Secretary of the State Denise Merrill said her office has no legal authority to grant exceptions to state law on petitioning minor party candidates. Her statement comes in response to efforts by the Job Creation Party Committee in Bridgeport to get a petitioning mayoral candidate, incumbent Mayor Bill Finch, onto the ballot for the upcoming November election.
Finch won the official endorsement of the hastily created party last week after losing the Democratic primary to convicted felon and former Mayor Joe Ganim. But the party missed a required deadline for the endorsement.
Finch's campaign has said it will go to court on the issue. Another option is that Finch runs in November as a write-in candidate.
Meanwhile, Ganim was a guest on WFSB's "Face the State." He called on Finch to drop out of the race.
"I think he should respect the thousands of voters that came out and voted in that primary," Ganim said of Finch on the show. "Those that expressed their views, despite the result, and to allow us to move forward in an orderly process between now and November, and to really -- in the best interests of the city -- work in partnership."
Ganim beat Finch by about 400 votes in the Democratic primary in Bridgeport earlier this month. Ganim, who was mayor from 1991 to 2003, served seven years in prison for corruption while in office.
Merrill's statement is below:
?I strongly support minor party access to the ballot and new participation in the electoral process. However, our election laws exist to ensure a fair and level playing field for all parties and candidates. The Job Creation party designation committee filed papers to run a petitioning candidate for Mayor of Bridgeport, but they never submitted any document endorsing a candidate for that office.
State election law clearly states that in order to get a candidate on the ballot, a petitioning minor party must submit a letter of endorsement by the statutorily mandated deadline. In 2015, the minor party endorsement deadline was Tuesday September 2nd at 4:00 pm. No statement of endorsement was submitted to our office by the Job Creation party designation committee by that deadline.
Because of this, state law forbids my office from approving any petitioning candidate from that group. None of the ensuing circumstances that have taken place since that deadline passed have changed that determination made by my office. Ultimately, the Secretary of the State?'s office is bound to follow the law as written and unfortunately we have no legal authority to grant any exceptions.?
