Former Bridgeport Mayor Joseph Ganim, released a year ago after serving nearly seven years in prison for corruption, has expressed some interest in running again to lead the state's largest city.
The city's powerful Democratic boss said Ganim would like to run, but he's backing Mayor Bill Finch and discouraged Ganim from running.
"He has some aspiration for running," Mario Testa, chairman of the Bridgeport Democratic Town Committee who has met with Ganim, told The Associated Press on Tuesday. "Right now I don't think it's the right time for him to jump into the rink."
Testa said he does not believe Ganim will run in the Democratic primary in September, but didn't rule it out and acknowledged he could run in the general election in November as an independent.
Ganim would not say whether he is considering a run, but said he's been approached by hundreds of people with encouraging comments. He also said a Facebook page has been created to encourage him to run and cited a poll showing he leads among Democratic candidates that was conducted by Merrimanriver on behalf of Only in Bridgeport, a blog run by a former Ganim associate who testified against him at his corruption trial.
Ganim said he's been busy with a foundation he started that raises money for youth groups. He also has been working at his family's law practice in Bridgeport.
"I'm real flattered by this but at the moment -- but at the very moment -- that's where my focus is," Ganim said.
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Ganim was sentenced to nine years in prison in 2003 for steering city contracts in exchange for hundreds of thousands of dollars in expensive wine, custom clothes, cash and home improvements. He was convicted of 16 corruption charges, including extortion, bribery and racketeering. His sentence was reduced after he participated in a drug treatment program.
The 51-year-old Ganim was a popular mayor, often credited with reviving Bridgeport as it emerged from bankruptcy, and had ambitions to become governor. Ganim, first elected in 1991, was serving his fifth term when he was indicted in 2001.
Donald Greenberg, an associate professor of politics at Fairfield University, said Ganim is too much of a liability for Democratic party officials, lacks an organization to get out the vote and has shown no signs of running, such as by raising money, and lives in a neighboring suburb.
