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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)

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Jodi Rell isn’t the only Republican spewing over a Democratic budget proposal that she says will tax Connecticut residents into the poor house.

Senate Minority Leader John McKinney of Fairfield is shoulder to shoulder with the governor castigating legislative Dems for what they do best — raise taxes, especially on the wealthiest of Connecticut residents most of whom come from Fairfield County.

Yup, Fairfield County, voter base for Republicans, pretty much covers the vig for the rest of the state. Every time Dems want to raise taxes they’re sticking their middle finger at Fairfield County. And smack in the middle of Fairfield County, the wealthiest county in the wealthiest state in the wealthiest country (usually), is Bridgeport, the state’s largest city which absorbs many of the social programs and tax-exempt properties that also service the suburbs.

The majority Democratic budget restores cuts in the Rell budget that impacts Bridgeport social programs as well as  tourist attractions such as Connecticut’s Beardsley Zoo and Discovery Museum. And perhaps somewhere there’s a middle ground. We ain’t there yet.

In 2008, Jim Himes rode the Barack tsunami into Congress on a city plurality not seen in 40 years, defeating 20-year Republican incumbent Chris Shays who won the seat after the passing of the popular Stewart McKinney, John McKinney’s father.

John McKinney is gearing up for a run against Himes in 2010 when the political landscape will be entirely different. For one thing, no Barack on the ballot. For another, the turnout in Bridgeport will be lower. And yet another, suburban voter drop off during gubernatorial cycles is not nearly as large as city drop off. Himes will have to win it on his own record positioned on the ballot next to a wounded (for now) U.S. Senator Chris Dodd, if Dodd survives a primary against Mystic businessman Merrick Alpert.

What made Stewart McKinney an engaging local political force in Connecticut’s Fourth Congressional District was his passion for Bridgeport. Father Panik Village, that crime-plagued former housing project on the East Side, was leveled 20 years ago because McKinney made it happen during the mayoral tenure of my former boss Tom Bucci.

Right now Himes is playing the Santa role, highlighting Barack’s stimulus-package goodies aiding his 17-town district.  By next year the perception of that rhetoric needs to become a voter reality, or McKinney will fillet him for a do-nothing bloated spending package.

Meanwhile, Himes’ political operatives will be scrutinizing John McKinney’s voting record in the State Senate.

Washington campaign cash will flow, Fairfield County money as well. And right in the middle of the battle will be Bridgeport as Himes tries to maximize his Bridgeport vote while McKinney tries to cut into it while running up numbers in down county Republican towns.

(When you’re done here check out my daily blog at www.onlyinbridgeport.com)

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It’s Barnum Festival weekend. Step right up to gawk a collection of great (and near great) elected officials ride, glide and slide up Park Avenue to greet the masses in anticipation of a mega 2010 campaign cycle that’s already under way.

I checked with OIB friends at the Barnum Festival and popular GOP Gov. Jodi Rell has confirmed her attendance in the Great Street Parade that steps off Sunday at 11 a.m. at North and Clinton.

Will Secretary of State Susan Bysiewicz, a relentless campaigner and announced Rell challenger, show up? Also on the Democratic side as announced guber candidates are Stamford Mayor Dan Malloy and Bridgeport native Jim Amann, former Connecticut speaker of the house.

The festival has a policy to invite state constitutional officers (governor, attorney general, etc) and elected pols from the region such as local and state legislative officials to participate in the parade.

State pols cherry pick years in which they’ll hop aboard a convertible or brave the walk. Attorney General Richard Blumenthal’s a lock every year to show and greet the peeps. U.S. Senator Chris Dodd rarely shows, but might he this year because he’s in trouble? Or is he in such trouble that he’d rather avoid the boos? Dodd is also up for reelection in 2010.

Dodd challengers include Democrat Merick Alpert, a businessman from Mystic, and three from the GOP.

Democrat Jim Himes is also scheduled to attend his first parade as congressman. GOP Senate Minority Leader John McKinney of Fairfield, whose dad Stewart occupied that seat before Chris Shays, is gearing up to challenge Himes in 2010.

If you’re a challenger outside of the festival’s protocol invitation list that means you cannot march in the parade. It doesn’t mean you cannot work the sidelines. So don’t be surprised to see a storm of balloon-carrying campaign workers in t-shirts hawking their candidate.

