WASHINGTON-The number of Connecticut residents relying on food stamps jumped 33 percent over the last year, hitting a record high fueled by expanded eligibility and economic hard times. At the same time, lawmakers in Washington have begun tapping the federal food stamp program to pay for other priorities, including a pending child nutrition bill. Rep. Rosa […]

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee launched a new ad in Connecticut today, hammering at Republican Linda McMahon’s stewardship of World Wrestling Entertainment. It’s the same theme (albeit a much harsher tone) that her opponent, Democrat Richard Blumenthal, took up in their final debate earlier this week. Campaign finance records show the ad is part of a $580,000 ad buy […]

WASHINGTON–The most volatile social questions of the day usually are couched in absolute terms: Are you for or against abortion? Gun control? Gay rights? And viewed in that broad context, there isn’t much difference between Linda McMahon and Richard Blumenthal. But the real battles over these issues often play out at the margins, over small […]

Despite her support for abortion rights, Linda McMahon has been wooing Connecticut social conservatives. And it’s paid off, in at least some quarters. Leslie Wolfgang, a conservative activist and the wife of Peter Wolfgang, head of the Family Institute of Connecticut, endorsed McMahon in August in a little-noticed Facebook post. “McMahon will vote for our [judicial] nominees and […]

Rep. Richard Blumenthal has hammered his opponent, Republican Linda McMahon, for her self-funded, multi-million-dollar campaign. But that doesn’t mean he’s above dipping into his own (albeit leaner) pockets to fuel his U.S. Senate bid. Blumenthal’s campaign announced tonight that he had raised $1.6 million in the 3rd quarter. He also loaned his campaign $500,000. That […]

Ex-Rep. Chris Shays is back on the airwaves in Connecticut’s 4th congressional district, even if he’s not on the ballot. Shays has cut a TV ad for state Sen. Dan Debicella, a Republican from Shelton who is trying to oust freshman Democratic Rep. Jim Himes. Himes narrowly wrested the seat from Shays in 2008, and he’s tried […]

WASHINGTON–When Congress passed a stop-gap funding bill last week, it was not the usual plumped-up emergency spending bill to keep the government running. It was, by Washington standards, a relatively slim funding measure-and one that sent a message to states: Not only is the federal stimulus spigot shut off, but other programs that provide aid […]

WASHINGTON–As Sarah Palin cranks up her “death panel” charges ahead of November’s elections, new studies suggest that the health care reform law will improve end-of-life care. Palin has revived the notion that the reform bill includes mechanisms to deny care for the the sick and elderly, part of an election-year bid to defeat Democrats who […]

WASHINGTON–When it came to writing end-of-life care provisions into the health reform bill, members of Congress turned in part to Aetna Inc., the Hartford-based insurance giant. Aetna is one of the few private insurers that already allows patients to seek both aggressive treatments for life-threatening illnesses and hospice care at the same time. Dr. Randall […]

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has reserved another $1.2 million in TV air time in Connecticut for the final three weeks of the hotly-contested Senate race between Richard Blumenthal and Linda McMahon, according to The Fix, a Washington Post blog. That comes on top of the nearly $500,000 the DSCC laid out earlier this week to […]

WASHINGTON-Sen. Joseph Lieberman wants to expand and make permanent a controversial federal education grant program, even though Connecticut has twice lost out in the competition for such money. Lieberman, an independent, is pushing legislation to change the Obama Administration’s Race to the Top initiative from a one-shot federal stimulus program into an enduring feature of […]

In his first campaign ad, state Sen. Sam Caligiuri is closely following the Republican playbook in his bid to oust Rep. Chris Murphy, the incumbent Democrat in Connecticut’s 5th District. Highlight the bad economy, and tie the incumbent to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. Check it out here. Caligiuri’s campaign didn’t respond to questions about how […]

Rep. Rosa DeLauro’s leadership PAC is among those highlighted in a new report, “Political Inaction Committees,” by the Center for Public Integrity, a nonpartisan investigative group in Washington. The center notes that DeLauro’s PAC, Committee for a Democratic Future, spends most of its money on catering expenses for invitation-only “policy dinners” that she and her […]

National Democrats have officially weighed in to the U.S. Senate race with a new ad, on the air starting today, blasting Republican Linda McMahon’s record as CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment. The spot, which doesn’t mention her opponent Democrat Richard Blumenthal, makes clear that Democrats hope the current of voter anger coursing through the electorate can […]

With the public still deeply divided over health care reform and some pundits saying it’s politically toxic, it’s hard to find any Democrat in a competitive re-election race who is talking up the new law. Except, that is, in Connecticut’s 4th Congressional District. Rep. Jim Himes, the Democratic incumbent facing state Sen. Dan Debicella, R-Shelton, has […]