Lt. Gov. Democratic candidate Mary Glassman took the gloves off and had this to say about Rell's lack of concern (via press release).
"With less than two months away from Election Day, voters are still waiting for to hear from the Governor about how she will address the critical issues facing Connecticut 's families," said Mary Glassman - Democratic nominee for Lt. Gov.
"Not only is the Governor silent when it comes to energy and health care concerns, but voters have no place to go to get information on her positions on other issues. Incredibly, her campaign website provides only a blank issues page."
[...]
"I am proud that since the campaign season began Mayor DeStefano and I have been talking about important issues facing the citizens of Connecticut - stagnant job growth, lack of affordable and adequate health care and stronger support for education from preschool to higher education," said Glassman. "John and I challenge the Governor to run a campaign of ideas and to lay out a vision for Connecticut . Voters deserve nothing less."
I ask again, why should Jodi Rell be re-elected and when will the media stop the love-fest with the governor and start asking her some real questons regarding the issues that voters are concerned about?
Well, I attended Wednesday's Common Council meeting and lets just say it was a rather short meeting clocking in at under an hour. Now, I've been to several meetings in my time and I have to admit I was surprised at the speed of this meeting (well, I'm not really surprised since Common Council meeting are mostly for show and all the real work happens during the caucus meetings).
I heard that Elizabeth Putnam from the News-Times was in attendance (I don't know what she looks like) so I was rather pleased to see that the newspaper was attempting to follow-up on my post. This could also explain why there wasn't the ususal amount of discussion as in previous meetings.
I was in the process of working on the video from the meeting but unfortunately, I ran out of hard drive space on my computer therefore, I have to do some archiving. Once I have more space on my system, I'll update everyone with the details and video highlights.
5th CD Democratic candidate Chris Murphy's 41 towns in 41 days tour recently made it's way through the Danbury area.
The man who wants to give Nancy Johnson her pink slip knocked doors with fellow Democrats Jim Kelly and 109th State District Democratic candidate Joe Taborsak and the campaingn filed this video report.
Common Council meeting tonight and reader feedback
Wednesday, September 06, 2006 Time: 4:46 PM
The Danbury Common Council meeting is tonight so it would be within your best interest to learn about what happening in your local government and find out stuff that the News-Times fails to inform you about.
On tonight's agenda is the Democrat's request for an ad-hoc committee to look into how the city hands out money to charities. The blocking of the request last month by Mayor Boughton and the Republican majority set off a firestorm that resulted in every Democrat on the Common Council signing a letter requesting that the committee be formed and hand-delivering their request to the mayor.
Here are a couple of responses from readers at My Left Mutmeg. I've received many more responses from readers but their emails and I don't know if they want to make their comments public. In any case, thanks for the feedback!
Great work (0.00 / 0) Great catch and great work getting the issue broader attention in your community. It's not just great blogging, it's great citizenship. Congrats!
I'm in Daytona Beach, FL and my city council had a similar fund for charitble giving that had no public hearings or formula for distribution. The council just kind of 'agreed' to fund each member's favorite charities. A cynic (like me) could view those donations as a kind of payoff. I think it's more common than you would think in town government, not that it makes it right.
Important issue (0.00 / 0) This wouldn't be that much of an issue if we had honest leaders in Danbury. But when the mayor gives sweet deals to local developers who don't need sweet deals, like 7 year tax abatements and nearly free sewer hookups or when they push through zoning changes so developers can build in residential neighborhoods, you begin to question the motives of said officials.
Keep up the good work CT. It's too bad the people at the New Times are too busy writing bullshit fluff pieces like this one about an old house getting a new coat of paint. Hopefully this story happens so we can finally recall some of these crappy politicians in Danbury.
Again, thanks to everyone who responded to my post. The jury is still out on whether or not the News-Times will do a follow-up story or even attend the meeting tonight so COME OUT AND UNDERSTAND WHAT'S GOING ON IN YOUR CITY!
Meeting is tonight at 7:30 p.m. at City Hall. No excuses, get your butt down there.
As they prepare for a critical pre-election legislative stretch, Congressional Republican leaders have all but abandoned a broad overhaul of immigration laws and instead will concentrate on national security issues they believe play to their political strength.
[...]
A final decision on what do about immigration policy awaits a meeting this week of senior Republicans. But key lawmakers and aides who set the Congressional agenda say they now believe it would be politically risky to try to advance an immigration measure that would showcase party divisions and need to be completed in the 19 days Congress is scheduled to meet before breaking for the election.
President Bush had made comprehensive changes in immigration laws a priority, even making the issue the subject of a prime-time address, but House Republicans have been determined not to move ahead with any legislation that could be construed as amnesty for anyone who entered the country illegally. They held hearings around the country in recent weeks to contrast their enforcement-only bill with a Senate measure that could lead to citizenship for some.
“I don’t see how you bridge that divide between us and the Senate,” said Representative Peter T. King, Republican of New York and chairman of the Homeland Security Committee. "I don't see it happening. I really don't."
For instance, Basso who's attempt to challenge State Rep. Bob Godfrey is laughable to say the least, can't bring herself to stop her anti-immigrant babble as she stands side by side with the xenophobes in the area screaming about how the immigrants ruined her city. As majority leader for the Republicans on the Common Council, you would think someone in her position more wisely but unfortunately, because of 6+ years of Republican domination, power has created a warped sense of reality for this person as she (and others in power who share her comments) are allowed to get away with saying some of the most outrageous and insensitive comments without any fear of criticism from anyone.
