Felipe wins Bridgeport race for Santiago’s seat

Antonio Felipe accepted the nomination for a vacated seat in the 130th State House District during a gathering of neighborhood Democrats at Testo's Restaurant in Bridgeport, Conn., on Thursday, Mar. 28, 2019. Democrats nominated Felipe to run for the seat of the late Ezequiel Santiago, who died suddenly earlier this month. less Antonio Felipe accepted the nomination for a vacated seat in the 130th State House District during a gathering of neighborhood Democrats at Testo's Restaurant in Bridgeport, Conn., on Thursday, Mar. 28, 2019. ... more Photo: Christian Abraham / Hearst Connecticut Media Buy photo Photo: Christian Abraham / Hearst Connecticut Media Image 1 of / 6 Caption Close Felipe wins Bridgeport race for Santiago’s seat 1 / 6 Back to Gallery

BRIDGEPORT — What could possibly bring bitter political rivals Mayor Joe Ganim and ex-Mayor Bill Finch together in the same room?

On Tuesday night, the memory of one friend, the late Ezequiel Santiago, and the political future of another, Antonio Felipe.

Felipe, 23, son of former Finch aide Ruben Felipe, won Tuesday’s special election to replace the late Santiago, who died suddenly in March, at the age of 45. The district — the 130th — includes the South and West ends and downtown.

“We all felt that hurt and loss,” Antonio Felipe told the crowd gathered to celebrate his win at Move Yacht Club on Waterview Ave. “You picked me, I ran with it and I’m going to do you proud.”

Felipe had the support of two Democratic factions — Ganim’s and Finch’s. And that was significant given the former ousted the latter in 2015’s mayoral primary. And yet Finch showed up briefly at Move on Tuesday to congratulate Felipe and his father.

Other former Finch administration employees — ex-Chief of Staff Adam Wood and the mayor’s one-time communications director, Brett Broesder — were also on hand, though they did little mixing with the Ganim crowd.

State Rep. Chris Rosario, who was Finch’s anti-blight director, was fired by Ganim, but has had to work with him and seemed the most comfortable mingling at Move. On Tuesday night he and Ganim shared a warm hug over Felipe’s win. Rosario in a brief interview said he will mentor Felipe the way Santiago mentored him.

And Rosario in a speech took a shot at Felipe’s critics.

“They called him young, an outsider, a ‘carpetbagger’,” Rosario said. “Know what they can call him now? State representative.”

Although Felipe grew up in the 130th District, he and his family moved to Stratford. He rented an apartment in Bridgeport when he launched his candidacy a few weeks ago.

Ganim offered some emotional words of his own, noting how the night was a bittersweet one.

“The passing of a great man and the election of this young man has brought people together,” the mayor said. “He has big shoes to fill. Big shoes to fill.”

Unlike some of his legislative colleagues from Bridgeport, Felipe did not begin his political career as a member of the City Council or the Board of Education. He has worked for several years behind-the-scenes on campaigns.

And he said he will be the youngest member of the state House of Representatives, while state Sen. Will Haskell, 22, a Democrat from Wilton elected in November, is the youngest member of Connecticut’s Senate.

Felipe bested four challengers to win Tuesday’s special election. His main opponent was activist and former school board member Kate Rivera, 41, a Democrat who petitioned her way onto Tuesday’s ballot.

Rivera and Felipe were the only candidates to collect the necessary amount of small donations to qualify for $21,112 public grants as part of Connecticut’s so-called clean elections program. Rivera also had support from state Sen. Marilyn Moore, D-Bridgeport, and her allies. Moore is challenging Ganim in this year’s mayoral race.

Two former state representatives — Hector Diaz, 58, and Christina Ayala, 36 — and Republican Joshua Parrow, 29, also ran for the vacant 130th district seat.

Felipe's campaign declared victory just short of 9 p.m. — an hour after the polls closed.

And, as is often the case in low-turnout Bridgeport races, he needed absentee or mail-in ballots to pull it off. According to unofficial tallies, Rivera beat Felipe on the voting machines, 290 to 240, but Felipe made up for it with mail in ballots, 226 to 53.

Late last week Rivera, Diaz and Parrow called on city and state elections officials to supervise the casting of mail-in ballots.

By law, mail-in absentee ballots are available from the Town Clerk to voters serving in the armed forces, away from the city on Election Day, suffering from illness or a physical disability, unable to vote for religious reasons or working as an election official.

Critics argue that campaigns abuse the system and use the ballots to lock in votes ahead of Election Day by circulating them to unqualified voters and coaxing or pressuring those individuals to support a particular candidate. Campaigns can help voters obtain absentee ballots but are not supposed to influence the votes cast.

Rivera in a statement issued around 1 a.m. Wednesday touted her victory “at the polls” and claimed Felipe “stole” the election “through massive absentee ballot abuse and denied the people of the 130th of their choice.”

“The Democratic machine has highlighted the corruption it perpetrates on the people of Bridgeport,” Rivera said.

Ruben Felipe in a brief interview Tuesday night anticipated that some of his son’s opponents would complain about his winning with absentee ballots. Felipe, a veteran of Bridgeport politics, said savvy campaigns know in low turnout special elections to get out the senior citizen vote using absentee ballots.

“That’s not stealing,” Ruben Felipe said. “That’s being smart.”

Two veteran Democratic operatives with reputations for their expertise in racking up the mail-in votes — Lydia Martinez and Wanda Geter-Pataky — attended the yacht club party. Each received a round of applause.

Felipe told his son that winning the special election was easy. The hard work, he said, will begin when he heads to the Capitol in Hartford and works to “bring home the bacon” for Bridgeport.