Will a porta

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BRIDGEPORT — Mayoral contender John Gomes is banking on another "john" to help him in the upcoming election.

Gomes is using a portable toilet to contrast himself with the incumbent, fellow Democrat Joe Ganim, and promising to more quickly address quality-of-life issues if voters put him in charge later this year.

On May 9 Gomes, who has aggressively used social media these last few months to highlight himself and criticize the mayor, posted online a video recorded at the fishing pier off of Seaview Avenue. In the footage, Gomes interviews a woman, Magda Cruz, who frequents the spot. He states that over a month earlier he had asked the city to install a portable bathroom at the site and was told it was too early in the season and there was no money.

"I've been coming fishing for a long time. Right now a lot of women come fishing," Cruz states. "We don't have a place to go and do our private stuff. Guys can go anywhere. Sometimes we have here seven, eight women fishing and they got their daughters but we don't have no bathroom to go."

"For those that are in the City Hall that are listening to or watching this video, we're asking you to put one porta-potty at least here," Gomes says into the camera. "We need to make our voice heard. We need to show the residents of Bridgeport deserve better and we don't have to beg."

Three days after the video's release, the Ganim administration on May 12 installed the temporary bathroom.

And Gomes quickly took credit that same day, posting online a photo of himself posing next to the toilet with the message, "The voice of the people!"

"I know it's something very small, but to that lady on the pier, it's something that's humongous," Gomes said in an interview Monday.

Tiadora Joseph, the mayor's communications director, on Tuesday said the portable bathroom was placed at the Seaview Avenue pier "due to reports from staff of people urinating" there. She said normally a porta-potty would be dropped off by July 1. It will be cleaned three times a week and remain until Dec. 4.

Gomes argues getting the toilet on the pier reflects how he, if elected, will be more engaged and do a better job addressing other quality-of-life complaints. His campaign's plan is to continue releasing similar videos pressuring City Hall to take action on unmet needs and broken promises.

"Residents are calling me based on trust we've developed over the years," he said. "They're coming to me at a point after they've made several complaints."

Gomes' approach is reminiscent of when Ganim ran in 2015 against then-Mayor Bill Finch. At that time, he was waging a seemingly improbable comeback after having governed Bridgeport in the 1990s and being convicted in 2003 of operating a pay-to-play operation out of City Hall.

Ahead of the 2015 Democratic primary between himself and Finch, Ganim dashed around town, portraying himself as the more caring, hands-on problem-solver. For example, he opened an unofficial neighborhood police substation at a campaign office following several shootings in and around Trumbull Gardens and also personally repaired a chain link fence at that same low income public housing site.

Gomes backed Ganim in that campaign and, after they beat Finch in the summer primary and won the November 2015 general election, got hired as a mayoral aide. Gomes served in the administration until last July when, amidst rumors of his own political ambitions, he was fired, the sole casualty of what the mayor's office called a staffing restructuring that was never fully implemented.

Gomes on Monday alleged that Ganim, who has also been more visible than usual these past few months online and in public, is most engaged in the job when running for office, but absent much of the rest of the time.

"They're playing campaign games with residents to show up (and) say, 'We're doing something.' Where have you been for the last few years?" Gomes said.

"In campaign season, wannabees will talk a lot," Ganim responded in his statement Tuesday. "We have put words into action."

He cited the recently passed municipal budget that holds taxes steady and "progress in every neighborhood" including: The new youth club under construction in the North End; the two library branches and senior center built on the East Side; next week's scheduled groundbreaking to relocate Bassick High School from its aged West End structure to a modern South End building; the concert amphitheater that opened adjacent to downtown in 2021; and the delayed Honey Locust Square retail/office development back underway on the East End.

Two of those — the North End youth club and Honey Locust Square — had their genesis in the Finch years, while the library board has taken credit for the newly opened branches, funded in part with money borrowed from the city and state aid.

Ganim continued, "In politics there are work horses and show horses. We are working every day with good things happening and more progress to come."

Gomes is one of three Democrats taking Ganim on. Former Finch aide Lamond Daniels and state Sen. Marilyn Moore, who came close to defeating the incumbent four years ago, are also running. Neither has been as active campaigning as Gomes. Daniels works for Norwalk Mayor Harry Rilling while Moore has been spending time in Hartford where the legislature has been convening for its 2023 session.

Speaking more Monday about the mayor, Gomes claimed that too many residents, like those he helped at the Seaview Avenue fishing pier, feel ignored and disenfranchised.

Ganim once made a similar observation. It was September 2015 and he was delivering a speech celebrating his primary victory over Finch and thanking voters for giving him a second chance in office following his 2003 conviction.

"It was only a dream that was inspired by suffering in neighborhoods in so many ways and by the disenfranchised in Bridgeport who only wanted a better quality of life," Ganim told the crowd.