Category — Posts

The Mohegans want competition for new casinos in Massachusetts but not Connecticut. The Connecticut-based tribe is suing the Massachusetts Gaming Commission over its decision to deny the Mohegans a license to build a casino in Revere. That regional license under the 2011 Massachusetts law to legalize and regulate casino gambling went to Wynn Resorts and its Everett proposal. You can check this link to get more information.

The Mohegans Friday won a Supreme Judicial Court decision which remanded the Mohegan claim that it was unfairly treated by the commission in the licensing process. The tribe claims the Massachusetts process was secretive and unfair. The Mohegans and the Mahantucket Pequots are seeking a license to engage in the joint operation of a casino in East Windsor, Connecticut. No other gaming operations were allowed to submit proposals for that far-off-reservation property.

The tribes have raised concerns about the impact of Massachusetts casinos on their southeastern Connecticut operations, particularly one being built by MGM in Springfield.

The Mohegans have not provided estimates on the cost to Connecticut jobs and revenues their Everett proposal would have on their native state.

Look at the CT Mirror’s piece on the narrow confirmation of Justice Richard Palmer for a startling example of advocacy dressed up as reporting. Palmer squeaked through the Senate Wednesday for a fourth term on the state’s high court on a 19-16 vote, with two Republicans voting with 17 Democrats to save the controversial justice’s nomination.

One telling sentence in the piece includes a reference to Palmer’s ugly footnote 69 accusation in the 2015 Richard Lapointe decision that Justice Carmen Espinoza had brought “dishonor” on the court. Mirror reporter Mark Pazniokas wrote, “Sen. Len Fasano, R-North Haven, the Senate GOP leader, said his vote against Palmer was meant as a rebuke of what he saw as the unseemly criticisms of each other by Palmer and Justice Carmen Espinosa in an exchange intitiated by Espinosa in the death penalty [sic] case.” (Emphasis added.) No one produced the original Palmer footnote, not the one that appeared in the final opinion. The original Palmer footnote would have shed light on his unseemly attack on Espinoza and might have undermined his bid to end his career telling the citizens of Connecticut what are our standards of decency for next four years. It was not released to the public.

The Mirror piece also contends that Republicans were “second-guessing” court opinions. That sounds like a haughty pejorative, suggesting that judicial renominations do not entitle the legislature to review the body of a nominee’s work.  Imagine the reaction if John Kissel and Craig Miner, the two Republican senators who joined with 17 Democrats to heave Palmer across the finish line, had not used International Women’s Day to ignore Palmer’s startling attack on Espinoza.

Note: Palmer is a member of the board of directors of the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving, a CT Mirror sponsor.

 

Every couple of years a Chatterbox comes from behind. Today’s Chatterbox win reminds us that electing more Republicans to the legislature may produce no important changes. There is only one party in the Capitol Village.

Joe Polletta was the Working Families, Independent and Democratic parties 2014 nominee for state Representative opposing Eric Berthel in the 68th District. Polletta, who lost by a wide margin in 2014, wants another shot at the seat in this spring’s special election. Berthel has resigned from the district that encompasses Watertown and a slice of Woodbury after winning a February 28th special election to the 32nd Senate District.

Polletta, a Susan Bysiewicz booster, has recycled his 2014 Facebook campaign page and will join other candidates in meeting the delegates to the convention to nominate a candidate for the vacancy. Governor Dannel P. Malloy will soon set a date for the special election. There are no primaries in these anti-democratic and expensive contests. Limiting the nominating process to a handful of insiders can give rise to petitioning candidates who are popular among the party faithful but are not sufficiently chummy with the delegates from the last convention to win the nomination.

Delegates will hold an informal meeting tonight with Polletta and two Republican hopefuls. They are UConn student Adam Kruegler and Republican town council leader Tom Winn. Kruegler fits a Watertown tradition of nominating young Republicans for the 68th District seat in preparation for a career in lobbying. 

Delegates and other Republicans may want to take a look at the Connecticut Working Families website to see what Polletta supports. He was their candidate only 28 months ago. Polletta became a Republican in late 2015.

Truth is taking a bludgeoning as unpopular Governor Dannel P. Malloy considers a bid for a third term. Malloy has been insisting that GE has more employees in Connecticut than when he was elected in 2010. The Courant has the numbers and they cast Malloy’s relationship with the truth in a dark light. GE had 6,275 employees in Connecticut in 2010. The corporate giant now employs 3,200 people in Connecticut. That’s a decline of 3,075. State Representative John Frey (R-Ridgefield), who has knowledgeable sources at GE, tells The Courant that 3,200 is not GE’s Connecticut employment floor. Expect more reductions this year.

The is not the first time Malloy and his administration have had trouble with an honest count of Connecticut jobs. They spent 2015 vastly overstating job creation in Connecticut.  Last March, Malloy’s administration issued a humiliating report revealing the year of errors.

If emphatically misstating easily verified job numbers is the re-election plan Malloy and his trio of close advisors have devised to help him get re-nominated and then re-elected, Democratic delegates and primary voters should brace themselves for a brutal competition against anyone who challenges the two-term Democratic incumbent for a third term.

