Students: Bill could give police ability to run surveillance on peaceful protesters

Republicans and Democrats clash over lowering electric rates at the state Capitol 

‘It’s just not fair.’ Bridgeport ballot fraud suspects face judge, proclaim their innocence

IRIS to close its New Haven location

Stamford mayor unveils $714 million budget plan

Ex-Sen. Kevin Kelly named superior court judge in Hartford

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I'm Mark Suddall. Welcome back to Power and Politics in Bridgeport, 3 city council members and 2 others faced a judge Thursday accused of 156 counts of ballot fraud. Outside of court, City councilman Alfredo Castillo claimed that investigators coerced voters into making false claims about him. intimidate them. They scare them. They go in there knocking on the doors like they po po, and then you scare them, you scare the voters. Wanda Jeter Padoy is also charged. She is the vice chair of Bridgeport's Democratic Party. In 2023 videos allegedly showed Jeter stuffing drop boxes with absentee ballots. Well, Dave Millane, former member of Stratford's ethics commission, joins us now and welcome. Hi, thanks. Thanks for having me. Well, give me your thoughts and reaction, uh, to this case in Bridgeport. Uh, it's pretty wild, right? It's, you know, this stuff's going on and something's got to be done about it. Um, I filed a complaint in my town 8 years ago about ballot fraud, actually, you know, voter fraud from in our town hall, right? It was and the people that helped that helped enable it were the registrar and the town clerk. I filed it with the SEC. They sat on it for 2 years. They finally were motivated to do something when the Connecticut Post did an article say, hey, what, what's going on with this? And they fined one person $300 but the people who actually enabled the fraud, they didn't do anything with it. And because the SEC was taking so long, I actually filed a complaint with the ethics commission in our town to say maybe someone will act on this, right? When I filed that, what they told me was that, hey, listen, what you say. May be true, but it's not a violation of the ethics policy. It's a criminal act. I said, OK, if it's a criminal act, what, what are we gonna do about it? Silence. No one wants to deal with it. Town hall, no one wants to deal with it. I contacted the town attorneys. What's going on? They're saying this could be a crime. What's going on? And the, and the person who was the, uh, the chairman of the essence commission was actually the Norwalk police chief. He lived in Stratford, so he knows it's a crime, but yet, OK, we're not gonna do anything with this, you know, like no one wanted to touch the register because the register in our town, the Republican register, he's also the chairman of the RTC, right? So they're all in cahoots there, you know, and I don't, I don't know how it is in Bridgeport, but it seems like, you know, the people, if you're, if you're in with one group, they're not gonna go after you, but if you're the outsiders, they'll go after you because at the same time I filed my complaint in 2017, Stratford, the town of Stratford Town Hall, the town attorneys, they bypassed the SEEC and they actually conducted a criminal investigation involving two people from Bridgeport, um, uh, Betty Chappelle and Troy Stevenson, and there was an absentee ballot case where what they did was they went. They were out getting absentee ballots for for a mayor's race in Stratford, and they went to people who were their relatives and they signed their names to request the ballots, right? So the the ballot went through the people got the got their got their ballots, got the request back to says, hey, we never requested this. We didn't want this. So they went to town hall. They said, so the system worked, right? They went to town hall. They said we never put in for these absentee ballots. So they said, OK, and and it was great. There's a, there's a, there's a process there. They have a list. OK, well, who gave these out? And they, you know, they went, they did this investigation, they found the people. Who gave them out and really what I think they should have done there was just refer that case to the SEEC, right, find those people, but what they decided to do was, no, we're gonna make this a criminal thing because the people who got the ballots, they never cast the vote but, but what they do was, you know, they didn't, they says we don't, we don't want these FEC ballots. We go to the polls and vote and they said that but the people who did it were their relatives, you know what, we don't want any charges brought against them. We just, you know, we just want you to know that this is what they did. So they said, so what they said was, well, you know. Uh, doesn't matter you want to drop the charges. Um, when they sign this form, they now it's a crime against the state. They're trying to say it's a crime against the state, so, so we're gonna punish them. So those people, Betty Chappelle and Troy Stevenson became convicted felons, right, because, because of that, right? They went in, they went to court, they, they pled, they didn't go to trial. They didn't do, they just, they just went to court and they pled out, OK. But yet in Stratford, the registrar actually committed voter fraud, right? He went in one of the guy that was the. The, the council chairman, so it's not somebody who wasn't know. He's the council chairman, he's the board of ed chairman. He was the housing chairman. I mean, this guy is very well known in town, right? He sells his house in 2014, yet. He and his he and his wife go right after they sell the house. There's a primary, so they go, they actually go to the polls. You can see things they go to the polls and they vote. No one's gonna question. He's lived in town for 30 years. They show his license. But then what I saw was in the fall, he, his wife, and two of their children are listed as, as giving out abs absentee ballots and voting by absentee from an address in the house that they sold. So so this is, this is wrong, right? So. The next year, and then meanwhile they had moved to Woodbury. So the next year in 2015, this thing happens again, but it's only just with that one guy with, with, with the one man. The rest of the family didn't vote. So I'm like, well, did, did those, did, did the wife and two kids actually, did they really vote or did someone take out those absentee ballots and have them and did it for them? You can never know because that evidence is destroyed, right? The evidence gets once, once the election is over after 30 days, the mayor can sign off and say, OK, we need to suffer anymore, destroy it. So if if you're gonna do it, that's the way to do it, just destroy it. But this guy who voted again in 2015 and then he still stayed on. Housing authority, right? He's still the chairman of the Housing Authority. He's still involved in a bunch of different stuff, but he's, let me, let me ask, I'm sorry to cut you off. Let me ask you this before we run out of time. How does the state elections enforcement commission pick and choose who to punish and how? Yeah, I don't know. It's like, it goes to this group and it's like when I put my complaint in, they never, I, I filed my complaint. OK, I did my information, but no one ever followed up with me. No, no one ever said, hey, um, you know, you have any more? What do you think? Nothing. No, and so. I would reach out to them and say, what's going on with this complaint? Why is it taking so long? What's going on here? And they actually, I filed my complaint in 2017 and they changed the law so that if they didn't get to complaint within a year, it just goes away. So I was lucky that I came in under the wire so that I kept, I kept pushing, I kept, hey, what's going on? And so they, they had to do something, but what they chose to do was just find one person 300 and let the officials who we trust to do our elections. They didn't tell them accountable. They didn't do anything. And under the 30 seconds we have left, how does Bridgeport recover from this situation? How, I don't know. I mean, you, you need to have, you have to have people that you can trust, right? The process has to be played out. Let's, let's see what's going on. I, I really don't know how they recover. I mean, they're gonna recover, something's gonna happen, but I, I don't have an answer to that. Dave, thank you so much for the time. Some really insightful information. Thank you. It's been a wonderful ride, wonderful journey. Longtime mayor of Norwalk Harry Rilling announces this will be his last year in office. We sit down with him to find out what's next.

