Spurned by GOP, Middletown Councilors Turn to Working Families Party

After failing to get an endorsement from their own party to run for re-election this fall, a pair of Middletown Common Council Republicans are turning to another group for support: the Working Families Party.

The Hartford Courant reported Thursday that council members Phil Pessina and Joseph Bibisi are collecting signatures to run in November on the Working Families Party ticket and as independent candidates.

According to Middletown's Republican Registrar of Voters Janice Gionfriddo, each needs a minimum 1 percent of the approximately 9,500 voters who turned out at the last election — or 95 votes. Voters of any party can sign their petitions, Gionfriddo says. 

The Working Families, a self-described progressive party known to frequently cross-endorse Democrats in many state elections, met with the two Republicans last week and are looking into whether to formally endorse them, the Courant reported.

If the Working Families endorses Pessina and Bibisi, Gionfriddo says, their names will appear twice on the November ballot — as WF and independent candidates.

Bibisi, a six-term incumbent, and Pessina, a three-term member and the local GOP's minority leader on the council, failed to gain endorsements during the party's nominating convention two weeks ago.

In a strongly-worded statement to Middletown Patch, Pessina criticized the Middletown Republican Party of coordinating both his and Bibisi's ouster from the ticket due to the fact that they both supported a council decision to merge the city's legal and human resources department.

Calling the local GOP a party of "Cartoons & Buffoons," Pessina further criticized former Mayor Sebastian Giuliano for "setting the stage" for both his and Bibisi's removal from the Republican ticket.

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