Mike Clark will endorse Andrew Roraback as he exits the congressional race in the 5th District today, a casualty of his inability to raise money in a five-contest for the GOP nomination. Clark, a former FBI agent and Farmington councilman, is leaving the race two days before the Republican nominating convention, an admission he was […]
Clark to endorse Roraback as he exits congressional race
Posted inPolitics
Sen. Eileen Daily will not seek re-election
Sen. Eileen Daily, D-Westbrook, the co-chairwoman of one of the legislature’s key money committees, made a surprise announcement today she will not seek re-election this fall. Daily has been fighting cancer, but she had seemed to be set on another term. She passed up a chance to make her goodbyes from the Senate floor on […]
Posted inPolitics
Bysiewicz forces primary for Senate seat
It’s official: there will be a Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate. Susan Bysiewicz, who finished in second place at the Democratic convention, filed the necessary paperwork Tuesday that ensures her a place on the Aug. 14 primary ballot. “We’re excited about going forward,” the former secretary of the state told reporters. “Primaries are incredibly […]
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Donovan wins, but Esty and Roberti qualify in 5th CD
Waterbury — Democrats endorsed House Speaker Christopher G. Donovan of Meriden for Connecticut’s only open congressional seat Monday night, but former state Rep. Elizabeth Esty of Cheshire and Dan Roberti of Kent qualified for an Aug. 14 primary. Donovan, 58, who has been organized labor’s greatest ally in the General Assembly, starts the primary campaign […]
Posted inMoney
Connecticut selling itself with a $27 million campaign
Hartford — Three years after its tourism budget was reduced to $1, Connecticut is back with a two-year, $27 million marketing campaign to promote tourism and brand the state as “still revolutionary.” The state spent $500,000 on its new logo and other creative materials, with most of the remainder of the two-year budget going to […]
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Report: Babies, 18-year-olds still wrongly losing Medicaid coverage
One-year-olds and 18-year-olds are still wrongly losing Medicaid coverage because of administrative glitches and confusing notices, despite pledges from Department of Social Services officials to address the issues, according to the researchers who identified the problems. “[W]e want to bring to your attention the fact that the fixes agreed upon have not been implemented,” Mary […]
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Democrats endorse Chris Murphy for U.S. Senate
New Britain — U.S. Rep. Chris Murphy won an easy first-ballot Democratic convention endorsement for U.S. Senate on Saturday with 76 percent of the vote, but former Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz vowed to force an Aug. 14 primary. The only question at the anticlimactic convention had been how much of a struggle Bysiewicz […]
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Oakes may abandon U.S. Senate bid soon, would back Murphy over Bysiewicz
Political newcomer Matthew Oakes, an East Hartford Democrat who’s been trying to petition his way onto the Democratic primary ballot for U.S. Senate, said at Saturday’s Democratic State Convention he may soon abandon that bid. Oakes, who already has collected about 9,000 of the roughly 14,600 signatures he needs, said he would decide shortly after […]
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Once again, Connecticut’s Senate seat one of the most expensive in the country
Washington — Big money is already being spent in the race for retiring Sen. Joe Lieberman’s seat, but this is just the beginning of the expected blowout. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, only one state, Florida, spent more money on a Senate race in 2010, when Republican Linda McMahon ran against former Connecticut […]
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Legislative session doesn’t clear up uncertain fiscal outlook
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy downplayed long-range deficit forecasts when the legislative session opened in February, noting there was time for the state’s finances to improve. But after a spring marked by declining revenue projections and a handful of questionable cost-cutting moves, legislators from both parties conceded Thursday that the state’s fiscal outlook emerged from the […]
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Former Connecticut lawmaker to fight religious oppression
Washington — Sam Gejdenson, who for 20 years represented eastern Connecticut in Congress, is now looking for “bad actors” around the world. The former Democratic congressman was named by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi to be the newest member of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, a bipartisan, independent government body that monitors — […]
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Connecticut Democrats hire Jonathan Harris as executive director
Jonathan A. Harris was named today as the new executive director of the Connecticut Democratic Party. Harris, a former state senator from West Hartford who recently announced his resignation as deputy state treasurer, succeeds Eric Hyers, who left in March to run the re-election campaign of his old boss, U.S. Rep. David Cicilline of Rhode […]
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Senate Dems to House Dems: You’re not welcome
How raw are feelings between House and Senate Democrats over each chamber’s killing the other’s favored bills Wednesday, the annual session’s last night? The Senate pointedly quashed plans for the joint post-session press conference its leaders typically hold with House counterparts. “Last night, they told us they weren’t interested,” Doug Whiting, communication director for the […]
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Education report card: Achievement gap lingers
Connecticut received its report card Thursday on how well its students are learning science, and it’s not a pretty picture. Scores from the U.S. Department of Education show that on national science tests, the achievement gap between low-income Connecticut students and their more affluent peers continues to be the largest in the nation. The gap between black […]
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Sunday liquor sales should begin by May 20
Connecticut residents could be shopping for beer and liquor on Sundays as soon as May 20, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said Thursday morning at a post-legislative session press conference. The governor told reporters that the bill legalizing Sunday sales hadn’t arrived on his desk yet. But he quickly added that by early next week he […]