Will Geter-Pataky remain Democrats’ vice chair?
BRIDGEPORT — Although involved in three election-related investigations, Wanda Geter-Pataky could be reelected first vice chair of the city’s Democratic Town Committee Monday.
On Monday the 90member group representing Bridgeport’s 42,587 registered Democrats holds its biennial gathering to select local party leaders.
Veteran Chairman Mario Testa faces no opposition and is expected to be in charge for another two years. He has three vice chairs, including GeterPataky. She 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 doover general election.
Reached by phone Friday, Geter-Pataky declined comment on whether she desires to remain Testa’s second-in-command and referred questions to her attorney, John Gulash, who also declined comment.
“She wants it (and) I believe she has the support,” state Rep. Christopher Rosario, a close friend of Geter-Pataky’s, said Friday. “She’s been a great Democrat. She’s been a great person in the community.”
Testa could not be reached for comment. But the party’s second vice chair, Anthony Paoletto, said he had heard from members that will support her, and some that won’t.
“So I don’t know,” he said.
Snother town committee member, Johanna Dorgan, said her guess was that Geter-Pataky had enough votes.
She added she would back Geter-Pataky if she is nominated Monday.
“She is innocent until proven guilty,” Dorgan said.
Last fall Superior Court Judge William Clark voided Mayor Joe Ganim’s slim re-election victories in the Sept. 12 Democratic primary and the Nov. 7 general election and ordered new elections in part because of leaked municipal security video footage made public in September by Ganim’s chief rival, John Gomes, who claimed they showed Ganim-backer Geter-Pataky ahead of the primary inappropriately placing multiple absentee ballots into a public drop-off 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. And she has never commented publicly on the controversy or responded to requests for interviews.
The absentee ballot controversy is under investigation by the state Elections Enforcement Commission. Last June following a nearly four-year probe into similar allegations against Ganim’s 2019 re-election 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 her absentee ballot activities 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-the-scenes 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, Geter-Pataky attended the mayor’s Feb. 27 victory party over Gomes wearing sunglasses and a red hat emblazoned with the word “queen.”
Still, there are some town committee members who on Friday were not eager for her return.
Joseph Sokolovic, who also sits on the school board and had endorsed Gomes, said even if it is a futile effort he will try to see that Geter-Pataky is not re-elected first vice chair Monday.
“I don’t know who I’m going to nominate yet, but there will be alternative nominations to those in power right now who have embarrassed our city and state,” Sokolovic said. “My voice will be yelling out another name if it has to be ‘Mickey Mouse.’ ”
City Councilman Matthew McCarthy, a Ganim supporter, declined to speak specifically about Geter-Pataky, but said, “I just want to see overall change within the Democratic Town Committee . ... There should be change in leadership, change in the way we conduct business.”
Councilman Ernie Newton also is a town committee member. He noted that years ago, when he was a state senator he was convicted of corruption, spent time in jail, then waged a political comeback. He added the same happened with Ganim, who went to jail in 2003 after his first 12 years running Bridgeport and was re-elected mayor in 2015.
“Wanda is a good vicechairperson,” Newton said. “Some people might get upset, but we’re a forgiving city. The mayor’s been to prison. I’ve been to prison. I don’t know what the state’s going to do (with her cases) but I think if Wanda wants to stay on there, she should stay . ... I guarantee you, nobody’s perfect.”