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Norwalk's mayor announces he will not seek re-election in November. Mayor Harry Rilling is currently in his 6th term in office. He spoke with News 12 Connecticut's Marissa Alter about what's behind the decision and what's next. It's been a wonderful ride, wonderful journey. With his wife by his side, Norwalk Mayor Harry Rilling spoke about his decision to leave office after leading the city for 12 years. It's time to consider moving on and doing something that maybe you enjoy, give you a little bit more time with your family, spend more time with my wife. It's bittersweet, but at the same time. There comes a time when enough is sort of enough. Rilling's announcement marks the end of a 53 year career serving the city in which he was born and raised. He was first elected in 2013 after 41 years with the police department, 17 of them as chief. Wife Lucia says she's looking forward to having her husband around more. Yes, absolutely, having him around. Yeah, time will tell. Rilling tells us while there are no campaigns in his future, he'd be open to serving on a board or commission. I still have a lot of energy. I still have a commitment to the city to try to do whatever I can to help out, to improve wherever I see I'm needed, he says he's most proud of navigating the city through the pandemic and prioritizing school construction projects. I'm very blessed. The city has been very, very good to me. And I owe the city a tremendous debt of gratitude. Rilling told me he isn't calling this a retirement. He says he's leaving one job in order to prepare for the next chapter of his life, and he'll have plenty of time to figure out exactly what that will look like. Rilling will remain in office and serve out the rest of his term before leaving when the next mayor is sworn in January 1st in Norwalk, Marissa Alter needs 12, Connecticut. And the day after Rling announced he would not seek reelection, Republican Vinny Shiitano and Democrat Barbara Smith filed paperwork to run for Norwalk mayor. Well, that's all our time. I'm Mark Sudall. Thanks for watching.

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Westport blogger Dan Woog and Dave Mullane join the show. 

Power & Politics: Looking ahead at 2026 gubernatorial race; Bridgeport ballot fraud latest

Westport blogger Dan Woog and Dave Mullane join the show.

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