Measuring Grassroots support. Moore leads, Gomes makes gains. Ganim & Daniels fall short.

As we reported previously, the vast majority of funding for Mayor Joe Ganim’s campaign comes from outside of Bridgeport. This makes comparing total money raised a poor marker of campaign support from those who matter – Bridgeport voters. For this reason, we examined the number of independent Bridgeport residents who have donated to each candidate as a marker for grassroots support. For the purpose of our analysis, independent Bridgeport donors are residents of Bridgeport who are not city employees, as they often feel pressure to protect their jobs by donating to the mayor’s campaign.

For this analysis, we used the public filings that campaigns must report every quarter.  We created a database of all donors to all campaigns in the 2023 Bridgeport mayoral primary sorted by city of residence.

It’s important to note that the campaigns all started at different times and therefore the candidates have had different lengths of time to fundraise. The range is from Ganim, who took his first donation on April 1, 2022 and has, therefore 12 months of donations all the way to Marilyn Moore, who started in mid January 2023 and therefore has 2.5 months of donations.  The other two candidates have 4-5 months. 

What we found was compelling. 

Since Marilyn Moore has had only one filing period, it is worth comparing the campaigns at each candidate’s first filing mark. Straight out the gate, Moore’s 132 independent Bridgeport donors far exceed that of any of the other campaigns at 2.4 times the nearest competitor. First filing numbers were 54 for Gomes, 51 for Ganim and 24 for Daniels. Indicating that she has a strong base of grassroots support that was waiting for her jump in the race. 

Figure 1 compares each candidate’s first quarterly filing.

Since John Gomes’ first filing he’s added 118 independent Bridgeport donors to his contribution list, bringing his total to 172 after 2 filings. This is a clear indication that his campaign is working hard to engage Bridgeport voters.

Despite having 12 months of gathering donations, Mayor Joe Ganim has been eclipsed by Gomes. Ganim’s total number of independent Bridgeport donors is 125 after 4 filings. 

Lamond Daniels announced his exploratory committee in Nov 2022 and his first filing only garnered donations from 24 Bridgeport residents. Since then he’s added 75 independent Bridgeport donors to his contributors list which gives him a total of 99 after 2 filings. That puts him in last place far behind Gomes. Both men have been in the race for roughly the same amount of time. 

“Campaigns are won on the strength of their grassroots.” – Democratic National Committee Chair, Tom Perez

We learned from public polling that reducing corruption is the top issue for 63% of Bridgeport voters, and 54% strongly agree that Bridgeport’s potential is being held back by insiders and special interests. When a candidate solicits small dollar donations from regular voters, it gives them a bigger voice in the electoral process and therefore makes that candidate accountable to the people. When candidates solicit the bulk of their money from large dollar individuals and/or special interest groups, it opens the door for corruption to flourish as candidates are beholden to those special interests i.e. the “connected few,” shutting out the voices of regular folks.

According to the Center for Public Integrity, Democrats all across the country have been ditching special interests and engaging the power of small dollar donors as an antidote for corruption in local, state and federal elections. Taking their lead we assessed all four Bridgeport mayoral campaigns, using their criteria which define small donors as individuals giving $200 or less. 

Figure 2 looks at the percentage of small donors for each campaign.

Here’s what we found.

Marilyn Moore’s campaign again comes out ahead with 78.3% of her total contributions coming from small dollar donors. This combination of independent Bridgeport donors and having the largest percentage of small dollar donors is an early sign of real grassroots power supporting Moore. 

Daniels’ small donor size comes in at 70% of his total contributions but his campaign lacks independent Bridgeport voter support. This is a clear indication that he has a lot of work to do to engage Bridgeport voters if he wants to convince them he can lead. 

After a full year out on the campaign trail Mayor Joe Ganim’s small dollar donors make up a mere 33.2% of his total donations. This trend is not surprising. In our first campaign analysis we reported that only 7% of his money came from independent Bridgeport voters, with the rest from special interests outside Bridgeport, contractors / vendors or city employees. As of this last filing on April 10, that figure shrunk to 3.3%. This is clear indication that his campaign is just not interested in courting grassroots Bridgeport support.

What is surprising is John Gomes’ small dollar donor data. In stark contradiction to the gains he’s made adding Bridgeport voters to his contribution list, it appears that large individual donors and special interests are what he’s targeting. Only 25.5% of his total money raised came from small dollar donors. That’s a clear indication that the strength of his fundraising efforts are overwhelmingly reliant on high dollar donors and businesses.

On January 24, the Unrig Bridgeport coalition launched the Year of Change. And in March we released the People’s Platform, a new blueprint for Bridgeport powered by the people. Our message is clear. Machine insiders and special interests are out. The people of Bridgeport are in. All four mayoral candidates must engage, center, and elevate the voices of the people if they want to win our votes. Analyzing the candidates financial filings, i.e. following the money is a good way to gauge how their engagement efforts are going. We’ll be back with more analysis in the coming weeks.

Pledge to Vote on Tues, Sept, 12th and Donate to the Year of Change HERE!