ctblogger Posts

It's that time of the election cycle when candidates announce their quarterly fund raising figures.

In the 5th CD, The Elizabeth Esty for Congress campaign announced that the former State Rep. raked in 340K for the 2nd quarter with 900K COH.

Press release:

"I'm proud of the strong support I've continued to receive from people across Connecticut and across the country," Elizabeth Esty said. "With the stakes higher than ever for middle-class families, folks are tired of career politicians bickering and finger-pointing instead of problem solving. They're looking for leaders who can finally bring some common sense and accountability to Washington. I'm touched by the overwhelming response we've received from people in cities and towns across central and northwest Connecticut, and I'm honored by the hard work of our volunteers who have already helped us knock on thousands of doors and make tens of thousands of phone calls to voters across the 5th District. With five weeks to go until the Democratic primary, I'm working hard every day to earn every vote."

The latest numbers demonstrate the continuing fundraising and organizational strength of Esty's campaign. Since the end of the first quarter, the campaign has continued to build a robust grassroots field organization with organizers, interns, and volunteers fanned out across the 5th District to spread the word about Esty's candidacy and get out the vote on Election Day.

Weekend reading material

• More on the police insanity in New Haven.
  

  An embattled police sergeant no longer has the feds examining his conduct, but still has an active local internal affairs probe to contend with.

  The sergeant is Chris Rubino. He became the subject of separate FBI and New Haven police IA investigations after he arrested an unruly male nightclub patron in the Temple Street plaza around 1:55 a.m. June 4, then arrested a woman who had been videotaping the arrest and pocketed her camera phone after having it removed from her bra.

  The FBI probe did not concern the camera-grabbing. It was a probe into whether any civil-rights violations occurred, begun after the FBI saw in the Independent another witness's photograph (above) of Rubino's foot on the handcuffed male arrestee's neck.

  Thursday afternoon the police department released word that the FBI had closed that preliminary probe.

  The FBI "determined the matter is more appropriately addressed by the New Haven Police Department's Internal Affairs Division and local authorities," according to a police statement released late Thursday afternoon.

• Liar, liar
  

  Republican U.S. Senate candidate Linda McMahon's latest web ad, aimed at her main Democratic opponent, U.S. Rep. Chris Murphy, has numerous references to Republican talking points on the healthcare reform law that have been debunked several times by FactCheck.org.

  The ad opens with ominous music in the background, where Murphy, the current 5th District congressman and a major supporter of the Affordable Care Act, is accused of not understanding it. Both Murphy and McMahon won big at their party conventions, but face primary foes on Aug. 14.

  Small snippets of newscasts flash in the background where healthcare reform is described as a "jobs killer" where medical care will be rationed; the insurance mandate amounts to a "gigantic tax" and small businesses will be hurt. It also says the cost has roughly doubled from original estimates and seniors will be hurt when $500 billion is cut from Medicare.

  All of the charges are false, according to FactCheck.org and PolitiFact.

• Good grief!
  

  My wife has somehow found herself on right wing Republican mailing lists. Today she got a mailing from the Mittster himself.

  Now, we've taken a sort of infantile pleasure in stuffing the stamped reply envelopes full of as much weight as possible and sending them back from whence they came, doing our infinitesimal bit to drain the coffers of the folks on the dark side. So imagine our disappointment when we saw that Romney expects his supporters to affix their own stamps when they send him their tribute! That's right, the best financed campaign in history can't afford to pay postage. Here's a guy who can't cut the little guy any sort of a break. The money must flow up. Well, just for that, he will not have the courtesy of a reply from us.

• The Moses of his people campaign continues...
  

  Ernie Newton tells OIB his campaign on Friday will submit the final pieces of paperwork to the State Elections Enforcement Commission that he hopes will lead to his campaign qualifying for a $91,000 public-financing check for the Aug. 14 Democratic primary against incumbent Ed Gomes and State Rep. Andres Ayala.

  "Ed Gomes and Andres Ayala raised money through the establishment," says Newton. "I raised it through the little people."

Chris Murphy takes his campaign for senate to the airwaves with his first TV ad...

PRESS RELEASE:

Chris Murphy will begin airing a 30 second ad on Monday, July 9th, his first in his campaign for the U.S. Senate. The ad will run on network and cable television across Connecticut.

