To all our readers - and there are many thousands of you each month - Happy Thanksgiving!
This blog, which was created on less than two days' notice at the end of the 2007 legislative session, is fast approaching a milestone of 1,000 posts.
Thanks for reading along for the latest in Connecticut' [...]
The state's nursing homes are highly concerned about Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell's proposal to cut Medicaid rates for nursing homes by 2 percent.
The cuts, however, cannot be made with approval by the Democratic-controlled legislature. Matthew Barrett, a former state employee who now serves as executive vice president of the [...]
Lou Dobbs, the former CNN business anchor, might run for the U.S. Senate in 2012 from his home state of New Jersey.
Dobbs, who was one of the best-known faces on CNN for years, recently stepped down from the network in an abrupt announcement on his program.
The details are at [www.courant.com]
[...]Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell is calling the Democratic-controlled legislature into special session on December 15 to cut state spending and try closing the state's projected budget gap.
Rell also wants lawmakers to make changes in the new campaign finance reform law, which has been the subject of controversy and a federal [...]
It's official.
The state's planned cut in the sales tax will not take effect January 1. Many legislators had predicted that the contingent tax cut would never happen because of the continuing weakness in the economy.
But the blocking of the tax cut did not become official until the state comptroller certified - [...]
The three candidates remaining in the now sharply smaller Republican senatorial field will undoubtably work to secure the backing of those who supported the two candidates who left the race today, state Sen. Sam Caligiuri and former ambassador Tom Foley.
Rob Simmons got an early start. Just hours after Caligiuri announced he was leaving [...]
Our colleague Rick Green weighs in on the Republican political shake-up that involves former Ambassador Tom Foley considering dropping out of the U.S. Senate race and running for governor.
It's at [blogs.courant.com]
On Sen. Chris Dodd, he also says [blogs.courant.com]
[...]Connecticut Democrats are closely watching the shake-up across the aisle. Party spokeswoman Colleen Flanagan said today's departures of Sam Caligiuri and Tom Foley indicate a growing consensus among the GOP that Democratic Sen. Chris Dodd may not be as easy a conquest as they had initially hoped.
"For an allegedly 'vulnerable' incumbent, Chris Dodd may" [...]
Tom Foley on Nov. 9, 2009, the day Gov. M. Jodi Rell announced she would not seek reelection:
"As a candidate for the U.S. Senate, I look forward to working with others to make sure a Republican Governor is elected in 2010," Foley said in a statement.
Tom Foley on Nov. 24, [...]
Former U.S. Senate candidate Sam Caligiuri announced today that he'll be running for Congress from the 5th Congressional District.
UPDATE: Here's state Democratic spokeswoman Colleen Flanagan's take on Caligiuri's switch.
"Languishing in last place in the U.S. Senate race, Sam Caligiuri is shopping around for a campaign to run like most people" [...]
Tom Foley, a Republican running for U.S. Senate, released the following statement this morning:
"Last spring I entered the race for the United States Senate because I wanted to serve the people of Connecticut. Recently, the political landscape in Connecticut has changed. We no longer have" [...]
Kevin Rennie breaks the following news on Facebook (via Capitol Report)
'a friend reports that GOP Senate hopeful Tom Foley told the West Hartford Republicans last night that he is considering hightailing it into the less competitive race for governor. He'll decide in 2 week' developing...
...'sounds like decision has been made'
Justin' [...]
Despite raising taxes and holding the line on spending, the state is still facing a huge budget deficit for the current fiscal year.
With that in mind, the administration of Gov. M. Jodi Rell is reminding all commissioners and agency heads that they must continue to watch their budgets closely. An internal [...]
In a sharply-worded email, state Democrats are taking Republican Senate candidate Rob Simmons to task for failing to back a health-care plan supported by more than half of the state's residents.
Simmons, who is running for the Senate seat held by Democrat Chris Dodd, one of the architects of the health-care' [...]
