The highlights and lowlights of 2007, on parade, with links! This covers the entire legislative session, such as it was, the beginnings of the Dodd campaign for president, and the start of the DeLuca mess, among other events.
Tomorrow, I’ll have the second half of the year done and posted. Update: part two here.
January
1/3 - Governor Rell gets inaugurated for her first full term as governor. I realize that I’m a gullible sap when it comes to Rell, just like 77% of the rest of the state.
During the parade, someone steps out into the road to take a picture of Rell. Unfortunately, he’s Ken Krayeske, and the cops arrest him. The ensuing flap goes on for months before the charges are dropped. We learn that the state police have way too much time on their hands, and are a lot more paranoid than we suspected.
1/11 - Sen. Chris Dodd announces his run for president. His announcement takes place on the Imus in the Morning show, which gives him much-needed credibility with idiots who don’t vote.
1/17 - We have our second anniversary of being online. No one comments in the celebratory post, which isn’t a good sign. We also move from Blogger to WordPress, and get our own URL! Whee!
1/19 - A minor flurry ensues when Chris Dodd suggests he won’t run for the Senate in 2010. It turns out to be a campaign financing trick, but apparently Richard Blumenthal needed a change of pants.
1/20 - The New Haven Coliseum gets imploded, in what has to have been the most exciting thing to happen on that spot since the Beast of New Haven left.
1/23 - Dems set aside money for health care, in the forlorn hope that it’ll push them to actually come up with a health care plan.
1/28 - Joe Lieberman flirts with voting GOP in the 2008 presidential election. When he endorses John McCain a year later, everyone is shocked. Shocked!
1/31 - Chris Healy is selected to chair the state Repiblican Party, replacing George Gallo. It’s arguably the best thing to happen to the Republicans all year. Well, that and Jim Amann’s announcement that he might run for governor.
February
2/1 - Dodd says he has money enough for a presidential run. Those were the days. Now his campaign staff eats nothing but ramen noodles and huddles around the TV for warmth.
2/7 - Gov. Rell delivers her budget speech, and proposes a huge increase in education spending. Republicans are outraged. Democrats are perplexed.
2/20 - Rell nominates Judge Chase Rogers for the position of Chief Justice.
2/26 - Rob Simmons, who lost his congressional seat to Joe Courtney in November 2006, becomes the state’s new business advocate. He later rules out a run against Courtney in 2008.
2/27 - Rangers goaltending great Mike Richter is rumored to be interested in challenging Chris Shays. This later comes to nothing, but produces a lot of hockey-themed jokes while it lasts.
March
3/5 - Dodd trumpets his win of a straw poll in South Carolina. Everyone clings to the fiction that the Dodd campaign might very well possibly maybe be destined for great things.
3/8 - Democrats reject Gov. Rell’s overtures to them and bash her budget proposals. Rell begins moving inexorably away from Democrats and back towards her own party.
3/9 - Richard Blumenthal proposes insanely strict restrictions on MySpace and other social networking sites. The definition of “social networking site” is so wide that it includes blogs, wikis and others. The proposal is eventually crafted into something more reasonable.
3/9 - Jim Himes makes his appearance in the 4th district rumor mill. Himes will go on to show a remarkable fundraising acumen.
3/12 - Dodd goes on the Daily Show, where Jon Stewart makes fun of him A LOT.
3/13 - Charter reform in New London fails because not enough voters turned out.
3/16 - Tase me, bro: Mike Lawlor volunteers to get shocked. Fortunately, there’s video.
3/18 - Rumors of a Blumenthal run for governor start swirling again. This time, he’s serious. No, really. This time he totally means it. …Right.
3/25 - Bloggers head to the Capitol. It’s a dream come true for us political geeks.
3/27 - Connecticut moves its presidential primary to February 5th, along with a host of other states.
April
4/10 - Bridgeport Mayor Fabrizi finds himself in trouble following his public support of a sex offender. Bridgeport Democrats start talking about who will replace him.
4/10 - Sean Sullivan, former commander of the Groton Sub Base, announces his run against Joe Courtney. Sullivan has great credentials, but turns into a fundraising bust during the following quarter.
