THE PEOPLE HAVE SPOKEN, AND NOW THEY MUST BE PUNISHED
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Well, all politicians
Bridgeport election: Ganim wins again; Gomes tells supporters 'Our journey has ended'
Louder than ever, Bridgeport has spoken," Ganim said. "The people of Bridgeport have in a resounding way answered the call for the fourth time in the middle of February and said yes to progress in this city that we’ve started and are committed to continuing with your help. Thank you Bridgeport.”
Highlights of Ganim’s criminal career include:
Conviction on corruption charges
On March 19, 2003, Ganim was convicted of 16 federal counts: one count each of racketeering, extortion, racketeering conspiracy, and bribery; two counts of bribery conspiracy; eight counts of mail fraud, and two counts of filing a false tax return.[27][28] Ganim was acquitted on six other counts.[28] Ganim surrendered his law license upon conviction.[27] Over six years, Ganim engaged in a shakedown of city contractors, accepting more than a half-million dollars;[28] he took bribes in the form of cash, food and wine, clothing, home renovations, and diamonds.[29] In April 2003, two weeks after being convicted, Ganim resigned from office.[30] He was replaced by councilman John M. Fabrizi.[30]
Ganim faced a possible sentence of up to 126 years, $500,000 in restitution, and $4 million in fines.[28] Federal prosecutors asked for a sentence of ten years and one month, while the defense asked for a sentence of no more than three years and ten months.[31] Testimonials seeking leniency were filed with the court on Ganim's behalf, including one from Cardinal Edward M. Egan of New York.[31] On July 1, 2003, U.S. District Judge Janet Bond Arterton sentenced Ganim to nine years in prison and about $300,000 in fines and restitution, in addition to $175,000 that he had previously stipulated that he owed.[31] Judge Arterton said that Ganim's crimes were "stuff that cynicism is made of" and determined by clear and convincing evidence that Ganim had "lied to the jury when he denied any knowledge of fee-splitting deals and other incriminating evidence."[31] Ganim appealed, and the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit upheld Ganim's convictions in December 2007.[32]
Federal prison sentence
Ganim surrendered in September 2003 and served most of his sentence at FCI Fort Dix in New Jersey.[33][34] He unsuccessfully petitioned for a transfer to FCI Otisville in New York, to be with his family.[35] In 2009, Ganim was transferred to the FCI McKean prison camp in Pennsylvania.[34] Ganim then served the last seven months of his sentence at a halfway house in Hartford.[36] Ganim's sentence was reduced by a year for participating in a drug-treatment program.[36]
Return to Bridgeport
In July 2010, Ganim was released after serving seven years in prison.[36] After his release, Ganim worked as a legal assistant at his family's law firm in Bridgeport.[37] Ganim and his brother George Ganim Jr. also opened a consulting service, Federal Prison Consultant LLC, which offered other white-collar convicts advice on surviving federal prison terms.[38]
Disbarment and requests for reinstatement
After being released from prison, Ganim also sought restoration of his license to practice law. In 2012, a five-member panel of the State of Connecticut Grievance Committee recommended that Ganim's license be restored.[39] In September 2012, a three-judge panel of Connecticut Superior Court judges rejected the recommendation, writing that: "Allowing an applicant to be readmitted to the practice of law following a conviction on 16 counts of racketeering, conspiracy, extortion, mail fraud, bribery and filing false income tax returns without any apology, expression of remorse, or explanation, and with only a vague acceptance of an unspecified event, simply would set the bar for readmission too low in the state, and we are unwilling to do that."