The site will be up for a while, but eventually vanish. I’ll archive it somewhere. TownBlogs will need to find new homes very soon. I recommend a free Wordpress.com site. I’ll turn comments off soon.

Keep in touch with one another, keep writing, keep fighting. So long.

Chris Bigelow (Genghis Conn)
January 17, 2005 – February 3, 2010

[stretch]

Feels weird. Hm. Anyway, this here is the end. The real end.

It was a mammoth effort for our front-pagers to keep the site going after November, and I have to give them a ton of credit for it. I’d hoped to find someone to take over this place and keep it running, but due to a number of factors I’ve realized that is simply not going to happen. No one wants a blog that has our legal baggage (and, to be fair, no one should have to deal with that stuff), so the best and wisest course of action is just to shut down.

Sucks, right?

Nah, not even a little. Every ending can be a new beginning, and I know some of you will take this opportunity to start up and contribute to new places for people interested in Connecticut politics to hang out, talk and debate online. That’s what I want you to do. Make videos, write brilliant things, engage one another, create something incredible, change the world already. In due time you’ll forget this place ever existed, and that’s the way it ought to be.

How have I been? Wow, that’s a hell of a thing to wonder. I’ve been nuts, really. Life’s upside down. Glorious, wonderful, amazing, terrifying, depressing, the works. I don’t miss politics, not that much. I’m kind of following along, I suppose. I’d like to see Dan Malloy be our next governor, but that’s just my own personal preference. I like Mary Glassman, too. Really, though, more and more of my life is away from Connecticut, up in western Massachusetts. At some point my compass re-oriented, and now I point north. Everything, and everyone, changes.

Here’s the roll of honor, the people who contributed to this site on the front page:

CGG
Gabe
disgruntled_republican
turfgrrl
Sean
ACR
The True Gentleman
Bobby McGee
Headless Horseman
wtfdnucsailor
Redcoat
ATalbot
Vincent
Saramerica
Heath

If I missed anyone, yell away!

Wednesday is the last day.

And… how the heck are you all? Tell me in the comments. I do miss you.

As for Simmons, his campaign has said he will not “force a primary” if he does not win at Convention.  Thus, the Convention may be all or nothing for him.  (If he gets a certain level of delegates, a primary would be automatic, not forced, but they have not clarified if Simmons will continue to the primary if he does not win at Convention.)  That being the case, McMahon’s people have now ratcheted up the rhetoric to such an extent it appears they are seeking not only to win, but to drive Simmons out of the race.    We may not get to witness it here, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there is not some change of course for the Simmons campaign soon.  If there isn’t, he faces a difficult endgame indeed, as he would have to either win it all or instead change his plans for a primary, and then mount a primary campaign against an opponent who can buy ads all day and all night on every medium.   As of now, the McMahon momentum is palpable and growing.  He must either stem it somehow or perhaps contemplate a new direction.

I’ve been offered and accepted an opportunity to contribute at a site familiar to most of you, CT News Junkie.  They are expanding their content to include more opinion-editorial pieces and I will be joining their team as a columnist opposite a regular participant here, Jonathan Pelto.

Thank you very much to all the readers and participants who’ve made this community as enjoyable as it has been.

Feel free to wax philosophical – or just comment on the news of the day – in this post as an Open Forum.

“We have to combat our problems and opportunities with a different attitude, with a much more private sector approach,” Griebel said.

His website can be found at http://www.ozforgovernor.com.

Mr. Griebel joins a thick field of Republican candidates for Governor: former Ambassador Tom Foley, Lt. Governor Michael Fedele, and Chester First Selectman Tom Marsh have already officially announced their intentions. 

Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton, Shelton Mayor Mark Lauretti, Newington Mayor Jeff Wright, and former Congressmen Larry DeNardis and Christopher Shays are weighing their options.

All of these candidates will attempt to rally support between now and the State Republican Convention on May 21-22 at the Hartford Convention Center.

The goal for each candidate will be to muster the the support of at least 220 delegates at the Convention, which will automatically qualify them for the August 2010 GOP primary.

The Plan is to create jobs, shrink the size of government, and change the culture in Hartford:

4.I will work to develop and market the ‘Knowledge Corridor’ from Enfield to New Haven as a unique national asset combining our well-educated and highly skilled workforce with some of the best academic institutions and infrastructure in the nation

The six page plan looks to be the blueprint for Mr. Foley’s candidacy going forward after his announcement was widely panned for its lack of content.

In conjunction with the plan, Mr. Foley has released a new television advertisement:

2. According to the Greenwich Time Chris Shays told reporter Neil Vigdor at a roast tonight that “If his finances line up correctly, Shays said he wants to be Connecticut’s next governor.”

