Hi Guys and Gals! Nice to be back where I won't automatically be piled on @ "Hello" just because I'm a liberal. I think ;-)
So are you sufficiently panicked by the upcoming Snowmaggedon? I had to look up "Thunder Snow". Can you spell A-W-E-S-O-M-E? Surely another sign of the Snowpocalypse.
But back to politics.
1) For some reason that I find extremely curious, Stu Rothenberg's Political Report has put the 5th CD in play, although still in the Democratic favored category.
After meeting with state Sen. Sam Caligiuri (R) and former state director of military affairs Justin Bernier (R), it's clear that Cong. Chris Murphy (D) can't take his reelection for granted.
Clearly no one can take their reelection for granted, particularly in a mid term election when people's pocketbooks are hurting. But here's why I think he's wrong:
Caligiuri has made enemies within his own party. It's not like he's locked up the support of the RTC's in the 5th. Far from it.
Bernier's a solid candidate, but he's got a fight on his hands before he even gets to Murphy. Not just with Caligiuri but with the other GOP candidates, most of whom don't register, but one of whom, Mark Greenberg, is willing to dig into his deep pockets for the fight.
Meanwhile, Chris Murphy is has $942K cash on hand as of the 4th Q, and continue to fund raise while he waits to see who survives the GOP primary free for all. As a comparison, Bernier has $200K on hand, Caligiuri, $70K and Greenberg $256K of which $150K is a personal loan to his campaign.
I'm not a big gambler (the stock market was enough to take care of that urge) but I'll bet Stu Rothenberg a beer that Chris Murphy is still the Congressman in the 5th come November.
2) The shape of things to come? South Carolina Republicans are uniting with Tea Party activists to "share resources, coordinate messaging and push the GOP in a more conservative direction".
"This is not something the state party by edict pushed down," Floyd said. "This is something the grass-roots pushed up with an understanding that we are stronger together than apart."
Floyd said that working with the groups accomplishes her goals of "growing the Republican Party, electing conservative Republicans and growing the strength of the party," though she was careful in describing what the party intends to do in working with the tea parties to elect more conservative members.
"What we mean by that is being ideologically in step with our platform of creating a small government and advancing individual liberty," she said, insisting that partnering with the tea parties would not block support for more moderate candidates.
Yeah. And if you believe that, I've got a bridge to sell you in Brooklyn. But the CT Tea Partiers, at least one branch of them, are taking a different tack having registered the name with an eye to becoming a political party in the state, although not all the TP'ers agree with this strategy. Maybe we'll have a Tea Party Free for All!Oh Please...
Several people who attended Saturday's forum expressed skepticism at what they view as Simmons' fairly recent turn to the right.
"There's room for redemption, but he's got a ways to go to square his record with us," said Bob MacGuffie of Fairfield, founder of the conservative political action committee Right Principles.
MacGuffie doesn't buy Simmons' portrayal of himself as a fiscal conservative. "The whole Republican Party went off the deep end" during the Bush years, MacGuffie said, and Simmons "got swept up in that."
MacGuffie has even harsher words for one of Simmons' GOP rivals, Linda McMahon, saying that the former World Wrestling Entertainment CEO has "no record" to run on.
Guess they're not convinced by that Tea Bag Simmons has been carrying around.
One AndersonScooper posted this video of the recent townhall of Chris Murphy in Simsbury earlier this week. I saw it over at Connecticut Local Politics where you can read the comments of Genghis Conn about what he saw there.
Today, 57 Democratic members of Congress signed a letter to House leadership stating that the Blue Dog compromise on the public option in the Energy and Commerce Committee was "fundamentally unacceptable." Here is the full text of the letter, which includes a clear line in the sand:
Dear Madame Speaker, Chairman Waxman, Chairman Rangel, and Chairman Miller:
We write to voice our opposition to the negotiated health care reform agreement under consideration in the Energy and Commerce Committee.