[40]Ganim appealed to the Connecticut Supreme Court in 2014, which unanimously ruled against his effort to have his law license restored.[27][37] The court cited "the extensiveness" of Ganim's criminal offenses as well as his "failure to acknowledge or explain" them.[41] In 2017, Ganim applied to the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut for permission to practice in that federal court without being readmitted to the Connecticut bar; these efforts were rebuffed by the court.[42]
Second mayoralty (2015–present)
2015 mayoral campaign
On January 1, 2015, Ganim offered a public apology to the City of Bridgeport for his corruption scandal, saying: "I'm truly sorry."[11] The apology—as well as visits to churches in city's mainly African-American east side, a former stronghold for Ganim during his days as mayor—fueled speculation about a return to politics for Ganim.[11] In March 2015, Ganim moved back to Bridgeport from Easton, where he had been living.[45]
In May 2015, Ganim officially entered the race for mayor, filing paperwork to challenge incumbent Democrat Bill Finch as mayor of Bridgeport.[46] Ganim won the endorsement of the Bridgeport police union.[47] Ganim also won the key support of local clergy and the Democratic machine led by Democratic Town Committee chairman Mario Testa.[45][48]
In September 2015, Ganim won the Democratic primary, making "a big step toward completing an improbable political comeback."[6] Ganim defeated two primary opponents: Finch, the incumbent mayor, and University of Bridgeport vice president Mary–Jane Foster, co-founder of the Bridgeport Bluefishminor-league baseball team.[6][49] Ganim received 6,264 votes, Finch 5,859, and Foster 1,177.[50]
In the days after the primary election, Finch sought to run in the general election under the "Job Creation Party" ballot line, while Foster announced she would not seek to appear on the general-election ballot as a petitioning candidate.[2][51] However, Finch's campaign missed a filing deadline, and he dropped out of the race; Foster jumped back into the race, receiving Finch's endorsement.[2][51][52]
During his campaign, Ganim promised to reduce taxes, lower crime by adding more police officers, and lower unemployment, which is high in Bridgeport.[2] He managed to persuade Edward Adams, a former FBI agent who helped convict Ganim on corruption charges, to support his campaign.[2] However, Michael Wolf, the FBI special agent-in-charge of Connecticut during the Ganim investigation, fired back with a letter published in the Connecticut Post saying that Adams was not the lead investigator in the Ganim case, and writing that "a mayor who swindled a city he was entrusted to govern, should not be given the opportunity to do it again."[53] Wolf called Ganim the "poster boy" of corrupt Connecticut politicians, a group that included former Governor John G. Rowland, former state Treasurer Paul J. Silvester, and former Bridgeport state Senator Ernest Newton II.[53]
On November 3, 2015, Ganim won election as mayor by a wide margin, defeating Mary Jane Foster (a Democrat running as an unaffiliated candidate) and Republican nominee Enrique Torres, a city councilman.[2][6][54][55][56] Ganim's successful return to politics has been compared to Marion Barry Jr. of Washington and Vincent A. (Buddy) Cianci, Jr. of Providence, Rhode Island, other mayors who won re-election after criminal convictions.[2] The New York Times reported Ganim's election victory as "a stunning return to public office ... remarkable for its sheer audacity, coming after a widely publicized fall from grace."[2]
Ganim was reelected as mayor in 2019, securing a seventh term as mayor.