Click here to watch the ad
"We're excited to get this ad up on the air so that people across Connecticut can see what folks in the 5th district already know: that Chris Murphy isn't your typical congressman -- he listens, and gets results," said Murpy campaign manager Kenny Curran.

Titled Listening, the ad highlights Chris' reputation as an open and accessible lawmaker, known for listening to people and taking action. Chris regularly holds public forums in grocery stores across his district and knocks on doors year-round to hear from his constituents.
One shopper tells Chris that she hates the partisan bickering in Washington. Chris leads the Center Aisle Caucus, a bi-partisan group of House members committed to bringing civility and positive dialogue back to Congress.

Another shopper asks him to keep standing up for women's rights. Chris has been a strong advocate for women and continues to fight to correct injustices that still exist in our society. He has a strong record of fighting for affordable, quality healthcare, to protect a woman's right to choose, against gender-based violence, and against economic inequality in the workplace.

Two other shoppers ask Chris about jobs and Buy American. Chris is a leader in the effort to close loopholes in our Buy American laws that allow jobs to be shipped overseas. It's estimated that requiring the federal government to purchase more goods from American companies would create roughly 600,000 jobs right away.

A cross post from Jon Pelto's Wait, What?

First there was the announcement that there was a $12 million deficit in Bridgeport's school budget.

Then the central office was "re-organized" and some programs were changed and the deficit, they said, was down to $3.5 million.

Governor Malloy's administration then offered to cover that problem in return for allowing Malloy's Commissioner of Education, Stefan Pryor, to choose who runs Bridgeport's schools.  The City and illegal Board of Education jumped at that offer so the budget problems are gone... or are they?

"Reforming" Connecticut's schools are a top priority.  In fact, what little additional funding the State of Connecticut is making available to Bridgeport must be used for "reform" efforts, including the implementation of a new teacher evaluation program.

Yet day after day, word leaks out that Bridgeport's part-time, interim Superintendent of Schools has signed more contracts, hired additional consultants or "invented" new programs.  In his "end of the year" letter he's even taking the position that he is making all of these changes and isn't even laying people off.

However, in the coming years, Bridgeport will face significant additional costs as a result of Vallas' spending spree.  Vallas, though, will be long gone.  Even with a salary and benefits exceeding a quarter of a million dollars a year, Vallas has said he is leaving at the end of the next school year and, in the meantime, will continue his ramped up consulting activities.

Vallas will be gone but what will be around are the bills for the multi-million dollar textbook contract, the new computer programs, the new after school program, the new partnerships with local colleges, the ongoing and additional standardizing testing that Vallas is so committed to.

Bridgeport certainly can't rely on the state to cover those costs.

Despite last year's $1.5 billion tax package, Connecticut's budget was almost $200 million in the red last year, will be looking at a deficit of $400 million this year and when the Legislature returns to Hartford in January 2012, it will be facing a projected deficit of over half a billion dollars for Fiscal Year 2014.  The state is going to be cutting, not adding, and even then it may need another tax increase to cover its costs.

So that leaves only two possible sources of money for the bills Vallas is racking up; the wealthy Fairfield County corporate executives who say that are stepping up with donations and Bridgeport's taxpayers.

There's more below the fold...
The wealthy executives talk about providing $500,000 or even a million dollars, but of course, that doesn't even cover the salary and benefits needed to pay Vallas and his inner-circle of out-of-state staff and consultants.

So the question remains...

If the state isn't going to pick up the tab and the business leaders aren't going to pick up the tab, who is going to pay the millions of dollars needed to cover all the new contracts and administrative positions.

For a superintendent who loves to do PowerPoint presentations, it's interesting that Bridgeport's illegal Board of Education still hasn't received a document laying out all the costs associated with the new contracts that Vallas has signed.

Meanwhile, Bill Finch has made it clear that he not only wants direct control over the City budget, but he wants control of the budget for the Bridgeport's School System, as well.

Does that mean that in the end, it is the Mayor who is guaranteeing that Vallas' bills will be paid and, if so, with whose money?

And then, of course, there is the other question.  Will all these new contracts, administrators and programs really provide the students with a better education?

Everyone didn't have positive things to say about the findings in Chris Donovan's report.

In his continued attack on Donovan, Dan Roberti for the most critical of the report and released the following:

"In the wake of findings in an internal investigation by former U.S. Attorney Stanley Twardy, many questions remain regarding alleged illegality in fund-raising operations of Chris Donovan's congressional campaign.

