Jonathan Pelto, a former five-term state representative and public education advocate, announced Tuesday he plans to seek the Green Party’s nomination for the 2nd District congressional seat. The Green Party’s 2nd District nominating convention will be held on July 30 in Mansfield.
Jonathan Pelto
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Will Connecticut follow Massachusetts on Common Core?
Massachusetts, one of the leading states on education reform in the nation, in a monumental decision has abandoned Common Core testing. The Massachusetts Commissioner of Education, Michael Chester, in a stunning reversal, has walked away from the very test he helped to create. Now it remains to be seen if other states in the nation, including Connecticut, will follow Massachusetts, a state that is considered to be “the gold standard” in successful education reform.
Posted inPolitics
Pelto falls 3,200 signatures short of spot on CT gubernatorial ballot
Former state Rep. Jonathan Pelto’s bid to petition onto the gubernatorial ballot officially came to a close Friday with a final report showing he’d obtained only 58 percent of the voter signatures necessary to qualify.
Posted inPolitics
Pelto concedes his petition effort will fall short
In conceding he almost certainly would fall short of the 7,500 signatures necessary to qualify for the ballot for governor, Jonathan Pelto said Monday his campaign had submitted only about 4,000 signatures.
Posted inPolitics
As Pelto fades, Visconti ramps up with pitch to gun owners
Can Twitter, the Outdoor Channel and a commercial starring the “Buckmobile,” a customized convertible that once belonged to country star Buck Owens, bring enough national gun money into Connecticut to make pistol-packing, third-party candidate Joe Visconti a factor in the race for governor?
Posted inPolitics
Visconti qualifies, giving Foley competition for gun vote
Joe Visconti, a Republican who has campaigned as a Tea Party activist and Second Amendment defender, qualified Wednesday as a petitioning candidate for governor, ensuring at least a three-way race.
Posted inPolitics
Foley wins cross-endorsement from Independent Party
WATERTOWN – The Independent Party voted to cross-endorse Republican Tom Foley for governor at a caucus Tuesday night, casting folded paper ballots in a plastic jar that once held H.K. Anderson peanut butter filled nuggets.
Posted inMoney, Politics
Advocates to candidates: Find money for Connecticut’s transportation network
A coalition of nearly three dozen transportation advocates challenged Connecticut gubernatorial candidates to support increased funding to overhaul the state’s aging infrastructure – even if it likely means tax increases or tolls.
Posted inPolitics
For Pelto and Visconti, the long wait begins
Everyone knows Gov. Dannel P. Malloy is on the November ballot, and either Tom Foley or John P. McKinney will make the cut in next week’s GOP primary. But the status of two wild cards, Jonathan Pelto and Joe Visconti, won’t be known until after Aug. 20.
Posted inMoney, Politics
Malloy: CT budget and economy both poised to take off
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy doesn’t dispute there’s a sizeable hole in the next state budget – as nonpartisan analysts see things. He just thinks their perspective doesn’t reflect political reality. The Stamford Democrat says the situation is much rosier than the numbers show. And while there is more to do, his administration has positioned Connecticut’s finances and its economy for a prosperous future.
Posted inPolitics
Two of three pollsters agree: CT governor’s race is tight
A new GOP poll shows Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, the first-term Democratic incumbent, with a one-point lead over the Republican convention-endorsed candidate, Tom Foley. It’s a return to the status quo after a non-traditional poll Monday gave Foley a 9-point lead.
Posted inEducation, Money, Politics
Pelto: State budget deficit reveals a broken fiscal system
Former state Rep. Jonathan Pelto doesn’t have any trouble standing out from the rest of the 2014 gubernatorial candidates. For Pelto, a $1.4 billion shortfall – more than four years after the last recession ended – typifies a broken fiscal system that threatens Connecticut’s schools, state workers’ pensions, and middle class families.
Posted inPolitics
Common Core? Try common ground for Pelto, Visconti
Coming from the left and right, the paths of two petitioning candidates for governor, Jonathan Pelto and Joe Visconti, intersected Wednesday outside a state Board of Education meeting, where a dozen people staged a protest of the Common Core curriculum standards.
Posted inEducation, Politics
Scandal called ‘important moment’ in charter movement
An inquiry into the state’s oversight of charter schools, once celebrated as laboratories of urban educational achievement and innovation, comes as they increasingly face a backlash from teachers’ unions and political figures ranging from the mayor of New York City to a third-party candidate for governor of Connecticut.
Posted inEducation, Politics
Malloy offers ‘Connecticut Core’ as Common Core fix
With cover from the state’s two largest teachers’ unions, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy on Thursday kicked off “Connecticut Core,” the administration’s latest effort to quell the political and policy clamor over how Common Core curriculum standards should be implemented.