Town Clerk’s Office about 1,500 electors will cast a ballot via absentee, roughly the same as the primary. Most of those will go into the Ganim column.
So once again, if Moore has any traction as a write-in candidate she most run up large numbers in her strength areas, particularly Black Rock, West Side and North End. After that it becomes mostly Ganim territory in the central and eastern portions of the city.
Not sure where you vote? See here.
WRITE-IN — JEFF KOHUT — for Mayor on the ballot tomorrow…
I have been a North End neighborhood advocate/activist for many years, serving for 16 of those years as the coordinator of the Lake Forest Block Watch. I was one of the original neighborhood activists that arranged to meet with the SHU Administration concerning North End student-residents’ dangerous, unruly behavior, and overall disrespect for the permanent, full-time residents/homeowners of the North End neighborhoods. The solemn promises by SHU officials to effectively address the students’ abusive behavior, with specific measures that were discussed, turned out to be lies by the institutional-bully, SHU… Now they are threatening to politically overwhelm us even as they continue to destroy our neighborhoods.
Vote for JEFF KOHUT (fill in the bubble on the ballot and write it in!) to send a message to SHU that Bridgeport won’t be intimidated by institutional bullies and immature students! (See more below)
November 3, 2019
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FROM: JEFF KOHUT, write-in candidate for mayor (Election Day is Tuesday, November 5.) (Contact Info: JPKOHUT1@aol.com; 203-394-7678)
To the Voters of Bridgeport:
As you know, Bridgeport is a city of great potential, but beset by the problems resulting from uncommitted leadership in City Hall, within our state GA delegation, and even to the neighborhood, City Council level.
Economic Development continues to be approached in a lackadaisical, haphazard manner, with the City having no clear, comprehensive plan of development with a requisite, all-encompassing vision/plan with the appropriate, specific goals and benchmarks that would accompany such a clear vision and plan. For instance, there is no goal/timetable for any level of grand-list growth, hence, there are no specific targets/timetables for property-tax rate reductions. Indeed, because the city is visionless/flying-blind, in regard to what we want for our city, we have no real plans or goals for desperately-needed jobs-growth. (Albeit, several, dubious “paper projects”, of very questionable tax-/jobs-benefits to the city, are being touted and advertised, but not even as part of some sort of overarching plan/vision, and without regard to any timetable for accomplishment and benefit realization…)
Indeed, the City has never even bothered to assess our tax-base needs in the context of the ability to fund and create a competitive public school system and desirable levels of essential services (AS WELL AS A SIGNIFICANT PROPERTY-TAX REDUCTION) that would allow our services and taxes to be comparable to our wealthy neighbors — AND which BRIDGEPORTERS RICHLY DESERVE!
Truly, all areas of municipal services are lacking, and proceeding without reference to planning or goals, especially in regard to public safety, with our neighborhoods/quality of life being destroyed as shootings and open drug-dealing increase, and as dangerous, unruly behavior, by large numbers of SHU students, locating in a proliferation of illegal rooming houses (especially in many North End and Upper East Side neighborhoods), continues to spread and intensify.
The Kohut Plan: (SEE 5 ATTACHMENTS!…)
1. Economic Development/Taxes/Jobs: Bridgeport as the “pilot” city for the creation of municipal, grid-free, energy independence, and, relatedly, as the manufacturer/user of all-forms of “green,” electricity-generation equipment of all sizes, for all scales of energy independence. (Target Goal — $14B in grand-list growth, tax-rate reduction to 25 mills, and the creation of 30k-50k jobs over 5-10 years.)
2. Public Safety/Neighborhoods: Re-create (real) neighborhood-level, Community Policing, utilizing a municipal video-security system to conduct 24-7, “virtual”/Internet, neighborhood patrols by neighborhood Block Watch members…
3. Education: Create and implement a plan for Bridgeport education-excellence, based on a composite model of the 3-4 “best” school systems in the US. Implement this plan in conjunction with the fulfillment of the Economic Development vision/plan…
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My family is voting for you Jeff.
Jeff says, “I have been a North End neighborhood advocate/activist for many years, serving for 16 of those years as the coordinator of the Lake Forest Block Watch.
The least qualified candidate for Mayor since that grocery store clerk was hired in 1975 and even he was more qualified. The only thing that you have to look forward to is whether you get more votes than Tony Barr recieved when he ran.
