Remember that May 7th elections are bearing down on us! More information on Connecticut’s May municpal elections here. The big one is in Naugatuck, where a proposed downtown revitalization project is on the ballot with the candidates for mayor and the board of burgesses.
Kevin Rennie reports on missing email in the governor’s office. Fishy.
It’s budget season. There are going to be countless referendums around the state on town budgets over the next couple of months. How many will pass on the first try? Probably not many. Meanwhile, still waiting for meaningful property tax relief.
Also, French elections. Looks like it’ll be Sarkozy vs. Royal in the second round of voting. I know, thrilling.
What else is going on?
21 responses so far ↓
Even Kevin Rennie is getting frustrated with the lock box that is the governor’s office when it comes to ethics. Get used to it, Kevin. As good as your sources are, and as well as you know how the game is played, extracting damning evidence aginst Rell and Moody is a difficult endeavor.
Witness Moody’s testimony before the GAE Committee last year — “I don’t recall.” That’s all you have to say to walk away. It doesn’t mean you did, it doesn’t mean you didn’t. It means I’m not giving you anyhting to convict me, find the evidence elsewhere (i.e. the memo that showed Moody edited en ethics memo she claims never to have read. Sent to Rachel Rubin by an anonymous source; Moody claims she didn’t have that memo, as did the governor’s office.)
With a 72% approval rating in the polls, evidence from current or former state employees who are willing to come forward and testify is very, very hard to come by (as the above example illustrates).
On a related note: if the GAE Cmte. had called Rell to testify last year about the whole Deneen-Garfield mess, how many times do you think the governor would have said “I don’t know” or “I don’t recall”? Do you think she would have out-Albertoed Gonzales?
Oh, so tired of Moody and Rell’s “I dunnos” that I am beginning to wonder if there is anyone in the State’s leadership that can be held accountable for anything!
As for town budget referendums – East Hartford has a historic 1st on May 1st, but it has many unusual twists: it is only an accept or unaccept vote, there must be a 20% of the last election turnout to pass, and then the caviate: the Town Council only has to reduce the budget by 1 cent by Town Charter…..why spend the money?
GC… if you want to track referenda, you may want to contact FCTO. They’ve been tracking local budgets & local referenda for several years in an excel spreadsheet. I’ve found it useful, even if unaudited.
As far as I know, the state does no such tracking. So their s/s may be the most useful way of tracking “statewide local budget issues” around.
I gotta run, but i’ll try to find and email you their contact email.
Good idea, Tim. I’d love to have some raw numbers.
It seems from news reports surrounding budget referenda (and my own experience with them) that they are not often successful on the first try, at least not lately. But perhaps only those that don’t pass are ever really reported on.
Either way, it’s a system I’m glad Enfield doesn’t have, for a number of different reasons.
Which Republican Senator will be the first to be honest and Brave enough to say what 70% of the American people believe.
THE IRAQ WAR IS LOST
http://www.auburnpub.com/articles/2007/04/22/ap/headlines/d8oltm280.txt
What a beautiful day in CT! First cookout of the year for us…….
GC — an idea… how about setting up a ‘CTIraqViewpoints’ forum for CTKeith and others who mostly enjoy posting on that subject?
I can’t speak for others — I trun to this sight for comments on CT.
I’m not downplaying the war in Iraq — I follow it greatly and am troubled by it like all others. I come here sometimes as a distraction from global events.
Lots of health care forums around the state in the coming days and weeks.
I agree with CTDude. We should all agree not to mention the killings in Iraq. It’s just a single issue, and it’s not like it matters here in CT politics. And no amount of death and disaster will change the minds of the Republican partisans…
I like the idea of setting up a separate forum for Iraq — there is no need for it to be discussed as a part of almost all subjects discussed at this website.
Of course, the people who complain about Lieberman will always be on the borderline of discussing Iraq. The main reason for most people who hate Lieberman to hate him is specifically Iraq. Perhaps you should also consider a separate forum just for Lieberman — because, for example, anyone who complains about Lieberman will probably get blasted by me and some others … and Iraq will soon be a discussion item.
