A federal appeals court Friday upheld Gov. John G. Rowland’s conviction and 30-month prison sentence for his role in a scheme to solicit two congressional campaigns in 2010 and 2012 to secretly pay him as a political consultant in violation of U.S. campaign finance laws.
Mark Pazniokas
Mark is the Capitol Bureau Chief and a co-founder of CT Mirror. He is a frequent contributor to WNPR, a former state politics writer for The Hartford Courant and Journal Inquirer, and contributor for The New York Times.
Posted inPolitics
Investigator says Malloy settlement keeps voters in the dark
Near the end of his FBI career, Charles Urso helped send Republican Gov. John G. Rowland to prison in 2005. He said Thursday his second career as an elections cop ended in frustration — getting stonewalled trying to find out if Democratic Gov. Dannel P. Malloy violated campaign finance reforms inspired by the Rowland scandal.
Posted inHealth, Politics
Ethics panel to rule if Wade has conflict in Anthem-Cigna merger
Insurance Commissioner Katharine L. Wade’s first contact with state ethics officials was to inform them in September why she intended to act on the merger of Anthem and Cigna, not to seek a ruling on whether they saw a potential conflict due to her family’s long association with Cigna. Now, while she’s deep in the review of a merger that could transform the health insurance industry, Wade is going to get the legally binding ethics opinion that she and the administration of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy never saw the need to request.
Posted inMoney
Connecticut saw first monthly net job loss of 2016 in May
Connecticut posted a mixed jobs report for May on Thursday, recording the first monthly job loss of 2016, while the unemployment remained unchanged at 5.7 percent.
Posted inJustice, Politics
SEEC OKs record $325,000 settlement in Malloy campaign case
The Connecticut Democratic Party and the State Elections Enforcement Commission agreed Monday to settle a case that threatened to undermine campaign finance reforms inspired by the scandal that forced Gov. John G. Rowland from office in 2004. The party will pay a record $325,000 over 27 months to settle allegations of impropriety involving use of state contractor contributions in 2014 to support the re-election of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy.
Posted inNews
A Berkeley professor tries to explain Trump to labor in Hartford
Ian Haney Lopez is a law professor at the University of California at Berkeley, a high school and Harvard law classmate of Barack Obama’s and the author of “Dog Whistle Politics,” a historical analysis of the coded racial appeals politicians make to white voters. He talks a lot about Donald J. Trump these days, not always in ways one might expect.
Posted inMoney, Politics
Malloy’s line-item budget vetoes stand as House, Senate split
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s line-item vetoes of $22 million in spending, primarily from undisclosed municipal aid accounts, will stand as the House and Senate disagreed Monday on whether to attempt overrides. The House was willing, the Senate was not.
Posted inJustice, Politics
Obama: ‘We will not give in to fear or turn against each other’
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy ordered flags lowered to half-staff Sunday as Connecticut joined President Obama and the nation in mourning the murders of 50 people in an Orlando, Fla., nightclub, an act of terror and the worst mass shooting in U.S. history. Some Democrats quickly called for Congress to strengthen measures aimed at preventing gun violence.
Posted inHealth
Sharkey calls for Wade’s recusal, but Malloy sees no conflict
House Speaker J. Brendan Sharkey became the first Democratic leader Friday to call on Insurance Commissioner Katharine Wade to recuse herself from ruling on Anthem’s merger with Bloomfield-based Cigna, the commissioner’s last private-sector employer before joining the administration of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy. The governor said he sees no conflict.
Posted inPolitics
Malloy: No regrets for remarks that infuriated Bernie Sanders
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy strained Friday to avoid escalating his profile as an irritant to Bernie Sanders and a potential impediment to Sanders’ eventual endorsement of the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton. He said he did not regret his criticism of Sanders, only that the senator took exception.
Posted inHealth
CT regulators give final OK to sale of Manchester, Rockville hospitals
State regulators gave final approval Friday to the $105 million purchase of Manchester Memorial and Rockville General hospitals by Prospect Medical Holdings, a for-profit company based in Los Angeles.
Posted inPolitics
With mixed feelings, labor makes its endorsements in CT
The debate was raucous and raw, and two old friends drew angry opposition. But the Connecticut AFL-CIO eventually agreed Friday on dozens of endorsements of Democrats for the General Assembly and Congress.
Posted inMoney
Malloy vetoes tax breaks passed on final night of session
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy vetoed two bills Thursday, siding with municipalities on one that would have allowed 100-percent property tax breaks in perpetuity for non-profit and for-profit arts entities. The other would have enhanced legislative oversight over economic-development incentives, and Comptroller Kevin P. Lembo called that veto “deeply troubling.”
Posted inPolitics
Angry, yet pragmatic, CT AFL-CIO assesses role in 2016 elections
The Connecticut AFL-CIO vented Thursday at Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and Democratic legislators, but the labor federation will convene again Friday, probably to endorse some of the same Democrats accused of betraying labor on the state budget. The reason is a labor report card: The best-ranked Republicans have lifetime scores of 60 percent, lower than the worst-ranked Democrat.
Posted inPolitics
Economy, budget drop Malloy’s approval to all-time low of 24%
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s approval rating hit a low of 24 percent Wednesday in a new Quinnipiac University poll, reflecting voter dismay over a chronic fiscal crisis that has come to define his six years as governor, most recently requiring service reductions and state employee layoffs.