Category — Posts
Apply to Augie Wolf–If You Dare.
Augie Wolf, whose 2016 campaign for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate set a new standard for tumult, is looking for an assistant. The Fairfield County Republican has created a 501c(4) called RehabCT. He’s looking for a researcher/writer to work remotely.
Wolf saw his support for the Senate nomination collapse as the roll call proceeded at the spring party convention. Switches precluded the volatile 1984 Olympian to fall below the 15% required to qualify for a spot on the primary ballot against winner Dan Carter.
November 6, 2017 Comments Off on Apply to Augie Wolf–If You Dare.
Reform Would Tax Interest on Stadium Bonds.
Some good news from the Republican tax bill. Interest paid on bonds that finance those gifts to billionaires, professional sports stadiums, will be taxable. Who could oppose that?
November 3, 2017 Comments Off on Reform Would Tax Interest on Stadium Bonds.
Tax Bill Adds Surcharge to Soaring Non-Profit Salaries.
News from Axios on the Republican tax bill unveiled Thursday. The purpose of non-profit status has been lost in this era of enormous executive salaries. This feels like an elixir to the distortions of the last couple of decades.
November 3, 2017 Comments Off on Tax Bill Adds Surcharge to Soaring Non-Profit Salaries.
Weinstein Sex Assault and Harassment Scandal Splatters Greenwich First Selectman Race. Litvack Was HR Corporate Executive When Payments Were Made to Victims.
Poor Sandy Litvack. How was he to know? How were any of them to know? They were just rumors. The Greenwich Democratic candidate for First Selectman ballyhoos his highflying career in human resources at Disney and then along comes the public horror of his longtime colleague Harvey Weinstein’s sex scandal. Litvack highlights his career at Disney on his campaign website at a most inopportune time.
The 81 year old Litvack was Senior Vice President and General Counsel at Disney as of April 30, 1991, according to his campaign website. Livtack was promoted to Executive Vice President Law and Human Resources. In 1993, Disney purchased Weinstein’s Miramax production company and the marauding Weinstein was part of the deal. The next year, Litvack was promoted to Senior Executive Vice President and Chief of Corporate Operations with everyone but the CFO reporting to him. During the Weinstein years, Litvack joined Disney’s Board of Directors and then became its Vice President in 1999.
Disney sold Miramax for $660 million in 2010.
Litvack wasn’t George Clooney, Matt Damon, or Meryl Streep (each of whom has issued carefully worded statements on Weinstein’s outrages). No, Litvack’s job was to make sure Disney’s employees acted within the norms of a civilized society. One person who has no excuse for not knowing about the Weinstein outrages is Sandy Litvack.
“Why?” Litvack wrote in the online Greenwich Free Press. That’s what voters most often ask him. Why, indeed. Why didn’t you stop the relentless assault of women by Harvey Weinstein while he was at Disney? It was, after all, “an open secret.” The kind of secret Litvack was in the best position to investigate and stop.
For a Hollywood assessment of Litvack, here’s a 2008 take by the essential Nikki Finke.
More: The New York Times story that broke open the sordid history of Harvey Weinstein includes details of settlements with victims that occurred while Weinstein was at Disney-owned Miramax.
Here’s one example from that October 7th story:
In the fall of 1998, a 25-year-old London assistant named Zelda Perkins confronted Mr. Weinstein. According to former colleagues, she and several co-workers had been regularly subjected to inappropriate requests or comments in hotel rooms, and she was particularly concerned about the treatment of another woman in the office. She told Mr. Weinstein that he had to stop, according to the former colleagues, and that she would go public or initiate legal action unless he changed his behavior.
Steve Hutensky, one of Miramax’s entertainment lawyers, was dispatched to London to negotiate a settlement with Ms. Perkins and her lawyer. He declined to comment for this article.
Greenwich voters will want to know more. They may be particularly interesting in Litvack’s philosophy on non-disclosure agreements, since that is one of the tools that allowed Weinstein to continue his wicked ways–with the assistance of Disney and other corporate leaders.
October 31, 2017 Comments Off on Weinstein Sex Assault and Harassment Scandal Splatters Greenwich First Selectman Race. Litvack Was HR Corporate Executive When Payments Were Made to Victims.
In Hartford, It’s 2013 This Election Day.
Good luck trying to figure out who’s on the ballot in this year’s Hartford municipal election. Only seats on the Board of Education are before the voters. But which seats? Until today, the city website was still featuring only the sample ballot from 2013. If you executed the right clicks through to the Secretary of the State’s site, you could download and view the sample ballot for Tuesday’s contest, but there was no indication on the city page that there is an election on Tuesday.
An inquiry from Daily Ructions prompted cheerful City Clerk John Bazzano, a veteran of Hartford politics, to say they hadn’t noticed the 2013 sample ballot was still the only one on the site. Bazzano pointed out that they are not required to post a sample ballot. They are taking down the four year old one, but not before screenshots were secured.