4/21 - Nancy Pelosi comes to Connecticut for the Democrats’ annual JJB dinner. Everyone wears their obligatory Dodd sticker.
4/25 - State Sen. David Cappiello announces a run against Rep. Chris Murphy.
4/25 - Chase Rogers confirmed as new chief justice.
4/25 - Compromise Plan B legislation passes the Senate, then later the House. The bill is eventually signed by the governor. The FIC fusses and spews for a while, which is good fun to watch.
May
5/3 - Yet another Lisa Moody scandal that goes nowhere emerges: this time, she passed along a list of arts and tourism commission leaders’ names to the Rell campaign in 2006. Everyone shrugs.
5/3 - A constitutional amendment allowing certain 17-year-olds the right to vote in primaries passes, but doesn’t get the 3/4 majority required to make it on to the 2008 ballot. Maybe 2010?
5/7 - May municipal elections.
5/8 - Fabrizi bows out, leading Rep. Caruso to enter the mayoral race in Bridgeport. As of now, he is still running.
5/11 - No vote on gay marriage in 2007, despite encouraging signs for the bill. The Supreme Court decides a few days later to hear arguments on gay marriage. …We’re still waiting for their decision.
5/12 - Eddie Perez gets defensive about parking lots and developers.
5/14 - Bill Finch enters the Bridgeport mayoral race.
5/14 - Republicans propose eliminating the gas tax for the summer driving season. Democrats don’t bite.
5/22 - Democrats override a Rell veto of a bill on Medicare waivers. It’s a startling moment of unity which lasts all of a second.
5/24 - Fred Thompson is the guest at the Republicans’ annual Prescott Bush dinner.
5/31 - Democrats pass a progressive income tax bill, but Rell vetoes it. No override is attempted–the bill didn’t have enough support.
June
6/1 - Lou DeLuca is arrested on charges of conspiring to threaten his grandson-in-law. The charges come in conjunction with an FBI investigation of organized crime revolving around the garbage industry in western Connecticut.
6/3 - A compromise energy bill is passed. It sucks.
6/4 - Speaker Amann promises a special session to finish the work left undone. The rest of us wonder just what they’ve been doing for six months.
6/4 - New Haven approves a Municipal ID card plan which would allow illegal immigrants to use city services. New Haven makes the Lou Dobbs Xenophobia and Paranoia Hour on CNN.
6/5 - Tallarita out in Enfield.
6/6 - The General Assembly passes a weak health care bill. Gov Rell promptly vetoes it.
6/6 - The legislative session wraps up at midnight. Everyone agrees: it’s been a bust.
6/12 - Oh! Chris Dodd is still running for president. I forgot.
6/12 - Chris Healy, state GOP chair, is arrested for DUI. He refuses to step down, however, and is overwhelmingly re-confirmed in his post by Republicans a few weeks later.
6/13 - Lou DeLuca resigns as Minority Leader. John McKinney replaces him.
6/23 - The budget finally passes. In the dead of night. Spooky.
6/27 - Gov. Rell vetoes a bill that would have provided in-state tuition for children of illegal immigrants. We once again make the Lou Dobbs Xenophobia and Paranoia Hour.
The rest of the year is on tap for tomorrow! I promise, it’ll be just as exciting as the first half.
57 responses so far ↓
Hi GC–
Welcome back from your short break.
I like the recap — and the links allowing one to look back.
Headless Horseman has a pretty good Top 10 list going of dumbest things done by CT Democrats in 2007 on at his site… of course, HH, the year isn’t over….
http://headlesshorseman2008.blogspot.com/
Happy New Year, all!!
Nice of you to notice Dude.
Hope your Christmas was a good one.
Too true… they have a little less than a week to do some more damage…
GC- of course you slighted Cafero and the House R’s twice.
Once when they propose a third alternative no tax increase budget and second when their budget scores a victory in the Q-poll, which in turn changed the entire debate on taxes last session.
YET Tallarita gets a nod????
CtRoadrunner said:
Well, yeah. I live in Enfield. Duh.
