May 28, 2025 — On Monday, May 19th, we received a notice from the State Elections Enforcement Commission that the bogus complaint filed against us by Ganim supporters during the 2024 re-do election for mayor was dismissed.  

Back in February 2024, Councilwoman Eneida Martinez filed a complaint with SEEC against Bridgeport Generation Now Votes and our Co-Directors, Gemeem Davis and Callie Gale Heilmann, claiming that the organization had illegally coordinated with the Gomes campaign.

Buried in this complaint was the fact that it actually originated from Matt McCarthy, Council Representative from Black Rock. 

When asked by Ms. Heilmann on Election Day at the polls why he would pursue such a baseless complaint, Councilman McCarthy made it clear that he believed we needed to be taken down a notch. As if fighting corruption, maintaining ethics and promoting accountability somehow make us a threat. 

Weapons of Would-Be Dictators

Sound familiar? It’s a tactic weaponized all too frequently by the Trump administration. If you demand rule of law, ethics, accountability and transparency, MAGA attempts to weaken and destroy you. Since taking office in January, Trump has deployed a steady stream of attacks against people and institutions that seek to hold him accountable – going after law firms as punishment for the investigation into the 2016 Russian election interference, firing federal prosecutors who pursued January 6th cases and ousting all of the inspector generals who had oversight of Trump officials.

Trump and his cronies use disinformation campaigns to create false equivalencies between their own illegal behavior and those institutions and individuals who are trying to stop them. Because if everyone is “bad” then there’s no one to trust.    

Would-be dictators and authoritarians love this strategy. And the Ganim camp is no different. It destabilizes and destroys public and private institutions that are meant to serve as a check and balance on power. Without a strong opposition party, Bridgeport Generation Now Votes remains one of the few institutions in our city that is courageous enough to expose the truth about Mario Testa, the Ganim administration, the Democratic machine and the untold damage they have done to our city. 

Luckily for us, in Connecticut, we still have strong public institutions that maintain independent oversight. The State Elections Enforcement Commission is such an institution. Their year-long investigation concluded:

…There is insufficient evidence to support a violation of General Statute § 9-601c. Attending a political fundraiser or having a meeting with a political candidate does not establish an improper coordinate expenditure. There is no evidence of shared strategy uncoordinated expenditures. Respondents’ personal donative intent to contribute or actual contribution of funds to a political candidate, which is protected by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution subject to the applicable campaign finance laws of the State of Connecticut, without more is insufficient evidence of coordination.

The Ganim camp knows the laws that govern coordination. And yet they filed their baseless complaint anyways and used their favorite disinformation tool – Lennie Grimaldi’s blog – to make it appear as if scandal had occurred. 

MAGA Exposed

So perhaps it shouldn’t have come as a shock that Matt McCarthy was seen two weeks ago in a Trump hat at the Democratic Town Committee meeting. 

Matthew McCarthy at the Democratic Town Committee meeting on May 13, 2025

When we say democracy in Bridgeport is broken, this is what we mean. How can someone who is openly supportive of the 45th/47th Presidency also believe it is appropriate that he remain the elected District Leader of the Democratic Party for the 130th District? 

We are living in extremely dangerous times. Far-right, anti-democratic, Christian nationalist and white supremacist views have embedded themselves in the highest levels of our government. Support for those views and their corresponding policies cannot be accepted and tolerated inside of the party that believes in and promotes international human rights, women’s rights, immigrants’ rights, civil rights, racial justice, democracy, and more.

The erroneous complaint originated by MAGA supporter, Matt McCarthy, filed by Eneida Martinez and notarized by Aidee Nieves was rightly thrown out. All three of them, just like their Democratic Town Committee counterparts, Wanda Geter-Pataky and Alfredo Castillo, should resign from their positions as leaders within the Bridgeport Democratic Party. 

We’re not blind. We know which SEEC complaints have resulted in corresponding criminal arrests. The Ganim camp should be put on notice for 2027: The people of Bridgeport see you for the hypocrites you are.