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“We are talking about an individual who was at one time a very popular mayor,” Gary Rose, a professor at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield and head of the Department of Government, Politics and Global Studies, said of Ganim.
“And we all knew that he had significant base of support in the city, even during the years he was incarcerated,” referring to Ganim’s seven years in prison after he was convicted of 16 federal corruption charges.
Rose credits Ganim’s success to his grassroots outreach to voters from across the city. Indeed, Ganim spent the summer holding community roundtables and actively campaigning in the city’s housing complexes, according to several reports.
For the past few weeks, Finch has held press conferences touting economic development and school construction as a run-up to the primary. He has been endorsed by high-profile Democratic party leaders, including Gov. Dannel Malloy.
But that wasn't enough to win the Democratic primary, which instantly bestows front-runner status in the race to run the largest city in the state. After Ganim's primary victory, Finch vowed to continue to fight for re-election as a third party candidate.
Left off the Democratic ticket, Finch is running under the Job Creation party, whose candidate dropped out a few days after filing election paperwork. Many believe the party was manufactured for Finch, should he lose the primary.
Not all is lost for Finch, despite the primary loss. Rose said Wednesday night’s tally was close, and did not reflect potential unaffiliated and Republican voters who may vote for Finch in November.
But Rose said those who vote for Finch may do so based on his history and character -- not necessarily his policies.
“As sad is this sounds, I think Finch is really going to have to win this election based on character, integrity, trust. Those are the attributes that I think he’s going to try to present himself as voters,” Rose said. “It’s going to be more about the person and their past as opposed to policy differences.”
Regardless of the drama of the primary, Rose said the show between Finch and Ganim is far from over.
“I think the forthcoming election is going to be a wild affair,” Rose said.
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