These questions stem in part from impediments to the investigation that was commissioned by Chris Donovan himself. For example, key Donovan staff members could not be interviewed on advice of their attorneys. Also, while Mr. Twardy did interview Chris Donovan, no transcript is available of their discussion. Notes from their meeting should be released so that the public can have an accounting of what questions were asked of Mr. Donovan, and how he responded.

In addition, Mr. Twardy did not interview Ray Soucy, who has been described in media reports as a central figure in the ongoing FBI investigation into Donovan campaign finances. According to Mr. Twardy, Mr. Soucy arranged a meeting in the fall of 2011 between Chris Donovan and owners of roll-your-own tobacco stores. Legislation that could have a negative impact on the roll-your-own stores is at the heart of the FBI investigation, and Mr. Donovan needs to answer questions regarding the substance of that meeting.

It must also be noted that this investigation is being paid for by Chris Donovan or his campaign, thus questions can be raised about the impartiality of the findings. Moreover, Chris Donovan was not available today to make his own statement or supplement the information provided by Mr. Twardy.

The scope and results of the investigation are impacted by all these factors. Serious questions remain about the conduct of Chris Donovan's campaign fund-raising. He needs to come forward and directly answer questions from the public and the press."

While there are legitimate criticisms of the report, questioning the credibility of a former U.S. attorney with Republican ties who was very straight forward regarding the limitation of his findings is something you would expect Justin Brenier or Mark Greenberg to say

In contrast, Elizabeth Esty's response was not only fair, but dead on.

"The FBI affidavit that initiated this review contained serious allegations that have not been addressed," Esty said later in a statement after reading the report. "A narrow look at the Speaker's fundraising activity, a review to be paid for by the Speaker's campaign committee and that failed to speak with anyone implicated in the alleged scheme, leaves far too many questions unanswered. As the Donovan campaign report itself admits in its conclusion, their review and investigation was understandably limited in scope and nature, since the authorities are conducting an ongoing investigation. I am confident the FBI will carry out its investigation to the fullest extent possible."

Without directly calling into question Twardy's credibility, Esty (someone who has largely avoided commenting on the Donovan investigation) focused  her remarks to the admitted limitations of the report.

Whether or not this episode is behind Donovan remains to be seen, but the responses from Roberti and Esty gives an insight into how the two candidates are handling the situation.  

CT Post

Former U.S. Attorney Stanley A. Twardy Jr. will release the findings Thursday of his review of Democrat Christopher G. Donovan's finances, a report that comes as the 5th Congressional District race is enmeshed in two separate federal investigations.

Twardy is expected to release his report and discuss his findings during a 10:30 a.m. news conference at the Day Pitney law office in Hartford.

Copies of Twardy's investigative report, which inspected all contributions to Donovan's congressional campaign, will be distributed.

New Haven Indy

Leading Democrats made it official Monday evening. First the Democratic Town Committee unanimously endorsed Murphy, a 5th District U.S. Representative, against longshot opponent Susan Bysiewicz for the upcoming party primary for the seat. Then pretty much all the city's elected officials-from U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro and the entire state delegation to 27 out of 30 city aldermen and Mayor John DeStefano-announced their endorsement of Murphy at an event on the Green.

Like any politician receiving any endorsement, Murphy called New Haven's show of support a high point of his campaign.

But unlike some other endorsements, this one does matter. A lot.

New Haven, Murphy pointed out, "is a city you can't win Connecticut without." Not if you're a Democrat.

"You don't go to Washington or to the statehouse if you don't win New Haven," DeStefano noted.

Malloy learned that in 2010's gubernatorial race. He, like Murphy now in 2012, faced a far wealthier Republican financing his own campaign. He needed ground troops. New Haven's emerging labor-backed vote-pulling operation (read about that here) amassed a surprisingly high turnout and by far the state's largest municipal margin of victory, 18,613 votes, a 6 to 1 difference. That put Malloy over the top. (He won the entire state by only 5,637 votes.)  Earlier, in the 2010 Democratic gubernatorial primary, that labor-backed operation backed Malloy over a candidate supported by DeStefano, and put Malloy over the top in DeStefano's backyard.

New Haven already had the state's largest Democratic Party. It now had a feared vote machine that, this year, Murphy wooed early and successfully.

With the New Haven machine in his pocket, Murphy's chances in winning the primary is about 99.99999999999999999999999999999 percent.

