Among the four campaign workers the state charged with alleged absentee ballot fraud from 2019, Josephine Edmonds worked for the mayoral campaign of State Senator Marilyn Moore who announced recently she’ll not seek another term in the legislative chamber.
“It’s not something that I encouraged or fostered, or was the norm in my campaign,” she told CT Public about the charges, “But for the other campaign, it was a norm for people to do that.”
Really? Let’s examine the norm for Marilyn Moore’s election snafus:
Fact: guess who Moore hired to run her absentee ballot campaign in 2019? Betty Chappell who one year prior entered multiple guilty pleas in state court for violations of absentee ballot fraud.
Hmm, want more?
In 2019 the only mayoral candidate fined by the state was, in fact, Marilyn Moore who entered into a consent agreement with a state watchdog agency to pay a $300 fine for not witnessing signatures on a nominating petition page, as required by state law, during her 2019 failed mayoral bid.
The State Elections Enforcement Commission complaint brought by former City Councilman Joel Gonzalez accused Moore of improperly ceding the collection of signatures to a campaign surrogate as she sought to gain ballot access on the Connecticut Working Families Party line for the November general election, an effort that ultimately failed and caused much angst in her campaign camp for fumbling Plan B after losing a close primary to Mayor Joe Ganim.
Let’s fast forward to 2023, Moore’s embarrassing run for mayor when she failed to qualify for the ballot again, this time to primary Ganim a second time.
She created another self-inflicted gaffe engaging in an improper dark-money arrangement with the conflicted Bridgeport Generation Now Votes. Let’s examine:
On June 3, founders of the political committee Callie Heilmann and Gemeem Davis publicly endorsed Moore for mayor on the Broad Street steps Downtown, the candidate in attendance. That very day, Niels Heilmann, the wealthy Black Rock treasurer of the group, donated $350 to Moore’s candidate committee, according to Moore’s campaign finance report.
The GEN NOW VOTES report shows that at least $2,000 was spent to endorse and benefit Moore’s candidacy that day which the candidate attended. In addition the report shows that more than $5,000 was paid out to Gen Now Votes campaign workers to benefit Moore including pay days for Heilmann and Davis.
On June 8, Callie Heilmann and Davis donated $1,000 and $100 respectively to Moore’s campaign on the day she held a fundraiser at Bank Sports Bar Downtown, according to Moore’s fundraising report. Davis attended the fundraiser.
State law prohibits independent expenditure organizations such as Gen Now Votes from coordinating spending with candidates it supports. That means operatives from the respective camps cannot consult, discuss strategy, banter how funds will be spent: it’s a firewall to provide fairness in elections.
What ultimately happened as a result of OIB’s reporting? Moore became distracted, failed to make the ballot and then announced her retirement from public office.
Hmm, did she announce her retirement because more investigations underway?
Tell your landlady there was no violations in Ganim’s camp that OIB found.
Sonny, none of my ladies own land.