By Brian Lockhart, Staff Writer
Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim celebrates his reelection victory with supporters at Gather restaurant in Bridgeport, Conn. on Tuesday, February 27, 2024.
BRIDGEPORT — Mayor Joe Ganim is seeking a fourth consecutive term and, should he win, will become the city’s longest-serving chief executive, beating out record-holder Jasper McLevy’s 24 years.
The 66-year-old Democrat quietly filed his 2027 reelection paperwork with the town clerk last week. He originally served in the 1990s and waged a comeback in 2015.
The fanfare is apparently being saved for his just-advertised kickoff fundraiser with “special guest” Gov. Ned Lamont, scheduled for April 16 at Boca Oyster Bar along the harbor, with suggested contributions of $100, $250, $500 and $1,000.
“Bridgeport has incredible momentum right now,” the incumbent said in a statement Tuesday evening.
Ganim cited his just released 2026-27 municipal budget proposal, which, thanks to a spike in real estate values, allows him to drastically slash the city’s tax rate, though impact on actual residential and commercial bills varies, with some expected to rise. He is also looking to boost education spending and tax relief for seniors and veterans.
The mayor also touted “transformational growth” like the decades-long-in-coming waterfront Steelpointe redevelopment on the East Side, where Boca is located and an apartment complex and hotel are finally being built, as well as the ongoing demolition of the shuttered South End coal-fired power plant.
But there have also been setbacks over the years. Most recently the Bridgeport Islanders minor league hockey team last week announced it is, after 25 years, departing for Canada, potentially leaving the city’s 10,000-seat entertainment arena unoccupied for months as officials look for a new operator/tenant.
“We’ve built a strong foundation, but the job isn’t finished,” Ganim concluded in Tuesday’s statement. “I’m running to complete the work that we have done on so many fronts to improve the city we love.”
A spokesperson for Lamont’s own 2026 reelection campaign confirmed his attendance at the April 16 fundraiser. Asked if it should be considered a an unusually early formal endorsement of Bridgeport’s incumbent chief executive, the governor’s campaign responded, “Mayor Joe Ganim has been a partner to Governor Ned Lamont in advancing priorities in Bridgeport. Together, they’ve worked on efforts to expand housing, support economic development, create jobs, and invest in education for the city’s residents.”
If it feels like Bridgeport voters just returned Ganim to office for another four years, that is likely due to the months long, divisive and still-lingering mess that was 2023’s mayoral contest between the mayor and then chief-rival, fellow Democrat John Gomes.
An absentee ballot scandal involving two of Ganim’s supporters gained national and international headlines and resulted in a state Superior Court judge throwing out the mayor’s slim victories in that year’s September primary and November general election. Those matches were then re-held, respectively, in late January and late February 2024.
Ganim himself had at the time called the controversy a “black eye” for Connecticut’s largest, solidly Democratic municipality, which over the years has weathered other political scandals, including a federal corruption conviction that ended Ganim’s first tenure running Bridgeport in 2003.
Meanwhile individuals from Ganim’s and Gomes’ campaigns have since been arrested and charged with alleged elections violations. Those cases are pending.
And just last month the Connecticut State Elections Enforcement Commission closed an investigation into a Gomes’ ally dating back to her circulation of absentee ballot applications ahead of the January 2024 mayoral primary do-over without leveling any penalties.
A Ganim/Gomes 2027 rematch is possible. The latter in a recent interview said “it’s definitely of high consideration” and he is again engaging with “community stakeholders and voters.”
Gomes has seemingly avoided the limelight since his last bid for office ended and late last summer was hired as a key account manager for Connecticut Natural Gas. But earlier this month he was hovering around the Bridgeport Democratic Town Committee’s biennial meeting to elect officers.
“It doesn’t make sense to make noise for the sake of making noise,” Gomes said about having stepped back from the public arena for a bit. “I put two and a half years of my life in this campaign and there was a physical, emotional, financial drain because that’s how much I believe in Bridgeport.”
Meanwhile South End City Councilman Jorge Cruz, who backed Gomes two years ago, in early January filed paperwork to form a mayoral exploratory committee. Cruz has previously said he had consulted with Gomes and would again support him should Gomes decide to run and Cruz fail to gain traction as a candidate.
In response to Ganim entering the 2027 race, Cruz in a statement Tuesday said “the only fundraising Joe Ganim needs to do” is to help those 2023 supporters charged with election-related crimes pay for their legal representation.
“They are all on their own,” Cruz continued. “It’s time for a new administration to step up and take over for this corrupt administration.”
Whoever the incumbent faces next year, should he win, Ganim will be poised to best McLevy’s record tenure running Bridgeport. The latter served for 24 years from the 1930s into the 1950s.
Ganim was first elected in 1991 and remained in office until a 2003 federal conviction for engaging in a pay-to-play scheme ended his tenure and, seemingly at the time, his political career.
But in 2015, a few years after he completed his prison sentence, Ganim issued a public apology for his crimes, dropped efforts to appeal his conviction and took on and ousted then-Democratic Mayor Bill Finch. Four years later, Ganim survived an aggressive challenge in 2019 from then-state Sen. Marilyn Moore and ultimately fended off Gomes two years ago.
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