And I’m glad you found something to criticize.
Fair is all i’m asking. For someone that claims to not be affiliated with either party you sure continually give the GOP the slight more often than not.
Remember if not for the 3rd budget the Dems wil the q-poll hands down and the all political landscape for the year is different.
Not to mention one of your so-called front posters “disgruntled republican” never actually seems to post.
Tell him to get off the sh** or get off the pot.
http://ctroadrunner.wordpress.com/2007/12/27/cafero-state-leader-of-the-year/
Yeah, a big thanks to Cafero and McKinney for killing Rell’s Property Tax Reform initiative.
For once Governor Rell was doing something of signficance for the future of Connecticut, but then her own Party comes along to undermine her leadership.
Brilliant!
CtRoadrunner, picking Cafero for state leader of the year is like picking Petraeus for person of the year. When are you going to learn that the proper, objective approach is to not mention Cafero at all and to pick Putin for person of the year? You must be some sort of right-wing fanatic to think that Cafero’s actions were special … NOT.
TrueBlueCT said:
What leadership? That is the point Rell has no leadership ability!
>>http://ctroadrunner.wordpress.com/2007/12/27/cafero-state-leader-of-the-year/
No tax increase?
How about around 300 bucks a year for about 40 - 50% of the adult population in the 30K and under per-year annual income bracket.
Cigarettes went up 50 cents a pack in tax (plus CT’s 6% sales tax) while nothing else got touched at all.
Meanwhile we continue to give breaks to those that ruin the environment via their damned hybrid cars (the batteries are a disaster). We should be taxing those damned things twice.
For that matter, all we need to do is enforce the left except to pass law on the Merritt and on New York & New Jersey drivers exclusively and we could probably wind up with quite a budget surplus at the end of the year.
No, Rell was trying to do something for the future of our State.
The 10% income tax which she boldly proposed was marked for Property Tax relief. Rell is not a Democrat, and the revenues weren’t intended for Jim Amann to spend.
It’s Republicans in general that have no leadership ability. But that should be obvious when we’re talking about a GOP that proudly denies global warming, and evolution!
But hey, who needs Property Tax reform anyway. It’s not like the incredibly high cost of housing is holding back CT’s economy!
Fair, huh? Why is it that only the most partisan people seem to be interested in “fairness” and “balance,” by which they inevitably mean “more for us.” I’ve seen your site, CtRoadrunner. You wouldn’t know fairness, moderation or balance if it whacked you upside the head, so I don’t think I should be taking pointers from you.
Cafero did all right with what he had, but in the end his efforts honestly didn’t pay off. Maybe next year.
ACR, those batteries will last for the life of the car and they are recycled by the manufacturers when their useful lifespan is done.
The Ron Paul r3VOLution hit CT in December! Just ask Melissa Bailey at the NH Independent.
http://www.newhavenindependent.org/archives/2007/12/ron_paul_revolu.php#007476more
And this card-carrying member even trekked to the other NH… New Hampshire… to partake in the festivities (door knocking and sign waving) this past weekend with Operation Live Free or Die. It was a ton of fun.
We were at a mall waving signs when two supporters pulled out a sign that was probably… 10′ x 20′ for Ron Paul! They needed PVC pipe to hold it up. And whether you like my favorite ObGyn or not… any CTLPer ought to at least appreciate the enthusiasm… I mean… RP has some serious supporters… his volunteers quit their jobs and have come from CT, NY, NC, MI, IN, TX, OH, OR, CA and on and on.
It was fantastic.
his volunteers quit their jobs
That probably means that 1) their jobs weren’t that great in the first place, and 2) they don’t have families that are relying on the paycheck. Now, maybe a few of the people that quit their jobs to join the RP campaign were millionaires who were only working for fun…
Whenever I hear media reports about candidates campaigning and the size of the crowds, I wonder if those people are super dedicated, or they just don’t have anything else to do.
I know, I blog a lot, but it’s a few minutes here, a few minutes there. And it’s often just a diversion from my normal work. There’s no travel time involved, and I can instantly stop and go back to normal work.