That’s a big if. Shays still has unpaid debts from his previous campaign, thanks to the alleged creative accounting of his campaign manager, Michael Sohn.

“I feel that I have a voice that can make a contribution, win or lose,” Shays said…

Shays, who is co-chairman of the government’s Wartime Contracting Commission in Washington, said the state he called home for so long is tugging at his heartstrings.

“I look at what is happening in the state where I’ve lived for 63 years and I just see things getting worse and worse,” Shays said. “We don’t need a manager to run the state. We need a leader to confront those issues.”

Having sold his CT home, Shays would have to reestablish residency. He and his wife, are apparently trying to decide if it is financially feasible for them to both leave their jobs and campaign for the next nine months.

“I would like to do it. I don’t know if we can,” Shays said. “We’re weighing the personal aspect of giving up two great jobs that we have and a lifestyle that we haven’t gotten to experience in 21 years.”

Acknowledging that a number of his supporters have already committed to supporting other candidates, Shays said he completely understood and would not pressure them to change their allegiances. They could always come on board after the August primary if he is successful, said Shays, who promised to support the party nominee whatever the result.

“I would like to be part of this debate,” Shays said. “If we’re going to do it, we have to make a decision in the next few weeks.”

3. Another one bites the dust? Rumor has it that Jim Amman might be bowing out of the Gov’s race. Stay tuned…

4. Joe Lieberman is on Twitter! Amusingly, he still refers to himself as an “I-D”.
The new CT Mirror site has an interesting piece about CT politicians using social media.

Are you busy dissecting the State of the Union?

The Mayor summed up his family’s feelings on his candidacy this way:

“My family thinks I should have my head examined because the problems are mounting as every day goes by,” he said.

The announcement, as well as the multitude of others, makes it ever more likely that each major party’s State Convention will be utter chaos.

Numerous news sources have already reported that he will propose a spending freeze on discretionary non-defense related spending. The news has U.S. Rep. Jim Himes warning local leaders about relying on federal dollars:

“We’re close to the end of the time when Congress is comfortable with the kind of Keynsian stimulus we have seen in the past year.”

Several groups are organizing State of the Union watch parties in Connecticut, including the offspring organization of the Obama 2008 campaign, Organizing for America. You can use their website to find a party near you.

The revelation has sparked a couple of stories (Stamford Advocate and CT Mirror) in recent days analyzing whether more disclosure should be demanded of those in state government.

Some advocates believe that the state’s disclosure rules need work, such as Karen Hobert Flynn of Connecticut Common Cause:

“I do think we should provide more information on financial disclosure forms,” she said. “There are no categories about the value of income and many other states provide those ranges,” she said. “There’s no way to tell how much stock they may have in a company that may benefit from a vote.”

At the same time though, the contrary point raised by House Democratic Leader Denise Merrill is equally cogent:

“The public-policy purpose, I think, of disclosure is to figure out where they are conflicts of interest, not to figure out what people are worth,” said House Majority Leader Denise W. Merrill, D-Mansfield. “I don’t see a public policy purpose to that.”

Similar views were expressed by House Republican Leader Larry Cafero.

There is a perfectly good discussion to be had here.  One of the pitfalls of public service is that the taxpayer suddenly has a much greater stake in the life of an elected official than that of a private citizen. 

But if the disclosure rules become pernicious and begin discouraging talented individuals from seeking public office, then they become counterproductive.

So where should the line be between the privacy of a public servant and the public interest?

Russo, who is now a candidate for the Fourth Congressional District Republican nomination, is also a private pilot.  He is putting these skills to work by ferrying more than 750 pounds of medical equipment to the stricken area:

The supplies include orthopaedic surgical equipment, an anesthesia machine, a generator, casting equipment and necessary medications. All supplies have been donated by Shriners and local medical facilities.

There are numerous opportunities for people to do their part to help the people of Haiti, including the effort headed by former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund, which was organized by President Obama.

A new entrant is trying to do their part in this regard starting today: CT Mirror. 

The outfit sets out to bring readers “in-depth coverage of the issues and events that will affect the lives of all Connecticut residents for years to come.”

Their first big piece on the relationship between legislators’ private employment and their public service is a solid analysis of how part-time legislators pay their bills while representing their neighbors.

Here’s to hoping they are successful.

For the Republicans, Mr. Rennie warns of fool’s hope:

Republicans will share the burden of Brown’s Massachusetts win. Every GOP candidate who’s 30 points behind with three weeks to go will think it’s a dogfight. Party leaders will spend the rest of the year raining on many parades.

And for the Democrats, his warning is even more stern:

The news that should cause state Democrats to tremble, however, comes from the Foley campaign. The former ambassador to Ireland long ago secured the services of the same Boston team — Eric Ferhnstrom, Peter Flaherty and Beth Myers of the Shawmut Group — that masterminded the Brown campaign. They managed to convince voters to protest the congressional Democrats’ health care plan by voting for a state legislator who’d supported a ruinously expensive one in Massachusetts. That’s talent.

