The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Ganim: Forums lack diversity
Saying gubernatorial candidate events lack diversity, Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim has asked the state Democratic Party to do a better job reaching out to the state’s most diverse communities.
“It is obvious to any observer that those in attendance at these forums are almost all white, even though almost 33 percent of Connecticut residents are black or Latino,” Ganim wrote in a letter to Democratic State Chairman Nick Balleto.
Ganim is calling on the state Democratic Party to take centralized control of open candidate forums, which have been left to local town committees to schedule and organize. He asked Balleto to lead the effort to set up candidate forums “that specifically reach out to Democratic voters in communities of color in order to increase awareness and participation by all in the state.”
In response, Balleto said local town committees are independently hosting their forums and called on Ganim to do the same.
“No candidate is required to attend any of these forums,” Balleto wrote in reply. “Joe Ganim, as the Democratic leader in the largest city in the state with ample resources, is perfectly capable of holding a forum, so we’d ask that he practice what he preaches as town after town across Connecticut holds their own forum.”
Ganim, who is one of several Democrats running for governor, said forums with more audience diversity would reflect the “Democrats as a party of inclusion.”
“It should be unacceptable that a party with inclusion as its core — that also heavily depends on participation from minority voters to win elections — has not yet made a sufficient effort to hold candidate forums in communities of color, or done its utmost to be more inclusive,” Ganim wrote.
Of course, the candidates on stage seem to be representative of the audiences they’re attracting, though Ganim said that is not the issue at hand.
“There’s multiple candidates for almost every statewide office, and within that I think are men, women, people of color, Latino, black, Asian and white,” Ganim said. “Not in the gubernatorial, but I think throughout the rest, and I think the ticket, in my view, is diverse.”
The state GOP has taken the opposite approach to hosting forums, with the central committee organizing formal debates in each of the state’s five congressional districts. Additionally, the party often criticized for a perceived lack for diversity has two immigrant candidates and, as of Monday, a female candidate officially eyeing the governor’s office.
“You’re seeing more diversity on the Republican side of the aisle because people are starting to realize the damage Democrats have done to the state,” state GOP Chairman JR Romano said.