1) their jobs weren’t that great in the first place, and 2) they don’t have families that are relying on the paycheck
1 is in the eye of the beholder… 2 is certainly true for some, though not for others, including at least one family who moved there with toddlers in tow…
and there were also people who took a few weeks vacation to help out. Regardless… the level of enthusiasm and dedication is pretty amazing.
I’m pretty sure that HRC, Mitt and the rest have nothing coming close to that level of commitment from volunteers.
I suspect i’m going to regret asking this… but what’s with the capitalizing of the “EVOL”? (and the the E to 3 thing is even newer in this context)
John… click here…
http://files.meetup.com/497958/Ron%20Paul%20Revolution%20banner%2030%20x%2089.jpg
>>I’m pretty sure that HRC, Mitt and the rest have nothing coming close to that level of commitment from volunteers
Ever meet a Mormon Missionary?
Should Mitt get the nod, that’ll be his secret weapon. 40,000 clean cut college kids going door to door has to be a big plus.
Genghis Conn said:
I don’t claim to be a fence sitting on my site but on your site you claim to be a middle of the road guy. Acknowledging both sides is not a arduous request is it.
I believe many people who view this site look to it for balance.
Genghis Conn said:
I think you’re selling the effort a little short here. Amann was outsmarted by Cafero on the budget. Amann’s arrogance made him determined to ram his budget through the chamber. When he did that, he showed that their budget did not have a veto-proof level of support, and thus, he threw away the bargaining power he had prior to the vote to negotiate with the governor on the content of the budget and compromise.
TrueBlueCT said:
Of course they weren’t intended for Jim Amann to spend… but that’s exactly what would have happened. Besides, if it was such a great move for Connecticut, how were the superminority Republicans able to shoot it down? Making a progressive income tax is a dumber move than making an income tax at all.
TrueBlueCT said:
I’m glad to see you’re still objective during the holidays. Anyway, did you see this?
http://washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071221/NATION/844993096/1002
So much for a “consensus” and “settled science,” huh?
Anyway, if any town in Connecticut wants property tax reform, it can feel free to cut its property taxes. Liberal catch-phrases like “reform” and “progressive” simply mean “let’s find someone else to pay our bills!” It sure would be nice to get something for nothing, wouldn’t it?
Here is another example of a House Republican effort:
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/connecticut/ny-bc-ct–firearmstrafficki1227dec27,0,4671572.story
Cold hard facts are difficult to overcome.
40,000 “Stepford Children” scares the crap out of me!
pharg said:
More the kind of thinking that only liberals think for themselves.
Don’t liberals want the government to do everything under the sun for us?
Result: Highly Dependent Stepford Libs.
That’s a dead link CTRoadrunner on your last post.
And you are 100 percent correct on your call about Genghis.
He’s a liberal Democrat — which is perfectly OK. Why he won’t admit it is a mystery to me. Does he see himself as some sort of referee?
I don’t see the point fence sitters either.
Claim your ground and defend it. That’s how you and I see public debate.
* * *
Rell — OMG. Leadership? You must be joking. Rell is good at playing the game of politics but at the end of the day she has nothing to show for her gamesmanship. All she cares about is the headline in the Commie Courant the next day.
I think New Jersey has come up with the sole reason why I should have voted for her after all with its repeal of the Death Penalty.
At least Rell signed the death warrant for Connecticut’s most cowardly and notorious killer of defenseless young girls. Girls in any state should not need a hockey stick to defend their lives in their own homes. At least Rell gets that (after reading the polls of course).
Had that thought occurred to me I would have pulled her lever but at the time I this Republican could not think of a solitary feeble reason why I shouldn’t crossover and vote for DeStefano in protest.
So I did. My hand didn’t even shake as I did it.
I was addressing CtRoadrunner in my last post if thats not clear.
Brainwashing is brainwashing, no matter what the orientation.
It just seems conservatives ( College Republicans, Regent U Grads, etc) are more likely to participate. Its been proven, conservatives can’t deal with variables! All issues are black or white, right or wrong, weak or strong.