Highly regarded Lieutenant J.Paul Vance, Sr., retires from 42 years in the Connecticut State Police next month. Expect to see more of him than we have since disgraced state police head Dora Schriro moved Vance from his position as the spokesman to head of the traffic unit. Vance told popular radio hosts Chaz and AJ that he would continue to be in public service. He would say no more than that.

Vance holds a singular position in the affection of the people of Connecticut. Democrats have tried to recruit him for legislative contests in the Waterbury area. He may be thinking bigger–and perhaps not with the Democrats, Daily Ructions can report. Whether as a Republican or Democrat, Vance’s far flung admirers would hurry him along the path to $75,000 to qualify for public funds in a contest for a spot on a statewide ticket. The $250,000 in a 2018 race for governor would be a considerably steeper climb, but Vance is nothing if not steady in the face of a challenge.

Vance does not only know a lot of people–he knows a lot about a lot of people.

Wolf PAC, a group seeking to diminish political speech by amending the Constitution, is a big spender in Connecticut’s 32nd Senate District special election, according to reports filed with the State Elections Enforcement Commission. Wolf PAC spent more than $40,000.00 last week on printing and postage for Democrat Greg Cava, who faces Republican state Representative Eric Berthel in the February 28th contest. A Sir Speedy on Boylston Street in Boston is doing very well in this race.

Wolf PAC is spending big money to stop others from exercising their own free speech rights.

It ought to be a lock, but the atmosphere is fraught for Republicans across the nation as voters realized what they elected to the White House in November. That means Eric Berthel may face some hurdles in his race to fill the vacancy in the 32nd Senate District created when Republicans made the egregious deadbeat dad Rob Kane a state auditor.

Voters go to the polls on Tuesday in a district that went for Trump last fall by hefty margins in almost all its 10 towns. Special elections are unpredictable. (On Thursday, the Tories won a British by-election for a House of Commons seat that had been held by Labour for more than 80 years.) If Democrats can convince their voters they will  be striking a blow against Trump by capturing one of the most Republican seats in the state, they will be in with a chance.

Republicans need to motivate their voters to get to the poll by convincing them the race is all about stopping Dannel P. Malloy’s plan to shift hundreds of millions of dollars in local education funding from towns like Waterford to Hartford, New Haven, Bridgeport and Waterbury.

Enter Liz Kurantowicz’s Grow Connecticut. That’s the independent expenditure committee that was so successful in helping to elect Republicans to the legislature in November. That was the election in which Republicans tied Democrats in the state Senate at 18-18. Two months later, the same Republicans decided to risk their newfound influence by granting Kane’s wish for a full-time job.

Grow Connecticut is spending $11,011.50 on laser targeting mobile advertising in the district. Because you never know.

The buy is being paid for with a $15,000 contribution from the Republican State Leadership Committee, a national organization based in Washington, DC.

The legislature is taking more time than usual in its consideration of another term for a state Supreme Court justice. Richard N. Palmer’s renomination was held by the legislature’s judiciary committee on Friday after a long session with the controversial three term member of the state’s highest court. All other judicial nominations advanced through the committee.

One hurdle for Palmer is his struggle to explain the  notorious footnote 69 in the 2015 decision in Richard LaPointe v. Commissioner of Correction. The case was argued in 2013 and the opinion provided a glimpse of what an unpleasant place the court has become. Palmer accused colleague Carmen E. Espinoza of dishonoring the court with her dissent in the 1987 Manchester murder case.

Palmer’s lengthy footnote concluded, “We will not respond in kind to Justice Espinosa’s offensive accusations; we are content, instead, to rely on the merits of our analysis of the issues presented by this appeal. Unfortunately, in taking a different path, Justice Espinosa dishonors this court.”

The published footnote does not reveal the entire path of the controversy. Legislators ought to ask to see what Palmer originally circulated to colleagues in the majority opinion that took an unusually long time to be completed. They can apply their own experiences in public discourse to determine if it was appropriate and decide if it meets the fluid standard of cultural norms Palmer embraced in his stunning about-face on the death penalty. 

Democrats can look forward to Lee Whitnum making the rounds of town committees to talk about her ideas for all sorts of things. Do not be surprised if she wedges criticism of Israel into plan to improve Connecticut, should she present one. The Greenwich Democrat ran for the U.S House of Representatives 12 2008, U.S. Senate in 2010 and 2012, and governor in 2014.

Whitnum is skipping the exploratory round of the race. She has filed a candidate committee with the State Elections Enforcement Commission. If Whitnum is remembered at all for her various races, it is most likely to be for calling fellow Democrat Chris Murphy a “whore” for AIPAC, the pro-Israeli organization, in a 2012 Democratic debate. Moderator Gerry Brooks really is a pro.

Republican Mark Lauretti is also making another bid for the state’s top office. He’s not exploring, he’s running. Lauretti ran for governor in 2014, abandoned that race for a brief and confused partnership as running mate with Mark Boughton. You’re right, that was a confusing time for everyone who paid attention to Republican alliances and rivalries.

Lauretti has been the mayor of Shelton for 26 years, not all them smooth. He did prove himself to be a good fundraiser in the early going of his curious 2014 campaign.