Connecticut Local Politics

MetroHartford Alliance chief Nelson ‘Oz’ Griebel announced yesterday that he is running for the Republican gubernatorial nomination at an event at the State Capitol in Hartford:
“We have to combat our problems and opportunities with a different attitude, with a much more private sector approach,” Griebel said.
His website can be found at http://www.ozforgovernor.com.
Mr. Griebel joins a [...]

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The plot thickens in the Governor Rell ethics case. Although Governor Rell claimed “the only political advice Ken’s ever given me, and I don’t call it advice…I think he said, ‘I hope you run again…I think that’s the only political thing he’s given me,” University of Connecticut professor Ken Dautrich has a somewhat different [...]

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Governor Jodi Rell’s approval numbers dipped to just 65%, according to a new Quinnipiac Poll released this morning. 
The score, which stands as the lowest ever for the Governor, shows that despite a bruising budget fight Rell has maintained her popularity with people in Connecticut.  30% of those polled disapproved of Mrs. Rell’s performance.
Dr. Douglas Schwartz [...]

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The longtime Executive Director of the State Elections Enforcement Commission, Jeffrey B. Garfield, has announced his retirement on the SEEC website.
Garfield stated that his tenure has been “a labor of love,” and that he had mixed emotions about leaving the position he has held for so long. “I tried to give the Connecticut taxpayers my best each [...]

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Disclosure: I interned for Representative Spallone in 2007.
I had the opportunity to interview Representative Jamie Spallone, the Co-Chair of the GAE Committee, last week and will be presenting the results of the interview here, in two parts. In yesterday’s segment, we talked about the interesting Election-related bills raised out of GAE. Part two [...]

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A joint statement from the Governor and SEBAC (the state employees bargaining unit) was released this afternoon:
Governor Rell and State Employees Union Leaders today announced that they had worked out the framework for an agreement intended to help reduce costs and protect public services in the current fiscal year and the upcoming biennium. When [...]

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An interesting Courant article indicates that the state and SEBAC, the state unions bargaining unit are close to a deal in principal for roughly $732.2 million over three years (this year and the two years of the next budget).
The wage concessions would total more than $225 million over two years and would include a “hard [...]

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From CT News Junkie:
The Democrat-controlled Appropriations and Finance Committees proposed a two-year budget Thursday that includes tax increases, borrowing, and spending cuts.
At a press conference this morning the Democratic co-chairmen of the two budget writing committees said their budget spends about $164 million less than Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell’s $38.4 billion two-year proposal. It [...]

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From the Courant:
Rell’s spokesman, though, responded Wednesday night that the Democratic plan is balanced partially with “accounting gimmicks” and proposals for savings that may never be realized.
“There’s an abundance of chicanery in this budget,” said Christopher Cooper. “The Democrats have spent the last 84 days claiming they were looking for ways to balance the budget. [...]

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The Governor put out a press release today highlighting the worsening budget situation:
Governor M. Jodi Rell today announced the economy continues to erode all major revenue streams for the state, eroding the bottom line for her proposed two-year $38 billion budget presented to the Legislature nearly two months ago.
[...]

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As noted here and here, not only was Governor Moody’s Rell’s OPM Secretary Robert Genuario the source of the $8 Billion deficit number on January 20, but the Governor herself cited that number in her February 2 pre-budget budget speech!
(h/t tparty)
…the red ink for the next two years, the period covered by my proposed [...]

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Last week, we had Lt. Gov. Michael Fedele on to talk about the budget. The Governor had just released her budget, purporting to close a roughly $6 Billion deficit. In mid to late January, however, according to press reports (literally, every outlet that reported on the budget) the administration had estimated the budget [...]

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One of the interesting things about the Governor’s budget proposal was that spending cuts only accounted for about a third of her estimated $6 billion reduction, while two-thirds came from one-time revenue sources (more on her budget later this week). One of the centerpieces of her one-time revenue sources was the stimulus plan winding [...]

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She appears to be in the discussion…
Some of the conjecture has included Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-3rd District, well known for her work on food safety and health care, her speeches on behalf of the disadvantaged and her increasing authority among House Democrats.
…
When asked whether she had been contacted about the job, DeLauro said, “No.” She [...]

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Reminder: Lt. Gov. Fedele will be joining us at 3:30pm to discuss the budget. Please stop by or leave a question for him here. –GC
My budget cuts our fleet of state cars by 20 percent. State cars are not an entitlement. If an employee doesn’t really need one, he or she won’t have one. Families [...]

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Early this morning, Genghis put up a post that mentioned Rep. Janowski’s proposal to increase ECS funding for towns that participate in the Open Choice program (currently, there is a perverse disincentive for for towns, in that increased participation lowers the amount of funding they receive per student from the state).
This is a good time [...]

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Gov. Rell yesterday released her proposal to help close the budget gap, which has grown to about $268 million, all without raising taxes, further cutting spending at state agencies, or dipping into the Rainy Day Fund.
The state’s projected budget deficit of $268 million would be closed largely with $157 million in new federal money in [...]

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Senator McCain went after Senator Dodd yesterday in comments from the stump:
“And it is already a matter of record that members, Democrat members of Congress fought against reform and it is a matter of record and hearings that they said everything was fine. Senator Obama a year ago said that these kinds of subprime loans [...]

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In response to, what I am assuming were numerous, requests for a statement regarding the closing of the website “hack” story and the comments of AG Blumenthal three days after the email in question was sent given to the irrepressible CTBob, I received this statement from the AG’s office:
�Neither I nor any member of my [...]

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I know that Genghis posted about the AP interview yesterday, but I wanted to point out this passage that pertains to John McKinney:
In an interview Friday with The Associated Press, DeLuca said it wasn’t a mistake that he didn’t mention the new Senate Minority Leader, John McKinney or any other Republican senator when he [...]

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