Connecticut Local Politics

Fresh off raising a woefully inadequate amount of money, replacing their campaign team to move “into a new phase with a new team”, and then missing an FEC filing deadline, the Sullivan campaign is now fumbling press releases.
Here is what I received from the Courtney campaign at 1:00pm:
Representative Joe Courtney (D-CT) and House Armed Services […]

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Congressman Joe Courtney had another solid quarter in Q1. $1.2 million on hand at this point is a lot of money for a challenger to compete against. The press release is below:
Congressman Joe Courtney announced today that he has raised an estimated $272,000 in the first quarter of 2008 towards his 2008 reelection […]

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Donna Brazile is the Chair of the Democratic National Committee’s Voting Rights Institute and an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University. She also has been named by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies as a special advisor. Here is her statement on the attack ads currently running against Democratic Representatives Courtney and Murphy:
As a […]

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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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“Landslide Joe” Courtney won the narrowest congressional race in the country last year. He’s been busy making sure that doesn’t happen again in 2008.
First, a stroke of luck: Rob Simmons decided not to run again, instead becoming a high-profile business advocate for the Rell Administration, the first the state has had. That left Courtney without […]

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Not really, but it wouldn’t hurt.
Via MyDD (and please click through, because I borrowed the table from them):

Committee
September Receipts
September Disbursements
September Cash-on-Hand
September Debts & Obligations
Net-Net

DCCC
$8,574,146.27
$2,395,904.87
$28,334,264.70
$2,982,499.61
$25,351,765.09

NRCC
$2,601,743.33
$2,595,275.28
$1,598,505.61
$3,850,000.00
($2,251,494.39)

.
Unless something drastically changes, the NRCC simply won’t have the numbers to do anything more in Connecticut than defend the 4th; they will not have the resources for offense, only defense.
For challengers […]

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Well! Look whose fundraising finally came around.
Republican Congressional hopeful Sean Sullivan raised more than $100,000 in his first full quarter of fundraising, his campaign said today, as the candidate confidently told reporters he expects to defeat freshman Rep. Joseph D. Courtney, D-2nd District, next fall.
Sullivan, the former commander of Submarine Base New London, has raised […]

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The U.S. House of Representatives passed the Fiscal Year 2008 Defense Appropriations spending bill, which includes funding to build two Virginia-class submarines per year until 2012, early this morning by a vote of 393-13. The subs would be constructed in part by Groton’s Electric Boat. The bill must still go to the Senate and the […]

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Rep. Courtney has been doing everything he can to secure the production of an extra Virginia-class submarine, which would be a boon to the New London County portion of his sprawling district. Today that extra sub took another step closer to reality, as the House Appropriations Committee approved the measure. From a Courtney press release:
“I […]

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Let’s hear it for Congress. First, the Democrats for some reason decided to bring up a bill giving a piece of the Eight Mile River federal status (basically, it’ll get money) with the requirement that it get a 2/3 majority, then House Republicans go after the bill, claiming falsely that it would have made it […]

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1st District

Candidate
Q2 Fundraising
Cash on hand

John Larson (D)*
$148,176
$216,676

2nd District

Candidate
Q2 Fundraising
Cash on hand

Joe Courtney (D)*
$305,000
$550,000

Sean Sullivan (R)
$30,810
$14,034

3rd District

Candidate
Q2 Fundraising
Cash on hand

Rosa DeLauro (D)*
$139,905
$93,081

4th District

Candidate
Q2 Fundraising
Cash on hand

Chris Shays (R)*
$280,286
$367,945

Jim Himes (D)
$352,866
$336,678

5th District

Candidate
Q2 Fundraising
Cash on hand

Chris Murphy (D)*
$357,000
$780,000

David Cappiello (R)
$198,332
$182,858

* = incumbent
What’s interesting here is that all Democrats are clearly outraising their Republican rivals. Chris Shays is still […]

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For those who can’t get enough of the money race, Rep. Joe Courtney has raised about $310,000 this quarter, according to a press release from the campaign. His challenger, former Groton Sub Base commander Sean Sullivan, has raised only a tenth of that. The Politico weighs in on Sullivan’s less than stellar quarter:
Sullivan, the former […]

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From the Norwich Bulletin:
Sean Sullivan admits his first Federal Elections Commission report to be filed in two weeks won’t make many people stand up and take notice of his candidacy.
The presumptive Republican congressional candidate in Connecticut’s 2nd District said this week he’ll likely report between $25,000 and $30,000 raised since entering the race in early […]

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When Democrats took over Congress last fall, they got there campaigning against the process of secret earmarks, which tied into corruption probes against several Republicans. They pledged to eliminate the proces as part of a “transparency” in government; all a part of their ‘ending the culture of corruption’ mantra in the 2006 cycle.
Yet a […]

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CQ Politics has an analysis of Connecticut’s continued role as a political battleground state.
Connecticut was a hotbed in the U.S. House politics of 2006, with three Republican-held seats subject to fierce competition. The Democrats’ takeover of the House was abetted by two wins in the state, with former state Rep. Joe Courtney narrowly unseating Republican […]

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