Though it has started slowly, the Republican contest in the Fourth Congressional District continues to develop this week.
State Sen. Dan Debicella sent a letter to Rep. Himes asking him to redirect stimulus funds to the CT Unemployment Trust Fund to wipe out that fund’s deficit.
“We need to ensure that the unemployed continue to receive their benefits without raising taxes on small businesses,” said Senator Debicella. “We can easily redirect the pork barrel spending in the current stimulus package to truly help today’s unemployed and small businesses.”
The Unemployment Trust Fund has been under considerable stress due to the record number of unemployment claims – nearly 100,000 per week according to the release.
Former State Sen. Rob Russo is trumpeting the fact that former U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays’ wife, Betsi, contributed $500 to the Russo effort on September 30.
Elizabeth Shays donated $500 to former state Sen. Rob Russo on Sept. 30, the last day of the third-quarter reporting period, according to federal campaign finance information.
Russo is a former employee of Congressman Shays.
Meanwhile 24 year old former McCain staffer Will Gregory has launched a new website and web-based advertisement today to keep his effort moving forward.
A fiscally conservative, socially moderate Republican, Gregory aims to rebuild the party around a set of principles from which he believes it has strayed. “We need a leader who will stand up for our best traditions,” among which he lists individual responsibility, limited government, and freedom of enterprise.
The web ad can be viewed at the redesigned Gregory for Congress website.
11 responses so far ↓
Is there a particular reason that CTLP hasn’t had a front page post on the Governor’s Office using taxpayer dollars to fund polls intended to provide her opinion for possible campaigns? This is a very serious issue and CTLP is busy posting crap polls from Bridgeport and a story about three guys no one knows…I appreciate this is CT Local Politics, and Bridgeport and the 4th are important, but the Governor’s Office is in the paper daily re: the Dautrich incident and CTLP gives it nada. Seems odd.
Will is a nice guy and I appreciate him being out and about. However, Debicella is the guy to beat and probably the best to take on Himes.
>>Is there a particular reason that CTLP hasn’t had a front page post on the Governor’s Office using taxpayer dollars to fund polls intended to provide her opinion for possible campaigns?
1) Not sure it happened.
2) No one besides Jon Pelto seems to care if it did.
1. Go check out Ted Mann’s article, providing the emails that are proof that it did happen;
2. Not true, if it did happen it’s a big deal.
3. Not like something “has” to happen for this site to pick it up.
ACR
Look at it this way: Elected executive office contracts with agency to provide data on budget cuts and streamlining government. As well as budgetary info, executive office expands scope of the contract to include political work. Contractor gladly agrees, and provides political polling data.
Executive official denies knowledge of this political portion. Then e-mails show that executive official likely had prior knowledge of it.
As usual, the cover-up is worse than the crime. This sort of penny-ante political exploitation happens all the time in government. It becomes a bigger problem when officials lie about their actions.
Again, I don’t know that this series of actions has enough legs to bring down the Governor. But as Rell dances, the fire grows. Is she on the ropes? To mix metaphors even worse, it looks like the teflon is starting to get scratched.
Peace,
KK
Let no say I won’t admit when I’m wrong, and it’s obvious that I have been here in post #3
I should have said:
No one besides Jon Pelto, boondoggle, and Ken Krayeske seems to care if it did.
ACR….you dont care because you are a fellow republican and prolly protective of her.
ACR
If we’re making a list, as the Gov. and her state police goons like to do, let’s add as citizens concerned about the Dautrich-Moody affair Ted Mann, Jon Lender, Nancy DiNardo, Christine Stuart, Richard Blumenthal, and Michael Hogan to it.
If you’d like, I am sure that I could come up with more. I think you might a little too dismissive of the plausibility that our Gov. may be adopting a less-than-honest position here.
Peace,
KK
About the Duatrich thing, I’ve posted on it here. My feelings — “who cares?” Politicians use pollsters numbers all the time.
As for this race, I’m on record as saying Debicella has the inside now, and Gregory’s site doesn’t change that assessment. Russo has known Betsy for decades. This donation should not be a newsmaker, sorry.
Is Michael Sohn ever going to get indicted?
For the life of me, I don’t understand the delay. Someone clearly mis-spent the $200,000, few people would have had the ability to do so, and both Shays and his treasurer clearly implicated Sohn.
If Sohn is somehow innocent, wouldn’t he want a trial, just to clear his name?
It makes one wonder is there isn’t more to the story than a simple case of embezzlement…
The worst aspect for Chris Shays is that his campaign ended with a $207,000 debt because of this, and still owes nearly all of it ($199k).
http://query.nictusa.com/cgi-bin/cancomsrs/?_08+H8CT04057
According to this May 09 news story Chris Shays also owes more than $200,000 in legal bills trying to sort out this mess. I assume that has gone up since then.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/01/nyregion/01shays.html
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