Connecticut Local Politics

Outgoing Governor M. Jodi Rell remains popular with Connecticut voters, according to a new poll released this morning by Quinnipiac University.
Rell’s public approval ratings are actually up with 64% of voters approving of the job Rell is doing.  30% disapprove of the Gov’s efforts.
Remarkably, only 33% of those polled said that they had heard much [...]

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Either by design or accident, it often seems that the political class in this state spends a considerable amount of time wondering just what the Governor will do next.  With the municipal elections behind us and 2010 rapidly approaching, the parlor game “Will the Governor run for re-election?” is surging in popularity. 
The answer to the [...]

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State Democratic Party chair Nancy DiNardo asks an important question: why, exactly, was Lisa Moody’s caustic reply to state budget director Robert Genuario not in the original stack released to the Courant?
The rest of what DiNardo has to say is the usual raft of complaints about “Governor Moody” that’s been going around for years. All [...]

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–By Ned Lamont
There must be a plaque on Governor Rell’s desk which reads, “The buck doesn’t stop here.”
Her recent op-ed piece in Sunday’s Hartford Courant was a classic example of blame-shifting for the state’s ongoing budget crisis. Crying, “the legislature made me do it,” is a thin excuse for someone who has held the [...]

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Rep. James O’Rourke has been reinstated to his position of deputy House speaker, now that he’s been cleared by prosecutors of any wrongdoing.
Several new laws went into effect yesterday.
The governor did veto the Democrats’ budget. Talks are said to be ongoing. The new fiscal year means that the governor is basically funding departments by executive [...]

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In the wake of South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford’s “hike on the Appalachian Trail”, the Associated Press decided to check in on other Governors to see where they were.
Most answers were quite boring, including that of our Governor, Jodi Rell:
CONNECTICUT: Gov. M. Jodi Rell was in her Capitol office, watching a Senate budget debate on [...]

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Gov. Rell has vetoed a bill that would have required the Metropolitan District Commission (MDC) to conform to state agency affirmative action hiring practices (the JI has more through coverage, but will cost you if you aren’t a subscriber). The bill arose out of complaints that a woman was unfairly treated and then fired from [...]

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The New York Times’s Mark Pazniokas has penned a lengthy piece about Gov. Jodi Rell, in which people from all across the ideological spectrum wrack their brains to try and figure out where her immense popularity, strong even in the face of economic disaster, comes from.
Some respondents think it’s because she hasn’t made hard [...]

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@GovernorRell has quickly been building some impressive social networking infrastructure over the past few months.  She’s got nearly one thousand friends on Facebook and more than 300 followers on Twitter.  Check out the interview with the Gov.’s Public Affairs Director, Adam Jeamel – conducted via Skype - with Fox61’s @rickhancock.

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From the Courant:
Rell’s spokesman, though, responded Wednesday night that the Democratic plan is balanced partially with “accounting gimmicks” and proposals for savings that may never be realized.
“There’s an abundance of chicanery in this budget,” said Christopher Cooper. “The Democrats have spent the last 84 days claiming they were looking for ways to balance the budget. [...]

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A nightmare of a poll for Sen. Chris Dodd has just come out. A Quinnipiac University poll shows that the events of the past month, which has been nonstop negative news for Dodd, have taken their toll.
Dodd now trails Republican Rob Simmons 50%-34%.
Yes. He’s in the thirties, and Simmons has cracked 50%. We’re still a [...]

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The Government Administration and Elections committee yesterday killed several of the governor’s proposals, including her plan to consolidate several state agencies, and a proposal that would have reduced the amount of money participants in public campaign financing would receive.
This, of course, is the usual pattern. The governor will make a lot of noise about new [...]

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The Governor put out a press release today highlighting the worsening budget situation:
Governor M. Jodi Rell today announced the economy continues to erode all major revenue streams for the state, eroding the bottom line for her proposed two-year $38 billion budget presented to the Legislature nearly two months ago.
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Daily Kos commissioned a poll for the U.S. Senate race, the results of which you can see here. A word of explanation: though Daily Kos is a partisan site, they use Research 2000, a reputable independent pollster, to conduct their surveys.
They found Sen. Chris Dodd holding on to a narrow lead over Rob Simmons, [...]

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For all the political junkees, the 2010 Gubernatorial race for the Democratic nomination reached full throttle today with the first candidate and non candidate debate this morning, March 14, 2009 at the Groton City Municipal Building where declared candidate Jim Amann, exploring candidates Dan Malloy and Susan Bysiewicz (Susan B from now on), and non [...]

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“No. If it’s going to help us, it’ll be fine.”
Gov. Rell, when asked if “she had any misgivings about basing even a small part of her plan on people drinking more and gambling more,” in an article from February 25th.
Following the death of a Connecticut College student in an accident caused by someone who was [...]

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Yup, everyone’s on Twitter these days, even Gov. Rell. Here’s her Twitter page: Twitter.com/GovernorRell. Her latest tweet, from a few hours ago, is:
My message to legislators today: Start face-to-face budget talks now.
UPDATE: It seems to be working–both Rell and Don Williams are calling for talks.

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Well, it could be. Gov. Rell today tried to strike a positive tone on the economy today when she spoke with business leaders in Hartford:
She said while the state has lost jobs, “it’s not as bad as we thought it would be.” She said there are also new jobs being created in the state, mostly [...]

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There should be a vote tonight on the latest deficit mitigation plan, which Democrats say will cut $1.2 billion from this year’s budget.
Though the plan incorporates some of her ideas, the governor isn’t happy with it. Is she unhappy enough not to sign it? I doubt it.
UPDATE: The plan passed the

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Turfgrrl uncovers some evidence that a recently canceled committee is basically nonexistent. There is, in fact, very little information out there about the Advisory Commission on American and Francophone Cultural Affairs, despite the fact that it seems to have been formed at some point by Gov. Ella Grasso, and now is disbanded. Very few people [...]

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