Bridgeport Mayor John M. Fabrizi is a worried man. And rightly so.

He wants to be re-elected mayor of Connecticut's largest city next year and he has his work cut out for him.

"I've got no one to blame but myself," is the mantra the mayor recites in his private moments.

Since his tearful admission to the Connecticut Post editorial board in June that he bought and used cocaine, he has thrown himself headlong into the job.

He got a big boost Friday when the State Bond Commission, whose agenda is set by Gov. Jodi Rell, a Republican, okayed another $4.6 million for Bridgeport's Steel Point project.

Well, it's not actually a project yet. It's still a 50-acre empty lot stretching between I-95 and Bridgeport Harbor and a topic for a lot of gas and promises, as it has been for years.

It's had all sorts of cute names, like Harborpointe.

When you put an `e' on the end of a name like that it means it's going to be a high-class thing.Steel Point sounds a little grittier, a little more urban.

What happens with mayors is that if good things happen while they are in office, they get the credit and they get re-elected or they move on to something better.

But if bad things happen, or if nothing happens, even if it's totally out of their control, they get bounced.

Though he is now flying way below the radar, Mario Testa remains a valued adviser to Fabrizi.

Mario believes Steel Point is the key to Fabrizi's re-election.

And there's no question that cranes poking

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into the sky next year at Steel Point or at any other place in town, by the way would certainly make a nice backdrop for campaign brochure photos.

Fabrizi also got a nice boost a couple of weeks ago when Bridgeport boy John Ratzenberger brought a group of heavy-hitting West Coast investors to Bridgeport to meet the mayor and local developers.

Ratzenberger, who grew up in Black Rock and hit fame as the know-it-all mailman Cliff Clavin on the TV hit "Cheers," says Bridgeport is at "the tipping point." And Ratzenberger said that if he didn't personally believe in Fabrizi he wouldn't have had his friends fly 3,000 miles to visit the city.

Though he took some heat at the time and polls, both official and unofficial, indicate there's still trouble Fabrizi survived the initial confession of illegal drug use. But the problem seems destined to linger. In federal court, Shawn Fardy, a guy some of Fabrizi's friends warned him to avoid, may be headed to trial on drug charges the feds have brought against him. Fardy has said he was a Fabrizi supplier.

If Fardy goes to trial, it's likely his lawyer would call Fabrizi as a witness, if for no other reason than to let the jurors see the mayor walk into the courtroom a free man.

Some people in Bridgeport, Fabrizi supporters among them, look at the race between Democrat Diane Farrell and Republican incumbent Chris Shays with more than passing interest. Shays moved to Bridgeport in 1999, buying a distinctive colonial home in Black Rock from David E.A. Carson, the bow-tied former president of People's Bank. Although Shays and Fabrizi have a good working relationship, Shays has been a free-spoken critic of corruption and the culture of croneyism in Bridgeport.

His support, of course, for President Bush's invasion of Iraq has left the 20-year congressman vulnerable.

Should Farrell unseat Shays in November, some folks in town talk about him as an attractive candidate for mayor.

Republicans have occasionally won in Bridgeport, usually after a catastrophic event during a Democratic term.

As Connecticut Post reporter Bill Cummings described so well last week, the Democratic organization in Bridgeport forms an interlocking directorate that controls boards, commissions, jobs, contracts, elective offices and just about everything except the changing seasons and therefore works very hard to keep one of their own in control.

Of course when they can't agree on just which one of their own they want to have in control, that can also trouble an incumbent.

So for now, Fabrizi can savor each little victory.

Michael J. Daly is managing editor of the Connecticut Post. You can reach him at 203-330-6394 or by e-mail at mdaly@ctpost.com