Connecticut Local Politics

The General Assembly is currently considering legislation that would revoke the pension of former state officials who were convicted of crimes while in office. While the proposed legislation has a number of influential supporters, including Rell, Blumenthal, and Bysiewicz, there are a lot of questions concerning the legislation that still need to be sorted […]

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In a stunning example of the pot calling the kettle black, former John Rowland advisor Dean Pagani writes this in a Hartford Business.com opinion piece:
It is hard to imagine a system more rigged for waste, fraud and abuse than Connecticut’s new public campaign financing law…Simply put, the new law will put more than $10 million, […]

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Senate Democrats unveiled their plan to overhaul ethics today:
State Senate President Pro Tem Donald E. Williams was joined today by Senate Majority Leader Martin Looney, and State Senators Gayle Slossberg and Edward Meyer to announce the Senate Democrats’ ethics package and agenda for the 2008 legislative session.

The Democrats’ proposals include:

* Revoke […]

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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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Tom Monahan, lobbing softball questions for 13 minutes, interviews the former State Senator for NBC 30. The video (which I can’t embed) is telling. DeLuca still doesn’t seem to understand what he did wrong. Also, it’s all the Hartford Courant’s fault! Seriously, he mentions the paper at least five times.
See the […]

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The Courant’s Chris Keating asked some CT elected officials whether or not Senator DeLuca should resign.
Senate Minority Leader John McKinney:
When asked if he had asked DeLuca to resign, McKinney said: “I’d rather not answer that question.”
Governor Jodi Rell:
“The senator, and the senator alone, and his family, will be the decision-makers on whether or not he […]

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The Hartford Courant also calls for Lou DeLuca to be expelled.
Meanwhile Colin McEnroe has lost his patience with the Special Committee tasked with deciding DeLuca’s fate.
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This cartoon from the Courant’s Bob Englehart sums up DeLuca-gate perfectly.
In his blog, Englehart expands on the cartoon.
Emphasis mine:

What a story. Now, DeLuca refuses to testify under oath because the FBI is taking notes. Just when you think it can’t get any more bizarre. DeLuca has brought dishonor to the legislature and continues to […]

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William DiBella, former Democratic Majority Leader of the State Senate has lost another court battle in his attempt to keep $374,000 he took as a commission in the rigged state pensions scandal that sent State Treasurer Paul Silvester to jail.
From the Courant:

Senior U.S. District Judge Ellen Bree Burns, in a decision released Wednesday, rejected DiBella’s […]

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h/t to Spartan_881.
The committee had to ask, but Senator DeLuca did give permission to let them review an FBI report on an interview he had with them. No dice in the actual secret recordings though.
From the Courant:

On Monday, DeLuca’s lawyer, Craig Raabe said the report DeLuca is agreeing to release “covers a nearly three-hour […]

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State Sen. Edward Meyer is proposing that the General Assembly form a permanent bipartisan ethics committee to investigate allegations of wrongdoing among its members.
…Meyer said his proposal stems from a 2005 corruption case that led to the resignation of then-state Sen. Ernest Newton II, D-Bridgeport, and a guilty plea that sent him to federal prison […]

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Waterbury Police Chief Neil M. O’Leary has detailed his contact with DeLuca to the special bi-partisan Senate committee. The letter contains 13 points of contact that O’Leary had with DeLuca, and emphasizes that while DeLuca was concerned about Mark Colella’s involvement with his grand daughter, he never once expressed concerns that she was being […]

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Remember Abe Giles, of parking lot scandal fame? Apparently the city of Hartford paid $10,000 to cart away some trash from a warehouse for him. Isn’t that nice of them? Better yet, it happened several months before he won a city contract to store things at that warehouse.
City records show that in February and March, […]

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Via Dean Pagani’s Media Attache, the six members of the bipartisan investigative committee are:
Sen. Martin Looney (D)
Sen. Andrea Stillman (D)
Sen. Don DeFronzo (D)
Sen. Bill Nickerson (R)
Sen. Tony Guglielmo (R)
Sen. Andrew Roraback (R)
Pagani has a lot more analysis of the choices over on his site. Bottom line: tough crowd for DeLuca.

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Here’s a quote from this coming Sunday’s Beyond the Headlines, broadcast on Fox61:
“Eddie Perez is a nasty guy and he’s made a lot of enemies in Hartford, and I think there’s probably glee at this, and it’s going to follow him for the rest of his political career, which is probably–which is likely to be […]

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