Mayor Bill Finch, who will be in the parade with family on Sunday, had an enterprising group of campaign operatives (when he was State Sen. Finch, mayoral candidate in 2007) with a novel approach to building voter goodwill: boxes of animal crackers for the spectators. Ol’ Phineas Taylor Barnum would be proud.

(Check out my daily blog at www.onlyinbridgeport.com)

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So, the other day I’m munching on some sweet eats at Amici Miei, a new Italian cafe and wine bar on Main Street downtown, when a friend asked the following: I hear Joe Ganim’s getting out of prison soon, will he really run for mayor and can he win?

The short answer on whether he will run in 2011 is I don’t know. (Will he move back into the city?) Can he win depends on a number of factors.

Joe, who has spent nearly six years in the joint, is approaching the end of his incarceration following his conviction on federal corruption charges in early 2003. (Yes, I was one of the guys who played ball with Joe until we had a falling out over his appetite for the finer things roughly 10 years ago.) The federal Bureau of Prisons isn’t always forthcoming about when inmates will be released but Joe could be out of the can in western Pennsylvania within a year or so.  

Ganim’s  mayoralty was arguably the finest in the city the past 50 years: 10 straight years of balanced budgets without a tax increase, a cleaner, safer city, new home for Housatonic Community College, a new state police barracks located downtown, a ballpark, and 10,000 seat arena.

Despite Joe’s fall there’s still some nostalgia for Joe, and even one of his biggest critics veteran City Councilman Bob Troll Walsh says Ganim was the most effective mayor (spanning three mayors) during his time on the city’s legislative body.

Politics is so much about the right place and right time with the right message. (Had Barack not opposed the war in Iraq would he have defeated Hillary Clinton who supported it? Nope.)

Public officials have made comebacks following castigation from office, including former Providence Mayor Buddy Cianci (after his first conviction. Yes, he had two separate convictions).

If Joe had fessed up, taken his medicine and accepted the government’s plea offer, he certainly would have been repositioned for a comeback. It’s tougher eight years removed from office, the distance between departure and election, should he try in 2011 without some contrition. Joe is still playing the I-am-an-innocent-man card.

But know this about Joe — I served as Ganim’s closest political adviser before our falling out — his competitive spirit knows no end.  If an opening is there to run he’ll take it. Vindication is a strong motivator. And if his father George, who has a few bucks, decides to help finance a Joe run Joe could take his case to the peeps.

All of this, of course, depends on the state of Mayor Bill Finch’s mayoralty heading into an election cycle. The mayor needs the economy to turn around, hold the line on taxes and initiate an economic development project he can call his own.

If Finch does not gain traction there’s John Fabrizi waiting in the wings hoping to get his old job back. And anti-party State Rep. Chris Caruso, who fell short in two tries for the mayoralty, will be right there playing the corruption card. Wouldn’t that be fun, a Finch, Fabs, Ganim, Caruso free-for-all Democratic primary. Not likely, but you never know. Or maybe Joe says screw it, I’ll run as an independent.

I can hear Joe now: compare my 11 years against the past 8 years and you tell me your preference.

If you’re saying hey, Ganim cannot run because he’s a felon, well, not so. In the state of Connecticut you can run for public office if you’re an elector, and a felon loses voting privileges only during the period of incarceration. Voting privilege is restored upon release provided all court- ordered fines and restitution are paid.

And if the Joe possibility isn’t enough for you maybe former State Sen. Ernie Newton, who’ll also be out of the joint soon, says don’t count me out and jumps in as well.

Pass the razor blades.

(When you’re done checking out the Connecticut Post, join us at my daily blog www.onlyinbridgeport.com )

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Do you eat with two forks?

Let’s see now, that allows for some pretty good surf and turf action, no? A stab of filet mignon on one fork, a little lobster tail on the other. How about a glass from a 1982 Lafite to wash it all down? Careful now, just don’t bite the hand that feeds you.

Well, that’s what the city’s $55,000-a-year  legislative lobbyist Jay Malcynsky, a well-connected seasoned operative in Hartford, has done to the one that feeds his firm Gaffney, Bennett & Associates, and it’s caused a lot of back biting between the Bridgeport Port Authority, a quasi-city agency, and the Bridgeport and Port Jefferson Steamship Company that docks its ferries at a terminal downtown.

