Bysiewicz In

by: mattw

Wed May 05, 2010 at 13:46:37 PM EDT

Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz "has engaged in active practice" by serving in her constitutional office for the last 11 years, and is therefore qualified to be attorney general, a Superior Court judge ruled today. [...]

Secretaries of the state are not required to be lawyers in Connecticut, but the ruling says Bysiewicz "issued several opinions on matters of election administration to local election officials, party leaders, candidates for office and citizens. ... These requests, which are made of her personally almost every day, have frequently required the plaintiff to use her legal skill and training to give proper guidance to election officials for the benefit of the general public."

Her opponents give respectfully subdued responses to the decision:

Former Democratic state Sen. George C. Jepsen of Stamford, who also is running for attorney general, said he also was not surprised by Sheldon's conclusions.

"I've never challenged her credentials to be in the race and also believed that a judge would be appropriately reluctant to remove someone from the ballot," he said.

Rep. Cameron C. Staples, D-New Haven, who is also running for attorney general said he is glad that issue is finally resolved.

"I look forward to running on the issues and on the differences in our qualifications," he said.

The full PDF of the decision is available online via the CT Mirror. Add: What's up with the judge's use of Space Toaster in the footnotes? Very strange.