Bridgeport Public Schools elections (2015)

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2015 Bridgeport Public Schools Elections
Primary Election date:
September 16, 2015
General Election date:
November 3, 2015
Table of Contents
About the district Method of election Elections Key deadlines Additional elections External links
See also
Connecticut Bridgeport Public Schools Fairfield County, Connecticut ballot measures Local ballot measures, Connecticut

Four seats on the Bridgeport Public Schools Board of Education were up for at-large general election on November 3, 2015. A Democratic primary election was held September 16, 2015. Two Democrats, one Republican, and one candidate cross-nominated with the Working Families and Democratic parties won election to the board. No incumbents were re-elected, but one former board member rejoined the body.

Incumbents Jacqueline Kelleher (D), Hernan Illingworth (D), Kadisha Coates (WFP) and Kenneth Moales Jr. (D) were up for re-election. Kelleher, however, resigned from the board on July 31, 2015, to move to New Hampshire. Mary "Kate" Rivera was appointed to fill the vacancy on August 24, 2015. Rivera made it clear at the time that she had no intention of running for a full term in the election.

Incumbents Illingworth and Coates, along with candidate Faith Harrison-Villegas, received the Democratic nominations, but the incumbents were defeated in a primary challenge. Coates' nomination was contentious given that she had been appointed to the board in 2014 as a member of the Working Families Party. The member appointed to fill the vacancy created by John Bagley's (WFP) resignation in October 2014 was required to be a member of the party to maintain the partisan balance of the board. Board member Sauda Baraka (WFP) objected to Coates remaining on the board after she voluntarily switched her party affiliation in order to receive the Democratic nomination. According to Board President Dave Hennessey (D), it was determined that Coates could remain on the board after the board consulted its lawyers and the Connecticut Secretary of State's office.

The Republican Party nominated John Weldon and Kevin McSpirit. The Connecticut Working Families Party nominated Karen Jackson and Dennis Bradley. Bradley also successfully sought to run in the Democratic primary along with Maria Pereira and Ben Walker. Pereira formerly served on the board as a member of the Working Families Party. Cross-nominated candidate Bradley, fellow Democratic petitioning challenger Walker and former board member Pereira advanced to the general election.

The three primary winners—Dennis Bradley (D/WFP), Ben Walker (D) and Maria Pereira (D)—also took the top three spots in the general election. Kevin McSpirit placed fourth, securing one seat for the Republicans. These winners altered the partisan breakdown of the board, leaving it with five Democrats, two Republicans, one Working Families member, and one member cross-filed with both the Democratic and Working Families parties. Before the election, the board had a majority of six Democrats and a minority of two Working Families Party members and one Republican. With Coates' Democratic nomination for the 2015 election, the board could have been described as having seven Democratic members in practice. State law required the board to have one-third minority party representation following the election. Bradley's seat on the board counted toward the Democrats' overall total, despite his cross-nomination with the Working Families Party.

While the Democrats retained the strongest majority allowed by law, both minor parties saw a shift following the election. The Working Families Party had two full-party members on the board prior to Bagley's resignation. Post-election, the party had one full-party member plus Bradley's shared party affiliation with the Democrats. The split between Democrats and Working Families members on the board was further muddled by Pereira's win as a Democrat, given her prior tenure on the board as a Working Families member. Meanwhile, the Republicans increased their board representation from one to two with McSpirit's win.

About the district

See also: Bridgeport Public Schools, Connecticut

Bridgeport Public Schools is located in Fairfield County, Conn.

Bridgeport Public Schools is located in Bridgeport, the largest city in Connecticut and the county seat for Fairfield County. The county was home to 945,438 residents in 2014, according to estimates by the United States Census Bureau. Bridgeport Public Schools was the third-largest school district in Connecticut and served 20,155 students in the 2012–2013 school year.

Demographics

Fairfield County outperformed Connecticut as a whole in terms of higher education achievement from 2009–2013. The United States Census Bureau found that 44.8 percent of county residents aged 25 and older had attained a bachelor's degree or higher, compared to 36.5 percent of state residents. The median household income for Fairfield County was $82,283, compared to $69,461 for Connecticut. The percentage of county residents below poverty level was 9.1 percent, while it was 10.2 percent for the state residents.

