The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Testa bets on primary in governor race
BRIDGEPORT — For a powerful Democratic kingmaker whose preferred gubernatorial candidate exited the party’s convention a loser, Mario Testa is not sitting around sulking.
Testa, Bridgeport’s veteran town committee chairman, in an interview Wednesday night at his eponymous North End restaurant, hinted at the influential roles he, Connecticut’s largest city and it’s mayor, Joseph Ganim, still have to play in the governor’s race.
Asked repeatedly by Hearst Connecticut Media if he was open to a deal for Ganim to abandon his ongoing gubernatorial bid and back convention nominee Ned Lamont of Greenwich, Testa eventually said, “The doors are always open.”
But would Testa and Ganim actually strike a deal? And what do they want?
“The deals we gonna be making is what’s best for the City of Bridgeport,” Testa, who has a thick Italian accent, said. “There’s a lot of items on the agenda. Casino would be a number one priority.”
In other words, Lamont’s support to build a controversial casino proposed for the city’s waterfront.
Sources from both campaigns, however, are not anticipating a truce anytime soon and are readying for a summer primary.
A little over one week ago, with other contenders dropping out to back Lamont, including Susan Bysiewicz, who joined his ticket as lieutenant governor, some Ganim allies privately spoke about the mayor doing the same.
Then the all-white Lamont/Bysiewicz team-up was criticized for its lack of diversity. And Ganim had a new campaign talking point in the heavily-minority urban centers where he has a skill for wooing voters.
Still, Ganim — and Testa, since one does not make big political decisions without the other — got trounced by Lamont at the convention. Bridgeport’s mayor did not even receive the 15 percent of delegate votes necessary to qualify for a primary.
Now his campaign is collecting the 15,458 signatures of registered Democrats necessary to force a primary against Lamont.
“There’s two reasons he’s not interested in a deal,” said one Ganim supporter. The first is that Ganim sees “a path to beat Lamont” in the cities. Ganim’s allies also consider the mayor the more skilled campaigner.
Secondly Ganim and Testa will have more leverage once the mayor has qualified to appear on the primary ballot. As of Thursday his campaign claimed to have “over 14,000 signatures.”
“This is not the time to negotiate,” said the Ganim supporter.
Testa’s restaurant on Wednesday night was busy with the regular dinner and bar crowd and, in a banquet room, fellow Democrats nominating a candidate for one of Bridgeport’s two state Senate districts.
And their host was pressuring everyone he could to get on board with the petition drive.
“You gotta help me on the signatures,” Testa told some City Council members.
Testa noted the campaign needs to collect more signatures than the 15,458 minimum to account for the many likely to be rejected by city and state elections officials. Realistically the number of signatures needed is closer to 21,000.
And if the petition effort falls short and Ganim fails to primary, “It will be embarrassing to me,” Testa told the councilmen.
He slid another petition in front of a customer in the bar who claimed to have already signed one a few days earlier.
If Ganim qualifies for a primary, it will be impressive, but he is still thought to have an uphill battle against Lamont.
First elected in 1991, the mayor was convicted of corruption in 2003. He won his old job back in 2015, but that criminal record is a challenge in a statewide race. It also disqualifies Ganim from receiving millions of dollars in public campaign finance grants.
Meanwhile Lamont is a self-funding millionaire.
Some Lamont backers claim they are not sweating facing Ganim in a primary and that it would be a good preparation for a tough general election in November against whichever Republican emerges from the GOP’s crowded primary.
Lamont in a brief interview Thursday recalled how Testa supported him in his failed 2010 run for governor.
“I can tell you that eight years ago Mario endorsed me on behalf of Bridgeport. Everybody said, ‘What did you do? What was the deal?” Lamont recalled. “Mario asked me one thing — just promise me you’ll remember Bridgeport. He didn’t ask for a casino, for any other specific quid pro quo at all. Just, ‘Will you remember Bridgeport?’ And that’s the deal I’d make today.”