Connecticut Local Politics

A new study out by the Center for Public Integrity ranked Connecticut 12th in the nation and graded us a “C” for the financial disclosures required of elected officials.
The revelation has sparked a couple of stories (Stamford Advocate and CT Mirror) in recent days analyzing whether more disclosure should be demanded of those in state government.
Some advocates believe [...]

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Small business growth is inhibited by high taxes, heavy regulation, and requirements that health insurance policies cover every imaginable contingency – a comfortable enough situation for those who are well off, but a “Get out” sign to those who want to move up the ladder.
- A quote from Michael Barone’s introductory essay on Connecticut appearing [...]

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The Senate Republican caucus is strongly advocating the creation of a six member ethics panel to investigate misconduct by two Democratic Senators – Sen. Joe Crisco and Sen. Tom Gaffey.
Sen. Gaffey has had a career pockmarked by scandal, first getting caught in reimbursement funny business with his employer CRRA, then having an affair with CSUS [...]

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Subscribers to Connecticut Economy are rejoicing as that quarterly publication from UCONN economists hits mailboxes this week to stimulate a whole summer of thinking (get your subscriptions here). 
Among other pieces, the magazine includes a very interesting article by Dennis Heffley and MaryJane Lenon entitled “Sizing Up Connecticut’s Public Sector” (PDF), which compares Connecticut’s state and [...]

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Dean Pagani has an interesting post up (also published in the Hartford Business Journal) about the failure of the state leadership to really remake government as they had suggested they might, and the failure to get anywhere near any hard choices.
Even the scandal-plagued legislature of Massachusetts is making hard choices, raising the sales tax up [...]

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2005
Ernie Newton pleads guilty to bribery. Sen. Ed Meyer (D-Guilford), realizing that the Senate has no formal mechanism to deal with legislators who have ethical lapses, starts suggesting to his colleagues the idea of a bipartisan ethics panel. No one, it seems, is all that interested.
2007
Senate Minority Leader Lou DeLuca (R) is arrested in June [...]

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To the outside observer, it might seem shameless and brazen for the State Senate to reject the creation of a permanent ethics committee just days after Senator Joe Crisco was fined $4,000 for forging a signature on sworn documents and weeks after Sen. Tom Gaffey was punished with a $6000 fine for double billing the state and his PAC [...]

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CTNJ has the story: John Larson is spearheading efforts to institute a national public campaign financing law similar to Connecticut’s landmark 2005 reform.
Under Larson’s proposed legislation, candidates for the US House of Representatives would be required to raise 1,500 contributions of no more than $100 from constituents in their district. The qualifying limit to receive [...]

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On Monday, Congressman John Larson and National President and CEO of Common Cause, Bob Edgar, will be having a press conference and blogger availability in Connecticut to introduce the Fair Elections Now Act. According to Common Cause and the Fair Elections Now Coalition (.pdf), under the act:
Under the Fair Elections Now Act, federal candidates [...]

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The Connecticut Post’s Ken Dixon notes that the Senate Vacancy bill is moving forward in the Legislature.  The bill would strip the Governor’s office of the ability to appoint a replacement to the U.S. Senate in the event of a vacancy.
Republican State Senator Dan Debicella correctly noted the following:
“The truth of the matter is we [...]

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Note: this piece also appears as the Editor’s Letter in the May, 2009 edition of Connecticut Magazine, and is © 2009 Connecticut Magazine. Reprinted here with permission. –GC
Imagine Chris Dodd’s career if there were such a thing as sensible term limits.
He would have been required to leave the Senate in 1998 following three successful, stimulating [...]

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(updates below)
State GOP Chairman Chris Healy sent out a release today about a complaint they are filing against Speaker Chris Donovan, alleging that he misused public campaign money. From the release:
Healy filed a formal complaint Friday with the State Election Enforcement Commission, which has jurisdiction over the Citizen Elections program. In his complaint, Healy [...]

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Should Connecticut get rid of the two chambers it currently has, and reduce the number of lawmakers from 151 down to 60? And should those lawmakers serve four-year terms?
That’s the gist of a bill proposed by Sen. Gary LeBeau (who may or may not be running for governor), which will be given a public hearing [...]

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The Government Administration and Elections Committee has approved a bill that would provide for a special election in the case of a U.S. Senate vacancy, instead of by gubernatorial appointment. The bill, S.B. 913, passed the committee 11-3.

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Our own Gabe has written an excellent op-ed for the Courant that argues that U.S. Senate vacancies should trigger a special election instead of a gubernatorial appointment. He’s absolutely right, too.
Go give it a read.

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“You really don’t want to leave it to the public to decide what is best for state employees.”
–From an email campaign circulating among state employees against a constitutional convention. The email, which was obtained by Capitol Watch also said, “You know the general public will vote to cut most of our benefits if they get [...]

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Should voters approve a constitutional convention (a recent poll suggests they might), what exactly is going to happen? CT News Junkie was there when a two law professors discussed what might happen. Of interest is that despite talk of initiative and referendum being a major reason for the convention to be called, we might not [...]

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Calling the Department of Children and Families a “dysfunctional agency,” Attorney General Richard Blumenthal called for a major overhaul, which could include breaking the department down into smaller units.

Attorney General Richard Blumenthal told a legislative committee investigating DCF that the child-protection agency should be partially broken up.
“Nearly a decade of investigations and reports by my [...]

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US Attorney General Michael Mukasey has named Acting Connecticut United States Attorney Nora Dannehy to lead a probe into the firings of nine US Attorneys in 2006. The appointment comes in response to a report by the Inspector General asking for counsel to be appointed.
Dannehy is a 17 year veteran of the Connecticut US [...]

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Gov. Rell today came out in favor of holding a constitutional convention. Specifically, she said she wanted to see changes made to allow some sort of initiative and referendum process. However:

Rell was just finishing an impromptu news conference with reporters in the Capitol complex Friday afternoon when she was asked a final question on whether [...]

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