Anne Phillips, who brought attention to Bridgeport absentee ballot issues, dies

Anne Pappas Phillips and Michael DeFilippo, both candidates for the 133rd City Council District, wait to greet voters outside of Blackham School in Bridgeport, Conn. April 10, 2018. Anne Pappas Phillips and Michael DeFilippo, both candidates for the 133rd City Council District, wait to greet voters outside of Blackham School in Bridgeport, Conn. April 10, 2018. Photo: Ned Gerard / Hearst Connecticut Media Photo: Ned Gerard / Hearst Connecticut Media Image 1 of / 248 Caption Close Anne Phillips, who brought attention to Bridgeport absentee ballot issues, dies 1 / 248 Back to Gallery

BRIDGEPORT — It was her failed 2017 bid with former state Rep. Bob Keeley for City Council seats that brought judicial attention to the questionable use of absentee ballots in elections here.

Twice Anne Pappas Phillips and Keeley were successful in getting primary do-overs ordered by Superior Court Judge Barbara Bellis and backed by the state Supreme Court. But the results never changed.

“She was so frustrated,” Keeley recalled Sunday. “She tried so hard to get the Yale Campaign School involved. She wanted people arrested, put on trial and convicted. She would say, ‘If we don’t stop it now, this is going to continue.’ She was right. Look what’s happening now.”

But for Phillips, who was a member of the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission and a practicing lawyer, the fight ended Friday at the age of 76. She died suddenly in her home while packing for a trip to visit her daughter in New York.

“I still can’t get over it,” said Lisa Parziale, who for 33 years considered Phillips her best friend. “Whenever that telephone rings I expect her to be on the other end. We were the closest of friends. We went through everything together.”

When Parziale lost her daughter over the summer, Phillips was there for her, constantly.

“She had such grace,” Parziale said. “She was intelligent, articulate and knew right from wrong. She came here from Hoboken (New Jersey), but loved this city. She had a vision for Bridgeport that our leaders under-utilized.”

Parziale’s thoughts were echoed by Lenny Kerr, a Trumbull resident, who worked with Phillips and Keeley on that ill-fated 2017 campaign.

“She was an honest and nice person,” said Kerr. “I often told her during the campaign that she was too decent to wallow in the mud of Bridgeport politics.”

But Phillips, who was once married to E. Cortright Phillips, the former vice chairman of the now-defunct Citytrust bank, did more than wallow. She tried to change things.

So when a single absentee ballot suddenly surfaced to change a tie for Keeley into a win for Jeannette Herron, the party-endorsed candidate, Phillips geared up for a fight.

“She went into her own pocket to pay to do the right thing,” Parziale said. “She wanted to bring exposure to the wrongs being done. And she did, God bless her.”

Bellis ordered two do-overs in the 133rd Council District Democratic primary. It pitted Phillips and Keeley against Herron and Michael DeFillippo. But the party-endorsed candidates prevailed both times.

“We took on the machine twice in court and gave them a thrashing,” Keeley said. “We were the first ones to uncover and prove what was going on.”

Redgate Funeral Services in Trumbull is handling the arrangements.