A very interesting read to say the least.

Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton is running for Governor, according to his hometown paper, the Danbury News-Times.  The move comes after several weeks of speculation about whether the popular Mayor would make a bid for statewide office.

Newington Mayor Jeff Wright is said to be pondering a bid for Governor, according to the New Britain Herald.  An announcement could come in the next couple of weeks.

Chester First Selectman Tom Marsh has already announced that he will seek the Governor’s office.  He seems primed for a candidacy heavy on content, as evidenced by his 10 solutions for Connecticut proposals.

These three will join Lt. Governor Mike Fedele, Ambassador Tom Foley, Oz Griebel, and former Rep. Larry DeNardis as Republican candidates for Governor.

“When government seeks to use its full power, including the criminal law, to command where a person may get his or her information or what distrusted source he or she may not hear, it uses censorship to control thought,” the court said in a decision written by Justice Anthony M. Kennedy. “This is unlawful. The First Amendment confirms the freedom to think for ourselves.”

Well, I couldn’t put it better myself.  Think of it.  Americans will actually be able to express their opinions on political issues and public officials!  Why, it’s… it’s the First Amendment.  Bravo.

Also, a boost for the GOP.  Not that corporations are more R than D these days.  Big corporate machers have been leaning more D since the days of Clinton.  No, it’s that so much union money goes into campaigns, in many ways, and it is hard for Rs to retaliate.  Now, for example, if a corporation honestly thinks a policy or a bill or a politician will cost jobs, they can say so. 

This is causing free speech advocates like Chuck Schumer to bust a blood vessel.  I could not be more pleased (about the decision, not Schumer’s vascular tension).

In the respective contests for the gubernatorial nomination, Q found that Lamont has a significant lead over his rivals, outpacing former Stamford Mayor Dan Malloy by a score of 27% to 11%.

On the GOP side, Foley is running ahead of Lt. Governor Mike Fedele, 17% to 8% with 59% undecided.

Doug Schwartz said that it all boils down to name identification:

“The big winner in the primaries for Governor is ‘Undecided.’ With most of the candidates largely unknown, voters aren’t expressing a preference in the gubernatorial primaries yet,” said Quinnipiac University Poll Director Douglas Schwartz, PhD.

The poll, while an interesting starting point, highlights the fact that Connecticut voters will go to the polls to elect a new Governor in 10 months and the vast majority of them have no idea who these candidates are.

The poll was conducted from Jan. 14-19.  The survey size was 1,594, and has a margin of error of 2.5%.

Every Republican candidate under the sun is doing their best to enumerate the ways in which they are most similar to Senator-Elect Brown while Democrats largely heap their blame on a campaign that walked into a political ambush. 

The Washington, D.C.-based Politico compiled their list of winners and losers from the night, and it has several implications for the Nutmeg State.  Our own Attorney General with a 30 point lead in the polls made the list of losers:

With a big lead in the polls over Republican former Rep. Rob Simmons and World Wrestling Entertainment executive Linda McMahon, Coakley’s 30 percentage point lead in December would probably be good campaign office wallpaper to serve as a motivational reminder.

On the other side of the ledger, the article also pegs “Romney, Inc.” as a big winner of the night, including the media advisor to the Tom Foley for Governor campaign Eric Fehrnstrom:

Romney adviser Eric Fehrnstrom, a former reporter, deserves special kudos for his ad imagery and media management, as do aides Beth Myers, Peter Flaherty and Rob Gray.

Only 286 more days until Election Day 2010.

Use this open forum to add your thoughts on Brown/Coakley, implications for Connecticut in 2010, and the future of the health care debate.

Senate 2010

Blumenthal (D) 54
Simmons (R) 35

Blumenthal (D) 56
McMahon (R) 34

Blumenthal (D) 56
Schiff (R) 33

Both Malloy and Lamont beat all potential Republican contenders in the Governor’s race, although there were a significant number of undecideds in this poll of likely voters.

In a two-way matchup between Chris Murphy and Joe Lieberman, Murphy trounced Lieberman 45-26 (again, high # undecideds). But if you throw Jodi Rell into the mix, she takes all comers, 47% to Murphy 25% & Lieberman 23%. Bet she’s been getting some phone calls from State Central.