We regard the agreement reached by Chairman Waxman and several Blue Dog members of the Committee as fundamentally unacceptable. This agreement is not a step forward toward a good health care bill, but a large step backwards. Any bill that does not provide, at a minimum, for a public option with reimbursement rates based on Medicare rates - not negotiated rates - is unacceptable. It would ensure higher costs for the public plan, and would do nothing to achieve the goal of "keeping insurance companies honest," and their rates down.
To offset the increased costs incurred by adopting the provisions advocated by the Blue Dog members of the Committee, the agreement would reduce subsidies to low- and middle-income families, requiring them to pay a larger portion of their income for insurance premiums, and would impose an unfunded mandate on the states to pay for what were to have been Federal costs.
In short, this agreement will result in the public, both as insurance purchasers and as taxpayers, paying ever higher rates to insurance companies.
We simply cannot vote for such a proposal.
Missing from the list of signatories? Any single Member of Congress from Connecticut, including Progressive Caucus member Rosa DeLauro.
August will be a long month of citizen lobbying, insurance industry spending, and message maneuvering on health care thanks in large part to the delay of the House floor vote that was also a key part of the Blue Dog compromise. There is still a long road ahead, but what happens in August will be key.
All of Connecticut's delegation - John Larson, Joe Courtney, Rosa DeLauro, Jim Himes, Chris Murphy - will be in their districts next month. They will certainly be hearing from the insurance industry. They need to hear from their constituents too. Ask them to pledge to vote against any legislation that does not include a strong public option.
As the August recess looms, the state of health care reform in the House of Representatives is changing by the minute.
Today, House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman appears to have possibly called the Blue Dogs' bluff and set the stage for passing the House health care legislation before the recess without the right-wing Dems in his committee getting to vote against it.
Also today, the ranks of progressives in the House who are standing tall and saying they refuse to vote for any legislation without a robust public option - on the floor, or after it comes back from conference - is growing.
Minutes ago, Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), who had previously refused to commit to voting against any reform-in-name only bill without a public option, changed her tune dramatically:
I have always been a strong supporter of the public option (including co-sponsoring single-payer) and pledged to you several weeks ago to fight like heck to make sure a public option will be included in any health care reform bill. But, having watched the debate evolve over the last week or so, I want to make sure all of you know that I have decided I will not vote for a health care bill in the House that doesn't include a real public option and I Pledge to uphold the public option principles agreed upon by the Progressive Caucus.
And here's Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-ME), saying largely the same thing in a statement today:
"I'm not going to vote for any House bill that doesn't include a robust public option without any triggers or coops -- that's a must-have for me. I also believe that it's vital that there be a vote on the bill before the August recess. Delaying will only give entrenched special interests time to do everything they can to defeat it."
We specifically asked if "House bill" also meant conference report, and she indicated that it did.
Meanwhile, Connecticut's delegation - John Larson, Joe Courtney, Rosa DeLauro, Jim Himes, and Chris Murphy - still have not stood up to declare that they will vote against meaningless reform-in-name only.
The Hill reports today on a letter to the Speaker signed by 22 members of the New Democrat and Blue Dog caucuses - including Chris Murphy and Joe Courtney, both New Dems - stating their support for a "robust" public option that competes on a level playing field with private health care plans.
The letter, unsurprisingly, doesn't address where these 22 members draw a line in the sand - the point at which they will refuse to vote for a health care reform bill that will surely be whittled away in the committee, floor, and conference fights to come in the coming weeks in both houses - or whether they are preemptively saying they will vote for any bill no matter how horrible it is.
It does, however, shed some light on what appears to be some real fracturing of the New Democrat Caucus on the health care fight:
Many New Dems criticized their leaders and said they have not liked being lumped in with opponents of the bill, particularly the public plan.
Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.), a relatively new member of the group, said it should consider reviewing its practices....
"There is some concern that some decisions come only from talk among New Dem leadership rather than the broader leadership," said a New Democrat lawmaker. "A lot of decisions are made by New Dem leadership and not broadly discussed in membership meetings."
