Competition is a must in politics

3/13/08
A one-party system is no way to run a city. But with Bridgeport’s overwhelming Democratic voter registration edge over Republicans, or any other party, that’s been the rule for at least the past few decades. Tuesday’s special election for a vacant state Senate seat may have been a step toward changing that.
Rob Russo lost twice to Bill Finch in the 22nd state Senate District, but the election to fill the seat once held by the new Bridgeport mayor finally brought a night to celebrate for the city GOP. City residents can hope it leads to a more competitive political environment going forward.
Though turnout was disappointingly low, Russo earned a convincing win, including at two Bridgeport polling places, in the district which covers the western portion of Bridgeport, all of Trumbull and the southern part of Monroe.
Whether it will be enough to keep him in office after the November election, in an environment many predict to be unfavorable to Republicans, is yet to be seen. What is unquestionable, though, is that one-party dominance of a city’s political scene is unhealthy. Voters need choices; office-holders need opposition.
Lately, the only meaningful opposition has come from within the Democratic Party. But real change is all but impossible there without the approval of the powerful Bridgeport Democratic Town Committee, which has a stake in keeping things the way they are. The ongoing fight for party chairmanship is decidedly lacking in new names and fresh faces.
Russo himself is hardly a right-wing ideologue; his views on most issues fit squarely within the bounds of most voters, in Bridgeport as well as Trumbull and Monroe. His defeated opponent, Democrat Tom Mulligan, offered a similarly pragmatic platform, but it is telling that the Democratic bastion of Bridgeport could not deliver the overwhelming numbers he would have needed to overcome the suburban swing toward the GOP. Maybe city voters are thinking twice about one-party dominance.
In the Senate, Russo’s victory marks the official end of the Democrats’ much-vaunted but largely irrelevant veto-proof majority. The change may give Gov. M. Jodi Rell a little more breathing room this year, and also removes the all-encompassing legislative power the Democrats had hoped for, but never really delivered on. There, too, some balance between the parties is a good thing.
This could all be short-lived, depending on November’s results. But for now, it looks like an opening in Bridgeport’s longstanding political stagnation.