[EDITED] 3:04pm 2.He might trail in the polls, but that didn’t stop Peter Schiff’s Senate campaign from raising more than $1.5 in a money bomb on Sunday. Actually, turns out that $1.5M reported in the Digital Journal article was erroneous, based on the figures on Schiff’s website. However, as pointed out by Anderson Scooper and confirmed by Schiff’s Political Director Len Greene, this is actually the amount raised by Schiff’s campaign to date, rather than on Sunday. I’m waiting for a call back from Greene for the amount raised from Sunday’s effort. While I had him on the phone, asked about when we’d see the 4th Q FEC report and he said it would be filed “before the deadline”. [EDITED] 4:15pm Just got off the phone with Len Greene. Sunday’s money bomb raised $30,000 which means maybe those poll numbers are having an dampening effect on fundraising after all. A previous moneybomb in early November raised $65,000, despite Schiff’s website being subject to a cyber attack while it was taking place.

3. Blogger Ryan McKeen first raised the question and there’s been much comment both here and elsewhere on whether or not SOTS Susan Bysiewicz is actually qualified for the position of Attorney General. I’m no lawyer, but I know people who are, and for what it’s worth, here’s my take, formed in consultation with people who know the law far better than me.

It seems that the dispute revolves around the term “active practice” and how that is defined. If you go look up Susan Bysiewicz here her current status is listed as ACTIVE and has been since she was admitted in 1986. She is not INACTIVE, RETIRED, or DECEASED, which are the other alternatives. There is, apparently, nowhere in the legislative history of that law, or in the practice book, that defines active in any other way except for one of those four categories. If you choose to take anything other than being a member of the bar in good standing as a definition of active practice than one risks getting into what the British would call a very sticky wicket.

Is it full-time practice? How many times does a lawyer have to go to court? Or how many real estate closings? Or how many wills?
Where do solo practitioners fit in? What if they have slow months? Do those months “count”? As you can see, it quickly becomes absurd.

Furthermore, Section 2-44A of the CT practice book defines the practice of law as follows:

“The practice of law is ministering to the legal needs of another person and applying legal principles and judgment to the circumstances or objectives of that person”

and

“Holding oneself out in any manner as an attorney, lawyer, counselor, advisor or in any other capacity which directly or indirectly represents that such person is either (a) qualified or capable of performing or (b) is engaged in the business or activity of performing any act constituting the practice of law as herein defined.”

It defines a person as:

” a natural person, corporation, company, partnership, firm, association, organization, society, labor union, business trust, trust, financial institution, governmental unit and any other group, organization or entity of any nature, unless the context otherwise dictates”.

Under these definitions, which actually exist in the dry language of law rather than wishful partisan thinking, Ms. Bysiewicz work as SoTS while a member of the bar certainly appears to conform to the definition of active practice of law. But like I said, I’m not a lawyer. I’ve just paid far too many of them far too much.

4. Liar Liar Pants on Fire! GOP Senate hopefuls Linda McMahon and Rob Simmons are smacking each other around about McMahon’s voting record. , with McMahon’s campaign providing new evidence that she HAS actually voted more than twice, in the form of a letter from the assistant Republican registrar of voters attesting that McMahon earned her “I voted” sticker in 2000, 2002, 2004, 2008 and 2009.

McMahon’s aides argued that the Dec. 22 letter calls into question the credibility of Simmons, who has repeatedly criticized the World Wrestling Entertainment executive’s voting record in what is turning into a nasty rivalry.

“Rob Simmons allowed his campaign to peddle false and misleading attacks against Linda even after they knew their claims were false,” said Ed Patru, a spokesman for McMahon. “That’s a commentary on his character, it undermines a core line of attack he’s been using against Linda, and it damages his credibility.”

Meanwhile, it was on the basis of a letter from the same deputy registrar dated Sept. 23rd that the Simmons campaign made the accusations that McMahon had only voted in the 2002 and 2008 general elections. Apparently there are two voting databases at the time of the first letter, only one had been checked. So the Simmons campaign is standing by its claims, and points to the fact that McMahon apologized for not voting on her campaign blog

“They’re getting in a tizzy on a little factoid that I think we were on good grounds in discussing at the time,” [said Raj Shah of the Simmons campaign].

Patru said McMahon’s willingness to own up to her shortcomings sets her far apart from her rival.
“She gives the voters straight talk,” Patru said. “Rob Simmons tries to routinely cover up his record, shift blame and muddy the facts.”

I wonder when they’re going to get to the part where they actually talk about real issues. Just sayin’.

5. Oh go on then! I know you guys are DYING to talk about what’s going on to our North. Heath is up there along with State GOP Chair Chris Healy campaining for Scott Brown, and Jen Just, CT Director of Organizing for America for Martha Coakley. Heath says if you’re interested follow him on Twitter.

We accomplished this in four short months, with over 500 individuals making contributions. All of our donations come from individuals, unlike my opponent Jim Himes, who has received almost 50% of his funding from special interests.

Debicella also touted the fact that he has a remarkable $220k Cash On Hand – spending just $10k during 2009.