Lets have another Seperate Forum for any Position held by Ct Republicans.Since Jodi Rell has obviously abandoned them and they her lets stop making believe they’re relevent to any political discussion having to do with state politics.
Someone certainly has an edge…..
CT Dude,
I spoke with someone who met with the Governor last week. She was candid enough to say “I’ve no Republican freinds left in the Ct Legislature”.
Face Facts,Jodi Rell has.
Rell has lots of friends in the Connecticut legislature. She’s just being her humble self. Wait ’til she vetoes the gay marriage legislation which the Democrats think is more important than all other issues. She’s got plenty of friends, Keith. Don’t worry for a second about her.
How about the ongoing state’s attorney’s investigation into Eddie Perez and his shenanigans?
http://www.courant.com/news/local/hc-perezinvest-0423,0,4669207.story?coll=hc-headlines-home
“which the Democrats think is more important than all other issues.”
Say WHAT????
If you don’t believe thesea, Mike Lawlor said Gay Marriage isn’t the most important issue this session
Noreaster,
Do Tell us which Republican Legislators back our Governors plan to raise the income tax and bust the cap on the budget to the tune of 3+ billion in order to improve funding for education.
If you can name 2(with links) who have publicly supported her plan you win
I’ll elaborate — Democrats have been running screaming away from gay marriage for years. It’s called a “loser” issue. Polls don’t support it. Jodi’s against it. The whole “doing the right thing in the name of civil rights for all” gets lost in the collective public “eeewwwwww!”
If this is the top issue for the Dems., why didn’t they run on it last fall? Why isn’t it House Bill Number One? Where are the press conferences? Letters to the editor? Op-eds? Calls to talk radio? Meetings with gay rights lobbyists?
Where?
There aren’t any. Because it’s not a top Democratic issue. Case closed.
Noreaster,
We’re all still waiting for you to name those Republican legislators in Jodi Rells corner.
I was actually more pleased with Rells idea of increasing the income tax to increase the amount of state aid to education and decrease our reliance on the Property tax to fund it than I am with the Dems Budget proposal.
I’m of the opinion the budget deal that is finally made with have these 3 major components
1) a progressive income tax (not as progressive as the Dems are proposing but pretty close)
2)A significant increase in the states portion of Education funding( The allocation will be much closer to Rells plan than the Democratic plan)
3)An incremental move toward Universal Healthcare coverage most likely covering all of Cts Children.
I think this is the most likely scenerio and one all of those with a say can and will live with.
After this deal is made the table wil be set for the big debate on a single payor universal health care debate for the next legislative session.
PS-I’m also of the opinion the Gov. WILL SIGN the Same Sex Marriage bill when all is said and done simply because she knows it’s the right thing to do.
On the topic of French elections, I happened to be in Paris for the last week, including election day, and wow it was a pretty cool time to be there. They had an 84% turnout! According to some Parisians I talked to, they agree with the general media reports that the increased turnout was a direct reaction to the very right Le Pens getting so far in their last election cycle, due mostly to poor turnout. I also really like the idea of France’s two-tier election system, though–I wasn’t aware of it before my trip. They went from 12 candidates to 2, and it seems to me it may be a better process than our primary system. The only potential problem I can see would be getting enough of the country to vote twice in the space of two weeks. But perhaps if the length of time from the first to the second vote was longer, it could work. I just liked the idea that so many candidates got to get before the whole country on the same day, rather than just going before small pieces of the country over the course of weeks of primaries.
Gems, I would be hesitant to follow the French model in any sort of meaningful way, afterall, they’re on their 5th Republic since 1792,around the same time that we’ve had one.
Low voter turnout can mean many things, apathy, sure. But it is also indicative of a very, very stable democracy. Nobody fears that the U.S. government is going to crash or veer dramatically in any one way from election to election. They can’t say that in France.
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