Gomes to stay in Bridgeport mayoral race; fourth election pending

John Gomes announced he is not dropping his campaign for mayor of Bridgeport, a decision that will lead to the city’s fourth municipal election in six months.

Bridgeport Democrat John Gomes announced Wednesday he is not dropping his campaign for mayor, a decision that will lead to the city’s fourth municipal election in the past six months.

Gomes already lost three matchups against Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim, including a special court-ordered primary on Jan. 23 that the incumbent won by more than 1,000 votes.

Those results, however, have not deterred Gomes, who successfully challenged the results of last year’s Democratic mayoral primary after video evidence allegedly captured Ganim supporters and local Democratic Party leaders illegally dumping absentee ballots into drop boxes throughout the city.

During a press conference at his campaign headquarters, Gomes said he was not willing to concede, despite growing pressure for him to do so.

“We can’t guarantee the future,” Gomes said. “To give up is to concede. To concede is to accept. To accept is to repeat history. And to repeat history means that Bridgeport will never change.”

In a press conference at City Hall, Ganim chastised Gomes for making Bridgeport voters come out and vote for a fourth time.

“We won with 57%, roughly, of the vote total. This was not a nail-biter,” Ganim said. “This was not a squeaker. There wasn’t a question or a hint of some of the fantasies that the Gomes campaign are trying throw out to justify asking and forcing the city of Bridgeport to spend another $120,000 for the fourth election in four months and ask the good people in the city of Bridgeport.

“We’re kind of tired at this point of this, to come out and vote again.”

Ganim talked about watching a woman with a cane negotiate some steps to vote in last week’s primary do-over and how he needs those voters to come out once again.

“I saw an older woman with a cane who couldn’t even look up. She had to look down for every step, and God forbid she made a misstep trying to get inside to cast her vote,” Ganim said. “And I guess Gomes is saying that wasn’t good enough, ma’am. I want you to do it all over again. So it’s not my choice at this point, but I stand here today ready, willing and able to fight for that woman and every resident of the city of Bridgeport and I ask them to do it one more time, because I need your support on Feb. 27.”

The new election will be scheduled for Feb. 27, according to the previous court order. Gomes will be on the Independent Party line.

Gomes seized the opportunity on Wednesday to call on Democratic leaders in the Connecticut General Assembly to address the alleged absentee ballot fraud in Bridgeport. To drive home the point, he pointed out that three different judges have questioned the absentee ballot process in Bridgeport in recent years.

“It’s time for elected leaders to admit that there is a systematic problem in the electoral process here in Bridgeport,” Gomes said.

Following Ganim’s victory in the do-over election in January, several local and state political figures called on Gomes to cease his campaign and to allow Ganim to be sworn into office for his third term as mayor since serving a seven-year prison sentence on federal corruption charges.

The Connecticut Post reported that several Bridgeport city council members — most of whom backed Ganim in the primary — sent a letter to Gomes’ campaign, urging him to forgo another general election.

Gov. Ned Lamont, a Democrat, also issued a statement suggesting that Gomes should concede and end his campaign. The race has turned a spotlight on the state because of the alleged ballot harvesting that was captured on camera.

“The governor respects the right of citizens to elect who represents them, and Tuesday’s vote showed another decisive victory for Joe Ganim,” a spokeswoman for Lamont wrote in a prepared statement. “The governor, like many residents, is ready to turn the page and looks forward to working with the mayor and the entire Bridgeport (legislative) delegation to continue to support the city’s bright future.”

Gomes addressed those remarks from the governor at his press conference on Wednesday, and he openly criticized the governor for not speaking up more forcefully last year when a judge ruled Bridgeport’s primary was marred by widespread absentee ballot fraud.

“My question is where was he in September? Where was he when the verdict was rendered by the Superior Court?” Gomes said to loud applause from his supporters.

“No amount of pressure, no amount of deals offered can prevent us from completing our mission of seeking new leadership in Bridgeport,” he added.

The public pressure placed on Gomes further increased this week when Lamond Daniels, another Democrat who petitioned to be on last year’s general election ballot, chose to drop out of the race.

Daniels did not endorse either Ganim or Gomes and issued a statement deriding the “political machine” in Bridgeport.

“I have recognized that the institutional advantages of incumbency are not within my reach as a mayoral candidate,” Daniels wrote in a statement issued to the blog Only in Bridgeport. “Therefore, I do not see a rationale for continuing an unwinnable campaign in the new general election.”

Daniels, who was not on the primary ballot last September, also made a reference to the surveillance footage that allegedly captured multiple people illegally handling absentee ballots ahead of that election.

“I know that many Bridgeporters, regardless of their political affiliation, are angered about what we all witnessed, and in response, you may want to turn away from the political process, but I implore each of you not to give in to that anger or apathy but instead turn to action,” Daniels wrote in the statement.

The special court-ordered primary in January was the biggest electoral defeat that Gomes faced out of any of the three elections in the past months.

But he hopes that result could change in a new general election in February when the city’s roughly 4,000 Republican and 22,000 unaffiliated voters will also be eligible to cast a ballot.

Andrew Brown is a reporter for The Connecticut Mirror (https://ctmirror.org/ ). Copyright 2024 © The Connecticut Mirror.