Bysiewicz woos state’s cities after local loss
Susan Bysiewicz stood on the sidewalk outside of the East Side Senior Center in Bridgeport on Thursday, chatting with state Rep. Ezequiel Santiago, preparing to meet and greet the elderly voters eating lunch inside.
When the well-dressed candidate for lieutenant governor and her suit-andtie-clad spokesman walked into the senior center, member Jorge Gavilan, who was entering at the same time, said, “Somebody’s running for mayor.”
Whatever the elected office, Democratic candidates know they need Connecticut’s cities to win. And Bysiewicz emphasized Thursday how important Bridgeport, the state’s biggest city, is to her and her running mate, gubernatorial candidate Ned Lamont, in their effort to defeat a GOP slate topped by Republican Bob Stefanowski.
“Bridgeport is hugely important,” Bysiewicz told Hearst Connecticut Media in a brief interview. “Look at how Bridgeport has made a difference in the past two gubernatorial campaigns (and) for (Congressman) Jim Himes . ... We’re gonna be here a lot.”
Lamont was in town last week to try and make peace with Mayor Joe Ganim, whom the Greenwich millionaire and entrepreneur crushed in last Tuesday’s party primary. The pair had a private meeting.
If Bridgeport Democrats had had their way, not only would Ganim be their candidate for governor, but political newcomer Eva Bermudez Zimmerman, not Bysiewicz, his running mate.
In Bridgeport, the Latina Bermudez Zimmerman beat the white Bysiewicz 4,209 votes to 3,353. And Bermudez Zimmerman had local support from minority leaders like Santiago, state Rep. Christopher Rosario and City Council President Aidee Nieves.
All three elected officials, however, joined Bysiewicz at the senior center Thursday.
“We saw an opportunity to give our community a voice” by backing Bermudez Zimmerman, Rosario said. “We had the highest vote margin of victory for Eva (in Bridgeport). That’s something Susan immediately saw — that she needed to make inroads. And listen, we had a candidate, it didn’t work out, we have to move on.”
Nieves noted neither Lamont nor Bysiewicz did too much primary campaigning in Bridgeport: “This is Joe’s (Ganim’s) backyard. They know they have to come back to us now and have that conversation.”
Rosario said Lamont and Bysiewicz have promised, if elected, to focus on urban job creation and to appoint a diverse cabinet of state officials.
Santiago said Team Lamont is supportive of the Bridgeport legislative delegation’s efforts to pass a bill establishing a competitive process for building an entertainment resort, including a casino, in the city. “From what I understand, they think that that’s fair.”
Asked by Hearst where she stands on the casino, Bysiewicz said she and Lamont “are supportive of creating good-paying jobs in Bridgeport,” but also want to make sure “we don’t compromise” the decadesold revenue-sharing deals the state has with the Indian tribes that operate the two casinos in southeastern Connecticut.
“Casino gambling is not my favorite form of economic development,” Bysiewicz said, adding she wants to create more advanced manufacturing, information technology, financial services and green energy jobs.
“We want to help Bridgeport beyond getting them a casino and resort,” Bysiewicz said.
Bysiewicz said she also wants to see more transitoriented development. A train station retiring Gov. Dannel P. Malloy had proposed for the East Side is in limbo because there is no money to build it.
“We’re going to work with our next governor and lieutenant governor to get it done,” Rosario said.
Also present Thursday was Councilwoman Maria Valle, who helps out at the senior center. She would like to see state aid committed to helping the center, which rents its space, buy property on the East Side “so we can have our own place.”
Valle said while most of the seniors present — and in fact a large number of Bridgeport residents — are Democrats, Team Lamont cannot take those votes for granted: “I think they’re going to have to do some work.”