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Standard & Poors has declared Hartford’s bonds junk. The story, which you can read here, is linked on Drudge.

Read the whole thing, but here’s a chilling excerpt:

“And yet, while Illinois squirms in the agony of the unknown, another municipality that as recently as a month ago was rumored to be looking at a bankruptcy filing, the state capital of Connecticut, Hartford, no longer has to dread the unknown: on Tuesday afternoon, S&P pulled off the band-aid, and downgraded the city’s bond rating by two notches to BB from BBB-, also known as junk, citing ‘growing liquidity pressures’ and ‘weaker market access prospects’, while keeping the city’s General Obligation bonds on Creditwatch negative meaning more downgrades are likely imminent.”

Curiously, nowhere does the analysis say that spending tens of millions of public fund to bring a professional hockey team to Hartford would help solve the city’s many troubles.

Bloomfield Democrats do have a taste for a local primary. This year six Democrats will challenge the Democratic incumbents on the Town Council in a September primary.

The challenge slate is comprised of these eager locals:

-Suzette D. Brown: ordained minister, parent of Bloomfield High School student

-Kevin Gough: actuary, environmentalist, long-time town activist

-Rickford Kirton: accountant, Bloomfield Middle School PTO president, parent of two Bloomfield school students

-David Mann: urban planner, landscape contractor, member of Bloomfield Inland Wetlands and Watercourses Commission

-Jennifer Marshall-Nealy: Bloomfield Ethics Commission Alternate, grandparent of Bloomfield school student

-Kenneth McClary: public policy analyst, Democratic Party activist

The challenge slate pledges to bring economic development, fiscal responsibility, and transparency to Bloomfield’s local government.

The challengers will meet the public and the press Friday, July 14, 6 PM at Naatiya South Indian Restaurant located at 8 Mountain Ave. – Bloomfield Mini Mall.

Democrat Dan Drew will become a candidate for governor this week. The Middletown Democrat released this announcement Tuesday:

I wanted you to be the first to know that I’ll be making a major campaign announcement tomorrow.

After six months of speaking with residents across the state, I’ve come to a decision about running for Governor of Connecticut.

Please join me at Harbor Park in Middletown at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday to hear about my vision for Connecticut and how our progressive values will provide the solutions we need. 

It’s time to believe in Connecticut again.

Thank you for all your support,

Dan

P.S. – If you can’t make it in person but still want to watch, we will be streaming the announcement on Facebook Live. Just visit my Facebook page to watch! 

Drew ends his exploratory committee for statewide office and begins his formal campaign for governor with just $26,000.00 left in his coffers from the $175,000.00 he’s raised.  Drew, according to his campaign finance report, has $3,000.00 in debts. With his declaration of candidacy, Drew will be limited to accepting maximum contributions of $100.

If another Democratic campaign is to be believed, Drew will need to up his game in the contest ahead. Rival Chris Mattei’s campaign told supporters in a crowing email from paid staffer Maryli Secrest that Mattei “has been out-hustling everyone else in this race.” That will come as a surprise to the others bumping into to each other as they elbow their way into small events around the state. Watch for congenialuty to take some hits as the campaign proceeds.

Politicos of all sorts are pouring over the niagara of campaign finance reports filed today. One expenditure has citizens of the permanent government in the Capitol Village tittering. The Mattei exploratory campaign report includes payment of $94.02 for a speeding ticket. It strikes observers as a personal rather than a campaign expense. The sort of thing a prosecutor might have rebuked, say, John Rowland or Chris Donovan for doing.

The Hartford Democrat’s number enjoyed a strategic release. The report was filed today, along with many others. It features many contributions above $100 that will not count in the tough slog to $250,000. It includes a tranche of contributions from the Republic of Cambridge among its many out-of-state givers.

Perusing a variety–by no means all–of the reports filed in the last few days gives rise to a general inquiry. When will we see a campaign that provides health insurance coverage for the workers?