That’s how we end up with dolts like Bush.
pharg said:
Mmm… Proven. With Pearson two-tailed correlations, using bivariate statistics, right? Mua ha ha! Where have I heard that before…
If black and white gives us Bush, then I suppose the variant shades of gray give us Jimmy Carters.
I’d rather just have Reagan back.
John R. McCommas said:
here is a news-times link that should work:
http://www.newstimes.com/latestnews/ci_7820077
Thank you for proving my point!
UHG! REAGAN GOOD, CARTER BAD! UHG
How’s the opposing thumb evolving?
Oh thats right, Evolution is strictly SP!
pharg said:
So Carter had what as an accomplishment?
Exactly, nothing.
I strictly look at what they did as presidents. The Reagan legacy is a virtual laundry list of major accomplishments.
I guess the old standby is naming calling? Apes, huh!
Oh man that’s mean. Funny, but mean.
pharg said:
Mua ha! That is most amusing.
If Carter is to be considered the model of the well-evolved man, then our thumbs may be growing, but our balls are clearly shriveling.
GC- I went through some of your summary. On your 6/6 entry you’re actually wrong the Governor signed the healthcare bill, SB-1484.
She threatened to veto but got a commitment to fix language in a subsequent bill, which ended up changing the reform to Rellcare.
You keep proving my point!
This has nothing to do with Carter. CTR mentioned Carter, not me. It has to do with evaluating all siuations
by the the facts, not by knee jerk talking points.
A rational analysis of both presidencies would show good and bad happenings in both administrations. But you and CTR can’t break out of fox news mode.
ACR,
As you point out in your post # 10 the idea that this past years’s budget had no “tax increases” conveniently looks past a few details. You pointed out a few, but I think you missed the biggest one….
We had a billion dollar “surplus”, assuming of course you are comfortable in not properly funding our pension obligations to the state workers, etc. That “surplus” was then promptly spent on an entire assortment of goodies that resulted in a 9% increase in on going spending. And still, we got no property tax relief.
My point is simply this (even if we are happy to ignore inflation) each budget from now on will require that amount of additional tax revenue over where we started this past year just to fund this ongoing new spending. Is that not a real increase in taxes?? Or does this state just print that money??
We need to get past the idea that just because our income tax rate didn’t go up, that the tax revenue we collectively send to Hartford did not go up. An on going increase in the budget of a billion dollars requires an ongoing increase in tax revenue to pay for it each year……. How is that not a billion dollars in tax increases?
Or I guess another way we could look at it is we had the chance to reduce taxes by a billion dollars, or provide a billion dollars in property tax relief, but chose not to do either. But for certain, we did increase the tax burden needed to balance our future budgets.
CtRoadrunner said:
CtRoadrunner said:
CTRoadrunner, the Democrats were advocating for that too. Here’s a link to a longer story about it:
http://www.nhregister.com/WebApp/appmanager/JRC/BigDaily?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=pg_article&r21.pgpath=%2FNHR%2FHome&r21.content=%2FNHR%2FHome%2FTopStoryList_Story_1330269
Cold hard fact are difficult to overcome.
pharg said:
I would love to read your “rational analysis” of the Reagan administration anytime you want to treat us to it.
HH,
And what do you thin Reagan did exactly? Despite the Conservative myths, the USSR collapsed almost entirely due to internal political and economic factors. The tax cuts were hardly the cause for any economic growth in the 80s, though it should be kept in mind that under Reagan the unemployment rate was still around 8%. I suppose he can take credit for the increasing the share of wealth in the top 1%. He mistakenly sent troops to Lebanon, then pulled them out after we were attacked, a move which Bin Laden would later site as evidence that we were weak and would capitulate after 9/11. His administration not only negotiated with, but sold weapons to terrorists and those that supported them. I could go on. (Not that I’m defending Carter, I’m just sick and tired of the Diefication of Reagan.)
>>We had a billion dollar “surplus”, assuming of course you are comfortable in not properly funding our pension obligations to the state workers, etc.
It’s a bonehead dumb move as far as I’m concerned. Heaven help us if we were to let some surplus grow a little with interest.
