Democrat Ernie Newton – Out Of Prison And Back In 3-Way Primary For His Old Senate Seat

BRIDGEPORT — He called himself the Moses of his people.

He pleaded guilty to three felonies for accepting a bribe, evading taxes and pilfering campaign contributions for personal expenses.

He served more than four years in federal prison and in a halfway house.

And now he’s back.

Democrat Ernie Newton, one of the most colorful characters and quickest quipsters at the state Capitol, is seeking redemption in a run for his old state Senate seat.

He shocked some Bridgeport residents in May when he won the Democratic Party’s convention endorsement in the race — part of the long road back for the convicted felon who resigned his seat in disgrace and pleaded guilty in 2005.

Today, he is in a three-way primary in a bruising battle of bare-knuckle Bridgeport politics against the 76-year-old incumbent, Sen. Edwin A. Gomes, and state Rep. Andres Ayala Jr. Gomes, a pro-union Democrat, has served in the Senate since Newton’s departure, while Ayala has served in the state House of Representatives since 2007.

Not only is Newton in the race, he has received more than $80,000 in public money under state law to run his campaign. Some residents are outraged that Newton is receiving public financing, but he has the same total as his two opponents who have also received public money after raising the necessary $15,000 in private contributions. He is the first convicted felon to win a major party’s convention endorsement for the state Senate since the state legislature changed the law regarding felons in 2001.

Newton has heard all of the criticisms about being a felon, about betraying his community and about how he will be unable to work with his colleagues in Hartford after failing to tell them the full story when he was being investigated by federal prosecutors and the FBI.

Yet Newton remains as defiant as ever.

“People in Hartford can say what they want because they can’t vote for me,” Newton said in an interview last week. “I didn’t call all my friends in Hartford to help me raise $15,000 [to qualify for public financing]. I did it with my people. I’m indebted to the people who put me in office. No lobbyists, no leadership, no union can say we helped you raise $15,000 — which makes me a free person.”

With his fiery speeches, Newton is known to some as more of a preacher than a politician, often peppering his quotes with references to God and the Bible. He said the most important thing that constituents said to him after he returned from prison was that they had prayed for him.

“People say, ‘How can an ex-felon run? He broke the trust of the people,’” Newton said. “Well, wait a minute. Jesus had 12 disciples. They was always breaking the commandments, but Jesus always forgave them.

“Think about it. They weren’t perfect people. I’ll give you Peter. Jesus had to rebuke Peter because Peter was out of control — cussing, cut a man’s ear off. C’mon. The thing I’m trying to say is nobody in this world is perfect.”

But Gomes’s campaign manager, Marty Dunleavy, ripped into Newton for saying that he was “the Moses of my people” before resigning from office and being sentenced to prison.

“He’s more like the Judas of his people, selling them out for pieces of silver,” Dunleavy said. “Statements like that that should not go unchallenged.”

Dunleavy said it was “a disgusting idea” that Newton referred to himself as the Moses of his people.

He added that Newton’s own actions should prevent him from returning to public life.

“You can’t be the rooster in the henhouse again,” Dunleavy told Capitol Watch.

Photo at Newton’s campaign headquarters on Barnum Avenue in Stratford in August 2012 by veteran Hartford Courant photographer Steve Dunn.

The entire story is at http://www.courant.com/news/politics/hc-ernie-newton-20120808,0,5471910,full.story