The passion of Joe Ganim

Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim discusses transportation at a candidates forum in Fairfield last month. Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim discusses transportation at a candidates forum in Fairfield last month. Photo: Alex Von Kleydorff / Hearst Connecticut Media Photo: Alex Von Kleydorff / Hearst Connecticut Media Image 1 of / 5 Caption Close The passion of Joe Ganim 1 / 5 Back to Gallery

BRIDGEPORT — Joe Ganim boasts about the dozens of Democratic town committees he has visited as he vies to be the next governor.

He certainly has a passion for campaigning and holding elected office. But is that all that drives him?

Bridgeport’s mayor sometimes seems to be either out of step with — or just not all that enthusiastic about — some progressive issues that fire up the base he would need to turn out for a crowded primary and a competitive general election against a Republican.

There was Ganim’s initial wait-and-see approach to divisive Republican President Donald Trump when the New York City business mogul — whom Ganim got to know when the mayor first ran Bridgeport in the 1990s — won the White House in November, 2016.

“My sense is, you’ve got a good man there,” Ganim said.

There was Ganim’s successful effort to water down a movement for Bridgeport to join Hartford, New Haven, New York and San Francisco as a “sanctuary” for undocumented immigrants. Ganim called that terminology “divisive.”

Critics accused Ganim of failing to take tougher steps to hold his police department accountable after a rookie officer shot and killed 15-year-old Jayson Negron last May. That cop was cleared of wrongdoing by a state probe.

Most recently, though Ganim supported the nomination of Andrew McDonald to become not just chief justice of Connecticut but the nation’s first openly gay chief justice, he did not seem all that perturbed when Republicans blocked it in late March.

Some state Democrats were quick to vent their anger on social media. Luke Bronin, Hartford’s mayor who was at the time exploring a bid for governor, decried the process as “a new low in Connecticut politics.”

In contrast, Ganim was tweeting: “Did you know March was Caffeine Appreciation Month? Make sure you drink lots of coffee to round out the month! #WeliveonCoffee #CaffeineisLife.”

So what does Ganim stand for in these tumultuous political times, and is it enough to excite fellow Democrats?

“To get a Democratic nomination ... a Democrat has to appeal to the base,” said Ronald Schurin, a political science professor at the University of Connecticut. “(That base) is not going to be courted with talk of how Donald Trump is really a good guy.”

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>>Click through to see who is running for governor in Connecticut in 2018. Photo: Hearst Connecticut Media File Photof Buy photo Photo: Hearst Connecticut Media File Photof Image 1 of / 14 Caption Close Connecticut's candidates for governor, 2018 1 / 14 Back to Gallery

Retiring two-term Democratic Gov. Dannel P. Malloy is the most unpopular state chief executive in the nation, according to a recent Morning Consult poll, making it easier for a Republican to succeed him.

“But for Trump, this would be a walk for the Republicans,” said one Democrat involved in statewide and Bridgeport politics. So, this person said, the party may need a candidate willing “to carry a flag for a cause ... to get excited.”

“He’s a pragmatic politician,” the source said of Ganim. “He’s not going to get in Trump’s face. He’s not going to pick fights to pick fights. ... It might be a missing feature” of Ganim’s candidacy.

‘Not as sexy’

“I am very socially progressive,” Ganim said in an interview for this story. “I’m certainly prudent on finances.”

The latter self-description is what Ganim often touts on the campaign trail: His combined 14 years as mayor — 1991 to 2003 and 2015 to the present — qualify him as the candidate best suited to straighten out Connecticut’s finances and economy.

In opposing the sanctuary city designation, Ganim fretted about a possible loss of money from the Trump administration. Bridgeport, with its high tax rate of 54 mills, needs all of the state and federal aid it can get.

Edward Marcus, a former state Senate majority leader and one-time head of Connecticut’s Democratic Party, was an early supporter of Ganim’s bid for governor.

Marcus called Ganim a “good Democrat” who can rouse crowds.

“I hate to put labels on anybody, but if you want to call him ‘moderate’ it’s OK,” Marcus said. “I think he has a feel for the needs of just ordinary working people as well as people not fortunate enough to be working, and thinking of ways to get the economy moving and creating jobs.”

“It’s not as sexy,” Ganim said. “But at bottom, what I think is a priority.”

If that amounts to a statewide campaign strategy — focusing on bread-and-butter issues rather than partisan red meat — it echoes Ganim’s 2015 mayoral comeback. Convicted of corruption in 2003, he successfully appealed to voters for a second chance and ousted two-term Mayor Bill Finch in the 2015 Democratic primary.

Finch made Bridgeport a hub of conservation and “green” industry, and was passionate about those issues.

Ganim ran on holding the line on taxes and making the city safer. Though he has come around to the economic benefits of Finch’s green legacy — and taken related trips to Denmark and Ecuador — Ganim is not the outspoken environmental advocate and wonk Finch was.

‘Cunning’

When it comes to Trump, Ganim now distances himself from the president and defends his positive 2016 comments as those of a big city mayor optimistic the then-incoming administration would focus on urban infrastructure.

“There’s little or nothing generated by the White House that’s been consistent with what I hoped we’d get,” Ganim said, adding Trump seems focused on “failed, misdirected, inhumane policies” and “this crazy notion of putting guns in the hands of teachers.”

Gun control is one area Ganim quickly claims as his cause. He often notes how when he was first mayor in the 1990s Bridgeport sued — unsuccessfully — gun makers, dealers and trade organizations.

The mayor and gubernatorial candidate has recently announced he favors legalizing the sale of recreational marijuana and supports state legislative efforts establishing pay equity and requiring high schools teach about the Holocaust and genocide.

Lisa Parziale is a former Bridgeport City Council president who worked with Ganim when he was first mayor, supported his return to office, and has since become a critic.

“He has no burning passion for any cause,” Parziale said. “He just loves holding an office. The attention. The power. ... If (an issue) benefits him to get behind it, he will get behind it. He’s a very, very cunning man.”

So, for example, before Bronin exited the gubernatorial race, Ganim criticized state aid for Hartford. But during a recent campaign visit to the capital city, Ganim, The Hartford Courant reported, softened his rhetoric to woo that city’s Democrats.

A Connecticut agenda

Ganim said it is easy for politicians to latch on to any cause using free social media, particularly during a primary.

“It’s really not my schtick. ... It may move the dial on the emotions of people on a partisan basis, but (not) as far as laying out an agenda for Connecticut,” he said.

Told how another Democratic gubernatorial competitor — Susan Bysiewicz — tweeted about the ongoing probe of Trump’s campaign, Ganim recalled campaigning before the advent of social media.

“If it was 20 years ago, doing paid TV ads, I doubt she’d do a paid ad saying, ‘Let’s support the special prosecutor,’ ” he said. “People would be much more deliberative on what they want to connect (with voters) on.”

Ganim agreed a governor can have a national bully pulpit, but said he would make sure Connecticut’s “house is in order first.”

Maybe it is wise of Ganim to not be more outspoken. UConn’s Schurin believes Democrats want candidates to take strong positions, but they want that passion to be “genuine” rather than “to grab headlines.”

Some progressive Democrats already harbor negative or at least circumspect views of Ganim.

Malloy was twice cross-endorsed by the Working Families Party. Lindsay Farrell, that group’s executive director, said Ganim is welcome to seek the endorsement but, “This party does not endorse candidates who have stolen from the public ... Joe Ganim has not shown us that he is interested in the progressive vote.”