The race to represent Fairfield County in Congress pits a former Rhodes scholar and Wall Street whiz kid against an attorney and former semi-pro football star with roots in local politics.
Fairfield County
Coverage of issues affecting residents in Connecticut’s southwestern-most county.
Posted inPolitics
GOP faces endorsement fights Monday for Senate, 2nd & 5th CDs
Ten years after they last won federal office in Connecticut, Republicans will make endorsements Monday night in a three-way race for U.S. Senate and in all five congressional districts, at least two of which are expected to be contested.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
To make them jobs, let’s find out who really lives in Fairfield County
If the region wants to attract companies to the area and keep them here for the foreseeable future, not because of tax breaks or loans, then they need to properly understand the regions assets, and those assets are people, and right now it seems clear that not enough work has been done to know who lives in Fairfield County today.
Posted inPolitics
Clinton surges in CT fundraising; GOP candidates trail Dems
WASHINGTON — Connecticut donations to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign surged in the first three months of this year, thanks in part to a January fundraiser held in the state by her husband, former President Bill Clinton. So far, Connecticut residents have invested at least $6.7 million in the presidential race.
Posted inEducation
Democrats’ education cuts fall most heavily on CT’s Gold Coast
Each of the five budgets that Gov. Dannel P. Malloy has proposed since 2012 has shielded wealthy communities from cuts in the education money they receive from the state. That changed Tuesday when he proposed cutting all of the $25.3 million in aid that 28 of the state’s richest communities currently receive through the Education Cost Sharing grant.
Posted inPolitics, Transportation
Decision on widening I-95 key step in transportation master plan
State transportation officials want to widen I-95 and introduce congestion or time-of-day tolling on it, to both reduce congestion and raise revenue for Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s massive 30-year transportation plan. But there’s plenty of opposition to the widening, and if it can’t be resolved, the increasingly daunting challenge of funding the program could become that much more difficult.
Posted inEnergy & Environment
Connecticut getting $54 million in ‘disaster resilience’ money
Bridgeport and the new administration of Mayor Joe Ganim appear to be the biggest beneficiaries of $54.2 million in federal funds awarded Thursday to Connecticut to help Fairfield and New Haven counties better prepare for coastal flooding and climate change.
Posted inMoney
Transportation advocates say widening I-95 won’t ease congestion
A major consumer advocacy group and a key legislator on transportation financing both argued Tuesday against one of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s largest transportation initiatives: the widening of Interstate 95.
Posted inMoney, Politics
Fight begins over lessons to draw from GE’s departure
Connecticut’s political elite raced Wednesday to frame General Electric’s decision to abandon its 1970s-era campus in suburban Fairfield for a new global headquarters in downtown Boston as everything from merely disappointing to politically cataclysmic. Business feared politicians would draw the wrong lessons.
Posted inMoney
Investing in business climate will be a tall order for CT
The challenge for state government, said economists and business leaders Wednesday, will be to find the resources to invest – in transportation, information technology and higher education – as the cost of public-sector retirement benefits spikes over the next decade to 15 years.
Posted inMoney, Politics
GE moving global headquarters from Fairfield to Boston
The company says Boston was selected “after a careful evaluation of the business ecosystem, talent, long-term costs, quality of life for employees, connections with the world and proximity to other important company assets.”
Posted inEnergy & Environment
Massive rail plan leaves Connecticut hopeful but mystified
Proposals to reinvent the Northeast Corridor rail system could impact Connecticut more than any other state. But a lack of detail in the plans is causing exasperation even among those who have been pushing for rail improvements for decades, and it has environmentalists worrying whether losses will outweigh the benefits.
Posted inMoney
Connecticut’s courtship of GE goes beyond taxes
General Electric’s threat to leave Connecticut has morphed from a narrow complaint over taxes to a broader conversation with Gov. Dannel P. Malloy about economic stability in a state with a sputtering cash flow, high per-capita debt and worsening pension obligations.
Posted inNews
Once a Sikorsky-flying Marine, he now pilots the company
WASHINGTON – Dan Schultz doesn’t like to talk about it, but he flew a harrowing rescue mission to Mogadishu, Somalia, in 1991 in a Sikorsky Super Stallion chopper. Now at the company’s helm, he says he plans no big, immediate changes at Sikorsky.
Posted inEnergy & Environment
Bridgeport election sparks anxiety over big environmental plans
BRIDGEPORT — With Mayor Bill Finch leaving office soon, there is concern for the incomplete environmental projects in his BGreeen 2020 initiative. Some worry that Mayor-elect Joseph P. Ganim, who campaigned on cutting taxes, could choose to pull the plug on some of the projects – especially those that involve city money.