We are told over and over and over again how Hartford is short changed in its education funding. That more than $20,000 per pupil, per year is not enough. Education, local politicians insist, is an urgent issue. Not urgent enough, however, to put up-to-date information on the place voters will go to find information. We know plenty of people wish it were 2013 again in Hartford, but it isn’t.
October 31, 2017 Comments Off on In Hartford, It’s 2013 This Election Day.
Braith Kelly Wants Thurgood Marshall Courthouse Exhibit Removed, Especially the Ganim Part.
In the run-up to Connecticut Democrat Braith Kelly’s New York corruption trial, the Canterbury resident’s team is working every angle. It’s made a request to have an exhibit removed from the first floor of the Thurgood Marshall Courthouse. The exhibit features significant cases–mostly won by the government. Kelly and his team are especially bothered by the segment of the exhibit that highlights the conviction of the former and current Bridgeport mayor, Joseph Ganim, who is contemplating a run for the Democratic nomination for governor. Here’s the request:
October 30, 2017 Comments Off on Braith Kelly Wants Thurgood Marshall Courthouse Exhibit Removed, Especially the Ganim Part.
Turmoil: Consultant Bolts Srinivasan Campaign. Jamestown Associates Fires Candidate.
That didn’t take long. On September 20th, Republican gubernatorial hopeful Prasad Srinivasan announced his campaign had hired well-regarded Republican consulting firm Jamestown Associates. By October 26th, the New Jersey campaign gurus were gone. It was not a pleasant parting. The September announcement was gone from Srinivasan’s campaign website by Saturday morning.
Daily Ructions understands that Jamestown pros discovered quickly that the Glastonbury legislator and his warbling wife are not easy clients. While it may be easy to raise $250,000 from doctors by promising to raise Medicaid reimbursement rates, it’s harder to part with the dough when the nominating convention is more than six months away.
Here’s Srinivasan’s September statement on hiring Jamestown Associates:
Jamestown Associates is a national, full service, political consulting firm with a track record of success. Jamestown worked for the successful gubernatorial campaigns of Charlie Baker (R-MA), Chris Sununu (R-NH), Matt Bevin (R-KY), and Chris Christie (R-NJ). Jamestown was also the lead ad agency for Donald Trump’s general election. Governor Matt Bevin’s former campaign manager and Jamestown Associates Executive Vice President, Ben Hartman, will serve as General Consultant for Dr. Srinivasan’s campaign.
“I’m proud to have Jamestown Associates on my team,” said Dr. Srinivasan. “We have a simple message to deliver to the people of Connecticut. Our state is hurting. Years of bad economic policies and one-party government has left us facing many serious challenges. But with the right leadership, we can revive Connecticut and bring back prosperity. Jamestown Associates and the rest of my team will help me deliver that message all across our state.”
October 28, 2017 Comments Off on Turmoil: Consultant Bolts Srinivasan Campaign. Jamestown Associates Fires Candidate.
Drip. Drip. Drip. How Much Longer Can Drew Continue?
Another terrible day for Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Dan Drew. This time the Courant’s Jon Lender dismantles the events that caused–or didn’t–former political consultant Geoff Luxenberg to quit his job as Drew’s chief of staff in the Middletown mayor’s office.
The conflicting statements might be politely characterized as contradictions. Drew’s detractors, and there seem to be an army of them, will user harsher language against the Democrat whose campaign is running on fumes.
There’s another oddity in this saga, which started with a post on Daily Ructions. Drew issued a full-throated endorsement of Luxenberg’s generous political contributions and then the next day ushered him out the door because of them.
October 27, 2017 Comments Off on Drip. Drip. Drip. How Much Longer Can Drew Continue?
Marzullo Terminates Exploratory Committee.
Greenwich Democrat Drew Marzullo has terminated his exploratory committee for statewide office. Marzullo was arrested on larceny charges on August 26th from an alleged shoplifting spree at the Clinton Crossing outlet stores. Marzullo’s criminal file has been sealed.
He faces Greenwich voters on November 7th in his bid for re-election to the board of selectmen.
October 27, 2017 Comments Off on Marzullo Terminates Exploratory Committee.
Trend Continues: State Lost More Jobs in September. August Revision Adds More Losses. Massachusetts Posts Gain of 9,300.
Connecticut lost 2,000 non-farm jobs in September. That’s the initial estimate released by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). There was more news with a revised estimate of August job losses, initially estimated at 3,900 jobs, that figure increased by 300 to 4,200 jobs.
The state unemployment rage fell two-tenths of a percent to 4.6%.
You can read the press release here.
Massachusetts added 9,300 jobs in September.
October 20, 2017 Comments Off on Trend Continues: State Lost More Jobs in September. August Revision Adds More Losses. Massachusetts Posts Gain of 9,300.