The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Friction under surface for Dems
The Democratic State Convention that kicks off on Friday — hailing U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy in downtown Hartford — will showcase a facade of party unity.
Gubernatorial support is coalescing around Ned Lamont. First Susan Bysiewicz withdrew her challenge for the nomination and joined on as Lamont’s running mate. Then, on Thursday, Sean Connolly, the former state Department of Veterans Affairs Commissioner, dropped his bid. Now Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim is Lamont’s only expected convention challenger.
But underneath the surface of togetherness, rumblings of complaints over party diversity could erupt at the Connecticut Convention Center this weekend. No sooner was the Lamont-Bysiewicz union cemented than Ganim took to a podium to proclaim the party was overlooking the needs of the inner city, a group of New Haven clergy decried the lack of diversity among top-of-the ticket candidates.
Eva Bermudez Zimmerman, a union organizer from Newtown, was suddenly moved to declare her candidacy for lieutenant governor.
“Today, I am making that commitment, because I believe that our party and our state are ready for a truly diverse and representative slate, and because I will contribute new perspective and unique experience at the highest level of state politics and government,” Zimmerman, a Latina and Hartford native, said in a statement.
Zimmerman, who could become a lightning rod among those of the 1,998 delegates who think the top of the ticket should
better reflect the state’s racial and ethnic diversity, quickly picked up support from State Sen. Gary Winfield.
“You know this race changed on Monday,” Winfield said, referring to Lamont’s selection of Bysiewicz. Winfield has been a proponent of progressive causes in the General Assembly, from prison reform to the blight of the cities.
“Timing is everything in politics,” he said. “It’s also about possibilities.”
Those possibilities, Winfield said, include the inevitability of black or Latino governor.
“You can’t say what they say to us all the time: that we need a ‘qualified candidate,’ ” said Winfield, who said he recently met with
Lamont to talk about the campaign.
“He’s a nice guy,” Winfield said. “One thing helping Ned Lamont is he’s not shooting down Connecticut.”
Though Lamont’s nomination is all but assured, the same can't be said for Bysiewicz, a former secretary of the state and state representative from Middletown. Despite declaring themselves a team, the governor and lieutenant governor positions have separate nominating processes.
Other races to watch in the convention include the Attorney General’s race in which there are four candidates competing: William Tong, a state representative from Stamford, Chris Mattei, the former federal prosecutor who put former Gov. John Rowland in prison, assistant attorney general Clare Kindall and state Sen. Paul Doyle, of Wethersfield.
In the Treasurer’s race there are also four candidates, including two Greenwich residents Dita Bhargava Bhargava, a former hedge fund portfolio manager, and John Blankley, who has worked as a chartered accountant with PricewaterhouseCoopers and as chief financial officer of BP North America. Others include Shawn Wooden, the former President of the Hartford City Council and Arunan Arulampalam, a lawyer who advises banks and financial institutions.