Important issues such as overcrowding, failure to properly address the strained relationship between the mayor's office and the members of the police department, and the failure to properly address the rising population in this area are just a few examples of issues that our elected leaders needed to addressed with as much energy and pasion as they express when talking about immigration.
In the end, we all lose because the local Republicans lost touch with the community at large and their long control of local government has resulted in the situation we currently have in our city.
Ah, the power of blogs. Funny how a little rant can get someone's attention.
FINALLY, the News-Times decides to actuaaly cover a local political story. You see, not long ago, I decided that it was time to put certain people on notice and expose the various problems facing we have in Danbury and how these numerous issues are not written about in the local newspaper.
After followiing politics and covering the Ned Lamont race over the last eight months, I clearly understand the power of blogs can have on the media and politics. Over the past year and a half, I've seen my blogs grow in viewership from under 100 a day to well over 1000 per day and the topics talked about on the various state blogs were echoed in the mainstream media as well as in politicians' talking points.
In other words, a blog is a very powerful new tool.
I bring this point up because the News-Times picked up on a issue that I raised last month regarding a request from the Democrats on the Common Council to add something on the Common Council agenda. The item in question was a request to form an ad-hoc committee to review how grants are given out to different organizations in the sity. This request from the Democrats was blocked by Mayor Boughton and the Republican majority and touched off a firestorm.
After my post on the issue, my inbox became flooded with emails from people thanking me for finally exposing something that the News-Times failed to report on and offered more tales of things happening in Danbury which is not being reported on resulting in people getting away with basically anything they want.
Common Council Democrats are questioning how the city divides more than $1.25 million of taxpayer money among local charities and civic organizations.
The council's seven Democrats are concerned that the city's methodology is too simplistic, and they want to create an independent board to review all of the city's grant funding."We need a more comprehensive review of each agency and grant application to ensure there are no duplication of services and the funding is based on needs," Council member Tom Saadi said.
Currently, the mayor determines the funding for each agency based on grant applications during the city's budget process. He makes recommendations, and then Common Council committees review funding requests as part of reviewing the mayor's entire proposed budget.
In an Aug. 18 letter to Council president Joe Cavo, Saadi -- along with Democrats Benjamin Chianese, Fred Visconti, John Esposito, Paul Rotello, Duane Perkins and Lynn Taborsak -- requested that the Common Council, which has 14 Republicans, discuss and approve at its Sept. 6 meeting the creation of a committee to determine if a special grant review board is necessary.
[...]
Council Democrats submitted a similar request for a special committee in a letter last month. However, the letter's wording presented a legal question, and the request did not make it on the Common Council agenda.
The initial request said the neutral board would make recommendations for grant funding to the Common Council. But under the city charter, it's the mayor's responsibility to propose the budget. Therefore, the second letter said the neutral board would make recommendations to the city."We had a technical glitch, but now we are ready to move forward," Saadi said.
The article is fair but since the reporter is playing catch-up, they didn't have much to go with in terms of the initial reaction from the Democrats when they had their request blocked by the mayor and the reporter had to rely on interviews after everyone had a chance to react to my post.
Again, this begs the question, "shouldn't the News-Times have a reporter who's sole responsibility is to cover ALL the local political meetings?" Shouldn't our city's newspaper know what's happening in the city when it comes to local politics and not have to play catch-up to a blogger?
The jury is still out on whether ot not the News-Times got the message since they failed to write on Ned Lamont visit to Danbury (NOT Newtown, but DANBURY at Democratic Headquarters which was attended by close to 100 people). One thing is for certain, if the News-Times failes to report on the real issues, rest assured that I will not let you down.
I truly Norman Rockwell moment caught by David Stevenson at the Danbury DTC Monday (hat tip to CTBob).
Ned Lamont came to the Danbury DTC Monday and as crowd of close to 100 came to hear the man who beat Joe Lieberman in the primary had to say. Connecticut Bob has the video (I was out of town) and he'll provide the details later but from all the reports I received so sar, the event was a huge sucess to say the least.
04.25.22 (RADIO): WSHU Latino group call on Connecticut lawmakers to open a Danbury charter school
06.03.22 (OP-ED): KUSHNER: "Career Academy ‘a great deal for Danbury"
On September 26, 2007, ten plaintiffs filed suit in response to an arrest of aday laborers at a public park in Danbury, Connecticut. Plaintiffs amended their complaint on November 26, 2007.
The amended complaint states that plaintiffs sought to remedy the continued discriminatory and unauthorized enforcement of federal immigration laws against the Latino residents of the City of Danbury by Danbury's mayor and its police department.
Plaintiffs allege that the arrests violated their Fourth Amendment rights and the Connecticut Constitution because defendants conducted the arrests without valid warrants, in the absence of exigent circumstances, and without probable cause to believe that plaintiffs were engaged in unlawful activity. In addition, plaintiffs allege that defendants improperly stopped, detained, investigated, searched and arrested plaintiffs. Plaintiffs also allege that defendants violated their Fourteenth Amendment rights when they intentionally targeted plaintiffs, and arrested and detained them on the basis of their race, ethnicity and perceived national origin. Plaintiffs raise First Amendment, Due Process and tort claims.
Plaintiffs request declaratory relief, damages and attorneys fees.
On September 26, 2007, ten plaintiffs filed suit in response to an arrest of aday laborers at a public park in Danbury, Connecticut. Plaintiffs amended their complaint on November 26, 2007.
