Mayoral race in the homestretch
GOP’s Rodriguez says he is ‘a humble’ candidate
BRIDGEPORT — For the past two years, when local Republicans needed a candidate for office, John Rodriguez answered the call.
He ran unsuccessfully for City Council in 2017 and last year lost his bid for state Senate. On Nov. 5, Rodriguez will be on the ballot as the GOP’s mayoral candidate.
As usual, it will be an uphill battle. Registered Democrats outnumber Republicans in Bridgeport roughly 46,500 to 4,300. And while Rodriguez has raised a couple thousand dollars for his campaign, his two main opponents — Democratic incumbent Joe Ganim and writein candidate state Sen. Marilyn Moore — have received a combined hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions.
“It’s the people’s time to stand up,” Rodriguez said. “If you want another four years of the same results, fine.”
Rodriguez, 67, who moved to town from New York nine years ago, promised, “I’m not saying I’m going to walk on water, but I’m going to bring it back to basics.”
Rodriguez’s concerns are the basics often asked of a mayor: lower taxes, bring more businesses to the city and improve education. While none of those goals are novel, Rodriguez claimed to be a different candidate because he is not a politician like Ganim and Moore, harbors no other ambitions and, should he pull off a win, will not have big political debts to repay.
“I’m a humble man. I don’t live large. My concern is for the people,” Rodriguez said.
Ganim, Rodriguez maintained, has simply been mayor for too long. Ganim first ran Bridgeport in the 1990s, was convicted of running a paytoplay scheme in 2003, spent seven years in prison and waged a successful comeback in 2015.
“This is Ganim’s city,” Rodriguez said. “Being a newcomer, looking around, I’m saying, ‘This is nothing to brag about.’ ”
Rodriguez called Moore a “lovely woman” but “part of the problem.” While Moore is running as a re
former independent of Ganim and Democratic Chairman Mario Testa, Rodriguez said she is still part of the party that has controlled the city’s destiny for too long.
Moore would make history as the city’s first minority mayor. So would Rodriguez, who is Latino.
Rodriguez retired from a career in the supermarket and wholesale foods industries. He is in his third year as president of the executive board for Bridge Academy Charter School and said he is passionate about improving education.
Critics accuse Ganim of
not being engaged in education and of flatfunding the schools in his proposed municipal budgets.
“For me, it’s going to have to be education first and foremost,” Rodriguez said.
But while willing to budget more money toward the schools, Rodriguez said he also has questions about how the current resources are spent. And though the school board is an independently elected body, Rodriguez wants an audit of their expenses and programs.
To better fund the schools, Rodriguez would cut other municipal departments’ costs and overtime, including funds for emergency services.
“Police, I respect them. Have them in my family. I love these guys. They should be compensated. Fire (fighters), they should be compensated,” Rodriguez said. “At the same time, work with us.”
Ganim has said he has and will continue to try to reduce Bridgeport’s high tax rate by luring businesses. In Rodriguez’s opinion, Bridgeport will never reach its full economic potential with Ganim in office because of his 2003 corruption conviction.
“I speak to various business people and they say, ‘Oh, Ganim.’ ... They look at Bridgeport as a cesspool. A joke,” Rodriguez said, though he did not offer any examples.
Rodriguez said he is fully behind a proposal by MGM Resorts International to build a casino and hotel in Bridgeport. Rodriguez denied MGM’s interest in the city is proof businesses have no trouble working with Ganim and his administration.
“MGM is way bigger than Ganim, Testa and the Democratic Party,” Rodriguez said.
Because he and Ganim are the only mayoral candidates on the ballot — Moore is one of four writein contenders — Rodriguez said he believes he has a “30 to 40 percent” chance of victory with the support of Republicans and some of the city’s 24,000 unaffiliated voters.
But Rodriguez is not even assured a majority of GOP votes. Republican Ethan Book is one of the writein candidates.
And Rodriguez’s party affiliation may also turn off voters who dislike divisive Republican President Donald Trump. Rodriguez initially did not want to talk about his support of Trump or of the latter’s racist comments targeting minorities.
He did not have a high opinion of the Democrats in Congress and said he hoped voters will focus on the economy in the 2020 election.
“You have one crazy or another crazy,” Rodriguez said. “I’ll stick with this crazy (Trump) because I’m eating and have a job.”