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Mangiacopra will face Rilling in Norwalk Dem primary

August 5, 2013
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Nancy Guenther Chapman
Vinny Mangiacopra Warren Pena
Vinny Mangiacopra and Warren Peña collect signatures at the SoNo Arts Fest Sunday. (Courtesy Norwalk’s Future Now)

Updated, 6:44 p.m., added numbers of signatures.

NORWALK, Conn. – Vinny Mangiacopra has hit the signature goal line in his quest to become Norwalk’s next mayor, Democratic Registrar Stuart Wells said. Andy Garfunkel and Matt Miklave are getting closer but are not there yet, Wells said.

Garfunkel and Miklave still need 775 signatures on petitions to join Mangiacopra and former Norwalk Police Chief Harry Rilling in the Sept. 10 primary to determine who will be the Democratic party candidate to take on Mayor Richard Moccia in the November election.

Mangiacopra, Democratic Party District D chairman, brought in a bunch of signatures Friday, which Wells checked over the weekend, he said. “That brought him within 25 of the goal line,” Wells said.

Mangiacopra brought in more Monday morning, Wells said. He has counted enough to bring Mangiacopra’s tally to 785, but is ignoring the rest in favor of counting the stacks brought in by Miklave and Garfunkel.

Garfunkel, the 2011 Democratic Party candidate, and Miklave, a Common Council member, “both probably have about 500 turned in,” Wells said at 2:30 p.m. At 5 p.m., he said Garfunkel has 547 signatures verified, with none pending. He hadn’t gotten far with Miklave’s stack.

The deadline is 4 p.m. Wednesday.

Wells and other members of the registrar’s office must validate all the signatures to see if they came from registered Democratic voters and to ensure that there aren’t any duplicates.

“We only got a few pages of Matt’s done,” he said in a 5:50 p.m. email. “He has 109 verified, with 424 pending. His yield has been high, i.e. over 80 percent, so we would estimate that he has at least 450 good signatures and maybe more. … He turned in 32 pages this morning.”

Wednesday may end without an answer about Miklave and Garfunkel, he said, as registrars are working as fast as they can, but likely won’t get through the stacks that evening.

Mangiacopra sent several Tweets Monday about his victory.

“It’s official, we’re on the ballot! Mark your calendars for Sept 10, when we put change into action at the polls,” he said at about noon.

On July 17, the campaign Tweeted, “Add most circulators to our #momentum. Did I mention we love #primaries..?”

The latest Tweet recommends taking Sept. 10 off from work.

If it’s a race to see who gets the most signatures, Rilling is ahead.

“Harry Rilling and Vinnie Mangiacopra have both qualified, and both have a strong cushion of extra signatures over the amount they need,” Wells said in his late day email. “Mangiacopra’s extra signatures (170 signatures on 11 pages) have not been checked as they came in this morning. Most of Rilling’s extra signatures have been verified as they came in last Friday, and over the weekend, although about six pages turned in today have not been checked. He has a little over 1,000 verified signatures to date.”

Wells said he may never know how many verified signatures Mangiacopra came up with.

He said, “You’re at the bottom of the pile once you’re over the finish line.”

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15 responses to “Mangiacopra will face Rilling in Norwalk Dem primary”

  1. A.N.S

    Mr Mangiacopra,
    If you visit this blog (hard to imagine you or someone on your team doesn’t monitor it) could you please list out some of your qualifications? For example: Your education? Employment history? Political experience? You see, I am on the fence and I was wondering what sort of experience you may have. I know what Mr. Rilling and Mayor Moccia are and aren’t, as well Mr. Garfunfunkel. You are the wildcard here. What makes you more qualified than the others and what earns you my vote?

    Thank you,
    A.N.S – registered independent.

  2. EveT

    While I continue to support Harry Rilling as the best qualified candidate, it is in accord with democratic principles that voters will get to decide on September 10 which Democrat they want to run against Moccia in November.

  3. Tim T

    A.N.S
    I have been asking for the same information in regards to young Vinny..It seems when confronted with this question his supporters can not come up with any answer. At least we know what a nightmare Rilling is but to what degree of a nightmare young Vinny is seems to be a secret.

  4. Clayton

    @A.N.S. All that is I’m sure on the candidates website. I found this feature on Mangiacopra’s professional experience – http://www.norwalksfuturenow.com/leadership/

    Looks like there is a “platform” feature as well.

  5. Tim T

    Clayton
    The link is filled with propaganda, buzz words and empty talking points and no real experience to be mayor as Young Vinny has none. Vinny is a political operative by trade aka a used car salesman. What has young Vinny ever done for Norwalk??? What actual experience does Young Vinny have to be mayor??? That does not mean a link to a propaganda site.. List it here in your own words.

  6. NorwalkDinosaur

    @Tim T, you have gone down this road before, and your lagging personal issues with Mr. Mangiacopra are becoming tiring. In fact, they seem to have made you mushy between the ears.

