Mark Pazniokas

Common Cause today bolstered its efforts to save the public financing of campaigns in Connecticut with a poll showing support for the reforms passed in 2005 after the resignation of Gov. John G. Rowland. The group is trying to nudge legislators to cure legal defects in the law that could kill the Citizens Election Program […]

A national survey released today found that nearly 15 percent of households in Connecticut struggled to buy food in 2009. The report by the Food Research and Action Center says that 18.7 percent of households with children said they did not have enough money to adequately feed their families. The findings are consistent with statistics […]

Two state Senate leaders want Connecticut to become the third state in the country to set standards for how high schools handle athletes with concussions. With the support of the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference, the senators today proposed legislation requiring that athletes with suspected concussions be benched until getting medical clearance. “The mantra has become, […]

State ethics laws provide only limited transparency into the financial dealings of Connecticut’s part-time legislators. To whom do they owe money? Disclosure is voluntary. How much stock do they own? Impossible to say. By contrast, Congress and a dozen states require lawmakers to disclose within ranges the amount of outside income they receive and the […]

Who has a state legislator on the payroll? Three public employee unions have one. So do Northeast Utilities, the Middlesex Chamber of Commerce, Tweed-New Haven Airport, municipalities and non-profits that rely on state funding, and single-issue advocates like the Marijuana Policy Project. About 70 percent of legislators hold jobs outside the General Assembly, bringing both […]

On the left, there were gay-rights activists like Anne Stanback. On the right, there were Democratic soldiers like James Wade, who ran William A. O’Neill’s campaign in 1986, the last time Connecticut elected a Democratic governor. The same things brought them Sunday to Elizabeth Park in West Hartford: a thirst for a candidate who can […]

The Connecticut General Assembly began its regular annual session on Feb. 3, when Gov. M. Jodi Rell delivered her budget address to a joint session of the legislature. Its constitutional adjournment deadline is midnight May 5. Balancing the state’s budget is sure to be the most contentious issue of the session, and the task will […]

The General Assembly begins 2010 with the Democratic majority and Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell in a stalemate over how to close an estimated $500 million gap in this year’s budget. Sound familiar? That’s how they ended 2009. The price of their inability to put the state’s finances on solid footing last year is that […]

A major question hanging over the races for governor and other state offices in 2010 is the status of Connecticut’s new voluntary system of publicly financing campaigns, the Citizens’ Election Program. U.S. District Court Judge Stefan R. Underhill struck down the program as unconstitutional in August 2009, calling it a well-intentioned effort to combat corruption […]