Connecticut Local Politics

The state GOP is heading to New Britain, apparently to a building that I’m sure those of you from central Connecticut will recognize:
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If they’re anything like me, they’ll be spending lots of time over at the nearby ballpark, which happens to be one of my favorite places in the world.

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They sure do like him, don’t they? It’s a fascinating, friendly interview… and here we see John Rowland presenting himself as a changed man who learned his lesson.
I find it hard to convince myself that it’s genuine. He still seems a bit irked with the media, for one. It’s also only been four years. [...]

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Did Chris Healy just take another swipe at Gov. Rell? Mark Pazniokas over at Capitol Watch thinks so:

Republican State Chairman Chris Healy is zinging Gov. M. Jodi Rell’s administration again with his blog.
He is aghast at the $635 million agenda for this Friday’s bond commission meeting, giving a public voice to the private grumblilng of [...]

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Update: Here are two more (juicy) Republican-centered rumors. Keep them coming at connecticutrumors at gmail dot com.

Sen. John Kissel will be appointed a judge or commissioner of public utilities bringing on a special election in the 7th. The rumor has been going around since mid-summer and the possible candidates would include George Colli [...]

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A quick timeline of GOP state central’s scrape with the Rell administration:
11/24: Special session of the legislature. GOP state chair (and former Simmons campaign manager) Chris Healy was enraged by what he saw as an attempt by Lisa Moody to get rid of Rob Simmons—and then pin the blame on hapless Democrats. He writes a [...]

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It seems like we ask this question every two years.
Democrats walked away with huge wins last week, leaving Connecticut Republicans without a member of Congress in either house for the first time since the 1965-67 session, when Democrats Daddario, St. Onge, Giaimo, Irwin, Monagan and Grabowski were in the House, and Thomas Dodd and Abe [...]

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Jim Amann thinks Republicans are about to get swamped:

Democratic House Speaker James Amann thinks the minority Republicans in the Connecticut legislature have a lot to worry about on Election Day.
“The tsunami is coming, they know it,” he said. “It’s going to be the biggest landslide since Watergate.” (AP)

National trends do have an impact on state [...]

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Via SSP, the GOP’s “Death List” ranking the races where their incumbents are in trouble. Shays in CT-04 is in category three which is a toss-up.
That sounds about right to me, but a Republican operative gave his thoughts on this list to the Politico:

One well-connected Republican operative told Politico that the list, if anything, [...]

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On Wednesday night, the Himes campaign had a conference call with the 4th CD DTC chairs where the campaign touted the results of their new internal poll. The internal (remember: internals can be taken with a grain of salt - size to taste) shows Himes up 7, 48-41. Of course we don’t know [...]

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From Ted Mann, in The Day:

But at his publicly available page on twitter, the networking site, Andrew Powaleny, the campaign spokesman, wrote a message to a friend, sounding a different tune:

just read a poll that shows my candidate trailing by about 25%, told you it was a lost cause! 06:01 AM September 30, 2008
…
I’m going [...]

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Two things jumped out at me when I looked at the Secretary of the State’s Press Release with the new voter registration numbers, one serious and one fun.
First, the serious:

Of the nearly 69,826 new voters between the ages of 18 and 29, 30,792 registered as Democrats, 30,683 registered as Unaffiliated and 7,876 registered as Republicans. [...]

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From CT News Junkie:
One day before a Republican-sponsored forum on the state budget, Democratic lawmakers held a press conference to announce that state Comptroller Nancy Wyman�s office will conduct an audit of the Department of Social Services budget.
[...]
Sen. Majority Leader Martin Looney, D-New Haven, said the Department of Social Services is the �most complex and [...]

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Ted Mann writes in The Day about the latest dustup in the Courtney-Sullivan campaign. This time, Sullivan’s team is focusing not on Courtney, but on Brian Farber, Courtney’s spokesman. Here’s the accusation:
In an article in this morning�s New London Day, it was clear that Courtney�s congressional communications director Brian Farber is once again using the [...]

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NOTE: In the interest of fairness during campaign season, I asked Boaz ItsHaky, Republican candidate for Congress in the 3rd district, if he was interested in also writing something about energy for posting here. This is what he sent. –GC
An American Energy Agenda for the 21st Century
As a whole � our health is inseparable from [...]

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State Senator David Cappiello announced the launch of his first television spot today�in his campaign to unseat Democratic Congressman�Chris Murphy (D-5).�

The spot, entitled “Together,”�highlights Cappiello’s ability to cross the political aisle, not only in his political life, but in his personal life, as demonstrated by his marriage to his wife Christine, a Democrat and [...]

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The NRCC reserved more than $17 million in ads for 26 races in two bunches in the last two weeks (here and here) (compare to the $53 million for 55 races reserved by the DCCC). Conspicuously missing from the NRCC’s reservations? CT.
As I noted last October, the NRCC is in dire financial shape [...]

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The convention is over. John McCain delivered a decent, if not transcendent speech (no one really expected him to do so, however) and the delegations are coming home. But they’re coming with questions:
“The Republican brand is in transition. It is moving to a post-Bush era. It is not just McCain who helps make that transition,” [...]

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Despite his endorsement of Senator John McCain for President, CT Senator Joe Lieberman has indicated that he has no intention of leaving the Democratic Party, according to Mark Pazniokas at the Hartford Courant.

Two days after telling delegates and a prime-time television audience that Democrat Barack Obama was unprepared to be president, Lieberman said that he [...]

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You can see a partial transcript here, and many other places. You can read the Courant article on the speech, as well. A quote:
Especially at a time of war, we need a president we can count on to fight for what’s right for our country - not only when it is easy, but when it [...]

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Although he was blown off Monday’s schedule by Hurricane Gustav, Sen. Joe Lieberman may still address delegates as early as tonight, according to his press secretary:
Tonight, as a 66-year-old U.S. senator at a personal and political crossroads, Lieberman is expected to try mightily to hobble America’s first black presidential nominee and defend a Republican war.
Even [...]

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