Cross post from HatCityBLOG

It's nice (and predictable) to see Danbury Housing Partnership chairman Mark Nolan carry the water for Mark Boughton's failed 10 year plan to end homelessness...it's equally predictable to see Nolan lie to the public about the essence of the plan in an effort to defend this dishonest mayor against well-deserved criticism.

Here's what the water carrier had to say about those who say Boughton has not followed the objectives in his plan to end homelessness.

Danbury has nearly enough beds during the winter to house its homeless, Taborsak said, but come April 15, only one shelter remains open. That means with only 22 beds for the summer months and a citywide homeless population estimated at 150 people, about 130 people have become "lawn ornaments," Taborsak said. Her goal is to meet the city's plan for ending homelessness by 2016.

"We've all but abandoned the heart of the city's 10-year plan," Taborsak said.

Nolan disagreed, saying the "heart" of the plan isn't to build housing. That's a developer's job. The plan is designed to identify who is homeless and figure out who can help that person move into a home, if they so desire.

What Nolan did was simply recycle Boughton's dishonest and misleading statement about regarding the REAL objective of the city's plan to end homelessness...but don't take it from me, just read the homelessness plan document for yourself.

INTRODUCTION:

On a given night in January 2005, there were three hundred twenty one (321) homeless individuals or heads of household counted in Danbury. Teens,senior citizens, veterans, the mentally disabled and others were included in the count. Homeless children (of which there were an additional 69) are not reflected in that number. The 321 counted included 47 families; 8 unaccompanied teens under18 years of age; 17 young adults between the ages of 18-24 and 249 individuals.

The National Alliance to End Homelessness reports that approximately 750,000 people are homeless on any given night in the United States and between 2.5million and 3.5 million will experience homelessness at some time over the course of a year. The United States Interagency Council onHomelessness has been supporting and encouraging states and communities across the nation to develop adopt and implement 10 YearPlans to End Homelessness. Connecticut is in line with other States in the nation dedicating resources to End Homelessness. Governor Rell established the Interagency Council on Supportive Housing andHomelessness. Relying on their recommendations,the Governor was able to secure legislative and financial support to move these efforts forward.

Mayor Mark D. Boughton charged a Task Force with creating and presenting a comprehensive plan to end homelessness in 10 years. This proved to be a great opportunity on many fronts. The multidisciplinary representation allowed the many understandings of homelessness and its solutions to be shared and considered. The plan required examination of the institutional or philosophical beliefs that were useful in managing homelessness but will not move us forward as we strive to end it. The planning process has been cause to assess utilization of resources, explore best practices, develop community-driven strategies and adopt a vision for ending homelessness with stable permanent housing as the goal. The development of the plan also resulted in an understanding that the other planning bodies and planning studies that have been completed seek to create the same opportunities for people while respecting both the natural resources and the distinctive neighborhoods of each of the communities.

[...]

This plan provides the community with four major objectives towards ending homelessness and specific recommendations to achieve those. Those objectives are:

I. Increase the supply of permanent housing units to meet the projected need of homeless persons.

II. Keep people housed and reduce the number of people becoming homeless and specifically reduce the number of people being discharged into homelessness by state and local institutions and Agencies.

III. Ensure that there are adequate, appropriate and sufficient services to assist homeless or at risk persons in accessing and retaining housing.

IV. Develop a strategy to ensure that the plan is both implemented and monitored to completion.

As you can clearly see, the heart of the plan had nothing to do with identifying "who is homeless" since the city already knew how many homeless people were in the city a the time the plan was announced.

Again, from the MAYOR'S OWN DOCUMENT, here's details of the plan's primary objective entitled "INCREASE THE SUPPLY OF PERMANENT HOUSING UNITS TO MEET THE PROJECTED NEED OF HOMELESS PERSONS."

I. INCREASE THE SUPPLY OF PERMANENT HOUSING UNITS TO MEET THE PROJECTED NEED OF HOMELESS PERSONS.

The Permanent Housing workgroup was charged with developing a plan to identify permanent housing opportunities for Danbury's homeless population. The proposed plan must take into account the diversity of needs of the city's homeless population and develop a framework that will create solutions appropriate for effectively meeting those needs. In addition, the Committee realizes that any opportunity for permanent housing solutions for ending homelessness are closely tied to the work of the other Task Force committees involved in this process (i.e. reducing homelessness, preventing homelessness, and increasing services and support).

