Former mayor among four democrats seeking open Bridgeport senate seat 

Four Democrats are vying to replace Sen. Marilyn Moore, who is retiring from the state senate.  

Voters in the 22nd Senate District will decide which one of those candidates gets the party’s nomination during the Aug. 13 primary.  

The field includes former mayor and lawmaker Bill Finch, City Councilman Scott Burns, Sujata Gadkar-Wilcox and Tyler Mack.  

“We need a fresh voice, a fresh qualified voice to represent the district,” said Mack, who is touting his experience as a legislative aid for Sen. Martin Looney, (D) New Haven, as he looks to separate himself from the field.  

Democrats did not endorse a candidate to replace Moore (D), for the district that includes Trumbull and parts of Bridgeport and Monroe.  

All four candidates said they want to bring more money back to the district for education, affordable housing and other needs.  

Burns said he’s the best candidate to do that, pointing to his work on Bridgeport’s budget. He also said he’s open to revisiting the state’s fiscal guardrails, although he stopped short of saying he’d support changing them.  

“A lot of folks are feeling squeezed on housing, feeling squeezed on energy costs, we know we want to provide for our education, our students,” he said.  

He said addressing energy policy and climate change would be a priority. So did Finch, who said expanding renewable energy could also grow jobs and bring down utility costs.  

“We used to be a national leader in fighting climate change, in creating those jobs – good union jobs that come from climate, which we did in Bridgeport when I was mayor,” he said.  

Gadkar-Wilcox, a professor at Quinnipiac University, said one of her top priorities would be protecting democracy in Connecticut.  

That includes supporting clean government initiatives and pushing for election security reforms in response to Bridgeport absentee ballot problems.  

“If people think democracy just gets maintained on its own, it doesn’t,” she said. “We need to act.” 

Mack said a top priority would be additional funding for infrastructure, especially to fix roads and flooding problems in Bridgeport.