Rick Green's view on the GOP snooze fest gubernatorial debate.

Not to be outdone by Congressman Murphy's morning announcement, minutes ago, Congressman Jim Himes released the following statement regarding his upcoming vote on heath care reform.

With premiums skyrocketing every year and thousands of Connecticut families without health insurance, we can’t afford to wait any longer,” said Congressman Jim Himes (CT-4). “This long overdue reform will put Americans back in control of their health insurance choices and ensure that everyone has access to high-quality, affordable health care.”

• Improve coverage for 463,000 residents with health insurance with new protections against premium hikes, annual and lifetime coverage caps, and exclusions because of preexisting conditions.


• Give tax credits and other assistance to up to 94,000 families and 19,700 small businesses to help them afford coverage.


• Improve Medicare for 99,000 beneficiaries, including beginning to close the donut hole.


• Extend coverage to 31,000 uninsured residents.


• Guarantee that 9,300 residents with pre-existing conditions can obtain coverage.


• Protect 600 families from bankruptcy due to unaffordable health care costs.


• Allow 43,000 young adults to obtain coverage on their parents’ insurance plans.


• Provide millions of dollars in new funding for the 4th District’s community health centers.


• Reduce the cost of uncompensated care for hospitals and other health care providers by $20 million annually.

Congressman Himes' office also released a fact sheet outlining how the health care reform package will effect people in the 4th Congressional District.

A day after the release of the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office report, which estimates the health care reform package costing $940 billion while reduce the deficit by $138 billion over a ten year period (and reducing the deficit by $1.2 trillion over the second ten year period), Congressman Chris Murphy has made a statement regarding how he's going to vote:

The message from the people I represent is clear – health care costs and health insurance practices are out of control. While nearly every person I meet has a different idea about what the exact fix should be, everyone agrees that doing nothing is not an option. We need to make changes to the current system to provide people access to affordable care, to cut costs for businesses, and to strengthen Medicare for seniors. The changes we need to make to our health care system will only come by transferring power away from the health insurance industry and to consumers. The current health insurance reform bill does this, and that’s why I plan on voting in favor of its final passage.

This bill has real, immediate benefits for people. It closes the Medicare drug donut hole, lowers small business health costs, and insures 18,000 of my constituents that currently don’t have health care. But maybe most importantly, the bill extends the solvency of Medicare for another decade, and cuts the national deficit by $140 billion. That’s real progress that shouldn’t be denied to the people of Connecticut.

Congressman Murphy's office also released a fact sheet that what health care reform will mean for people in the 5th Congressional District.

Although stating publicly that he made a decision in running for governor back in early January, the latest Quinnipiac poll was released today which shows that Danbury's last honest man is losing ground among the field of Republican candidates for the gubernatorial nomination.

When asked who would support for the state's top elected position, Tom Foley leads the field with at 30 percent, up 13 points since the last poll in January. Mark Boughton barely registers a blip on the screen at 4 percent, DOWN two points since the last poll in January.

While his favorable numbers are still below 10 percent, eighty five percent of those polled said they haven't heard enough about the man who's been Danbury's mayor for almost ten years.

The Q-poll also finds that people support for Sunday alcohol sales (56-39 percent) while opposing keno gambling (70-27 percent) and reinstating toll booths on highways (56-40).

You can read the complete report by clicking here.

UPDATE: The last honest man attempts to find a silver lining...

Let's keep rockin on... remember, this is about delegates, not the general population.

Hmm, now it's not about the poll numbers but the GOP convention. Interesting

Lets take a look at what Boughton had to say about his higher poll numbers in January from his so-called "expert analysis."

Although Greenwich multi-millionaire Tom Foley and Lt. Gov. Michael Fedele had higher ratings in the latest Quinnipiac University poll, Boughton noted that he had 6 percent of the vote in the poll without yet having declared his candidacy.

