If you get a phone call within the next few days from OIB don’t hang up! Okay, you can hang up if you want but tonight OIB will launch a poll to gauge the standing of Mayor Bill Finch and three possible challengers to his mayoralty.
Since we’re one year away from a Bridgeport Democratic primary we will survey Democrats who voted in the 2007 general election for mayor. Why that universe? Bill Finch won that Democratic constituency overwhelmingly against his Republican opponent after a tough primary from State Rep. Chris Caruso who we will once again test in a head-to-head match against Finch. One year ago Caruso had a slight lead over Finch within the poll’s margin of error.
Once again OIB has commissioned www.merrimanriver.com to conduct the poll. I like these guys because they have an excellent track record measuring their poll results against election outcomes. Merriman River was the only pollster I’m aware of that had Dan Malloy leading Ned Lamont heading into Democratic gubernatorial primary day.
The survey information will implement an automated polling methodology, the same fieldwork Merriman River has used in recent surveys producing accurate results, using one digitally recorded voice to process the interview instead of a live voice. That means we can reach a larger universe of likely Democratic voters in an effort to achieve accuracy, and every likely voter will hear precisely the same question with the same delivery eliminating the potential for human bias. In addition, with a growing Latino audience in the city it allows us to present the automated call in Spanish at the option of the respondent.
In the poll we will test Finch against Caruso as well as former Finch administration official John Gomes who’s an announced candidate; and Mary-Jane Foster, co-founder of the Bridgeport Bluefish baseball team and currently an executive at the University of Bridgeport. One year ago OIB tested (as well as several others) former Mayor John Fabrizi who polled close to Finch. Fabrizi thus far has not shown he’s serious about getting into the race so I’m not testing him this time. Moving forward on future polls we will only test candidates who either are official candidates, or show publicly or tell me they’re legitimately considering a run.
We expect to share the results late this week. Meanwhile what do you expect (or hope) the results to produce?
Problem is … most people are so sick of Linda calls they will hang up on a robo call.
They’re tired of live calls as well.
Tired of Linda, calls or no calls.
Is Mary-Jane Foster seriously considering a run? Most people in Bpt, unless you’re from the business community and they don’t vote here anyway, don’t know who she is. I’m going to pick Caruso as the frontrunner, then Finch, Gomes and Mary-Jane. I do think Gomes will gain strength in the coming months. He is running a grassroots campaign which can be effective over time.
Right now today I am leaning towards Caruso. I am waiting to see what Gomes’ platform is. I am also waiting to hear what the Caruso platform is.
If Caruso starts with the corruption BS again and offers nothing else I will not vote for him.
In either case it’s ABF, Anybody But Finch.
*** As harsh as it may sound, the only remedy for city hall is a candidate who’s willing to clean house & make “top”-heavy cuts overall. They may not get elected a second time around but it may draw the needed line in the sand, so to speak. ***
Mojo // Sep 7, 2010 at 8:35 am
Mojo,
Your above posting is on point and it is possibly true the cleanup may not produce a second term for the Mayor who decides a broom is better than a bribe. If the cleanup of City Hall however, is done quickly and consistently, you may be looking at a candidate capable of getting re-elected several times.
In your survey sample universe, how many voters do you need for a scientific sampling?
In live caller sampling of likely Dem voters in Bridgeport 350 to 400 was the goal. The automated process, however, now will allow us to sample hundreds of additional likely voters. You can reach more voters through this process.
Did I read on OIB recently that the four deputy chiefs in the city PD are members of a bargaining unit? Does that leave the chief as the only non-union cop in town?
Jeez, can we hamstring ourselves in managing the city any more?
I am not screeching about the unions here, but please … there have to be more people who see that situation as problematic!
Good info, if it’s true, to whoever shared it here.
John I can assure you that the Deputy Police Chiefs and the Deputy Fire Chiefs are all in the bargaining unit. Leaving only the Police Chief and the Fire Chief as the only non-union members.
I am sorry to say I don’t think there is a candidate here who will do a thing for the city except enforce the status quo. I think Finch has his heart in the right place but his outcomes have been poor. Clean and green? Wherever you are in the city take a look on the streets and sidewalks. Clean? Green, a couple recycling bins and a rain barrel don’t really do the trick, in a city that eats emissions from the UI and the Resco incinerator. How about figuring how to clean up the Remington site? I have been sucking the acrid smoke from that fire for a week now.
Gang violence is up as well as petty crimes and murders.
In a city with the longstanding deeply entrenched issues we have we need someone who is willing to completely throw themselves in and be a never-ending cheerleader, fearless fighter of the forces of corruption and laziness that plague the city workforce. We need someone who will not accept “it’s always been that way” or the notion there is anything charming about the idea we are a city where anything goes.
We need someone who will fight against the suburban forces who have a vested interest in our being a clearinghouse for the state’s social service agencies so they will have a place to dump their problems that is nicely isolated from their idyllic hamlets.