There's a very easy way for worried individual members interested in salvaging a real, workable public option - like 72% of Americans - to avoid being "lumped in" with those in their caucus who are pulling out all the stops to gut this bill even more and turn it into an insurance industry giveaway: by letting us know that you pledge to vote against any bill that does not contain a public option that is (1) available nationwide (2) on day one and (3) accountable to Congress and voters.
While there continues to be much talk of "support" for a public option, neither John Larson, Joe Courtney, Rosa DeLauro, Jim Himes, nor Chris Murphy have told us where their "line in the sand" is on this bill. If we want to have any chance of seeing a public option in the final bill, we need to know where they stand now.
As Rahm Emanuel unilaterally declares a public option not to be a necessity for the Obama administration (for the second time in two weeks), and President Obama himself finds himself walking back his chief of staff's comments from halfway across the globe, the need for a progressive bloc in the House of Representatives who will stand together and pledge to vote against reform-in-name only, making a real public option a necessity for any health care bill's passage this year, gets only clearer and clearer.
In CT, Joe Courtney is the latest Connecticut Representative to refuse to commit to voting against any health care plan without a workable, robust public option. Campaign Silo has the audio from his appearance last week on WNPR's "Where We Live":
This echoes Courtney's recent comments at a town hall meeting with constituents in DC, where he also refused to commit to vote against a health care bill without a public plan.
Our representatives need to know that at this point in the legislative process, voicing "support" for a public option means very little. What we need desperately are Democrats committed to real health care reform - like Jerry Nadler in New York - with the courage and the conviction to say loud and clear that a bill without a public option will be dead on arrival in the House.
Joe now joins Rosa DeLauro in refusing to be part of this effort. Apparently "Where We Live" will be hosting Rosa and the remainder of the Connecticut House delegation in the coming days and weeks (Chris Murphy was on yesterday), so constituents can continue to call in.
Here's how the citizen whip count of targeted progressive representatives (specifically, whether they will pledge to vote against any bill that does not contain a public option that is (1) available nationwide (2) on day one and (3) accountable to Congress and voters) stands as of today. You can contact your representative using the info here and report their response using the whip count tool here.
Previous "Whipping the Public Option in CT" posts:
("The CT #healthcare09 delegation arrives in @jahimes office." by CCAG via TwitPic)
Today, Beau from CCAG is twittering the huge Health Care '09 rally and lobby day live from DC. You can follow CCAG's twitter feed all day here, photo updates here, and video updates here. This is by all accounts the largest national healthcare reform lobby day in history, and it comes at a crucial time. You can follow CCAG on twitter throughout the day for updates on meetings between Connecticut voters lobbying for meaningful health care reform - including a robust public option - and their representatives.
While most recent attention - and pressure - on healthcare legislation has been focused on the opaque workings of Senate committees and the huge egos and twisted priorities at work therein, this week Firedoglake and nyceve from Daily Kos launched a public whip count of progressive Representatives asking them for a firm commitment to vote against any health care "reform" legislation that does not include a public option that is "1. Available nationwide, 2. From day one," and "3. Answerable to Congress and the voters."
As Ben Smith from Politico points out, public whip counts like this are one of the most powerful tools available to online activists who want to influence legislation:
Legislative vote counts are one of those things that the Web can transform. They're typically closely held - counting is an insider's art - and deliberate ambiguity is a key negotiating tactic. Legislators who would prefer to vote no, for instance, might be willing to be the last vote, for a price. So while this has the effect of pushing members toward Obama's position, it also shines a spotlight on members who might prefer to stay uncommitted, or to wait for details and compromises.