Racial Demographics, 2013
Race	Fairfield County(%)	Connecticut (%)
White	80.2	81.6
Black or African American	12.0	11.3
American Indian and Alaska Native	0.5	0.5
Asian	5.3	4.3
Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander	0.1	0.1
Two or More Races	1.9	2.1
Hispanic or Latino	18.2	14.7

Presidential Voting Pattern, Bridgeport, Connecticut
Year	Democratic Vote (%)	Republican Vote (%)
2012	85.7	13.8
2008	83.5	16
2004	70.7	27.8
2000	72.7	22.1

Voter and candidate information

The Bridgeport Board of Education is composed of nine partisan members who are elected at large to four-year terms in odd-numbered years. A Democratic primary election was held September 16, 2015. The general election was November 3, 2015. State law required a minimum of one-third of the board's seats to be held by minority parties following each election.

There were several routes by which candidates could get on the ballot, which varied depending on the political affiliation of the candidate seeking office. The timeline below outlines the entire election process. A full written description of these events can be read in the collapsed section below the timeline.

Click [show] on the right for the written description of Connecticut's method of school board member selection.

Convention nomination The first way major party candidates could get onto the ballot was to receive the nomination of their political party during the endorsement period, which ran from July 21, 2015, to July 28, 2015. These endorsements were made by convention of the local party members, and the candidates had to receive at least 15 percent of the votes cast by convention delegates to be nominated. Parties could endorse as many candidates as there were seats up for election. Major party endorsements were certified on July 29, 2015. Minor parties that were qualified for the board races were also able to endorse candidates. The deadline for minor parties to endorse candidates was September 2, 2015. Primary petition If a candidate who wished to run for a major political party did not receive the party's endorsement, he or she was required to file a primary petition to oppose the endorsed candidate by August 12, 2015. In order for the petition to be deemed sufficient and a primary election to be held, the petitioner was required to submit valid signatures totaling 1 percent of the votes cast for the same office at the previous election for that office or 7,500, whichever was smaller. Multiple candidates of a political party could petition for a primary together. Only as many candidates could advance from it for each party as there were seats up for election in the general election. Independent petitioning Candidates who wished to run without a party affiliation had to file in a similar manner to candidates with a partisan affiliation. Such independent candidates, however, could not file in groups like partisan petitioners and had to file individually. They had to meet the same signature requirements as partisan petitioning candidates but did not have to run in a primary election. Write-in candidates The deadline for write-in candidates to file for the general election was October 20, 2015. Write-in candidates could not designate an affiliation with a political party, and no candidate who was nominated by a major or minor party or by petition could run as a write-in candidate.

General election

General election results

ELECTORAL FUSION: Bridgeport Public Schools, At-Large, General Election, 2015
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Democratic/WFP	Dennis Bradley	27.3%	11,961
	Democratic	Ben Walker	25.8%	11,320
	Democratic	Maria Pereira	24.6%	10,792
	Republican	Kevin McSpirit	8.1%	3,536
	Republican	John Weldon	7.6%	3,349
	Working Families Party	Karen Jackson	6.6%	2,890
Total Votes (100% of precincts reporting)				43,848
Source: Connecticut Secretary of State, "Prescribed Form for Return of Votes Cast at a Municipal Election: Bridgeport," Novemeber 3, 2015

FULL BY-PARTY RESULTS:
	Party	Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Democratic	Ben Walker	25.8%	11,320
	Democratic	Maria Pereira	24.6%	10,792
	Democratic	Dennis Bradley	24.3%	10,641
	Republican	Kevin McSpirit	8.1%	3,536
	Republican	John Weldon	7.6%	3,349
	Working Families Party	Karen Jackson	6.6%	2,890
	Working Families Party	Dennis Bradley	3%	1,320

General election candidates

Dennis Bradley		Karen Jackson		Kevin McSpirit
	Endorsed by the Connecticut Working Families Party Won Democratic Party nomination as a petitioning candidate in the primary election Attorney		Endorsed by the Connecticut Working Families Party		Nominated by the Bridgeport Republican Town Committee
Maria Pereira		Ben Walker		John Weldon
	Won Democratic Party nomination as a petitioning candidate in the primary election Former Working Families Party board member, 2009–2013		Won Democratic Party nomination as a petitioning candidate in the primary election Music teacher, Greenwich		Nominated by the Bridgeport Republican Town Committee

Democratic Party primary

Democratic primary election results

Bridgeport Public Schools, At-Large, Democratic Primary, 2015
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Dennis Bradley	17.5%	5,811
Ben Walker	17.0%	5,648
Maria Pereira	16.9%	5,625
Faith Harrison-Villegas	16.8%	5,597
Kadisha Coates Incumbent	16.3%	5,425
Hernan Illingworth Incumbent	15.6%	5,188
Total Votes		33,294
Source: CT Post, "Bridgeport primary election returns," September 16, 2015 and CT Post, "Recounts settle some, not all races," September 24, 2015 These election results are not official and will be updated when certified results are available. You can submit certified results by contacting us.

