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Credentials Cliffhanger

by: BranfordBoy

Fri May 19, 2006 at 07:20:18 AM EDT

There's a struggle going on over the Hartford delegation to the Democratic Convention between the "official" delegation put into place by Mayor Eddie Perez and a slate of challengers led by Nick Carbone, long-time progressive activist.

BranfordBoy :: Credentials Cliffhanger

Yesterday the Convention's Credentials Committee met to resolve the issue and promptly recesssed until 3 pm today, to give the two sides more time to work things out. This despite the fact that a spokesman for the "official" Hartford delegation said there's nothing more to say. For his part, Carbone said "No one's talking to me."

Party brass are eager to see the matter resolved "so we can be unioted going into the Convention." Presumably heads are being knocked together by higher-ups even as I type this report and the hoped for compromise will be reached in time to be rubberstamped at the 3 pm meeting.

I've heard that the real bone of contention in this little spat is how the Hartford delegates will break from Malloy and DeStefano. How Lamont would fare in any comproimise is anyone's guess. Perez is pro-Malloy and anti-Lamont, so it seems likely that any settlement will be good for DeStefano and Lamont.

Personally, I hope it get settled amicably. But this is Hartford, after all, so who knows? Worst case scenario is that the bickering sides take their dispute to the convention floor where it get ssettled by the entire pool of delegates in a roll call vote and, not incidentally, pushes the Senate nomination into the late evening.

UPDATE: As I get ready to leave for Hartford, comes word that the Hartford delegation is holding firm. There'll be no resolution. This could get ugly.

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Credentials Cliffhanger | 2 comments

Thanks for the update (0.00 / 0)

I've been watching this story for quite a while, and I've been wondering how it will play out. I do agree with you that it would be best for everyone if this were to be settled amicably, but I have my doubts as well, and would not be surprised to see this go to the convention floor.

As I've written elsewhere, I don't think that any settlement is likely to have a big impact on the delegate counts. Hartford has 54 delegates, or about 3% of the delegates. Since any settlement is likely to affect only a subset of these delegates, it only makes a difference if candidates are incredibly close to the line (e.g. if Malloy has 49.5% of the delegates)

That said, it does re-inforce the perception of Perez as a strong armed politician that will use party rules in whatever way he can to thwart the will of the citizens. The only real winner in this is likely to be whomever challenges Perez for re-election next year.

by: Aldon Hynes @ Fri May 19, 2006 at 11:39:15 AM UTC

credentials cliffhanger (0.00 / 0)

I disagree with Aldon...if there is a credentials committee vote the acrimony will be increased to even a higher degree.The contrast with Rell who will be endorsed in a love fest will be telling.From out of the convention to the August primary will be a war to a degree that it will be in my view impossible to put together and unite the party under the primary winner.The real winner here is Rell.

The challenge for delegates of Hartford's delegation was a stupid idea.

by: BDRubenstein @ Fri May 19, 2006 at 15:01:05 PM UTC