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. And in proposing this new initiative, Obama has highlighted a year-long […]

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. All of the sweeping tax cuts are set to expire at the end of this year, and top congressional Democrats such as Reps. John Larson, D-1st District, and Rosa DeLauro, […]

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 last spring, open to lobbyists and other deep-pocketed donors, in California’s Napa Valley, […]

WASHINGTON — 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. […]

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, […]

WASHINGTON — The polls are grim, the economic news is bad, and voters are irked. But U.S. Rep. John Larson, D-1st District, is casting himself as a traveling pep squad, a counter to the “bed-wetters who are wringing their hands and saying all is lost” for Democrats this November. As the fourth-ranking Democrat in the House, Larson […]

WASHINGTON — Sen. Chris Dodd says he still doesn’t know what he’ll do come January 2011, when, for the first time in 36 years, he will no longer be a member of Congress. But he has ruled out one option. “No lobbying, no lobbying,” Dodd said in a recent interview. That Dodd would forgo a […]

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 […]

WASHINGTON — Chris Shays is not on the ballot in Connecticut’s 4th Congressional District this year, but one of the candidates in the race is channeling the former Republican congressman’s persona. It’s the Democrat who ousted Shays two years ago, U.S. Rep. Jim Himes. He is adopting his vanquished predecessor’s sales pitch, proclaiming himself as […]

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 […]

WASHINGTON — Connecticut’s congressional delegation has collectively submitted hundreds of earmark requests totaling more than $1 billion for fiscal year 2011. The spending pleas range from relatively small line items, such as $75,000 for a fatherhood initiative that Rep. Chris Murphy submitted on behalf of a Danbury community program to more eye-popping sums such as […]

Linda McMahon won a decisive victory on Tuesday in the three-way GOP primary for U.S. Senate, ensuring she will face Democrat Richard Blumenthal in a closely-watched campaign this fall. “For the first time in decades, we’re going to send a Republican senator to Washington,” she told about 300 giddy, cheering supporters. McMahon strode onto the […]

BRISTOL-Linda McMahon has been scouring the state for undecided Republican voters, and she found a live one at the Panera Bread cafe here Monday afternoon. Matthew Davis, a 35-year-old Burlington resident, abandoned his laptop and made a beeline for McMahon as soon as he realized who she was. “I still have to make my decision,” […]

CROMWELL — Republican Linda McMahon won a decisive victory on Tuesday in the three-way primary for U.S. Senate, ensuring she will face Democrat Richard Blumenthal in a closely-watched campaign this fall. “For the first time in decades we’re going to send a Republican senator to Washington,” McMahon told about 300 cheering supporters. With about 54 […]