>>…..each budget from now on will require that amount of additional tax revenue over where we started this past year just to fund this ongoing new spending.
Brilliant, right!
>> Is that not a real increase in taxes??
Of course.
What we should be doing is so obvious; yet we can’t muster the political courage to implement it.
A dramatic drop in our overall sales tax (-0- should do it, and since it costs the DRS 130 million just to collect it that’s already money in the bank) a massive reduction in tobacco and alcohol taxes (let’s do what New Hampshire does only better and bigger) as well as diesel fuel (we won’t get any more trucks than we do now, but at least they’ll fill up here on their way from NYC to Boston).
Over the road trucks can typically go over 1800 miles between fill-ups, no wonder they don’t buy a drop of fuel here from our retailers.
Lower prices for Connecticut residents, and an outright predatory perspective towards surrounding states (none of which do we “owe” a darned thing).
BTW -
22% of the total cigarettes in CT were bootlegged PRIOR to the tax increase; as luck would have it that number’s over 30% now and climbing. It would be preferable for us to be on the *export* side of such bootleg operations I would think.
60% of the cigarettes consumed in the Boston market area are carrying a New Hampshire tax stamp. One could assume we could command the same market share of NYC; however people don’t tend to travel over a few miles for a price spread of under 30%; thus we would need to reduce our CT tax to 10.00 per-carton. Were we to do this, CT would recieve an additional 400 million per year in revenue from the NYC market alone - way more than enough to offset the revenue “loss” from the tax reduction (never mind the 30+% bootleg factor here already would largely disappear).
[note]
NYC population is a little over 8 million, their demography is consistant with a per-capita cigarette consumption rate of 5 cartons per year.
Headless Horseman said:
There was a study two years back (i believe it was two yrs ago) where researchers were looking into voting habits of people diagnosed with certain mental illnesses. They were more interested in seeing if these people participated. However, one of the conclusions of the study was that these people overwhelmingly voted for conservatives. (Now before anyone makes jokes) there reasoning was that b/c their lives lacked stability of any kind, they found it comforting to have someone (a leader) say this is good, this is bad, I’m going to decide what’s best for you and decide for you where good is and where evil is. I’m not calling Bush a facsist, but I do think fascism is what these patients were looking for if they could have had anything. They didn’t trust themselves to make these distinctions so they found comforting that a leader would for them.
ACR- Be happy they haven’t raise the tax on Cigars yet!
Got a bunch for the holidays!
spartan_881 said:
Sorry it was a Republican initiative in 2000.
http://www.housegop.state.ct.us/Old/SanAngelo/sanangelobio.htm
Dems forced Rowland’s hand to de-fund in favor of other social programs. How many lives could that program saved.
>>ACR- Be happy they haven’t raise the tax on Cigars yet!
Why do you think S Chip keeps getting vetoed?
It DOUBLES the price of cigars and adds an addional 8 bucks a pound to loose tobacco (the roll your own crowd has increased by a whopping 243% over the past few years while pre-made tobacco (cigarettes) have declined overall 24%) This is all in addition to more than doubling the current fed tax on cigarettes as well. Currently each carton of CT cigarettes includes over $30 in taxes, MSA payments, etc. Yet there are those that would like to increase it further.
I enjoyed several Habana’s while in Mexico and a few might have fallen into my suitcase before we left.
Soon I should be able to enjoy a Montecristo while remaining a good company man as that deal consumates this spring.
I love it. I’m to partisan and Genghis isn’t partisan enough.
>>I love it. I’m to partisan and Genghis isn’t partisan enough
No - you’re partisan as all get out (which is okay with me, heck I’ll buy ya coffee (I think I have haven’t I?) but GC makes like he isn’t but is more than maybe even he realizes.
Meh. I’m pretty liberal on some things and less so on others. I try my best to give everyone’s ideas a fair shake. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. One thing I don’t want is a label, though.
ACR said:
You did in fact buy me coffee.
CGG said:
too!
ACR said:
People resist labels all the time but it doesn’t mean it isn’t fact.
Example people can call me conservative but I still hate Bush, didn’t vote for him, same with Rell, same with Rowland.