Ortiz disputes shortfall of petition signatures in Senate primary bid
BRIDGEPORT — Juliemar Ortiz’s campaign as of Thursday was facing a shortfall of signatures needed for her to qualify for this summer’s 23rd Senate District Democratic primary.
“We are currently communicating with the registrar (of voters) and hoping we can get them to fix the signatures they incorrectly invalidated,” Bryan Chong, a spokesperson for Ortiz, said.
The district is mostly within Bridgeport, but includes part of Stratford along Stratford Avenue and Honeyspot Road.
According to Chong, Ortiz and her allies needed to gather 1,585 signatures from registered Democrats in the district’s Bridgeport and Stratford neighborhoods for her to compete against endorsed candidate the Rev. Herron Gaston and incumbent Dennis Bradley in the Aug. 9 primary.
The campaign submitted 1,905. The registrar’s office then validates those signatures and forwards them to the Secretary of the State. That latter agency as of late afternoon Thursday had tallied 1,547 signatures for Ortiz.
The problem, Chong explained, is that Bridgeport tossed out about 80 signatures, many of which were crucial to get Ortiz to her 1,585 threshold.
“We are disputing at least 80 signatures,” he said. “Dozens of signatures that the registrar marked as not registered voters (that) we found simply to be wrong.”
He said the registrar has also disputed the qualifications of one of the individuals who circulated the petitions.
Bridgeport Democratic Registrar Patricia Howard could not immediately be reached for comment Thursday.
Meanwhile Desmond Conner, communications director for Secretary of the State Denise Merrill, said that office only tabulates the data forwarded it by the registrars.
“We don’t have anything to do with the validity of the signatures once we get
them,” he said Thursday, adding any dispute between a campaign and a registrar would have to go to court.
“We are hoping it may come to a resolution,” Chong said. But, he continued, “The bottom line is we’re prepared to fight tooth and nail to defend the people’s right to a fair and transparent election.”
Bradley, a local attorney and former school board member, was elected to the state Senate in 2018 and reelected in 2020. Then last May he was arrested on federal charges of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud related to his 2018 campaign fundraising efforts.
Gaston, who works for Mayor Joe Ganim as an assistant chief administrative officer, successfully challenged Bradley for the Democratic Town Committee’s endorsement at its May convention.
But Bradley — whose trial has continually faced delays — received enough delegate support to automatically qualify for the August primary. In contrast Ortiz, a former aide for state Senate Democrats and former press secretary for Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz , did not, resulting in her required petition drive.
Ortiz was also earlier this month cross-endorsed by the Working Families third party which over the years has proven to be a force in Democrat-dominated Bridgeport politics.
“We did help with the petition drive,” Sarah Ganong, director of the Connecticut Working Families, said Thursday. “I know the campaign feels pretty confident ... they have obtained the correct signatures (and) Juliemar will be able to get on the ballot.”