The History Channel thinks it has located evidence that aviator Amelia Earhart survived a July 1937 crash in the Pacific. The mysterious of Miss Earhart’s disappearance has inspired 80 years of speculation and searches. Now that the Peacock Network has resolved that mystery, here’s a tougher challenge. Find the plan in Republican Mark Boughton’s vague proposal to eliminate the state income tax. An island of thought in a sea of platitudes is not a plan. ”

“There is no simple, painless way with which to eliminate the state income tax. But I am committed to working with the best and brightest to restore Connecticut to its former glory,” Boughton writes in his hometown newspaper. He is correct that there is no “simple, painless way” to get rid of the tax that since 1991 has kept open the spigot of ruinous state spending. A pledge to work with “the best and brightest” is not a plan.

There is a terrible idea in the Danbury mayor’s Seinfeldian op-ed. It would remove education funding from our democratic institutions. That does not seem like a Republican plan. Binding arbitration–removing teacher salaries out of the democratic process–has driven spending higher at a far greater rate than the growth of the state’s economy. Boughton has been a driving force in the CCJEF lawsuit to take even more authority away from elected officials in making decisions on how to fund public education. He’s been in the forefront of those clamoring for for billions more spending on education, which is unlikely to allow the elimination of the income tax if Boughton and his leftwing allies prevail.

It is good for candidates for governor–and those exploring a race–to have aspirations other than personal ambition. This campaign is not a show about nothing. It requires more than fanciful wishes amidst a recitation of the milestones in Connecticut’s decline.

Connecticut Republican party leadership has been busy making pie charts. They aren’t about the state’s budget crisis or the persistent loss of jobs in the state. The party leadership is consumed with itself and tiny thoughts. Take a look at the charts above purporting to analyze political news coverage. They were displayed to party committee members last month. The leadership seems particularly possessed by the work of the Connecticut Post’s Neil Vigdor.

Here’s a suggestion: Share interesting thoughts using your inside voice and you will be quoted.

There’s no ambiguity in this invitation “paid for by Dave Walker for CT.”

Former state representative and utility regulator Kevin DelGobbo has died. The popular Naugatuck Republican was 53. He enjoyed a varied career in public service, making many friends and earning a reputation for working hard and mastering his brief. Here is his LinkedIn profile.

Kevin was elected to the House in 1998 and served until January 2009. He left the legislature when Governor M. Jodi Rell appointed him to the Department of Public Utility Control. He served until 2012, when the department was merged and renamed. He then served as the executive director of the Waterbury Development Corporation.

Look at that tweet. The self-regarding David Walker would not do it by mistake. It must be part of his cunning plan to win the Republican nomination for governor four years after his third place showing in the 2010 primary for lieutenant governor.

Walker has been “exploring” a race under the complicated rules of the state’s taxpayer-funded campaign finance system. One of the provisions of the explorations phase, which allows an exploring candidate to collect contributions of as much as $375 each, is one must never indicate that he is a candidate.

Expect a candidate or helpful supporter to bring the Walker “CT Gubernatorial effort” tweet to the attention of the weaselly State Election Enforcement Commission, which is often much tougher on Republicans than Democrats. (See Malloy, Harris, et al secret email deal sealed for $325,000.00.)

Whoever files the complaint will want to cc Walker at “Dave Walker for Governor/dave@davidmwalker.com”.

UPDATE: 

A helpful reader points out this Walker Facebook post. Nothing ambiguous about “Dave Walker is working now to be nominated Connecticut Governor.” Not the most artful sentence, but it tells the tale.

Kevin Lembo is on to something. “I’m done,” wrote the second term state comptroller who is exploring a race for governor, in a fundraising email. The Democrat may be more on target than he intended.

Lembo says he’s “done sitting on the sidelines in Hartford.” Remarkable. Lembo has been in the thick of state government for more than a decade as a health care advocate and comptroller. He’s a Democratic insider whose office has given him a platform to “get serious about fixing” Hartford. Instead, he’s been a docile and loyal foot soldier for his party, a silent accessory to Connecticut’s decline.

Every campaign gets plenty of bad advice. Winning candidates recognize and reject terrible ideas. In pursuit of a few bucks at the close of the second fundraising quarter of the year, Lembo issued a lethal confession that his many Democratic detractors will not ignore. Republicans will be more hopeful than ever that they face Lembo in 2018.

Admitting to sitting on the sidelines for more than six years is no recommendation to lead Connecticut into its precarious future.