The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Strong endorsements for Ganim no surprise
If you’re curious why both U.S. senators and Rep. Jim Himes endorsed Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim heading into the weekend, and why Himes, Sen. Richard Blumenthal and Nancy Wyman showed up at a rally Sunday night for Ganim, look at the numbers and watch the video.
The numbers show that in Himes’ 4th U.S. House district, the state’s largest city is far and away the place where Democrats draw their biggest margins. Himes beat his Republican opponent by 19,119 in Bridgeport in 2018.
At least once, his Bridgeport margin was bigger than his winning margin.
So, as some Democrats — most notably Gov. Ned Lamont — walk carefully around the sensitive issue of Connecticut’s most enigmatic politician, others see Ganim and the city’s Democratic machine as part of their lives.
That partly explains why, despite the obvious baggage Ganim brings, such seemingly safe powerbrokers would trek to the restaurant owned by Bridgeport Democratic chairman Mario Testa to sing praises to Ganim on the eve of the election.
But numbers don’t tell the whole story. History matters in politics.
“Before I even knew Joe Ganim, I knew his dad and his uncle,” Blumenthal told a midsized banquet room at Testo’s, packed with Ganim insiders.
“Sometimes on the same side, sometimes on the other side,” Blumenthal quipped, according to a video that was posted on Facebook.
As for Ganim himself, Blumenthal was unstinting. “He gives people his heart and he really works at every angle to make sure they get a fair shot at the American dream, that’s Joe Ganim. That’s why you’re supporting him because you know the kind of leader he is.”
Turning to Testa, the state’s senior U.S. senator said, “Mario and I have known each other since we first arrived in the state Legislature in 1984. … Mario has dedicated himself to the city of Bridgeport.”
Wyman, the former lieutenant governor, now state party chairwoman, served in that same Connecticut House of Representatives with Blumenthal and Testa. “I thank Bridgeport for all of the help you’ve given to me,” she said Sunday night at the rally. “Our base is our future.”
Ah, the base. Let’s not forget, the Democratic base is nowhere more reliable than Bridgeport and New Haven, another city that saw a sensitive party primary last month.
My colleague Ken Dixon, who reported on the rally, described a raucous scene that included no shortage of pizzas from the kitchen and featuring some of the people who circulated absentee ballot applications for Ganim. A Hearst investigation after Ganim’s narrow win over Sen Marilyn Moore in the Sept. 10 primary showed irregularities and improprieties, and led to hearings by Superior Court Judge Barry Stevens on whether Ganim’s 600plusvote margin in the absentee ballots, for a 270vote win, was kosher.
Wyman’s inperson testament contrasted with the more lukewarm statement Wyman sent out Thursday, after Stevens ruled that Ganim was, and is, the legitimate party nominee.
“While today’s court ruling is a disappointment for some, it provides clarity for voters and it is important that we comply. With only days till the election, I urge all registered voters to make a plan to go to the polls on Tuesday,” the statement said.
Yeesh. It’s important that we comply? Wyman, in fact, did not endorse Ganim — nor any Democrat in Tuesday’s election, as that’s not the custom. But her legendary warmth spoke loudly Sunday night.
Ganim opponents say the former felon, who served seven years in prison for corruption, has not reformed and that a federal investigation into the sale of surplus metal — while not targeting Ganim as far as anyone can tell — is an indication.
Bridgeport City Council member Pete Spain, an active Moore supporter, posted on Facebook that Blumenthal, Himes and Murphy were “The Three Stooges.”
“Why couldn’t they have just stayed the heck out of it? What would they have risked?” Spain posted.
Blumenthal told me Monday the endorsement by the Washington delegation members was standard practice. “The three of us endorsed him after the court ruled that he is the Democratic candidate,” Blumenthal said. “We generally endorse the Democratic candidate and that’s what we did.”
The senators and Himes endorsed after the judge’s ruling upholding the primary but before the Supreme Court announced late Friday it would hear the appeal from three voters claiming they were
Lamont, by contrast, had little to say as he told three of us in the media Monday that he didn’t endorse Ganim, not yet, anyway. “Let’s see what the Supreme Court has to say,” Lamont said.
When I asked whether he had a comment on the other ranking elected officials backing Ganim so effusively, Lamont repeated the sentence about the Supreme Court. That, despite the fact that he, too, relied heavily on Bridgeport last year, which gave him a margin of more than 18,000 votes in a statewide race decided by 44,000 votes.
The high court late Monday ruled that the election can go on with Ganim as the Democratic nominee, but that the case may still be heard in more detail. In other words, all sides have room to defend their positions through Tuesday’s elections.
But the point about endorsements is made, and it illustrates the thickness of political blood through history, and the power of a political machine. This is not good or bad, it just is.
As one Ganim supporter who was at the event Sunday pointed out, Himes, Wyman and Blumenthal are not strangers in Bridgeport.
“It’s a part of a world that they understand,” the supporter said. “They have relationships there.”
As for Ganim, the supporter added, “I don’t think people understand how much goodwill there is toward him out in the world that’s not part of inside baseball politics.”