Category — Posts

Aretha Franklin is nearing the end of her sizzling life of providing wonderment to the world. Here she is with three other legends in a 1973 tribute to Duke Ellington, who had a hand in planning the lineup of talent. Take a moment to remember what a constellation of talent Aretha Franklin thrived in.

‘What would be wrong with a nice photo? The Office of Legislative Management and the Department of Economic and Community Development’s Office of the Arts are seeking state portraiture artists to paint a portrait of a specific state official for $15,000. The portrait will hang in the State Capitol.

If it is to be a people’s portrait that reflect’s our common experience of the past eight years, how about this:

A print can be had for a few dollars and tells the tale. See, there are ways to save money.

The centerpiece of Republican Mark Boughton’s third campaign for governor has been his pledge to eliminate the state’s income tax over 10 years. The veteran Danbury mayor and party-endorsed candidate for governor has struggled to explain his proposal to repeal the $9 billion revenue raiser for the state’s $20 billion budget. The impossible promise has caused Boughton to stumble when attempting to explain his plan to repair Connecticut’s battered finances. Should Boughton win Tuesday’s primary he would have hobbled himself by trying to maintain a glaring fiction against the vagaries of Democrat Ned Lamont.

Boughton now says he will reduce the income tax, which opened the spigot of unsustainable spending when it was enacted in 1991. The former state representative has nixed “repeal” and replaced it with the more manageable, fungible “reduce.” A major renovation at the heart of a campaign a few days before the August 14th primary is destined to cause skeptical voters to question Boughton’s reliability as a reformer.

Boughton faces four challengers in Tuesday’s contest. No clear front runner has emerged despite millions in advertisement and regular joint appearances by the contenders.

State Senator Art Linares (R-Westbrook) picks up the endorsement of the remarkably unpopular former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. The loudmouth bully left office office at the beginning of this year at the end of a calamitous second term as governor. A notable achievement of Christie’s final years in office is that he competed with Dannel P. Malloy for the painful distinction of the nation’s most unpopular governor.

Christie’s record addressing New Jersey’s troubled pension fund may be something Linares should avoid.

Linares lost the Republican nomination for state treasurer to Thad Gray at May’s party convention. The two meet in Tuesday’s primary.

Dita Bhargava has found a wide space on guns between herself and primary rival Shawn Wooden. The Greenwich Democrat has found a New Jersey public pension fund investment to make her closing argument five days before Democrats pick their nominee for state treasurer.

In an email titled “We need to talk about Shawn,” Bhargava launches a stinging attack on Wooden’s two featured calling cards in this campaign: his experience advising investment funds and opposition to investing public funds in gun manufacturers. That’s now, not before. Bhargava highlights a $400 million losing bet the New Jersey State Public Pension Fund made with BlackRock Credit Investors. Wooden and his firm, according to Bhargava, “collected millions in fees” on the losing deal. She’s not done yet. BlackRock, Bhargava writes, “is among the biggest shareholders of gun manufacturers.” This is not the sort of record Democratic primary voters like to see in party leader.

Expect to hear more about this in these fraught closing days of the campaign.

At last, a Trumbull Republican tells her story. Cindy Penkoff pens a powerful letter for the Trumbull Times. It’s an unvarnished reckoning of Republican Tim Herbst’s vengeful tenure as first selectman. Penkoff, who writes that she was once Herbst’s friends, observes, “The similarities to [Governor Dannel P.] Malloy are glaring.”

The letter deserves a close reading. Here are two chilling paragraphs:

I am a former alternate member of the Board of Finance, appointed by First Selectman Herbst, and a former elected member of the Town Council who ran on his ticket. I’ve worked with Herbst on town issues as a board and commission member and, at one time, was a friend to him. I can say unequivocally that he is not prepared to run a $20 billion-plus enterprise called the State of Connecticut. He does not have the vision or the emotional maturity to lead 3.5 million people to prosperity.

From his dictatorial management style, to questionable financial decisions and land deals. His temper when it comes to criticism from friend and foe. And his vindictive moral, ethical and questionable legal tactics when it comes to contacting employers of dissidents, otherwise known as the bully factor, does not make me feel comfortable giving him that level of authority.

Republicans vote in their party primary a week from today. The race for governor features no clear frontrunner.

That most insider of insiders, Republican National Committeewoman Leora Levy, has endorsed Thad Gray in next Tuesday’s primary for state treasurer. Levy had intended to refrain from endorsing candidates in any contest this summer. She is making an exception for Gray, who won the party endorsement at the May nominating convention. Levy writes in her endorsement that the stakes for Connecticut high and Gray has the experience as a financial investment professional to do the job.

A stand alone endorsement is never enough this close to a primary. Levy writes that challenger Art Linares has no experience in private sector money management. The Greenwich Republican discloses she encouraged shoreline state senator to run for lieutenant governor when that appeared to be his 2018 path upward.

This has the look of a circular firing squad. Trumbull Republican Tim Herbst–the candidate with the busy hair trigger temper–has been portraying himself as a ferocious opponent of gun control. The mask slipped in the mail. Herbst must not see the state’s laws regulating the possession of fire arms as draconian. The former first selectman is touting former state Senator John McKinney’s endorsement of his candidacy. McKinney was the leading Republican advocate of the state’s new gun control law in the aftermath of the 2012 Sandy Hook shootings.

McKinney is not the only Republican to have supported what most people see as sensible restrictions on the proliferation of weapons. Gun control opponents worked to make McKinney an example of their wrath in his 2014 bid for the Republican nomination for governor against Tom Foley. McKinney won 44.5% of the primary vote against Foley, the party endorsed candidate and 2010 nominee.

These sorts of endorsements by one candidate accepting public funds of another candidate accepting public funds. The State Elections Enforcement Commission (SEEC) can view these as contributions, not as protected free speech under the First Amendment. The commission seems eager to enforce their objection to the First Amendment against Republicans.