Candidate defeated in the Democratic primary

Hernan Illingworth		Kadisha Coates		Faith Harrison-Villegas
	Incumbent Nominated by the Bridgeport Democratic Town Committee		Incumbent Member from November 2014–2015 Appointed as a Working Families Party member Nominated by the Bridgeport Democratic Town Committee for 2015		Nominated by the Bridgeport Democratic Town Committee

Endorsements

Dennis Bradley (WFP/D), Ben Walker (D) and Kevin McSpirit (R) were endorsed by the Bridgeport Education Association.

Campaign finance

The Bridgeport Town Clerk's office does not publish and freely disclose school board candidate campaign finance reports. If you have any information regarding the campaign finance disclosures in this race, please contact the school board elections team at editor@ballotpedia.org.

Past elections

Information about earlier elections can be found by clicking [show] at the right.

2013 See also: Bridgeport Public Schools elections (2013) General Bridgeport Public Schools, General Election, 4-year term, 2013 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Democratic Dave Hennessey 20.1% 940      Democratic Howard Gardner 15.7% 731      Republican Joe Larcheveque 15.1% 706      Democratic Andre Baker, Jr. 15.3% 714      Republican Steve Best 11.8% 550      Republican John Weldon 10.3% 482      Working Families Eric Stewart-Alicea 4.2% 194      Working Families Sauda Baraka Incumbent 4% 186      Working Families Andre Baker, Jr. 3.6% 167 Total Votes 4,670 Source: Connecticut Secretary of State, "Municipal Elections - November 5, 2013," accessed December 16, 2013 Primary On September 10, 2013, a Democratic primary was held for three spots on the ballot in the Bridgeport Board of Education election. Baker, Hennessey and Gardner won these positions over Simon Castillo, Kathryn Bukovsky and Brandon Clark. The winners ran against the school reform policies of Mayor Bill Finch and received the endorsement of the Network for Public Education, while the other three candidates were endorsed by the Bridgeport Democratic Town Committee. Bridgeport Board of Education, Democratic Primary, 2013 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Democrat Andre Baker, Jr. 21.6% 3,409      Democrat Dave Hennessey 21% 3,308      Democrat Howard Gardner 20.8% 3,284      Democrat Simon Castillo 12.5% 1,977      Democrat Kathryn Bukovsky 12.2% 1,917      Democrat Brandon Clark 11.8% 1,862 Total Votes 15,757 Source: Connecticut Post These results are unofficial.

Key deadlines

The following dates were key deadlines for the 2015 Connecticut school board elections:

Deadline	Event
July 21-28, 2015	Political parties' candidate endorsement period
July 29, 2015	Political parties' candidate endorsements certified
August 12, 2015	Primary petitions for opposition candidates of a major party due
September 2, 2015	Last day that a minor party may endorse a candidate
September 16, 2015	Primary election day
October 20, 2015	Write-in candidate filing deadline
November 3, 2015	General Election Day
November 4, 2015	General election results certified

Additional elections on the ballot

See also: Connecticut elections, 2015

Democratic primaries were held for the mayor of Bridgeport, city clerk, town clerk, city sheriffs and city council on the same day as the board of education primary. The same races were on the general election ballot together on November 3, 2015.

Recent news

The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms 'Bridgeport Public Schools' Connecticut. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.

Bridgeport Public Schools elections (2015) - Google News

See also

Bridgeport Public Schools	Connecticut	School Boards
Bridgeport Public Schools elections (2013) List of school districts in Connecticut	Connecticut school board elections, 2015 Public education in Connecticut Local ballot measures, Connecticut	School board elections, 2015 School board elections, 2014 School board election data analysis, 2015 School board election data analysis, 2014

External links

Suggest a link

• Bridgeport Public Schools
• City of Bridgeport
• Connecticut Secretary of State
• Connecticut Democratic Party
• Bridgeport Republican Town Committee
• Connecticut Working Families Party
• General election sample ballot