Connecticut Local Politics

Guess your view of what constitutes a robo call depends on the office you’re running for. It was only about two years ago that State Rep. Sam Caligiuri, currently running against Justin Bernier for the GOP nomination for Congressman in the 5th CD after dropping out of the Senate cage match smackdown , was one [...]

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PPP should probably get the “Most Serendipitously Timely Poll of the Year” Award for this one (PDF). And it’s news that’s bound to have Rob Simmons, Linda McMahon and Peter Schiff reaching for the Tums.
Chris Dodd’s retirement has shifted one of the Democrats’ most vulnerable seats to one of their safest…Attorney General RichardBlumenthal with [...]

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Connecticut just won a “spirited” vote on Public Policy Polling for which state should be polled next. PPP goes into the field tonight.
They’re asking some interesting questions:
-We’ll test Chris Dodd against the trio of Republican candidates but we’ll also look at how Richard Blumenthal or Chris Murphy might do as a Democratic alternative.
-We’ll look [...]

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Per the Courant, Fifth Congressional District Rep. Chris Murphy is at the center of a controversy over his health care vote.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is running an advertisement criticizing his vote while a liberal-leaning health care reform group is praising the second term Congressman in a rebuttal ad.
So viewers get to pick. If [...]

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Rep. Chris Murphy will report raising $308,000 for the second quarter, according to his campaign. He has raised $715,000 so far this cycle, and has $587,000 cash on hand.

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From Face the State this Sunday:

CTBlogger has the rest of the interview up at MLN.

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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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From the New Britain Herald, GOP candidate Justin Bernier on incumbent Fifth District Congressman Chris Murphy:
“He recently held a wine and cheese party for donors giving $50,000,” he [Bernier] said. “I don’t have that kind of wine in my wine cellar. I don’t even have a wine cellar.”

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CT-4 Freshman Congressman Jim Himes has beat out all of his longer serving colleagues in the CT Congressional delegation in this quarter’s fundraising, having raised an impressive $422,138. Of that, $230,154 came from individuals and $191,839 from PACs. Clearly Himes is out to prove he’s not going be as easy to pick off in 2010 [...]

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If this year is like every other, tonight will be a night of unusual journeys for many Americans.  They will climb in their cars at 11:50pm, drive like mad to the post office and mail out their tax returns before the stroke of midnight.
Uncle Sam better be happy about it, because no one else is.
Some people are taking to the [...]

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Chris Murphy’s campaign is reporting that he has raised $400k this quarter. Obviously he is not taking 2010 for granted!

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From The Onion The Hill:
Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) is not ruling out running as a Democratic candidate in his reelection race in 2012.
Lieberman said on Thursday that he has been asked by friends about the possibility of returning to the party that nominated him for vice president in 2000.
…
“It’s a ways away,” Lieberman told The [...]

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CQ Politics is running a story listing the nearly 1/4 of the House (104 members) who helped clients for a lobbying firm (PMA) with ties to Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) secure earmarks in the 2008 Pentagon spending bill. Here’s the full list.
Rep. Chris Murphy is on it. He helped to secure $400,000 in earmarks for [...]

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Here’s a video reaction from Rep. Chris Murphy:

Murphy, like Rep. Joe Courtney, now also has a YouTube channel.

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From yesterday’s Courant:
Connecticut’s Democratic congressional delegation stood shoulder to shoulder with its Republican governor Wednesday to show solidarity regarding the massive federal stimulus package proposed by President-elect Barack Obama.
…
“Wish-list projects” won’t be considered, Rell said during a brief press conference Wednesday at the governor’s mansion after her meeting with the state’s congressional delegation. To be [...]

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Rep. Chris Murphy has been named to the powerful House Energy and Commerce Committee–a spot both Rep. Rosa DeLauro and Rep. John Larson lobbied for him to have. From a press release:

Murphy released the following statement on his selection:
“I am thrilled to have been appointed to a committee that will allow me to play a [...]

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FEC post-election reports were due yesterday. Here are the results:
2nd District
Big re-election winner Rep. Joe Courtney ends the race having raised $92,651.95 between 10/16 and 11/24. He raised $2,335,216.49 net (excluding refunds) for the whole cycle. Of that, he spent a total of $1,673,550.54 (excluding offsets) for the whole cycle, and had $677,332.08 cash on [...]

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Rep. Chris Murphy won a solid victory over Republican challenger David Cappiello, in what has to be the biggest story no one is talking about. The first-term congressman increased his margin of victory from 13% to 20%, based largely on increasing margins in the cities (New Britain had voted for Murphy by 33% (4,500 votes) [...]

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9:28: Himes is doing extremely well. He has outperformed Farrell in Stamford and other places, and things do not look good for Chris Shays right now.
9:12: Himes doing very well but lots of suburbs still outstanding. Courtney is winning just about everywhere, this race is essentially done. He has already won several towns Simmons won [...]

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