What does a crooked mayor do when he gets out of jail?
In Bridgeport, he runs for his old office again — with the help of the FBI agent who caught him accepting gifts from contractors in return for hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars.
His campaign platform? Copying New Haven’s “clean money” public-financing system. To restore trust in government.
Meanwhile, the state opens an investigation into alleged hanky-panky in his new campaign.
And one of his opponents — the incumbent mayor — raises eyebrows with a shifty apparent ruse to guarantee a November ballot position in case he loses the Democratic primary.
Along the way, voters are treated to battles over fences and dueling police substations.
Welcome to the wackiest political campaign in Connecticut this year. Two years after New Haven had its most raucous mayoral primary in 20 years, the Elm City has no mayoral primary this time around. The fireworks are in Bridgeport, the city P.T. Barnum once called home.
Contributed Photo
Lennie Grimaldi has watched and documented political shenanigans in Bridgeport for over three decades. He also participated in some of them — as a top aide to former Mayor Joe Ganim, the guy who went to jail for corruption and is now running for his old seat. He also did some work along the way for the other Democratic mayoral candidates, Mayor Bill Finch and Mary-Jane Foster. Back in journalism, Grimaldi these days runs the Park City’s hottest political website, Only in Bridgeport, where the race’s twists and turns and debate are taking place in real time.
Grimaldi dished about the race on the latest episode of WNHH radio’s “Dateline New Haven.” He also spoke about how he has managed to produce trusted, unbiased, analytical coverage of the race despite (or in part thanks to?) his personal histories with the candidates.
Why is Ganim running?
“Joe realized he couldn’t get a job,” Grimaldi reported, after he failed to get his law license back.
Click on the sound file above to listen to the show.
Paul Bass Photo
The show also included an interview with “Jason the Greek,” Democratic political consultant Jason Paul (pictured), one of Connecticut’s most incisive numbers-crunchers, on the other campaign circus these days — the 2016 race for president. He cautioned not to dismiss Donald Trump’s candidacy, despite what the other pundits say. The rules for modern campaigns, Paul reported, have changed.
