Mary-Jane Foster picks up momentum heading into homestreatch

The last week of the campaign has certainly been successful for petitioning candidate Mary-Jane Foster, and if she can parlay that strong week into more success at the polls Tuesday then she will have pulled off a remarkable victory. Foster would be the first woman to be elected mayor of Bridgeport since Republican Mary Moran in 1989.

On Sunday, Connecticut Post readers picked up their morning newspaper to see that the Post editorial board had endorsed Foster. A few days later, longtime state Representative and former mayoral candidate Chris Caruso had also endorsed Foster.

Caruso’s endorsement was somewhat unexpected, as he has refrained from local politics since being appointed to the state Department of Labor by Governor Dannell Malloy.

Caruso told the Banner that, “The future of our city is at stake. There is no way that Joe Ganim should be elected mayor of Bridgeport. It’s preposterous with the looting he did our city and which we have been paying for ever since.”

Caruso who was ally of Ganim’s when the former mayor first entered politics, was one of Ganim’s most vocal critics during his tenure in office.

In its endorsement editorial the newspaper said, “Our suggestion is that the city continue to move forward and elect Mary-Jane Foster, the candidate best equipped to do that, in Tuesday’s mayoral election. She is an honest, straightforward, industrious person with a record of accomplishment. The fact is, Ganim had his time in the mayor’s office — fully 12 years’ worth of time. He had the opportunity to make his mark, and he did. In the 12 years since Ganim’s departure, the city has moved on in many ways.”

Foster has continually pounded away at Ganim in debates and in advertisements, but one problem she might face is that anti-Ganim voters may seek to look elsewhere to cast their votes, beginning with Republican nominee Enrique Torres, who has also hammered away at Ganim.

However, Torres has also attempted to tie Foster to the so-called Bridgeport Democratic machine as she has embraced the support of current mayor Bill Finch.

Charlie Coviello, the nominee of the fledgling New Movement Party agrees with Torres on this point.

“Mary-Jane is a part of the club,” stressed Coviello in refrence to the insiders who he believes control the Park City. “I’m not part of the club. You can’t get in bed with Bill Finch and say you are not part of the club.”