Still here....
But it's been one of those weeks...
The state budget surplus continues to dwindle....and we won't know the real outcome until after June.
State Rep. Mike Caron, R-Killingly, announced he won't seek re-election in the fall. That's a loss for the northeastern part of the state.
House Speaker James Aman announced he won't seek re-election as he prepares to make a bid for governor in 2010....that's a gamble.
The state Senate passed the 401(k) plan...that is a waste of taxpayers' money.
The President is in town today....that's a....
The vice president will be in town next month, delivering the commencement address at the Coast Guard Academy.
And I'm taking next week off....back in time for the final three days of the legislative session.
The state budget surplus continues to dwindle....and we won't know the real outcome until after June.
State Rep. Mike Caron, R-Killingly, announced he won't seek re-election in the fall. That's a loss for the northeastern part of the state.
House Speaker James Aman announced he won't seek re-election as he prepares to make a bid for governor in 2010....that's a gamble.
The state Senate passed the 401(k) plan...that is a waste of taxpayers' money.
The President is in town today....that's a....
The vice president will be in town next month, delivering the commencement address at the Coast Guard Academy.
And I'm taking next week off....back in time for the final three days of the legislative session.
posted by Ray Hackett at 2:28 PM
1 Comments:
Perhaps it’s the case that Representative Caron told party leaders privately much earlier than he did the press. By press reports it looks like they were caught by surprise. I would like to think that he did and their supposed surprise is because they tried and failed to find a replacement.
Caron owed Republicans more warning (Christmastime at the latest) than he apparently gave them. Now we might too late to dig up a candidate that can win.
My guess that the primary reason he is not running is this public financing scam. He wants no part of it and if that’s the case I don't blame him.
One very important thing I strongly agree with Michael on is something he said in committee that I happened to catch on Connecticut’s version of the C-SPAN channel. It had to do with this grand idea that we should publicly fund candidates. Caron pointed (correctly!) out that the legislature is running into all sorts of fairness and constitutional problems such as how to fairly treat independents and minor parties. Caron pointed out that his fellow legislators are failing to find solutions to these problems because it all goes back to the fact that the system they dreamed up was fundamentally and fatally flawed in the first place.
The whole idea is wrongheaded (besides being a greedy money-grab dressed up as *reform*) but those damn fools would not listen (nor will the press).
What’s more the statute defining lobbyists is to way way WAY to broad. I think the federal courts will strike that one down dead.
If I am a lobbyist (and the definition of a lobbyist I hear is to broadly defined itself) than that means that all my family members as well as myself are banned from the political process. As written my parents, sisters, brothers, adult children, wife or partner can’t contribute either! They can’t do that! We are all still Americans.
That clearly and brazenly violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments and that’s just for starters. There may be more violations than that. Not that you would ever get as far as the Federal Constitution because if the state court rule as they should than the law violate Connecticut Constitution for the same reasons.
And the same people say we should fear the Patriot Act! The silence from the media on this all-out assault on the Constitution is deafening.
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