WASHINGTON – Connecticut’s all-Democratic delegation to the U.S. House of Representatives has been hampered by being in the minority since 2010, but that may change this year, analysts say.
Jim Himes
Jim Himes, a Democrat, has served as the U.S. representative for Connecticut’s fourth congressional district since 2009.
Posted inJustice, Politics
Himes sole CT lawmaker to vote for NSA surveillance bill
WASHINGTON — Rep. Jim Himes was the only House member from Connecticut on Thursday to vote for a bill that would allow the National Security Agency to intercept without warrants calls or emails from suspected foreign terrorists outside the United States.
Posted inMoney, Politics
Senate, House approve tax plan CT lawmakers call disastrous for state
Updated at 1:15 a.m. Wednesday
WASHINGTON — With Vice President Mike Pence presiding, the Senate early Wednesday approved a massive tax overhaul on a strict party-line vote, deepening the partisan divide in Congress. Connecticut’s Democrats joined all others in their party to vote against the tax plan, calling it a giveaway to the rich that would hurt working Americans.
Posted inNews
Blumenthal, other Dems call for greater protections for Mueller
WASHINGTON — Paul Manafort’s indictment on Monday widened a partisan split, with Democrats, including Sen. Richard Blumenthal, calling for an increased pace of investigation and added protections for special counsel Robert Mueller and Republicans demanding equal effort be spent on a probe of ties between Democrats and the Russians.
Posted inPolitics
401(k) plans in play as GOP moves ahead on tax overhaul
WASHINGTON — As Congress took a major step towards a massive tax overhaul on Thursday — with no help from Connecticut’s Democratic lawmakers — the future of the popular 401(k) retirement plan was in question. Key GOP lawmakers want to offset some of their proposed tax cuts by limiting the maximum pre-tax contribution to workplace saving plans such as the 401(k). That could make big changes in they way Americans save for retirement.
Posted inJustice, Politics
Stone tells congressional panel he was not involved in Russian hacking
WASHINGTON — Roger Stone, a longtime confidant of President Donald Trump, told the House Intelligence Committee Tuesday that he had no contact with Russian operatives during the 2016 presidential election. In a written opening statement, Norwalk native Stone said he viewed the panel’s investigation “as a political proceeding,” and dismissed allegations he colluded with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to release damaging, hacked emails from the Clinton campaign.
Posted inNews
Author of antifa handbook defends antifascist violence
WASHINGTON — The death of Heather Heyer and the wounding of 19 others by a neo-Nazi at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va., has become a recruiting call for a little-known group with an anarchist bent called the antifa. A historian sympathetic to the movement defends its use of violence, and explains how a European-based antifascist movement has taken hold in the United States. His views are rejected by liberal groups fighting the radical right.
Posted inPolitics
Trump remarks roil CT Dems, and GOP colleagues
President Donald Trump’s revival of a declaration that “both sides” were to blame for the deadly violence at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., has drawn swift rebukes from Connecticut members of Congress — and a growing number of their GOP colleagues.
Posted inPolitics
Murphy, Malloy say Trump to blame for white supremacist violence at UVA
WASHINGTON — Sen. Chris Murphy on Saturday accused President Trump of giving license to “racism, anti-Semitism and homophobia” that fueled passions at violent white supremacist and neo-Nazi protests at the University of Virginia on Saturday. Meanwhile GOP lawmakers criticized Trump for failing to condemn white supremacists at the rally.
Posted inPolitics
Blumenthal calls Trump’s new Vietnam tweets about him ‘slurs’
Updated at 5:57 p.m.
President Donald J. Trump took to Twitter Monday morning – and again in the afternoon – to renew his attacks on U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., bringing up the senator’s misstatements about service in Vietnam for the third time. Trump called him a “phony Vietnam con artist.”
Posted inPolitics
GOP congressional candidates willing to swim against political tide
Congressional candidates in Connecticut are bracing for next year’s mid-term elections, which could shift power in the U.S. House and Senate and serve as a referendum on Donald Trump’s presidency. Former State Rep. Dan Carter, 49, who lost a challenge last year to Sen. Richard Blumenthal, is among those testing the waters for a run against Congresswoman Elizabeth Esty.
Posted inPolitics
CT lawmakers prepare for 2018 campaign by raising lots of cash
WASHINGTON — Connecticut’s members of Congress, all Democrats, are preparing for the pivotal 2018 elections by getting a head start in the campaign money race. Rep. Elizabeth Esty, D-5th District, raised more money than any Connecticut member of the House of Representatives in the first six months of this year.
Posted inHealth, Politics
Himes tells town hall meeting Trump is playing to public’s fears
WESTPORT — Though he began the night expressing hope in the fight against Republican efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, fear worked its way to the forefront later in the evening as several successive speakers asked questions about crisis in government.
Posted inPolitics
CT lawmakers react in horror to shootings at GOP baseball practice
Updated at 3 p.m.
Washington – Connecticut lawmakers, for whom gun violence has a personal edge because of the Newtown shootings, reacted with shock and horror at a gunman’s attack on a Republican congressional baseball practice early Wednesday. Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., the House majority whip, was among those shot. The gunman, who was identified as James Hodgkinson of Illinois, also was shot and later died.
Posted inJustice
Blumenthal calls Comey’s tale ‘chilling;’ Murphy says Trump should testify
WASHINGTON – This city was transfixed Thursday by former FBI Director James Comey’s testimony to Senate Intelligence Committee and Sen. Richard Blumenthal was among those had a front-row seat during the riveting three hours of questioning. He said Comey painted a “chilling picture” of his contacts with President Donald Trump.
