Bridgeport’s 40,000 registered Democrats far outnumber Republicans, making the victor of Wednesday’s primary the favorite in November’s election.

In an emotional speech Wednesday night, Finch vowed to prevail in the general election.

Down in Bridgeport, former Mayor Joe Ganim also won the Democratic Primary fair and square, although by a much closer margin.

In the primary race, Dunavin says, Ganim “said he took the high road against his opponents, current mayor Bill Finch and businesswoman Mary Jane Foster”. Finch was endorsed by local and state Democratic leaders, including Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, and pledged to continue with a third-party campaign. But in Bridgeport; there is no embrace for the victor of the Democratic Primary and no pushing the defeated Mayor to get out.

Ganim, 55, was mayor from 1991 until he resigned after being convicted of receiving kickbacks in 2003 and was considered a rising star in the Democratic Party – running unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor on Bill Curry’s ticket in 1994 and mulling a bid for governor in 2002 amid praise for his efforts to revive heavily Democratic Bridgeport.

“Ganim was found guilty of steering city contracts in exchange for hundreds of thousands of dollars in gifts like wine and clothes”, Davis Dunavin of member station WSHU reports for our Newscast unit. Bronin, who received the party’s endorsement this summer, said city residents have described a lack of leadership, and he has criticized the mayor over a recent rash of homicides. “Now it’s time to move ahead”.

LENNIE GRIMALDI: There are people from outside of Bridgeport who look at this race and go, why is it close? “Well he’s out there saying he believes in second chances”, Grimaldi explains. “They give people a second chance”.

“It’s a victory for the people of the city of Bridgeport”, he told cheering supporters at his campaign headquarters.