Researching and analyzing these issues required that the workgroup: review and analyze plans from other communities aimed at creating permanent housing solutions to homelessness; review federal and state programs aimed at addressing the issue of homelessness; and compile data from a variety of sources identifying the diversity of Danbury's homelessness population.

Six action areas were identified and recommendations were formulated. They are:

• Creating an entity for facilitating housing development assistance;
• New housing development;
• Preservation of the existing stock;
• Removal of possible barriers to the process;
• Encouraging collaboration with developers,government and funding sources;
• Leveraging existing resources.

While I won't post every point of the plan in this post, I STRONGLY encourage my readers to simply take a download Boughton's homelessness plan and read the objectives for yourself.

If Nolan is more interested in playing politics by defending the mayor's dishonesty regarding the essence of the homeless plan, how can he be effective in addressing homelessness in Danbury?

Register-Citizen:

The results from the Chris Donovan5th District Congress campaign's internal investigation into possible campaign finance irregularities have not yet been received, according to a campaign spokesman, but they may be released as early as Thursday.

"It's unlikely to be tomorrow,"  former U.S. Attorney Stan Twardy said. It's looking like Thursday.

Twardy was hired by Chris Donovan's congressional campaign after its finance director, Robert Braddock Jr., was arrested and charged by federal investigators with attempting to hide the sources of $20,000 in campaign donations.

[...]

"The independent investigation was commissioned to find whatever facts were available inside the campaign, wherever they led," according to campaign spokesman Gabe Rosenberg. "The report will be turned over to the U.S. Attorney in the hope that it might provide additional assistance to their fact-finding efforts."

[...]

Whether the contents of the report will be released to the public is as yet unknown. Twardy said recently that the decision of what to release publicly would be left to the U.S. Attorney's office.

Hopefully the report will be released to the public and back up Donovan's stance that he has done nothing wrong so he can put this whole episode behind him.

The latest"

• Jim Himes calls out town hall harassment organizer Bob MacGuffie on his bullshit (something which was LONG overdue).
  
• 

  It's back!
  

  Who says politicians are too busy or too self-important to sign their own names?

  U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., gladly made an exception for John Barrett -- no autopen required.

  The Milford Democrat owns a sign company that, for a second Senate election in a row, recently unveiled a billboard satirizing Republican Linda McMahon.

  The billboard, which faces southbound traffic near Exit 29 of Interstate 95 in Bridgeport, says, "Linda: She's Out Shopping Again!"

  "If someone took a telescope or pair of binoculars, they might find Dick Blumenthal's signature on that sign," Barrett said. "He saw it in my shop and he couldn't resist the temptation."

  While it was aware of the billboard, which uses a similar font and color scheme as the candidate's official signs, McMahon's campaign had no comment.

• Anyone but Newton
  

  A spokesman for the state Senate Democrats says leadership is firmly behind Sen. Ed Gomes (D-Bridgeport) in his bid to hang onto his seat. Adam Joseph said in an email, "Both Senator Williams and Senator [Martin] Looney support Senator Gomes's reelection and have been in close contact with him. Ed has been a terrific caucus member." That's clear and definitive but Joseph took a circuitous path to make that statement.

  Joseph twice last week declined to comment on whether caucus leadership supports Gomes. Sunday morning, the spokesman reversed course and said leadership does in fact back him. Gomes is in the middle of a spirited primary battle to keep his 23rd district seat. He recently told The Hanging Shad he expected leadership "to get involved" and support his reelection bid.

• NHPD are at it again!
  

  The punk band The Lost Riots wailed away on Pitkin Plaza Saturday night-until the cops showed up and put the event's organizer in handcuffs on charges of inciting a riot.

  Two cops ended up in the hospital for minor injuries suffered in the incident.

  Before they left, the crowd hurled taunts at the cops. They received pepper-spray blasts in return, according to witnesses.

  [...]

  he incident grew out of an ongoing feud between Ideat Village and the management of 360 State Street, the apartment tower right on the edge of Orange Street's Pitkin Plaza.

  Spurred by an email message earlier in the day from management, 360 State tenants called police to complain about the noise from the Lost Riots show. Several tenants called, according to Lt. Jeff Hoffman, the police department's supervisor of patrol. "The music was extremely loud," Hoffman said.

