Connecticut Local Politics

Best wishes to Rep. John Larson, who underwent heart surgery today to fix a congenital defect. He is expected to make a full recovery, and be back at work by September.

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This interview with Rep. John Larson was broadcast on FOX News earlier today.

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Rep. John Larson (D-1st district) has a pretty tough job right now: defending Nancy Pelosi. Larson said on MSNBC today that Democrats aren’t considering a change in leadership:
“The Democratic Caucus stands firmly behind Nancy Pelosi, as does Steny Hoyer stand with her,” House Democratic Caucus Chairman John Larson (D-Conn.) said during an appearance on MSNBC.
 
When [...]

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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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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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From The Politico:
Rep. John M. Larson, a Connecticut Democrat in his sixth term and chairman of the Democratic Caucus, said “no one with a brain” thinks Dodd should step aside and allow a new Democrat to run instead. Larson said Dodd would rebound once he begins campaigning, adding that he plans to spend “quite a [...]

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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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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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It could be. The JI’s Chris Powell makes an interesting case:
Larson, a Democrat from East Hartford and former state Senate president who has represented the Hartford area in the U.S. House since 1999, was elected chairman of the House Democratic caucus the other day, putting him fourth in the party’s House leadership, after Speaker Nancy [...]

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More on the jockeying for position in the House, and the fortunes of Rep. John Larson, as Rep. Chris Van Hollen decides to stay as DCCC chair.
With Van Hollen taking himself out of the race to replace Illinois Rep. Rahm Emanuel as Chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, Pelosi avoids a fight for the number [...]

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It looks like Congressman Larson will ease into the 4th spot in the House Democratic leadership – Caucus Chair.
From On Background:
Rep. John Larson is over the 100-vote mark in securing promises of support as he tries to replace Rahm Emanuel as chairman of the Democratic caucus in the House, according to a senior aide.
…
For majority [...]

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Interrupting today’s regularly scheduled programming of blue-tinged maps with news of Congressman Larson’s battle to move up in the Democratic leadership…
From The Hill:
A senior Democratic aide said that Van Hollen has ruled out running for caucus Vice Chair, but is �seriously considering running for Caucus Chair.�
That is likely to spark an immediate fight for the [...]

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Instead of the expected ~400 people, almost 2,500 filled the auditorium, the overflow cafeteria, and the adjoining hallway to hear speeches from Connecticut Democrats. CTBob and CTBlogger shot videos of which I will post a few below.
Here are the pictures I took:

Here is DeLauro going after Shays again:

Courtesy of CTBob.
Here is Jim [...]

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Rep. John Larson will deliver the Democrats’ radio address tomorrow. His topic will be energy legislation that Democrats in Congress (back from vacation) will be bringing forward soon. Here are a few excerpts:

Democrats support drilling, but a �drill only� plan would do nothing but drill deeper and deeper into your wallet. And look, while the [...]

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Unlike Sean Sullivan, Hillary Clinton and John McCain, Reps John Larson and Rosa DeLauro have resisted the temptation to pander to the electorate in the short term and are focusing on the long term energy policy. This from their press release on why they oppose the gas tax holiday:
“First, [it] will bankrupt the federal [...]

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According to the FEC, John Larson has raised … $67,325 this quarter? Huh.
Well, he has over $620,000 $180,000 (h/t MikeCT) on hand, so I guess he doesn’t really need to ramp it up. I’m sure that other guy who is running against him, whose name I’ll probably remember in a few minutes, has raised an [...]

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On Monday, the Connecticut Republicans put out a press release regarding FISA and the Protect America Act Reauthorization that is laughably inaccurate. Since there are so many inaccuracies, I’m going to go line by line (my comments in bold):
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE JANUARY 18, 2008
Unless the CT GOP wrote this release a month [...]

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“The political theater enacted by my colleagues on the other side of the aisle today was akin to Otter and Boone leading the Deltas out of the student body at Faber College.”
-Rep. John Larson (D-CT), on the walkout of Republicans from the House today. I guess they’re going on Double Secret Probation.
…Does that make [...]

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UPDATE: Here is the AP story. There will be a rally on Saturday to announce the endorsements…
Later today Saturday, both Congressman John Larson (the fifth-ranking Democrat in the House) and freshman Congressman Chris Murphy are expected to formally endorse Senator Obama for the Presidency. While, generally speaking, there is not a ton [...]

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