FBI corruption investigation
In February 2019, the FBI served a subpoena to Ganim's administration, which was obtained by the Connecticut Post. The subpoena revealed a federal grand jury in New Haven was investigating Ganim's administration for possible municipal corruption.[61] Ganim's administration spent more than $500,000 responding to the criminal probe into Bridgeport, included the fees for private lawyers for multiple government officials including Ganim; the investigation was similar in some respects to FBI's criminal investigation into Ganim's actions as mayor in 2003.[62][63] In September 2020, the city's Personnel Director and Chief of Police were indicted for wire fraud and making false statements. This was in connection with their conspiracy to rig the 2018 selection of Bridgeport's police chief. Ganim was not accused of any wrongdoing.[64]
Connecticut State Election Enforcement Commission and state attorney's investigations
The Connecticut State Election Enforcement Commission began an investigation into possible election-law violations in the 2019 Bridgeport Democratic mayoral primary, which Ganim narrowly won. In August 2023, the Commission recommended that three people tied to Ganim's campaign be criminally charged, forwarding the recommendation to the chief state's attorney.[65]
Violation of public records law
From 2012 through 2021, the Connecticut Freedom of Information Commission (FOIC) determined that the City of Bridgeport had violated the Connecticut Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) 28 times.[66] Although Bridgeport makes up only 4% of Connecticut's population, it was responsible for 17% of all FOIA violations as determined by FOIC.[66] In August 2022, a FOIC commissioner said that Bridgeport officials had "continually" engaged in an "ongoing pattern" of failing to comply with law.[66] The Commission fined the city $750 for failing to comply with the law.[66]
An investigation by Hearst Connecticut Media in early 2023 found that, during Ganim's tenure as mayor, the City of Bridgeport routinely failed to comply with the Connecticut FOIA; routinely stonewalled public-records requests (sometimes delaying responses up to two years), and had a backlog of more than 2,000 pending requests.[66] The report also found that city leaders had "inexplicably abandoned their own proposals" to clear the backlog and expedite processing.[66] Ganim's administration contended that the high backlog was caused in part by the city's introduction of a new "user-friendly public portal" that facilitated the submission of more FOIA requests than before.[66]
2023 mayoral campaign
In the September 2023 Democratic primary for the Bridgeport mayoral race, Ganim was initially declared the winner, defeating his opponent, former Bridgeport chief administrative officer John Gomes, by 251 votes out of 8,173 cast.[67] Gomes successfully challenged the race in Connecticut Superior Court. After a three-day trial,[68] in which surveillance video footage, showing two women stuffing white envelopes into outdoor absentee ballot drop boxes, was introduced into evidence, Judge William Clark invalidated the Democratic mayoral primary results, and ordered a new Democratic primary to be held.[69][67] Gomes' lawyer tallied the submission of 1,253 absentee ballots, despite surveillance videos only showing 420 people using the boxes.[69]Judge Clark found that two women were directly involved in 15 incidents of ballot stuffing, that both were "partisans" for Ganim, and that the ballot-stuffing episodes were "shocking" and "conscious acts with partisan purpose" rather than random.[69] Ganim denied any involvement in ballot-stuffing.[69]Because the judge had no authority to postpone the general election, the general election took place as scheduled in November 2023, before a second Democratic primary was scheduled.[69] The New York Times described the Bridgeport election as perhaps "the most confusing election in the country" due to the legal uncertainties surrounding the race.[69]
After the September 2023 primary irregularities, the state oversaw the Bridgeport general election, appointing an election monitor as well as attorneys from the Secretary of the State's Office to oversee the pickup of ballots from drop boxes and the counting of votes. The state also submitted a request from Bridgeport police for surveillance video footage of ballot drop-box.[70]
The general election included four candidates for mayor: Ganim, Gomes (who ran on the Independent Party of Connecticut ballot line), Republican David Herz, and "petitioning candidate" (unaffiliated) Lamond Daniels.[70] Ganim's campaign raised just under $579,000, while Gomes' campaign raised about $365,000.[71] In the November 2023 election, Ganim was declared the winner: Ganim received 5,729 votes, Homes 5,550, Daniels 1,836, and Herz 765.[71] Under the city charter, a mayor's new term would have on December 1, 2023. However, because the results of the 2023 mayoral election was not certified, Ganim was not sworn in on December 1, 2023, but, pursuant to the city charter, is continuing in office until the election do-over is complete and the election result is certified.[72]
After the Superior Court's order, negotiations on a new primary election date took place between the Ganim, Gomes, and the Secretary of the State's Office; the three sides ultimately agreed to recommend to the court new election dates.[73] The court accepted the recommendations and set a new primary for January 23, 2024, and a new general election on February 27, 2024.[68]
I don’t want to hear any complaints from Bridgeport residents, about anything.