  The cops showed up around 8:30 p.m. They found the Lost Riots playing and some 50 people listening.

  The police asked festival organizer Bill Saunders for a permit for the event. The festival had a permit from the city to play music until 10 p.m., the result of well-publicized negotiations over the years.

  But Saunders was unable to produce the document. He told the officers that his partner and co-organizer, Nancy Shea, had the permit. Saunders went looking for Shea, but couldn't find her. She later said that she was taking care of another festival event around the corner at the Orbit Gallery on Court Street.

  Saunders took the microphone to alert people to the police presence. He suggested the cops might have to arrest other people if he gets arrested.

  The cops moved to arrest him. He walked away.

  "Next thing I know, Bill was on the ground," said eyewitness Curtis Packer, who owns the nearby Bru Café.

  Witnesses at the scene claimed they saw the officers tackle him. They said Saunders began bleeding from the head.

Sorry for delay but the servers experienced a pretty severe outage...here's the breakdown:

A wave of violent storms sweeping through the mid-Atlantic following a day of record-setting heat in Washington, D.C., has knocked out power to nearly 2 million people, the Associated Press reports. Amazon's web service, Amazon EC2, may have been affected, bringing Netflix, Pinterest, Instagram, and other services down with it.

Things will back up to full speed soon...

Today the campaign for Susan Bysiewicz announced that the first TV ad senate candidate, entitled "Proud," will hit the airwaves tomorrow.

PRESS RELEASE:

Tomorrow morning, our campaign will be launching its first television ad to highlight Susan's record of getting things done and show how her advocacy has impacted the lives of so many people around Connecticut in real and meaningful ways.

Our first television ad details Susan's compelling record of building coalitions to stand up to powerful special interests. For those of you who have followed her career, Susan's reputation for taking on the tough battles is nothing new, and it's an important message that voters across the state need to hear.

Public Policy Polling conducted a 5th Congressional District poll for Progressive Change Campaign Committee which shows that despite his campaign engulfed in a FBI investigation, Chris Donovan mantains a lead over his rivals.

A poll commissioned by a liberal group shows that House Speaker Chris Donovan has opened a significant lead over his Democratic rivals, six weeks before the state's August primary.

The poll of 400 likely voters, conducted June 22-24 by Public Policy Polling, found that 45 percent of respondents believe Donovan would be the party's strongest candidate in the November general election.

Donovan, who is from Meriden, picked up his party's endorsement at its convention last month and has won the backing of several prominent groups, including the AFL-CIO and the SEIU, in recent weeks.

The PPP survey showed 25 percent of likely voters backing former state Rep. Elizabeth Esty, of Cheshire, and 12 percent of likely voters throwing support behind Dan Roberti, of Kent. Some 17 percent of those surveyed were unsure which candidate they supported.

The Progressive Change Campaign Committee, which commissioned the poll, is a grassroots group that supports liberal positions such as a public option for health care reform and the expiration of the Bush tax cuts. The group formally endorsed Donovan in September. In a statement released Friday, the group again voiced its support for Donovan.

"This polling shows that Chris Donovan's record of fighting for workers, families, and popular progressive causes has earned him major credibility with voters," said spokesman Neil Sroka. "That's why he is the overwhelming front runner in this primary and is seen as most electable against Republicans in November."

The latest...

• CTNJ: "Advocates Call For CT To Move Forward With A Public Option In Wake Of Decision"
  

  During a celebration of the Supreme Court's ruling on the Patient and Affordable Care Act, religious leaders and health care advocates called on Gov. Dannel P. Malloy to embrace a public option.

  Iman Kashif Abdul-Karim of the Islamic Center of Greater Hartford called on Malloy, who "during his campaign proclaimed his intention to expand access to healthcare," to "please stop wasting time and start doing the work he was elected to do."

  The crowd gathered at the Legislative Office Building in Hartford Thursday afternoon cheered Adbul-Karim's remarks.

  Abdul-Karim and other advocates called on Malloy to go further than just implementing the Patient and Affordable Care Act. They called on him to create an "affordable public option" here in Connecticut.

  On the campaign trail in 2009,  Malloy said he supported a public option, and he even stood side-by-side with religious leaders in calling for a public option just weeks before taking office. However, campaigning is different than governing and faced with a $3.6 billion budget deficit, Malloy backed off his support for a public option.

• Oh oh...
  