None of these candidates has one tenth of what it will take to pull us up out of our self-imposed spot at the bottom rung of Connecticut’s economic ladder. Self imposed because most of us sit around complaining about how Sh**ty the city is without doing a thing to change that.
We need a charismatic leader who will inspire the good folks and put fear in the hearts of those who wish to take advantage of our abundant resources for their own personal gain.
That said I do appreciate that Mayor Finch has left the city’s dignity intact by not getting indited on any charges, using drugs or supporting sex offenders. That IS a step in the right direction, make no mistake.
Want an example of what we need? Here is one.
www .ci.newark.nj.us/government/mayor_booker
There will be no panacea for this city we need an effort by a huge group of motivated citizens to work together to keep whats great about the city and ruthlessly root out the deep-seated bad.
Who will will step up for this? If Grandma did not have such a sordid past she would have half a mind to start knocking on doors right now. Who will be our Corey Booker? I don’t think it’s too late to jump in.
GrandmaMoses // Sep 7, 2010 at 11:09 am
Responding to the above posting …
Cory Booker is a good choice for an example of how it can be done.
What’s needed in Bridgeport is a candidate who isn’t made by the machine and that’s almost impossible to find after all these years of corruption.
I believe that Bridgeport has citizens still willing to upset the status quo. Among them is John M. Gomes. He already started to upset the status quo as Director of CitiStat-Bridgeport.
It was machine politics and a scaredy-cat Mayor who ended the good work Gomes was doing on behalf of Bridgeport taxpayers and citizens when Finch abruptly ended his appointment of Gomes after just one year. Like the 9 or 10 others before him who were made unwelcome in the Finch administration, John could have sued. That would certainly have burdened the taxpayers more. With all the good ideas of CitiStat-Bridgeport that the Mayor rejected, John has enough reform actions resulting from CitiStat-Bridgeport that he will be busy non-stop during his first term.
Good idea, to do a survey to find out what local residents think about the coming election.
Don’t forget about out-of-town folks either. After all, millions have been spent on studies and most recently on a tourist TV commercial. What data the commercial was based on, what demographic, I don’t know. I do recall the Bridgeport Master Plan, approved earlier this year, indicates in its economic development section that upwardly mobile 18-35 yrs old is target audience for city growth in the teardrop city center. Not sure our TV ad is based on any market research, focus group findings or surveys, as opposed to just feel good. Let me know if you know of any.
Anyway, so we went out ourselves to find out what some out-of-town people are saying. But first we went over to the Remington Arms to see what was going on there. We were not alone. Apart from the cops, one thing we did find is, guess what Jim C, (“People in the suburbs don’t want history, diversity …”) we found exactly that … out-of-state tourists looking for history at the Remington building. We filmed their comments and will try to run them on tonight’s TV show “Bridgeport Now” at 8pm.
We then went to a more obvious tourist attraction and spoke to people at the Bluefish stadium. They said they liked coming to the games but would feel more comfortable if they felt the parking lot was safer and would favor having surveillance camera in place there. Actually I know of one City Council member advocating such cameras, not necessarily at that site. Surveillance is one of the topics tonight. By the way, such cameras do exist somewhere in Black Rock on Fairfield Ave already and has busted some crimes. Tune in to find out where.
john gilmore, as for the police and fire deputy chiefs being in the bargaining unit, the State Labor Board has ruled years ago that a municipality can petition to have those positions out of the union, i.e. Hartford Fire Department.
One of the key reasons is the chief needs a confidential person with the power to enforce the chief’s decisions like having someone fired without that deputy having any alliance and loyalty to the union but only the responsibility to the mayor.
Anyone gonna call us East Siders? How come no one commented on the BOE voting for Bodine building tonight. That’s 10 million taxpayer dollars being voted on and not a mention in the Juicy place.
*** The more candidates to study & choose from, the better for the voters next fall. However Mr. Gomes has quite an uphill battle without the minority vote as a whole never mind the rest of the voters. As a small-business man with past “unknown” community involvement & ex-political job employee of the Finch Admin. who has an axe to grind, it’s hard to take him seriously. It’s not like anything concrete then & now has come out of this CitiStat Dept. regardless of who’s working there? Yet it’s not completely unthinkable when it comes to Bpt politics past & present! From what I’ve heard so far, the blacks, latinos & whites are still searching for their very own candidate for Mayor & only time will tell. *** Is it the political party or the actual candidate that matters? ***
I have a comment about the Deputy Police Chiefs and their memberships in the union. Since the Acting Police Chief was a Deputy Police Chief, is he too still a member of the union?
I would imagine he is still part of the union as he is only an acting chief of the department.
TC–does that mean he too is receiving overtime payments??? Please tell me that is NOT so! I would think as a contingency to this acting position, he would have to suspend his membership in the union. Please tell me that IS so!