The port authority serves as landlord to the ferry company and they’ve been at odds for some time over a variety of issues including the ferry company wanting to move its operation across the harbor to the East End where it can build a modern terminal while chopping 10 minutes off the cross-sound trip to Port Jefferson.

In the yawning hours of the state legislative session that was completed about two weeks ago, an amendment was quietly slipped on to an existing bill that gives the state Department of Transportation the power to veto a municipality dissolving a port authority. Why? Well, Mayor Bill Finch, as well as some members of the Bridgeport City Council, believe it may be in the city’s best interests to dissolve the port authority that was created by council ordinance in 1993, and place the more than $1 million in docking revenues (that go to the port authority) into the general fund. The big question: can they?

The council’s Ordinance Committee Monday night, in fact, voted to abolish the port authority and Finch hopes he can get his arms around what, if any, financial repercussions would occur to the city before sending the measure to the full council for a vote. He’s also hoping Governor Jodi Rell does not sign the bill until the city completes its research work.

Now, here’s where the two-fork menu pukes up a mess. Malcynsky also serves as a paid lobbyist for the port authority that supports the legislation in question, understandably, out of self preservation.  City officials are gagging that the guy they feed submarined them in an attempt to aid another (that feeds him too) in which they have a direct conflict.

The city, City Council members as well as members of the city’s legislative delegation that voted for the surreptitious bill say Malcynsky has a lot of explaining to do. I wonder if he’ll be talking with his mouth full.

(Connecticut Post reporter Bill Cummings has a related story today. And when you’re done checking out the Post visit my daily blog at www.onlyinbridgeport.com )

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Don’t ya just love those wimpy pols in Bridgeport East, better known as Stratford.

See, Stratford pols are simply Bridgeport pols that moved east a bit, just across all those bridges on the East Side of the city that Stratford town fathers gifted to the city more than 100 years ago because the town didn’t want to deal with the maintenance.

Yeah, baby, let’s give Bridgeport all our stinking bridges. They don’t work, they’re too damn expensive, so when something goes wrong we can stick our heads in the marsh in Lordship and no one will know the difference.

So it’s sorta prophetic that Bridgeport and Stratford are stuck with one another when it comes to the Bridgeport-owned airport that’s located in, yes, that waterfront hamlet known as Lordship. See, this is the part that Stratford Mayor Jim Miron and Stratford State Rep. Terry Backer won’t tell you in their infantile wisdom to block safety improvements at the airport: We’re afraid of Lordship!

Yes, indeed, we’re afraid of what Lordship voters will do to us come election time, especially for Miron who faces the voters this year. God forbid the Lordies should ground Miron’s political career. That’s the whole irony of this idiotic fight over a safety zone at the airport. Does anyone care what the other 90 percent of  Stratford thinks about this?

I have lots of friends in Stratford and they say improve the airport, create jobs,  generate revenue, keep down our taxes. Instead, the airport languishes, the safety zone is a no zone and whiners like Miron and Backer suck up to the Lordies.

And where is that celebrated Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro, who represents Stratford, in all of this? Yup, quietly working behind the scenes doing Stratford’s bidding with letters to the feds to put the brakes on pushing a safety zone to make sure Lordship is protected.

And then when there’s a plane crash she kicks out a statement urging the disputed parties to seek resolution. Such leadership. All on behalf of the Lordies.

(When you’re done checking out all the good stuff here at the CT Post site, come on over to my daily blog www.onlyinbridgeport.com)

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A guy like me has nothing better to do than to harass party politicians both Democrat and Republican about their candidate preferences.

Next year, 2010, is a  Goliath election year and the cycle has already begun for high profile elections for governor, U.S. senate, congress and state legislative seats.

The past few days I checked in with my usual suspects for charting the standing of elected officials and potential challenges. Hey, how’s Chris Dodd doing in Bridgeport?

“What the hell has he ever done for me?” is the recurring rejoinder in quintessential Bridgeport Democratic yap. So it goes in city politics.

But to paraphrase the what’s-he-done-for-me mantra — what’s Dodd done for the state’s largest city in 30 years in Washington? Can Dodd point to anything that’s his own: a bridge, a development, a building, a school? When a pol’s in trouble, and the senior senator from Connecticut is certainly in trouble, would be nice to say I did that for you. Something beyond the family leave bill or reeling in credit card companies. Of course, Dodd and his campaign team will manufacture something he’s done here and there.