Getting only 40 progressive Representatives to commit to voting against meaningless "reform" legislation without a public option may be the best way to force the Senate's - and White House's - hand on the public option. The Firedoglake whip count tool is here, but it only targets 100 progressive Representatives who they believe to be the lowest hanging fruit. Only one Rep from Connecticut - DeLauro - is on the list, and she has yet to respond. Yet Connecticut has 5 Democratic representatives who are all signatories to the Health Care for America Now "core principles" -- 3 of whom were elected to replace Republican incumbents in 2006 and 2008 based in large part on their support for real health care reform.
There's no reason not to ask CT's entire House delegation to commit to oppose meaningless reform-in-name-only that does not include a workable and robust public option. Contact your Rep at the phone number below and ask them to pledge to vote against any bill that does not contain a public option that is (1) available nationwide, (2) on day one, and (3) accountable to Congress and the voters, and report any response to the FDL whip count tool here.
(Ironic that Republicans who called previous voters against supplementals traitors or defeatist now vote against it, and Democrats vote for it. - promoted by Jon Kantrowitz)
When it comes to a major opportunity to stop the wars, as Edwin Starr would sing, Absolutely nothing!
All the members of the Connecticut Congressional delegation--Rosa DeLauro, Chris Murphy, Joe Courtney, Jim Himes, John Larson--voted for the war supplemental. Several of these pols have presented themselves in their campaigns as being committed to a less warlike foreign policy. But when the chips were down and there was an opportunity to stand up and really cut the funding that fuels this bloody mayhem, they voted for war.
Health Care for America Now (HCAN) is the leading national grassroots campaign in America for health care reform, comprised of more than 850 organizations in 46 states representing 30 million people. President Obama and Vice President Biden; Members of Congress John Larson, Joe Courtney, Rosa DeLauro, Jim Himes, Chris Murphy and over 190 of their colleagues signed onto the HCAN principles.
HCAN is dedicated to winning quality, affordable health care we all can count on in 2009. Everyone benefits from healthy communities, where we all have access to affordable, quality health care from a provider of our choice, at the time we need it, at a cost we can afford. Our mutual goal is affordable, quality health care for everyone in America and for our nation.
Connecticut Co-Chairs Tom Swan, Executive Director of CCAG and John Olsen, President of the Connecticut AFL-CIO invite you to one of three health care reform forums throughout Connecticut. Even if none of these are in your area, please be sure to forward this invitation to family and friends who do.
Special Guest Congressman Chris Murphy
10:00 AM to 12 Noon (Doors open at 9:30 AM)
Pulaski Club
89 Grove Street, New Britain 06053 [Google Map]
NOW is time to fix our health care system. Come and share your story about how and why our health care system needs to be reformed, and hear about the latest reform proposals before Congress. Learn how you can get involved in bringing health care reform to America now!
Congressman Chris Murphy, who represents Connecticut's 5th Congressional District, showed his support for the Health Care for America Now! campaign's principles at the Community Health Center in Meriden. Immediately below is a brief video from today's event:
Congressman Chris Murphy has recently been named to the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which is one of the two House Committees that will guide national health reform efforts. He was joined in Meriden by Richard Hirsch, who is the campaign manager for Health Care for America Now!
The full event today, including all guest speakers:
Disclosure: I am the Online Organizer for Connecticut Citizen Action Group (CCAG)
(HCAN is doing important work to create awareness and widespread support for necessary health care reform. These signing events, promoted by CCAG, are terrific ways to show appreciation to Congressmen like Chris Murphy, Jim Himes, and the rest of the CT delegation who've signed on for health care reform. - promoted by CaptCT)
Below is an e-mail action alert that went out Sunday. If you want to be the first to hear about upcoming actions and events, sign up for CCAG Action Alerts here.
Congressman Chris Murphy has recently been named to the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which is one of the two House Committees that will guide national health reform efforts.
Richard Kirsch, Health Care for America Now (HCAN), Campaign Manager, will be joining us as Congressman Murphy publicly signs the HCAN pledge. Rep. Murphy has already been hard at work organizing his peers in Washington DC for health care reform.
