Eva Bermudez Zimmerman
Colin McEnroe/Hartford Courant
I took a stroll around the Democratic state convention floor Saturday afternoon to see if it was possible that Eva Bermudez Zimmerman, who had jumped into the lieutenant governor race three days ago, could pose a threat to front-runner Susan Bysiewicz, who has been running for elective office since moments after the Big Bang.
I say “stroll,” but convention planners had allotted each human being exactly enough space for a medium-sized house cat, so many of the activities involved in getting through the aisles were more consistent with “dating” or “fighting.”
I was surprised.
There was the party regular who told me he wanted “to send a message” about diversity.
There was the first-time delegate from Glastonbury who told me, “Susan has met me five times in two months. She never remembers me. Eva met me a year and a half ago and remembered me.”
There was the lawyer from Canton who told me he was “embarrassed” when Bysiewicz was disqualified from running for attorney general in 2010 because of some picky rule that says you have to have been in a courtroom before.
There was the delegate from Sherman wearing William Tong and Dita Bhargava stickers who smiled slyly at me and flipped over his credential tag to reveal a hidden Eva sticker as if he belonged to a super-cool secret society.
There was the delegate from Roxbury who said, “I think you’re standing on my tie.”
I walked back to the press table and told anyone who would listen: “There are more Eva votes in this room than leadership probably realizes.”
Actually, I’m pretty sure nobody listened, because I’m usually wrong about these things, but moments later, Bermudez Zimmerman — let’s start calling her EBZ! — unexpectedly grabbed 40 percent of the convention vote.
To read the complete story: http://www.courant.com/opinion/hc-op-dems-convention-zimmerman-20180520-story.html