    Some unsuspecting, first-time readers might take you seriously, but at the end of the day, you are backing Garfunkel; a man who is running the most ridiculously disorganized, lackluster campaign that Norwalk has ever seen. He has raised virtually zero dollars and he has no support beyond his friends from Norwalk High School (maybe you’re one of them?). He will get creamed in November by Dick Moccia.

    In Mr. Garfunkel’s last “real job” he was responsible for five employees in the Town Clerk’s Office. One of whom, we now know, stole tens of thousands of dollars from the City. A “slight” oversight that would have gone undetected had Mr. McQuaid not come in for mop up duty. If Mr. Garfunkel is incapable of overseeing 5 people, what are we to look forward to if he were to become Mayor?

    Beyond that small fiasco, Mr. Garfunkel currently works in the theatrical arts world. Nothing wrong with it, good on him, but how the heck does this better prepare him for the Mayor’s office than Mr. Mangiacopra?

    My point of this mini-tirade is less to knock Mr. Garfunkel (an innocent bystander really), and more to take issue with your personal vendetta of Mr. Mangiacopra. You cannot, convincingly, rip one candidate for supposed inexperience, yet in the same breath, support another candidate who has some experience, but who did a really bad job with it (a la Chief Rilling, something we can agree on). It simply doesn’t add up.

    You also love to say no supporter has shared Mr. Mangiacopra’s relevant experience with you. That’s nonsense and you know it. You can call it fluff all you want, but Mr. Mangiacopra does in fact hold a Masters Degree in Public Administration. He has worked for two municipalities (Bridgeport and Monroe) in a variety of positions (Mayor’s Office, Economic Development Office, and Probate Court). He has worked on very successful political campaigns in leadership roles, Jim Himes for Congress, for example.

    Being Mayor is about surrounding yourself with smart people (not something the current administrations focuses on), evaluating information that is presented to you, and making sharp, informed decisions. It is about creating a vision by listening to taxpayers, city employees and your conscience and then implementing that vision.

    I like Mr. Mangiacopra’s vision for Norwalk. I’ve met him a handful of times and I’m happy to support him. There may be better candidates out there, but none who have entered this current race for Mayor.

    And @Tim T, you may not like the business of being a “used car salesman”, but the guy is after all, running to become the chief politician for the City of Norwalk.

  7. Tim T

    NorwalkDinosaur
    Yes we have gone down this road before. I have asked you and the other political operatives for Young Vinny to list his accomplishments and I get nothing . I have asked you and Young Vinny’s other political operatives to list what he has done for Norwalk and get nothing. Let me make this simple for you.
    Provide a list of Young Vinny’s accomplishments that prepare him to be mayor. This does not mean working at the probate court etc., but what he did do at that probate court that prepares him. Also post a list of what Young Vinny has done for Norwalk as in volunteer work and so on.

    Also if you were smart you would not bring up Young Vinny running
    political campaigns as that is exactly what Norwalk doesn’t need as in someone that is full of you know what as a used car salesman . Also let us not forget that some of the political campaigns he ran shall we say had some issues.

    FYI
    The theft in the town clerks office was not tens of thousands of dollars so that’s a lie. Also it was Andy’s forward thinking with him purchasing the software that uncovered the theft.
    Vinny without question is tied with Rilling for the worst one to be mayor. I and many would vote for Moccia before Young Vinny

    I will bet we never see these lists as I have asked before and get no response other than more fluff. The reason is simple Young Vinny has no experience to be mayor and young Vinny has done nothing for Norwalk. Young Vinny wants to be mayor just because Young Vinny wants to be mayor as in a sense of entitlement.

  8. Joe Espo

    NorwalkDinosaur: Along with weighing “the vision thing” you have to consider a candidate’s character and judgment. Judgment is challenging when you’re young, you lack experience and are blindly ambitious. Vinny, who hails from Bridgeport, worked as a right hand man for a two-time felon: Ernie Newton from Bridgeport. He worked hard to rehabilitate the reputation of someone who was pinched for corruption and campaign finance fraud. Newton’s latest criminal charges are first-degree larceny, five counts of illegal campaign practices and tampering with a witness. In other words, Vinny tried to bolster a thief’s reputation by deceiving an audience into thinking that the thief didn’t do what the prosecutors said he did. A smoke and mirrors PR job. That’s not the kind of company you want to keep or the type of endeavor you want to pursue if you want to garner the trust of voters in pursuit of the mayor’s office and be in charge of $350 million in taxpayer money. Vinny working for Ernie Newton is not much different than Andy, Matt or Harry working as right-hand men for Al Capone. What are the chances of them being elected if they did?

    I hear some folks refer to him as “Vinny Bag O’Donuts.” That’s not a good thing.