I remember one year Jeff ran on a Town Committee slate in the 135th. 8 candidate of color and Jeff.
The eight candidate of color won and another from the other slate won the ninth seat.
Oh well. Maybe next year.
https://www.ctinsider.com/elections/ctpost/article/Bridgeport-mayoral-candidate-Jeff-Kohut-14540813.php
Good luck Jeff…
Thanks, Harvey!
We received robo calls last night from AmyMarie Vizzo-Paniccia and Michelle Lyons. They sent out just 1 mailing piece. I can’t tell if they’re confident – or conerned
that should be concerned, NOT conerned. Geesh!
Jeff Kohut, let me be real clear, you are an embarrassment and disrespectful to the voters of Bridgeport and especially to the black and Hispanic community because you just want to parachute in the election for mayor without listening and meeting the voters to hear their concerns and their issues. No, you think that you know what they want so you have no need to sit down and have a open dialog with the voters. That’s what so call white liberal do, they say just trust them and vote for them and that they’ll take care of them, no way Jeff, no way.
Who are you Rodney Dangerfield? Jeff Kohut is a smart public intellectual. Senator Moore’s biggest financial backers are WASPS! White-Anglo-Saxon-Progressives! Give me a break? And not a Kit Kat break!
Who are you going to call? Ghostbusters?
Try addressing what I wrote, Jeff, you are an embarrassment and disrespectful to the voters of Bridgeport and especially to the black and Hispanic community because you just want to parachute in the election for mayor without listening and meeting the voters to hear their concerns and their issues.
Ron Mackey just dissed a candidate for Mayor before the polls closed.
Before Jeff Kohut “parachuted” into the election, he had policy positions on all issues that came from listening to the voters. Your candidate missed a ballot spot and is issue agnostic.. In response, Jeff Kohut is exhibiting the ultimate winner trait: he’s trying!
At the beginning of the day I believe in equality. At the end of the day I believe in performance.
Bridgeport is full of winners. When will Ron Mackey join their ranks?
So LE, good to hear from you. Did I understand you to say that when this day began all of us were equal as we rolled out of bed and put our feet on the floor moving to a stand-up posture? Are you for real on this subject? Where is this equal starting place for all? Where do you find it in the middle of the day when the competition is hot and heavy? And when you review the race, you give out awards “for trying”? Yessir, we are “A City of Ultimate Winners” but the competitors are professionals, playing with cleats and pads, lots of money and willingness to use it less they lose it, are armed with hockey sticks and baseball bats while we are chasing a frisbee pie plate? Seems like a great visual impression to me. Time will tell.
JML, history is ironic. It tells us how things ended but it rarely tells us how things started.
Here’s the exception: We’re all born equal and then things start to change.
When you see me at the top of the ladder, will you notice the dirt marks on my cheeks?
Time will tell.
Get the hell out of here, policy positions, hell, professors at UB, Fairfield U, Yale, have position policies so let’s elected one of them. Electoral politics is about reaching out to vote to listen to their concerns and issues, also to have a back and forth conversation about issues not someone telling them what they need. How many community meetings has Jeff had with voters outside of the North End? Does Jeff have the ability to be form y coalition with the City Council in order to get his policies passed?
Not one of Moore’s supporters have answered pointed questions about her 200 signatures. Or her strategic plan for turning around our city in planning and economic development. Or city hall. When asked directly, they themselves have large doubts about her. They are just running this as a hope for no Joe. That’s pretty low brow. If you’re going to stand behind a candidate, you should want to know the plans- and the why’s. They do know. The answer is just an embarrassment and everyone knows it.
Moore is heading back to Hartford with her head hanging low, and some enemies made, and in all likelihood a threatened seat for her next run. Rightfully so. The Empress has no clothes!
What a putz you are. What have you done except spit poison on a blog daily for years? Our family is voting for him today. Every person of voting age – all for JEFF K.
Report from the field: as of 1:52pm 659 people have voted at black rock school.
I predict a historically low turnout.
Well,I did vote. I was leaning towards not voting but a political Maxim came to mind;if you don’t vote you shouldn’t complain. About 281 votes at Aquaculture at 2pm which seems high for that time.
Thanks, Grin, Local Eyes, Stevenl!
Black Rock’s vote count was 937 @ 5:10 PM