Meanwhile, Dodd has challengers, including on the Democratic side Merrick Alpert of Mystic, an engaging new face who brings a business background to the table to contrast Dodd’s lifetime in Washington politics. (For more on Alpert www.merrickforachange.com)

Dodd, who will be well financed, will not be easy to defeat in a primary. Unlike Joe Lieberman who lost to Ned Lamont in a primary in 2006 as a result of a liberal revolt over his war record (he won the general election as an independent) Dodd appears to be in decent standing with his core liberal constituency.

But overall Dodd has a trust problem that runs deep with pocketbook voters: you used your position to take care of yourself while we were getting screwed. That’s toxic stuff to overcome, and Alpert must find a way to tap into that anger while explaining why he’s a better choice.

On the GOP side,  Dodd challengers include Rob Simmons, former congressman from eastern Connecticut, and Waterbury State Senator Sam Caligiuri.

Simmons’ higher name recognition has propelled him in head-to-head match ups with Dodd in Quinnipiac University polling. But a number of local Republicans say Caligiuri is the stronger general election candidate. Sam is not Dodd and he’s not Simmons. Translation: he’s not from Washington.

Jack McGregor of Black Rock, founder of the Bridgeport Bluefish, who served two terms in the Pennsylvania state senate, is actively campaigning for Caligiuri. McGregor, a lifelong Republican, is banging phones and sending letters to his Republican friends in Fairfield County to support Caligiuri.

So is former Bridgeport State Senator Rob Russo who served with Caligiuri at the state capitol. McGregor and Russo introduced Caligiuri to a core group of Republican supporters the other day. Time to make friends and raise money.

Simmons and Caligiuri will not be alone in the senate mix. Republican Tom Foley, former ambassador to Ireland, says he’s getting in. 

And stockbroker/economic prognosticator Peter Schiff of Darien is also taking a look.

However it turns out Dodd is scratching for his political life. Now, excuse me while I continue to harass city politicians.

(When you’ve gotten your fill at the Connecticut Post Web site check out my daily blog at www.onlyinbridgeport.com)

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Ask Chris Shays to name the biggest disappointment during his 21 years in Congress and he’s quick on the trigger: Bridgeport.

Not what he accomplished for the city — transportation funds, neighborhood renewal dough, loot for community policing — his lament comes from Park City voters’ lack of embrace. Ten years ago, Shays moved from his Stamford home base to a charming waterfront home in Black Rock with the hope of cementing a special connection with the state’s largest city.

What he got instead was an electoral kick in the crotch capped by a meager 20 percent of the vote in the city in Barack’s tsunami that wiped out the last standing New England Republican in the House of Representatives. Had Shays managed reelection he toyed with writing a book: The Last Republican.

Overall, as noted in Post reporter Susan Silvers’ Sunday piece about Shays, no one needs to throw Shays a benefit. He’ll be making a lot more coin in the private sector through a variety of positions. Welcome to the gravy train of the private sector: a large political profile with lots of contacts for appointments to paid corporate boards.

But Shays still aches over lack his of connection with city voters. Just 30 percent of the vote in Bridgeport would have been enough to squeak reelection, and, in fact, Shays had never performed below 30 percent of the vote in the city. He also never saw the Barack bombshell blowing him into involuntary political retirement.

I chatted with Shays in the final months of his 2008 race against Democrat Jim Himes about his lack of explanation to Bridgeport voters why he mattered to them, or why they mattered to him. When I asked why he’d say “I don’t want to look like I’m pandering.”

Shays can be both refreshing and befuddling, and sometimes his rationale can be downright maddening.  I’ve managed my share of political campaigns and it seems to me that a candidate — be it incumbent or challenger — has an obligation to tell voters what he did for them/what he’ll do for them. What’s the friggin point of campaigning if you don’t do that?

What galled Shays about his move to Bridgeport was his disconnection from Stamford. Moving to Bridgeport cost him his home boy advantage  in Stamford.

Shays has his home for sale for nearly a cool $2 million, an ambitious price in this economy. Whether he stays in the city or moves back to Stamford, Bridgeport will always be his strategic lament.

(After you’ve gotten your fill at the Connecticut Post web site, check out my daily blog at www.onlyinbridgeport.com)