  Federal authorities have ordered the Waterbury Regional Chamber to turn over all of its records connected to former Gov. John G. Rowland's job as the city's economic development czar, sources say.

  Federal postal inspectors visited the chamber's Bank Street offices Wednesday afternoon with a subpoena in hand demanding the Rowland records within two weeks, according to the sources.

  The U.S. Postal Inspection Service is one of the nation's oldest law enforcement agencies, specializing in investigating crimes committed through the mail.

  Rowland recently removed [JUMP]some of his personal effects from the office, but chamber officials have secured what remained and are making copies of the records to be delivered.

• Another story about the police in New Haven...
  

  Dozens of veteran cops, including the supervisor of both the Dwight-Kensington neighborhood and the SWAT team, are leaving the police force as the year comes to a close.

  As many as 30 veteran officers have turned in retirement papers as the June 30 deadline approaches, said incoming union President Lou Cavaliere Jr. The total number won't be known until the end of Friday.

  Cavaliere noted that the exodus is leaving the department short-staffed on supervisors. Some five sergeants who supervise daytime patrols are among those leaving.

  The department has been racing to fill empty spots and beef up the ranks, with 41 recruits currently undergoing training in three academies.

  "The city's in panic mode right now because they're losing so many supervisors," Cavaliere said. The decision to lay off 16 cops last year exacerbated the problem, he added.

• Agreed!
  

  17 Democrats voted to hold Eric Holder in contempt. They preferred to take orders from the NRA than stand with their party. There are some things that, even for Democrats, should be beyond the pale. They should be cut loose. Not a dime from the DNC or the DCCC. Let them get their money from the NRA, as if that group would go out of its way to protect Democrats. The Republicans are scum, but they would never allow something like this within the party, and in that instance, they'd be right.

Comptroller Kevin Lembo:

"This historic decision upholds decades of work to ensure that millions of uninsured Americans, including at least a half million Connecticut residents, have access to health care.

"This victory, while critical, is only a new starting point. The federal government - and Connecticut - must maintain momentum to reform and improve our health-care system at every level.

" Connecticut has been a leader in health care innovation - transforming its own health care system, as an employer, to save lives and dollars by focusing more on quality preventative care.

"While employers in the rest of the United States are experiencing health care cost increases of more than 8 percent - more than twice the rate of inflation - Connecticut, as an employer, has stabilized its own rates with no increase.

" Connecticut 's successful initiatives reinforce what I have long advocated - that when you improve health care delivery, you improve health care savings."

Congressman Joe Courtney:

"Today's ruling is a landmark moment in the fight for stable, secure health coverage for all Americans. Congress debated, the Supreme Court decided, and now the implementation of the Affordable Care Act can move forward.

"As with any law, the Affordable Care Act is not the final word on health care. This Congress and future Congresses can make commonsense amendments in response to real-life problems. For example, we already repealed the onerous 1099 filing requirement last year, and extended age 26 coverage to military families after ACA's enactment. I look forward to actively promoting that smart, positive effort.

"In eastern Connecticut last year, 4,600 young people were able to remain on their parents' health policy until the age of 26 while they transitioned into the workforce. That benefit is protected permanently.

"7,700 seniors in our district received more than $5 million in prescription drug discounts in 2011. That number will grow as the Affordable Care Act closes the Medicare Part D donut hole entirely. 88,000 seniors have taken advantage of preventive care benefits, including cancer and cardiovascular screenings without a co-pay, coinsurance, or deductible."

"Already, 470 small businesses have received tax credits to provide health insurance for their employees."

"If you become gravely ill, battling a costly condition like hemophilia, there are no longer lifetime caps on benefits. And beginning in 2014, if you lose your job, you will not lose your health coverage."

While we all wait for the SCOTUS decision on ACA, here's a little flashback video from Romney where he gives his opinion on individual mandate.

Video of Mr. Romney from a March 2006 news conference when he was governor of Massachusetts shows the presumptive Republican nominee praising the passage of an individual mandate in the legislature as an "essential" part of the reforms he advocated.

"With regards to the individual mandate, the individual responsibility program that I proposed, I was very pleased that the compromise between the two houses includes the personal responsibility mandate," he says in the video, which was found by the group American Bridge 21st Century.

Mr. Romney has acknowledged his support for a mandate in the Massachusetts health plan, but he says he does not believe it is the right approach for the federal system. He regularly condemns the mandate as top-down, government-run health care and vows to repeal it if the court does not strike it down.