  9. A.N.S

    @Clayton,
    Thanks for the link. I found it useful but also somewhat vague. The association with Bridgeport politics carries connotations that are both good and bad. Don’t know much about Monroe other than it seems to be mostly Mom and Pop shops. Obviously working on some of recent campaigns carries some weight.

    Also found some youtube info including a disturbing “I’m not a black man….” video. Probably reflects on his inexperience a bit.

    Not sold…. yet.

  10. D(ysfunctional)TC

    @A.N.S. If you are referencing Vinny’s speech in front of the police department, you should note that he sounds much different at sea level than he does in Silvermine or Cranbury. Some might think he is just a pandering fool, but inability to speak the same at different altitudes shouldn’t be held against the child.

  11. D(ysfunctional)TC

    @NorwalkDinosaur. Please show an example of Vinny surrounding himself with smart people. You know besides a council person with a vendetta against NEON and besides anonymous posts on these blogs. All we know about the kid is he has never done one thing for Norwalk and he acted like a spoiled brat at the DTC convention.

  12. NorwalkDinosaur

    @Tim T, I’ll invest more time answering your questions, once you explain to me how Mr. Garfunkel is better qualified to be mayor. Hanging out in his “Jungle Office Playground” (he literally turned the place into a jungle with stuffed animals and fake vines) in the Town Clerk’s Office for 8-years, oblivious to the fact that one of his five employees (again, not an army of people to manage) is stealing taxpayers dollars (tens of thousands, thousands, whatever number you prefer to put on it) does not make him a good candidate for Mayor.

    Or if you don’t want to answer that question, explain to the rest of us how running a pathetic, disorganized, unfunded, and unsupported mayoral campaign is a good indication that he will be a good Mayor?

    @Joe Espo, Mr. Mangiacopra should come out publicly and admit that he was wrong to associate with Ernie Newton in any capacity. The guy is a thief in the worst sense of the word. It was a stupid thing to do and he should admit it.

    But to call Mr., Mangiacopra, Mr. Newton’s right-hand-man is ridiculous, and I think you know it. Mr. Mangiacopra’s PR company was subcontracted to put together a documentary on the guy for use as a promotional campaign video. He was not on Mr. Newton’s campaign staff, he was not involved in internal meetings and he was unaware that the crook was being a crook for a second time until after he had finished his project and the campaign was over (I challenged him on this point at a fundraiser). You’ve read the news articles on this issue, and it is pretty clear.

    I know that you enjoy lumping the two together, but it is like saying that all the people who worked for Mayor Eddie Perez’s campaign in Hartford are “Al Capone” cronies, or that the entire White House Staff is responsible for the Monica Lewinsky scandal because they worked for Clinton, it just isn’t true or fair.

    @D(ysfunctional)TC, Mr. Mangiacopra isn’t mayor right now, but he is running a very organized, efficient political campaign from the looks of it. I will dig through past articles on this site for you, but I believe that Mr. Mangiacopra has called for a review of all department heads immediately after being elected. Some of the current cast of idiot characters that your Mayor Moccia has employed will be out of work come January if Mr. Mangiacopra is elected. I don’t think that is true with a Rilling, Miklave, or Garfunkel administration. At least in person, he has said that he will cast a wide net for the best and the brightest for these jobs (and no, not just his “corrupt Bridgeport buddies”, as I am sure you will infer).

    Norwalk is stalled and I don’t believe that Garfunkel (not organized or smart enough), Rilling (same as Moccia), or Miklave (just likes to hear himself speak) have the guts to do anything about it. I may be wrong in the end, but I don’t think that I am.

  13. D(ysfunctional)TC

    @Dinosaur. Vinny’s rush to judgment on various department heads is exactly why he is unfit for office. Heck, most of them were in their jobs before Moccia was even in office. I wouldn’t argue that some new blood is needed, but the upheaval that Vinny promises is reason enough to not vote for him, besides his immaturity. Sorry, we don’t need Vinny’s cronies from the state democrat machine running this city. They are doing a fine job of screwing up the state and should look for another city to buy an election.

  14. NorwalkDinosaur

    @D(ysfunctional)TC, who is talking about upheavals and clearing house? What rush to judgement are you referring to?

    This is what I said, “Some of the current cast of idiot characters that your Mayor Moccia has employed will be out of work come January if Mr. Mangiacopra is elected” (see above for further clarification). The operative word being “SOME”.

    In my conversation with Mr. Mangiacopra he indicated that there are 2 or 3 key personnel that he believes need changing. He was not been more specific, though I think that he should be, publicly.

    In a City our size, replacing two or three department heads with a new administration is hardly earth shattering! Take a short walk through City Hall, and you are likely to bump into at least 3 department heads who are inefficient, unqualified, Moccia political cronies who have no business taxing us at $100-150K/year for their half-a$$ed production.

  15. RU4REAL

    Amen to that last post Norwalk Dinosaur.

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