So in other words, Boughton had no problem touting the Q-poll when he didn't officially declare his candidacy for governor (although he did hint his intentions to the press at the time). Now that he's been a candidate over a month, and has been traveling across the state with his recycled campaign speech, Boughton opts to ignore the his latest poll data showing that that his numbers are taking a nose dive.

They don't call him the last honest man in Danbury for nothing...

I'll make it simple and get to Keating's point in the write-up that Mark referenced.

There is a WORLD of difference between public opinion and delegates who will cast their vote at the GOP convention.

The whole convention thing is a crazy game of chess which takes too long to explain but for those who don't know a thing about conventions (which probably accounts for a majority of the public), arm twisting and deal making is the name of the game at events. Because of this, most stuff that goes down at conventions have nothing to do with the mood of the general public. As someone who was a state legislator and better known within the political inside baseball arena as opposed to the general public, logically, Boughton's delegate percentage should be higher than his general public poll numbers.

As someone who's been to a few of these events over the years, I can tell you that conventions are nothing more than the ultimate in inside political baseball. Whether or not Bouhgton twists enough arms to grab 15 percent of the TOTAL delegate vote is somewhat irrelevant when it comes to his chances in grabbing the nomination IF he makes it to the primary in August.

To recap:

• With NO money,



• no guarantee that the state's public campaign finance program will be in place in time for the race,



• the fact that he's going around to the various RTC in the state touting accomplishments as mayor...most of which he INHERITED from the previous administration,



• and NO real name ID to speak of,

The two most important elements in a campaign are MONEY and NAME RECOGNITION and with Foley's warchest, Boughton is in an overwhelming uphill battle when it comes to being relevant in this race. Linda McMahon's rise in the poll over Rob Simmons has shown that political experience isn't needed when it comes to the GOP.

As Q-poll director Doug Schwartz stated:

Like Linda McMahon, Tom Foley is the only candidate for governor who is on TV, which helps him break away from the Republican pack.

As the high undecided drops, and Foley continues to flood the airwaves, expect his numbers in the polls to increase. At this point, Foley only real challenger is Mike Fedele, which is why Foley is sharpening his attacks against the Lt. Gov while completely avoiding anything that comes out of Boughton's mouth at the various forums the candidates have held across the state.

In short, only candidates who are down in the polls talk about delegates at a convention most people have no idea about. Boughton's latest rant is no exception.

...pass the mustard.

Today, Former Bethel First Selectwoman Alice Hutchinson formed an exploratory committee to possibly challenge the ultra-homophobic, hyper-partisan, disgraceful Mike McLachlan for the 24 district state senate seat.

As a former First Selectman, I am keenly aware of the needs of local municipalities and how much decreased state funding has burdened the local taxpayers. Most importantly, we must be focused on the future of our State, our economy and creating good jobs for working families.

I don't believe Senator McLachlan's priorities are our priorities and I don't believe his views are consistent with those of the voters of the 24th. That is why I am seriously considering a run for this office.

I will spend the next few weeks listening to the voters of Bethel, Danbury, New Fairfield and Sherman as they voice their concerns and hope to make a more formal announcement soon.

As the darling of the Family Institute of Connecticut, teabagger whackos, and anti-immigrant groups, Mike McLachlan is by far the worst state senator at the Capitol.

As a former chief of staff of Mark Boughton, McLachlan has been instrumental in pushing a highly anti-immigrant/xenophobic policy through Danbury. As a state senator, while totally ignoring the concerns of his district, McLachlan's opted to use his term in office to lead the ultra-right wing charge on such issues as marriage equality and opposition to the death penalty.

If there is one state senator who deserves a pink slip in November, it's McLachlan and Hutchinson could possibly be the person who could give him the boot.

A few weeks ago, I taped an interview for the local access show "Progressive Soup" where I talked about the state of political blogging in Connecticut, the problems associated with the lack of local media coverage in Danbury, and the future of journalism in general.

Here's the first half an hour of the interview.



You can watch the second part of the interview by clicking here