Fourth of July weekend: fireworks, burgers, buns, beers, political bantering.
Has me thinking about my favorite political campaigns because the 2009 cycle — so far — is death valley.
I’ve been involved in a whole bunch the past 30 years (ouch, that long) as both scribe and operative. My favorites include Bill Finch’s state senate win over Republican Lee Scarpetti, one of the nicest people in politics, in 2000. Joe Ganim, a popular mayor with whom I had a falling out, and Mario Testa, a powerful town chair didn’t lift a nostril for Finch. We won big in the city, won Trumbull as well, and ran just about even in Monroe.
Paul Ganim’s primary win over Kevin Boyle for judge of probate in 1998 is right up there. Boyle was the party endorsed candidate and it was a chance to test the vaulted Democratic machine (sometimes it’s more like a jalopy)against the unknown brother of a popular mayor. Won that in a squeaker.
I’ve lost my share of races too.
But as a scribe covering an election, the 1981 mayoral contest between irrepressible Democrat John Mandanici and indomitable Republican Lenny Paoletta was as wild a contest as ever. Lenny was banging away at the number of Mandy officials that had been charged with corruption. Mandy also was suffering from a party split, some of it his own doing. When you tell the two most significant pols in the black community — Charlie Tisdale and Margaret Morton — to jump off the Pleasure Beach pier, it does not make for happy East Enders.
The mayoral campaign that summer of 1981 bumped against a series of nutty incidents involving law enforcement. The feds were all over the city, looking at Mandy, looking at Police Superintendent Joe Walsh, one of the best pols in the city, who they thought ran a corrupt department in a wide open town.
The feds prevailed upon Tommy Marra, who had gotten into all sorts of trouble, to offer Joe cash to get back the city towing contract operated by his family that had become an embarrassment to the city. Joe knew the set up was coming and had his boys poised downtown to move in on Marra when he offered the loot.
It was a great day for Super Joe who appeared on front pages of national pubs making the FBI look silly. Mandy made a lot of hay out of it as well, claiming Lenny, who had represented Marra on some legal matters, was all part of a conspiracy to taint his righteous police department. It was all so hysterical.
Then a month later at the corner of Main and Jewett, two shotgun blasts disconnected Frank Piccolo, a capo in the Gambino Crime Family. City police charged Gus Curcio, who the feds said was affiliated with a rival mob family, with the hit, but then something amazing happened, a state grand jury refused to indict Curcio, making him the first person in the history of the grand jury procedure — something that was always automatic — not to be charged. The Piccolo hit was never solved.
Meanwhile, Mandy accused Lenny of being connected to this guy, and Lenny accused him of being connected to that guy. Marra’s car blew up in front of Lenny’s campaign headquarters. Two cars blew up in Mandy’s driveway. Paoletta’s house was burglarized. Mandy was fitted for a bullet proof vest.
Meanwhile Lenny’s campaign operatives played a winking game with Charlie Tisdale for minority votes. It paid off. The Republican managed to run even with Mandy in the minority community. In fact, a check of precinct totals show that Mandy and Lenny ran basically even in every voting place except for Hallen, Mandy’s home turf, and Black Rock, the solid Republican district.
Lenny won by 64 votes.
So, what’s your favorite election?
(When you’re done here, check out my daily blog at www.onlyinbridgeport.com)
Hi Kel:
Tell everyone that I think of them often, especially when I see something politically in other parts of the United States: “Oh, the guys and gals never would have done something that STUPID in Bridgeport,” or “Oh, the guys and gals in Bridgeport would make that stupid thing look STUPIDER — easy.”
Had a nice run at a nice newspaper for 13 years before getting whacked by the recession. Am on the prowl again, and with time to check up on old pals. — callahan
Hi Jim,
Dottie Guman always waxes poetic about how much John enjoyed your company. I hope you are well. Curran got punished his mini tax.
I was at the The Bridgeport Post-Telegram in 1981 and had a piece of covering the mayoral for the Tele. As a writer and reporter Mandy versus Paoletta was my favorite in my life, period. Lennie hit most of the high (low?!?) points. We need to mention all the wacky ads out there, and some of the dubious campaign fundraising both on and off the table. Don’t forget all the guys in the administration the feds had indicted as well! Something like 18 or 20.
Also, after it looked like the jig was up, Mandy imported a shredder into the mayor’s office and zapped all the files (give John Gilmore and Mike Daly of the Post credit for that beaut) before leaving office. It took the Republicans months to reestablish files in the mayor’s office. There were copies everywhere, it was just figuring out WHERE.
A funny “inside baseball” aspect of 1981 was that the “traditional” way for the black community to express political displeasure was not to bother voting. This happened in most black majority precincts in ’81. However, the East End (139th Aldermanic District) was so ticked off the Republicans actually CARRIED it in the mayoral. I don’t think Margaret Morton or Charlie Tisdale really gave a damn, but Charlie was trying to be a little more subtle — or so he claimed. I was still a little wet behind the ears then.
If you guys are going to mention Mandy v. Psoletta and McLevy v. Tedesco, you have to sandwich-in Curran v. Panuzzio in 1971 where Nick won by nine votes.
– Jim Callahan
Makes sense to me. It also looks like Bridgeport hasn’t learned its lesson. One mayor after the next did uncalculable damage to the city’s infrastructure right up to the present mayor who had his ‘advisory group’ steal this election from Caruso by 270 votes.
The one and only.
You mean the same Sam Tedesco whose family made all that money when I-95 and 8&25 connectors were being created? The same Sam Tedesco who allowed John Fruge to open the Trumbull Shopping Center when Fruge wanted to build it at the foot of 8&25 where the Tedesco family had purchased that property for their own gain when the state of Connecticut paid them 5-10 times its value to build those roads?
And the same Sam Tedesco who retired to Greenwich, CT on those profits? HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
Sam Tedesco versus Jasper McLevy in 1957. “We Wuz Robbed!”