Remember the Louisiana Congressman who was caught with $90,000 in cash in his freezer?
The case generated widespread publicity after Rep. William J. Jefferson's home was raided in 2005, setting off a torrent of commentary around the nation. The publicity increased about nine months later when FBI agents raided the New Orleans' [...]
Baseball fans in New Britain and throughout the Hartford area remember Joe Mauer from the days when he was the catcher for the New Britain Rock Cats.
Today, he was named the Most Valuable Player in the American League for the Minnesota Twins. That's not bad for a guy who was playing in [...]
U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman is a key player on health care reform and could potentially be the 60th senator.
That number is particularly important because it takes 60 votes to cut off a filibuster that could derail health care reform.
On NBC's Meet The Press on Sunday morning, Lieberman discussed the issue [...]
POLITICO has an interesting story today about the growing role South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint is playing in competitive Congressional races around the country.
DeMint, it seems, has become the go-to guy for Republican candidates. Not just conservatives, the story states, but moderates as well: "[I]n a sign of his growing influence, several of the" [...]
How much money will wrestling entrepreneur Linda McMahon spend in her campaign to unseat U.S. Sen. Christopher Dodd?
That question has been widely debated in political circles as McMahon has already spent far more money than any other candidate in the race - on television commercials, full-page newspaper advertisements, and brochures [...]
Sen. Chris Dodd said the nation is "one step closer to responsible reform" following tonight's vote in the Senate to allow full debate on a planned overhaul of the nation's health-care system.
"We will have a full and open debate on this important issue,'' Dodd said in a statement. "But [...]
Former state Rep. Bill Dyson and media strategist Dean Pagani will be among the guests Sunday morning on "The Stan Simpson Show'' on Fox 61.
Dyson, the longtime co-chairman of the budget-writing appropriations committee who retired as the dean of the House of Representatives, and Pagani, the former chief of staff" [...]
The University of Connecticut announced Friday that it has called off a controversial proposed merger between the UConn Health Center and Hartford Hospital - a deal that failed to gain enough support at the state Capitol.
The announcement came soon after the faculty at the health center voted this week to [...]
The state's unemployment rate has jumped to 8.8 percent - although that is still lower than the national rate of 10.2 percent.
As the unemployment rate constantly increases, it becomes more and more of a political issue as the candidates head into the 2010 election.
"Today's announcement is yet another stark reminder" [...]
A report from Courant Staff Writer Edmund H. Mahony:
Kevin O'Connor, a Republican former U.S. attorney and former associate U.S. attorney general, said Thursday he will not run for governor, a decision that reshapes what is expected to be a hard-fought contest to replace Gov. M. Jodi Rell.
O'Connor, of West Hartford, [...]
The faculty at the cash-strapped University of Connecticut Health Center in Farmington has voted to unionize.
The details are at [www.courant.com]
[...]The Courant's Edmund H. Mahony reports the following:
Buried in debate over the Obama administration's decision to try conspirators in the Sept. 11 attacks in a civilian federal court in New York was talk about where the case could end up should the defendants succeed in seeking a change of venue. [...]
In the age of cell phones, sending text messages is a common occurrence.
But the technology isn't yet perfected to send a reliable text message to the 911 emergency call center.
The reason, as the legislature's public safety committee was told in a forum this week, is that some of the phone calls' [...]
Even as 5th District Republicans await word on whether state Sen. Sam Caligiuri is entering the race for Congress, Republican Justin Bernier continues to line up support.
Bernier announced today that he has picked up the endorsement of the Washington Republican Town Committee. He adds this latest vow of support to endorsements from Republicans [...]
About 650 members of the Yale University community -- students, faculty and staff -- signed a letter urging Sen. Joseph Lieberman, a Yale grad, to reverse course on the health care bill.
Lieberman has said he opposes any healthcare bill that includes a government-funded insurance option and has threatened to filibuster any [...]
