Hartford Mayor Eddie Perez continues to sustitute lamesness for leadership. From the Courant:
After 16 people were shot in five days in Hartford, Mayor Eddie A. Perez and Gov. M. Jodi Rell fired accusations at one another Wednesday in a high-profile clash of public letters over how to stop the bloodshed on the city's streets.
Rell claimed Perez had turned away the state's helping hand. Perez said no such thing was even close to true. As the day continued, much ink was spilled by the two political rivals as each lobbed explosive letters at one another.
Ken Dixon of the CT Post has some interesting background on the Malloy-DeStefano squeaker.
Unfortunately for DeStefano, that 900-vote commitment he supposedly had from convention delegates never did materialize. Thus, his apparent three-vote victory of the first round of balloting in a pit (could they at least have had soap in the men's room?) called the Connecticut Expo Center turned into an ultimate four-vote loss.
Which is your choice? Which is the better Dem? Which has the better progressive credentials? Which has the better plan for Connecticut? Which one can beat Rowland-Rell in November?
The Lamont campaign has remained studiously neutral in the gubernatorial sweepstakes. So more than a few eyebrows arched skyward when dashing young attorney Gary Collins took the podium on Saturday to second Dan Malloy's nomination and strongly imply (without actually saying it) that Lamont supporters should back Malloy.
Collins is a prominent member of the Lamont staff, so the natural inference was that the Lamont campaign supported his views. Not so.
It looked like DeStefano by a hair, but after some changes, additions, and one can only assume some arm-twisting it'slooking like Malloy has taken the lead.
Update: A change in Danbury's vote has brought a challenge.
Update: Changes to the fifth district are still open. Stay tuned.
Update:2:20pm They are checking to see that people who have submitted challenges are from the town they say they're from. Only a member of a town's delegation can challenge that town's vote.
Update: 2:21. This from a Lamont supporter: "Let Malloy have it. DeStefano will be better off on Line B with Lamont."
Update: 2:25. Nancy DiNardo just announced a challenge from Norwich. She is aking forthe Norwich delegation to step forward. Then she will poll that delegation. This could go on and one.
Update: 2:35 Norwich challenge upheld. Vote stays the same 9-6 DeStefano.
Update: Gotta pee.(Older men should nevr live-blog!) Go to ConnecticutBlog for more.Not only doeshe have a bladder of steel, he types better.
Last Update: 5:40 pm After a long ouase, a long pee, and predictions of a dead heat, it was, indeed, Malloy in a squeaker. 795 to 799, a margin of less than one percent!
They are dragging themselves through this gubernatorial primary with a huge ball and chain shackled to their ankles. And the ball bears an uncanny resemblance to the head of Joe Lieberman.
Then there are those wild and wacky Lamont delegates.
John DeStefano and Dan Malloy were in Danbury courting the DTC yesterday. DeStefano talked about his son graduating from UConn, but never mentioned the two young men who graduated from life this past week in Iraq or the hundreds Connecticut sons and daughters who are patrolling the mean streets of Baghdad and Fallujah instead of tasting the sweet life in Branford and Fairfield. In fact, he never mentioned the war at all.
Malloy, who also has military-aged kids, didn't say boo about Iraq either. To listen to these two men who would lead the state, you'd never know that our government is waging a senseless war that is killing and maiming kids from the working class families they both say they care so much about.
John DeStefano, Dan Malloy, and a Joe Lieberman stand-in will be appearing before the Danbury DTC tonight, Monday the 8th, at 7:30 pm. God forbid that Joe should actually have to do what real candidates do!
The latest Quinnipiac Poll shows Jodi Rowland-Rell slipping, but not nearly enough.
The tally of 1,536 registered voters shows Rell easily vanquishing either of her potential Dem opponents, although there are reasons for hope in the fine print.
Rell buries two possible Democratic challengers:
66 - 20 percent over New Haven Mayor John DeStefano, compared to 70 - 16 percent February 16;
65 - 20 percent over Stamford Mayor Dan Malloy, compared to 70 - 15 percent.
By a 64 - 6 percent margin, voters have a favorable opinion of Rell, with 19 percent mixed and 10 percent who haven't heard enough to form an opinion.
Her challengers are relatively unknown: 60 percent don't have an opinion about DeStefano and 81 percent don't know enough about Malloy.
Today my campaign did something truly historic, something that no other gubernatorial campaign in Connecticut has ever done – announced a plan for universal health care. Under my Connecticut CAN! (Cover All Now) plan, every citizen will be given the opportunity to purchase affordable health care coverage.
I’ll do this by creating a one-stop marketplace for health insurance, closing corporate loopholes to cover the uninsured and providing relief to low income workers.
He goes on to take a dig at his two opponents:
Gov. Rell has offered NO plan for universal health care coverage. Her most recent State of the State address did not even mention Connecticut’s health care crisis. Dannel Malloy’s plan isn’t much better, providing health care for only 20% of Connecticut’s uninsured.
How will this affect the dynamics of the campaign?
There have been some staff changes in John DeStefano's campaign organization.
Henry Fernandez has been named campaign director, replacing Shonu Gandhi, who has been moved to the job of "campaign director, the equivalent of a deputy campaign manager."
The campaign is portraying the moves as business as usual.
Campaign spokesman Derek Slap said the plan all along was to bring in a more experienced manager at this point. Fernandez said he will be adding more people in the near future.
"A big part of why John asked me to come on is the shift we are going to be making now, which is the shift to win the primary election," Fernandez said of the Aug. 8 expected face-off between DeStefano and Stamford Mayor Dannel Malloy.
Speaking of Malloy, the article goes on to note:
Both campaigns have young volunteers, but Malloy also has party regulars who have worked on previous campaigns, including Roy Occhiogrosso, who ran William Curry’s losing race against GOP Gov. John G. Rowland in 2002.
Occhiogrosso has also been seen propping up Joe Lieberman's sagging campaign of late, stepping in to deftly remove nominal campaign manager Sean Smith's foot from his mouth as circumstances warrant.
What other synergies might there be between the Malloy and Lieberman camps?
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