Category — Posts

2016-10-29_11-52-51-mp4

It’s unsettling to hear. It must be alarming for residents of Ansonia,  Beacon Falls, Bethany, Derby, Hamden, Naugatuck, and Woodbridge to realize that Democratic state Senator Joseph Crisco is in a high and frequent state of confusion over his own record. In this podcast interview with the Valley Independent, Crisco, who turned 82 in June, refuses to acknowledge he voted for two historic tax increases in 2011 and 2015. The 11-term veteran insists they did not become law. Of course, they did and with Crisco’s critical vote.

No wonder Crisco is rarely ventures onto the campaign trail alone.

You can see the entire Crisco interview here, as well as one with Republican George Logan.

What next? House Republican Leader Themis Klarides gets a co-starring role in a mailer from her close friend and political ally House Majority Leader Joseph Aresimowicz (D-Berlin) to voters in his district. Whatever Klarides gets out of the tight relationship with Aresimowicz, it has reaped no benefits for her caucus members or the citizens of Connecticut. Klarides has been unable to get votes on state employee contracts from her union factotum special friend.

They may want to check the rooms for wires at the December holiday meeting of the Democratic Governors Association in New Orleans. The December 4th and 5th pay-to-play festival of checks features the host governor, Louisiana’s John Bel Edwards, and six visiting governors. They include Connecticut’s Daniel P. Malloy, whose 2014 re-election campaign is at the center of a Federal criminal investigation over campaign finances and other things. Virginia’s Terry McAuliffe, who is shocked, absolutely shocked, to find himself ensnared in a Federal criminal investigation of his 2013 campaign finances and also some personal matters.

Lame duck from Vermont, wildly unpopular Peter Shumlin, will also attend his DGA swan song.

Legendary 20th century Connecticut and national Democratic chairman John M. Bailey had an almost mystically belief in high school mock election results as accurate predictors of the the final outcome. He might have changed it after seeing this year’s Ridgefield High School results.

Clinton 132/Trump 150

Blumenthal 150/Carter 132

Himes 159/Shaban 132

Among the many curiosities of these results, you may be certain that if Jim Himes outruns Sergeant Blumenthal in any town in the 4th CD there will be tensions in the upper ranks of the state’s Democratic organization. Himes will become an object of unrelenting suspicion, which will be a story worth watching as a re-elected Blumenthal, 70, becomes the oldest man (Connecticut has only elected men) to represent the state in the U.S. Senate.

Ruction readers, if you have high school mock election results please send them and I’ll post as received and verified. 

House Republican Leader Themis Klarides confirmed concerns about her alliances again this weekend. While most legislative candidates were using the second to the last weekend before November 8th to campaign, Klarides left the trail to visit her very close friend, House Majority Leader and speaker in waiting Joseph Aresimowicz (D-Berlin). That’s Klarides’s supine assistant, Vincent Candelora on the left. He posted the troubling photo on Facebook.

With nearly two dozen open seats and opportunities to defeat incumbent Democrats, Republican candidates are counting on aggressive campaign leadership from Klarides. Her politics of relationships, devoid of firm beliefs, may continue to hold back party prospects. It’s why House Republicans worry that no matter how many seats they win Klarides’ most important relationship is with the top Democrat in the House.

Here’s a sample:

You can find them all here.

Sleek and very 21st century. You might not want to work from home if you could go here every day.

How much will state Democrats pay to keep this week’s emails secret? Connecticut Democrats are in a twist at ads pointing out Democratic legislators’ close ties to Governor Dannel P. Malloy’s destructive policies. Alarmed that ads that began yesterday may remind voters of what they already know, state Democrats have issued a fundraising appeal to fire back–through the party’s Federal fundraising account.

This is what has 2014 Malloy campaign workers and others facing the scrutiny of a federal criminal investigation.

State Democrats seem less confident today than they were last week that Hillary Clinton will protect them from paying the price at the polls for Connecticut’s continuing economic crisis. Rickety performances on the campaign trail of incumbent state senators Steve Cassano, Joe Crisco, and Bob Duff may be adding to their anxiety.

The zealots at Labor United for Connecticut picked the wrong target when they put Dr. William Petit in their malignant sights. Through the tragedy of the 2007 murder of his wife and two daughters, Dr. Petit has a platform to condemn the labor’s online ad trying to link the Republican candidate for the House of Representatives to “attacks on women and families.”

Dr. Petit condemned the ad at a press conference outside his Plainville home. Petit’s Democratic opponent, incumbent state Representative Betty Boukus, made an appearance at the press conference and criticized the ad aimed at bolstering her endangered prospects of a 12th term.

Outgoing Speaker of the House Brendan Sharkey (D-uncertain residence) drew all the wrong lessons from the attack on Dr. Petit. Sharkey would use the revealing incident to limit freedom of speech and participation in the public arena. Labor United for Connecticut’s exploding strategy to defeat a popular Republican who would not be one of their foot soldiers in the legislature has revealed who they are. This is what Republicans are up against every day in competitive races. Let all sides shine a bright light on themselves and others. Dr. Petit can take it. He trusts the people.

Now the challenge moves to other races. Will the righteous among the candidates Labor United for Connecticut condemn their nasty allies? They know who they are, and so do others.

Paul Filson, head of Labor United and director of the Connecticut chapter of SEIU, attributes Donald Trump’s nasty anti-immigrant rhetoric to Dr. Petit. What a short memory he has. Connecticut labor was silent two years ago when their ally Democratic Governor Daniel P. Malloy refused to offer assistance to child refugees from Central America. Labor’s voices were stilled when Malloy turned his back on those children during his re-election campaign.

This ad will run through Election Day.