Republicans yesterday thwarted an effort by Democratic Sen. Christopher Dodd that would have frozen credit card rates on existing balances.
"On behalf of several Senators on this side of the aisle, I object," Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Mississippi, said when Dodd attempted to raise the matter.
UPDATE 1: In response to a good question posed by [...]
Superstar Billy Graham ranked among the greatest professional wrestlers of his generation - winning the WWWF championship and helping to sell out Madison Square Garden nearly 20 times.
He traveled around the world and made plenty of money, but it came at a steep price.
Graham admits that he took steroids for [...]
Superstar Billy Graham, one of the best-known professional wrestlers of the 1970s and 1980s, is criticizing Linda McMahon for recent changes in wrestling as she is running for the U.S. Senate.
World Wrestling Entertainment, which McMahon operated as the former CEO before announcing her campaign in mid-September, says the changes and [...]
Before he became a political operative, Chris Healy worked as a reporter at the Register Citizen in Torrington. (This was back in the mid-1980s, an era that is now recalled as the Golden Age of community journalism. Just about every governmental body in Litchfield County -- from the Norfolk board of zoning appeals to the Goshen [...]
In a move that would shake up two political races, the state Republican chairman is publicly asking state Sen. Sam Caligiuri to run against Democratic incumbent Rep. Christopher Murphy in the 5th Congressional district.
As the former acting mayor of Waterbury, Caligiuri is well-known in the Greater Waterbury area, which is near the core [...]
The Connecticut League of Conservation Voters has announced its top 12 "green'' legislators for their support of the environment.
The entire legislature was rated by the CTLCV with ratings ranging from 24 percent to 100 percent - based on votes at both the committee level and on the floor of the" [...]
In case you had not heard, Dean Pagani, Gov. John G. Rowland's former chief of staff and longtime spokesman, is leaving for Washington, D.C.
A former reporter for WPOP-AM in its heyday, Pagani covered everything from local Manchester politics to the creation of the state income tax in 1991. He eventually' [...]
Vice President Joseph Biden will be the headliner at a luncheon fundraiser for his close friend, U.S. Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, on Friday, December 11 in Hartford.
The new Connecticut Science Center, overlooking the waterfront, is the venue.
Daniela Altimari has the details at [www.courant.com]
[...]When longtime Stamford Mayor Dannel Malloy came in third place in the Quinnipiac Poll last week with 9 percent of the vote in a potential Democratic primary that is almost 10 months away, some insiders were surprised at his lack of name recognition.
Malloy spread his name around the state by [...]
To all our readers:
You should know that we've been having some technical computer problems that is slowing down both the publishing of various posts and your comments. You should also know that it is being worked on.
' [...]
Gov. M. Jodi Rell's executive assistant, Lt. Col. Fran Evon, is heading off to Afghanistan as part of the largest deployment for the Connecticut National Guard since the Korean War.
Rell and some of her staff members gathered at the Connecticut Convention Center in Hartford - as part of a larger [...]
Former state Sen. Gary Hale, who is now a lobbyist in Hartford, owes nearly $78,000 in state income tax.
Hale became well-known in the hot summer of 1991 for providing one of the crucial votes that allowed for the creation of the state income tax under then-Gov. Lowell P. Weicker, Jr.
The [...]
New Britain Mayor Timothy Stewart has been fighting for years in the trenches of partisan warfare as a Republican mayor up against a Democratic-dominated city council.
Stewart is expected to clash again with Phil Sherwood, a longtime political activist who is now the council leader.
"Phil Sherwood?'' Stewart asked in today's Hartford" [...]
Our colleague, Rick Green, analyzes the latest Quinnipiac College poll that shows former U.S. Rep. Rob Simmons ahead of U.S. Sen. Christopher J. Dodd.
It is the sixth straight Q poll - dating back to March - in which Simmons is ahead of Dodd.
The details are at [blogs.courant.com]
[...]
