Bridgeport Democrats reelect Geter-Pataky as vice chair
Ganim ally accused in absentee ballot scandal keeps post; Testa remains party chief
BRIDGEPORT — The city’s Democratic Town Committee overwhelmingly reelected Wanda Geter-Pataky as its second-in-command Monday, despite her being the focus of a trio of state and local election investigations.
“The public convicted the lady without due process,” longtime chairman Mario Testa, who nominated her and was also backed for another term in charge, said in an interview afterward. “Let it take its course. Then we see where we go from there.”
The 90-member group represents Bridgeport’s 42,587 registered Democrats and selects local party leaders on a biennial basis.
An ally of Mayor Joe Ganim, Geter-Pataky has been at the heart of an absentee ballot scandal that made national and international news and resulted in a new court-ordered mayoral primary Jan. 23 and a court-ordered Feb. 27 do-over general election. As a result she has, including Monday, repeatedly refused interviews and referred questions to her attorney, John Gulash.
But after the vote she briefly broke her public silence.
“I’ve been through hell,” Geter-Pataky told the crowd of mostly admirers.
She said she has never sought the spotlight and has always worked hard for the party. And she had a message for her critics.
“You are no better than I am,” she said.
Geter-Pataky was clearly among friends Monday, with 65 of those town committee members present reelecting her as Testa’s vice chair and some enthusiastically chanting her name. A small group of reformers cast nine other votes for Gemeem Davis, who helps run the Generation Now and Generation Now Votes civic groups and was a lastminute protest nomination. And there were five abstentions.
Geter-Pataky also was unanimously reelected head of the East Side group of town committee members. The committee is composed of members from 10 districts, each with its own leader.
City Councilwoman Rev. Mary McBride-Lee has been a vocal defender of Geter-Pataky’s these last few months. McBride-Lee following the
meeting said of the support shown her friend, “She’s been going through a lot. I feel elated.”
“A person is innocent until found guilty,” McBride-Lee said. “She hasn’t been found guilty of anything yet. I don’t think her life should be on hold.”
Gomes supporter Maria Pires has a seat on the town committee. She said enough evidence against Geter-Pataky came out in the trial over Gomes’ lawsuit and she should not have been reelected vice chair.
“I’m not surprised but I’m disappointed,” Pires said.
Pires was part of a very small group of members Monday night who nominated alternate candidates who were defeated each time by an impatient crowd eager to move business along quickly and adjourn.
“You guys are trying to hold us up over here,” Testa said at one point.
Testa has become a political institution in Bridgeport. He was first elected in 1992 and has run Bridgeport’s Democrats for almost the entirety of that three-decade period.
On Monday City Councilman Jorge Cruz tried and failed to unseat Testa. Cruz, another Gomes supporter, cited as his reason a recent ruling by a threeperson dispute resolution panel of the state party which last week concluded Bridgeport’s town committee must take steps to make itself more professional and publicly accessible.
“We need to come into the 21st century,” Cruz told the crowd after Testa opted not to make a campaign speech. “More engagement, more outreach to the community . ... The majority do not know what a Democratic Town Committee is. Why? Because we have failed.
But Testa was reelected with 66 votes to Cruz’s six, with seven abstentions.
Last fall Superior Court Judge William Clark voided Ganim’s slim reelection victory in the Sept. 12 Democratic primary and ordered new elections in part because of leaked municipal security video footage made public in September by Ganim’s chief rival, John Gomes. Gomes claimed the videos showed Ganim-backer Geter-Pataky ahead of the primary inappropriately placing multiple absentee ballots into a public dropoff box outside of the downtown government center where she works as the greeter.
Following a three day trial initiated by a lawsuit by Gomes, Clark concluded, “Wanda Geter-Pataky, directly or through another, made 10 separate drops . ... They appear to be conscious acts with a partisan purpose that violates the mandatory requirements of how absentee ballots are supposed to be handled or delivered. The mishandling of absentee ballots by Ms. Geter-Pataky ... in violation of (state law) renders those ballots so mishandled, incapable of being validly cast and thus incapable of being counted.”
Geter-Pataky while on the witness stand invoked her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination when asked whether she handled other people’s absentee ballots. It was a civil trial and she did not face any penalties as a result of Clark’s ruling.
But the same absentee ballot controversy is currently under investigation by the State Elections Enforcement Commission. And last June following a nearly four-year probe into similar allegations against Ganim’s 2019 reelection campaign, the SEEC referred unspecified “evidence of possible criminal violations undertaken” by three of the mayor’s supporters, Geter-Pataky included, to the office of Chief State’s Attorney Patrick Griffin. That case remains pending.
Meanwhile Geter-Pataky faces a third investigation, this one being conducted by a private labor attorney hired earlier this year to determine if she violated any municipal personnel rules. A few days after the Gomes campaign released the security footage, Geter-Pataky was placed on paid administrate leave from her job at the government center.
A city native, Geter-Pataky has long been recognized as a loyal, hardworking, behind-thescenes Democratic operative. In September 2019, she was feted at the state party’s annual Women’s Leadership Awards Brunch and described at the time as “a fierce volunteer and advocate, knocking doors and rallying her large group of friends and family for her candidates.”
And the recent controversies have not made her a pariah within the local party. Although she kept a lower profile ahead of the new mayoral primary and general election, GeterPataky attended the mayor’s Feb. 27 victory party over Gomes wearing sunglasses and a red hat emblazoned with the word “queen.”