Please join us to encourage Representative Murphy to continue this vital work in his new role!
As DavidNYC noted in his Orange-to-Blue endorsement post of Jim Himes yesterday, Chris Shays has a history of pretending to be a "moderate" while voting again and again for Bush's policies.
This morning, Shays joined many in both parties in Congress by standing with Bush again on the FISA "compromise".
(Here was Jim Himes's statement in opposition to the FISA "compromise" yesterday.)
Thankfully, Connecticut has four out of five Democrats in our House delegation, and all four - John Larson, Rosa DeLauro, Joe Courtney, and Chris Murphy - stood up and voted against both the war supplemental and against retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies included in the FISA bill.
Let's show them that we have their backs. Send a thank you note to all four CT Dems for their vote today here:
Mousepads and Shoeleather and Things to be Thankful For . . . . . .
Thank you M. for my first campaign contribution. The day will arrive when I will - with your permission - tell the world that your campaign contribution of $20.08 was the first one deposited into the checking account for Stevenson2008.
Thank you Alice Hutchinson and Jason Bartlett - and many other Democratic Party members who believe in me enough to suggest me as the first challenger for the 107 th State Assembly District to actively campaign since my good and dear friend Louise Trojanowski Marconi in 2000.
Thank you to my wonderful wife and kindred spirit Diane - who encouraged me to accept this challenge, just as Louise's husband Robert encouraged her in 2000.
Thank you to all the Democratic Party members and Green Party members and Working Families Party members and Unaffiliated voters - who turned out to help the Democratic Party in Connecticut and in America choose Barack Obama as the standardbearer for the next President of the United States - and whom I now ask to walk with me in Brookfield and Bethel to change the way we do business in the Connecticut Legislature.
My initial campaign contribution from M. of $20.08 has been matched by many other $20.08 contributors at this juncture. These contributions will not earn you any special favors, but those contributions have and will earn you the designation - along with each and every person in the Connecticut 107 th Assembly District - as my "special interest".
I completed my first two hours of door-to-door today - along with an exceptional friend of mine whom I campaigned for 26 years ago, Lynn Taborsak. Lynn campaigned that year against a stalwart incumbent who "couldn't be beat" - and accomplished two parallel important goals which America and Connecticut needs more than ever in 2008. She won her District - and also became friends over the years with the person she unseated. Coalitions are the core of governing, as a voter I spoke with today reminded me - and all of us have this 95% core of what we agree on to go along with the 5% extraneous issues which we disagree on. Every human being has the capacity to do good and the capacity to do wrong. A Danbury News-Time blogger - who blogs under five different pseudonyms at the same time while he ridicules the good which he shares with me and others - pointed out the many posts which I have placed in the blogosphere over the past four years - pointed out my quirky sense of humor which I displayed in a Top Ten list of "excuses Senator Clinton would give for bowling a 37".
Thank you, Howard Dean - for setting Americans on the right track to taking our country back from the Sophists, Pharisees and other misguided individuals who had taken America down a road where divisiveness replaced coalition-building.
Thank you Chris Murphy and thank you Ned Lamont - who is rightly referred to as America's Senator, because his campaign helped other candidates and America's voters regrow their spine.
Thank you Sal and T. - who inspired me to begin planning my campaign in January 2004. I knew that I would be doing this one day - I just didn't know exactly when that day would arrive.
Since
last
fall's review of the spending habits of Congressional
campaigns, the state's candidates
have continued to find thrifty, questionable and downright foolish
ways to spend their money between October and March, several months
before voters start paying attention to them.
Democrats
in ostensibly competitive districts (Courtney, Himes, and Murphy) have
spent much less of a percentage of their income on average than
their Republican counterparts.
Chris Murphy's campaign, a
disciplined machine, has raised and saved the most and, not
coincidentally, has the lowest and most consistent burn rate.
John
Larson is the only candidate spending more than he is
raising. He
was actually left with less cash on hand at the end of March
than
when he started this electoral
cycle.