But the video is another stark reminder that Mr. Romney is not the ideal candidate to do battle with the president on the health care issue - a charge that Mr. Romney's Republican rivals regularly lodged against him during the primaries this year.

As we approach closer to primary day, Chris Donovan gets another vote of confidence...

Register Citizen:

MoveOn.org announced today that it has endorsed Democrat Chris Donovan for congress in the 5th District.

MoveOn.org has close to 16,000 members in the 5th Congressional District, and the organization asked it's members, twice, if the arrest of Donovan's campaign finance director affected their opinions.

"When polled last month, 59 percent of MoveOn members voting in the 5th District supported Chris - putting him more than 20 points ahead of his nearest competitor," the organization said out in a release.

"In a year when voters are searching for candidates who will stand up for the 99 percent, there are few leaders with a more impressive record than Chris Donovan," said Daniel Mintz, MoveOn's national director of coordinated campaigns.

[...]

"While the vote was ongoing, news broke that Donovan's finance director had been arrested for alleged campaign finance violations," MoveOn asked members in an email recently. "Since then, Donovan has replaced key staff and maintained that he had no knowledge about the alleged violations. Investigators haven't charged anyone other than the finance director and haven't indicated that Donovan himself is a target of the investigation."

In a move that many predicted, today, the members of the CT AFL-CIO endorsed the campaigns of Chris Donovan for Congress and Chris Murphy for Senate.

CTNJ:

The 250 delegates of a statewide labor coalition endorsed embattled House Speaker Chris Donovan in his bid for the 5th Congressional District Tuesday.

Gathered at the Hartford Hilton, delegates endorsed Donovan by voice vote at the same time as they endorsed U.S. Reps. John Larson, Joe Courtney, Rosa DeLauro, and Jim Himes.

The endorsement means Donovan and the current congressional delegation will receive the support of 200,000 union members from 500 unions in the state.

[...]

The AFL-CIO is just the latest labor endorsement for Donovan, who has picked up support of a large number of unions including SEIU CT State Council, Connecticut State Police Union, AFSCME Council 4, Connecticut Education Association, and AFT Connecticut to name a few.

Paz:

The Connecticut AFL-CIO's political convention formally voted Tuesday to endorse Democrats Chris Murphy for U.S. Senate and Chris Donovan for Congress, giving them a boost from labor heading into the Aug. 14 primary.

The ratification of a recommendation by the labor federation's political committee is routine in many years, but it is a timely affirmation of support for Donovan, whose campaign was rocked by an FBI investigation into illegal contributions.

Murphy, a three-term congressman from the 5th District, and Donovan, the state House speaker, are seeking open seats. Murphy is trying to succeed Sen. Joseph I. Lieberm and, and Donovan is trying to succeed Murphy.

Murphy is the front-runner in his primary race with Susan Bysiewicz, the former secretary of the state. Donovan is competing in his primary with former state Rep. Elizabeth Esty and Dan Roberti.

After the endorsement, Donovan and Murphy released the following statements.

Donovan:

"It is a great honor to receive the support and endorsement of the hard-working men and women of the Connecticut AFL-CIO. The AFL-CIO recognizes that working people are the engine that runs the American economy, and they are at the front of the fight to ensure that every worker and every family is treated with fairness, dignity, and respect.

"Together we will work to protect Medicare and Social Security from cynical political attacks, to bring good jobs with strong benefits back home to Connecticut, and to enact laws that guarantee equal pay for equal work."

Murphy:

"I'm thrilled to have the endorsement of the AFL-CIO.  I've stood shoulder to shoulder with working men and women in Connecticut in my work for universal health care, pay equity for women, and stronger Buy American laws.  I'm going to be vastly outspent in this campaign, so I'm going to have to win by having more boots on the ground spreading our message.  That's what the AFL is all about."

Cross post from HatCityBLOG

Mayor Boughton's 10 year scam plan to end homeless, 2006.

...an update on Boughton's homeless scam plan five years later.

Seven years after Danbury's most dishonest man announced his 10 year plan to end homelessness in the city, his feeble attempt to use the blight of the poor for political points is an utter failure.

Days ago, former mayoral candidate and local activist Lynn Taborsak announced that concerned citizens will be forming an encampment on the grounds of City Hall to bring awareness to the inaction of the mayor to live up to his word.