WASHINGTON-Connecticut officials and advocates alike embraced the White House's proposal for a new $50 billion transportation infrastructure program on Tuesday. But with key details still murky, it's not clear how much of a boon President Barack Obama's new plan would be to the state. Read more
WASHINGTON--While Democratic leaders in Congress are ready to scuttle the Bush-era tax cuts for upper-income earners, not all members of the state's delegation are on board. Read more
WASHINGTON-For a crowd that so adamantly decries the role of big money in politics, Connecticut's congressional delegation sure does a lot of extra political fundraising. And some of them do it with considerable style to boot.
Take Rep. John Larson's weekend excursion for deep-pocket donors last spring in California's Napa Valley. On the schedule: a bocce tournament, a vineyard tour, and a legislative update from Larson, the 4th ranking Democrat in the House.
Read moreWASHINGTON -- When the health care debate started bubbling up in Congress last year, Ethan Rome jumped straight into the pot, helping to lead a liberal coalition in favor of the bill. Now the West Hartford native is in the middle of another fight: trying to mold public opinion in favor of the reform law.
It is no easy task. A new poll says Americans remain decidedly split and intensely partisan in their views of the measure. Read more
WASHINGTON-As President Barack Obama prepares to mark the end of U.S. combat operations in Iraq with an Oval Office speech this evening, Connecticut lawmakers say they are still deeply anxious about the conflict and the U.S. role there.
Today marks an official change in mission in the seven-year war, which roiled domestic and international politics, has cost more than $700 billion dollars, and claimed the lives of about 4,400 U.S. troops, including more than three dozen from Connecticut. Read more
WASHINGTON -- Sen. Chris Dodd says he still doesn't know what he'll do come January, when his 36 years in Congress comes to an end. But he has ruled out one option.
"No lobbying, no lobbying," Dodd said. That he would forgo a trip through Washington's "revolving door," using his expertise and a thick Rolodex to launch a career in the influence industry, may come as a surprise. Read more
WASHINGTON -- The polls are grim, the economic news is bad, and voters are irked. But Rep. John Larson is casting himself as a counter to the "bed-wetters" who say all is lost for Democrats this November. Read more
WASHINGTON -- Chris Shays is not on the ballot in Connecticut's 4th Congressional District this year, but a Democrat in the race is channeling the former Republican congressman's persona. Read more
WASHINGTON -- Republican Linda McMahon's campaign spent nearly $2.5 million in the first 21 days of July, a daily average of $117,619.
And in the weeks before gliding to a primary win on Aug. 10, McMahon pumped another $5 million of her own money into the Senate campaign.
McMahon's most recent campaign finance reports offer a glimpse inside the richest campaign ever seen in Connecticut and one of the nation's most expensive Senate bids. Read more
The campaigns of Republican Linda McMahon and Democrat Richard Blumenthal are making overt and subtle appeals to unaffiliated women, a pool of 400,000 potential swing voters in their U.S. Senate race.
As McMahon tries to become the first woman elected to the Senate from Connecticut, she has touted her background as a corporate executive in commercials geared to professional women. Blumenthal has countered with appeals to women focused on families he has helped as attorney general. Read more
WASHINGTON -- Connecticut's congressional delegation has collectively submitted hundreds of earmark requests totaling more than $1 billion for fiscal year 2011. Read more
Sen. Christopher J. Dodd denied today that he is opposed to the nomination of Elizabeth Warren as the first consumer-protection watchdog overseeing the banking industry.
"I'm not lobbying against her at all," Dodd told reporters in Hartford. "All I said is I want a confirmable nominee, and right now, that's trouble. Elizabeth would be a great choice in my view." Read more
Huge. Complex. Difficult.
These are just a few of the adjectives Cristine Vogel throws out as she tries to describe her new job: special adviser to Gov. M. Jodi Rell for health care reform.
"We've just been putting out fires," she says. Read more
The House gave final approval to a long-delayed $26.1 billion emergency aid package for cash-strapped states on Tuesday.
Connecticut officials had been anxious over the fate of the legislation, which will send an estimated $309 million to the state to help stave off teacher lays offs and cuts to Medicaid, the health care safety net program for the poor. Although less than hoped for, the aid will enable the state to avoid a deficit this year, they said. Read more
If Democrats in Washington are getting nervous about Richard Blumenthal's shrinking lead in Connecticut Senate contest, they're putting on a good game face for now.
Blumenthal's edge over rival Linda McMahon, the GOP front-runner, has eroded from a 25-point lead in May to a 10-point advantage in the latest Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday. Read more
WASHINGTON-The U. S. Senate moved forward on a $26.1 billion emergency aid package for cash-strapped states on Wednesday, which could help Connecticut officials preserve teacher jobs and avoid cuts to health care services for the poor.
Failure to pass the bill would put a $376 million hole in this year's state budget. Although the measure advanced by the Senate Wednesday has less money than originally proposed, state officials said the shortfall would be manageable. Read more
WASHINGTON-Sen. Chris Dodd's presidential ambitions were snuffed out more than two years ago, but his campaign debt is alive and well.
The most recent report for Dodd's otherwise moribund presidential committee, Chris Dodd for President Inc., shows that he still has about $260,000 in unpaid bills, racked up during his 2008 White House bid. So even as the Connecticut Democrat winds down his 36-year political career in Washington, he is still raising campaign money. Read more
The state Insurance Department was portrayed as a toothless tiger in a report that said it approved nearly every rate hike sought by health insurers in recent years.
Commissioner Thomas Sullivan defended his agency, but now he's looking for a $1 million grant to strengthen its oversight. Read more
WASHINGTON-When Anthem Blue Cross tried to raise health insurance premiums in California by 39 percent this year, the move became a rallying point for proponents of health care reform legislation, and the landmark bill won final passage soon after.
So what will the health care reform bill actually do about double-digit premium hikes?
The answer to that question is still being sorted out, as insurance companies, health care providers, and consumer groups engage in a new tug-of-war over how federal regulators implement the law's provisions on premium increases. Read more
WASHINGTON--Rep. Jim Himes eagerly touts his voting score, as tallied by the Washington Post website, as evidence of the independent streak he's showing in Washington.
"Your research will indicate that I have the most independent voting record, not just in Connecticut but in New England," Himes said in a recent interview. Read more
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