Sean Sullivan is the worst GOP candidate of the
year. (Tony Nania would compete for the title if he were for
real.)
Jim
Himes nearly matched Chris Shays in cash on hand, in large
part
because of Shays' pattern of big spending and Himes' past thriftiness.
But Himes raised less and spent more than Shays early this
year, diminishing
his progress.
CD
Candidate
Cash on hand
Jan 1 07
Raised
Jan 07 -
Mar 08
Spent
Jan 07 -
Mar 08
Cash on hand
Mar 31, 08
Burn
rate
Jan 07-
Sep 07
Burn
rate
Oct 07-
Mar 08
Total
burn rate
1
Larson
236,969
652,432
682,850
179,552
87%
155%
109%
2
Courtney
47,599
1,465,808
318,722
1,194,685
20%
25%
22%
2
Sullivan
-
230,450
101,462
128,988
23%
72%
44%
3
DeLauro
16,124
624,773
473,024
167,873
83%
66%
76%
4
Shays
61,544
1,608,255
532,072
1,137,726
37%
29%
33%
4
Himes
-
1,379,992
274,781
1,105,212
11%
27%
20%
5
Murphy
50,703
1,791,612
297,675
1,544,639
16%
18%
17%
5
Cappiello
-
654,655
232,039
420,316
24%
43%
35%
5
Nania
-
31,989
21,943
10,046
-
77%
77%
Burn rate = (total spent + debt)/ total raised.
More on the spending
habits of each candidate, and an update on April spending below.
You can send a check to the Charter Oak chapter of the Red Cross, said the Governor to morning deejay today, urging citizens to contribute to the relief fund for the home fire that knocked 150 people out of 120 apartments in Norwich this weekend.
Can't somebody do something about this traffic, gasped the Congressman trapped on the Merritt Parkway to the morning jock about the price of gas and the situation on the highways.
Ain't nothing we can't handle, said the man pushing the broom to his friend as they stood under the grocery store awning, under the raining gray sky.
Of all the conversations I heard today, I like the man pushing the broom the best.
I was ready to pull out my hair by the time I was done listening to Chaz and AJ and Billy and Megan Dahl hang out with Governor M. Jodi Rell and Congressman Chris Murphy this morning on WPLR.
And that was after I missed the beginning of their conversation while channel surfing down I-91, on my way to a property law exam from Hartford to Hamden, by car, of course.
Apparently the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, which is a "nonprofit and historically nonpartisan" 501c(3) think tank has formed a 501c(4) issue advocacy group called Defense of Democracies (so there's, you know, no chance of getting the two confused) that's behind these ads. The advocacy group is run by Clifford May, who's also in charge of the Foundation (but, you know, the two organizations are totally independent; pay no attention to the fact that they work out of the same offices)... and May is also a former RNC Communications Director.
(I actually meant to post this as a comment to the Thursday Read 'Ems thread, but for some bizarre reason it wouldn't stick there. There's more below the fold...)
So far this week, Joe Courtney, John Larson, and Chris Murphy have come to Iowa to campaign for Chris Dodd. Megan Lubin, our Iowa blogger, and I have been able to speak to them and record their explanation as to why they're in Iowa campaigning for Chris Dodd And the fourth CT Democrat in Congress, Rosa DeLauro -- she's national co-chair of the Chris Dodd for President campaign.
Congressman John Larson (CT-01)
Congressman Joe Courtney (CT-02)
Congressman Chris Murphy (CT-05)
Clearly Chris Dodd is someone who has earned the respect and support from his colleagues back home in Connecticut. Many of his staff members in Iowa are people from CT who have known him for years. What greater sign of Chris Dodd's record of accomplishments than the people he's spent a career representing dedicating themselves to helping him attain the highest office in our land? As Congressman Courtney makes clear, it is what Chris Dodd has done and what Chris Dodd will do that makes him the best choice to "turn this country around."
Since
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