Friday, July 08, 2005

Open Forum

I should have the Paul Vance interview up sometime today... don't forget his Q&A is next Tuesday evening at 7pm.

This forum is for further discussion/comparison of the two gubrnatorial interviews and Q&A sessions. What did you think? How did the format work? Was this a useful/informative exercise?

This forum is also for anything else that's on your minds.

9 comments:

Aldon Hynes said...

Well, I'm really intersted in the results of the Secretary of State fundraising. You can see the Hartford Courant article here.

I would love to see the Secretary of State candidates talk here, as well as a discussion about how they are doing with their fundraising.

Anonymous said...

The gist of the article above - Andy Fleischmann came out on top this quarter as the only candidate to raise over $100K without loaning his own money. And he did that while spending most of the last quarter working overtime in the state legislature, not campaigning. Evelyn Mantilla, whose report was not available at the time the article was written, raised only $22K last quarter. Based on fundraising, it will likely come down to Andy and Bob Landino, with an edge for Andy.

And yes, Genghis, the Q&A is a great idea. I appreciate your solicitation of questions, and please keep it up!

By the way, anyone can pull up electronic reports on candidate fundraising through the Secretary of State's Campaign Finance Information System. Older and non-electronic reports are also available.

Anonymous said...

Dear Ebpie, Mikect and Aldon,

Your right to say " I wouldn't count Audrey Blondin out yet..." She is the most traveled candidate out of all of them, with atleast 60 Democratic Town Committees visited and more to come. No other candidate has come close. She has the right connections to all the important people in the state party, having been in politics in some shape or form for over 30 years (something the other candidates can't boast about) and by far has the best organized volunteers and capablity to run in the general election against the Republican challenger. She served on the Litchfield Board of Ethics (4 years) and the litchfield Board of Selectmen (10 years), a town chairwomen,a bankruptcy attorney,a realtor attorney and currently as a DSCC member for the 30th Senatorial District. She has passed town budgets,school refrendum's and realizes that the state/federal gov. doesn't always come through with the funds that they promise. Perfect example all the candidates are boasting about the new electronic voting machines and the 33 Million dollars that we get from the federal government from HAVA (help america vote act)while what they won't tell you is that the adverage life span of a voting machine is 7 years. Is the state and federal government going to pony up the money every 7 years for the new voting machines. Audrey has the common sense to known that burden may fall on the towns, having been there and done that for 10 years. There are 3400 lever machines in Connecticut. Hava dictates one electronic voting machine in every polling place needs to be replaced to be ADD (Americans with Disablities Act) Compilant, thats about 700 electronic voting machines that will have to be replaced every 7 years. Sounds like a business deal between the government and the electronic voting machine companies.
As far as websites Audrey Blondin's website is better then any of the other candidates at this point. Andrew Fleischmann's website could have been done by my 16 year old daugther in her drafting class over the weekend and Landino doesn't have a site up yet.Where's is Evelyn Mantilla website, she supposed to be the designer of the great voter file. Andrew Fleischmann is seen on the campaign trail by many DTC as a smuggle college frat boy and his seat in the General Assembly is his only job.If he runs for this and loses he will be eating potato chip and watching "survior" to pass the time away. He doesn't even hold the Chairmanship or any important rankings on any important commitities like "GAE". At least Susan Byzsetwitic was the Chairwoman of GAE before running for SOTS. Bob Landino has some major conflicts of interest with his business "the largest artcitectural firm in the state. They have alot of state contracts. Even tho Landino has said that he will get rid of his ties to his business, he didn't have the common sense to figure it out on his own. He had to have a lawyer tell him it was a conflict of interest. Another Rowland in the making. Check out the documents: http://www.ethics.state.ct.us/Advisory_Opinions/2003_12.htm .

The only reason these two candidates have lots of money rolling into thier campaigns is simple: "keep the outsider's out" if anyone comes along that threatens the leadership of the old gaurd of the Democratic Party in Connecticut they have to be discredited. This is the same leadership that blundered up campaign finance and most of the ethics bills from passing at the end of the session. Then they turned around and blamed the Governor. (Who by the way is the biggest opportunist, because she never can make a decision until the last minute, so it always works in her favor). But I only have one word to say "DEAN" this is a prime example of the old gaurd of the party flexing it's political muscle to get its way. The leadership of our party can be as greedy as the Republicans at times when it comes to fundraising, thats why there is no more talk about campaign finance or another special session. Bob Landino and Andy Fleischmann are from the Hartford area and are or were part of the Hartford sence. Landino is probably getting alot of contributions from former cliental. Why can't anyone see this can't be good? As for Andy Fleischmann he has people making $1,000 contributions to his campaign like Bruce Morrison, the spokesman for former Dem Party Chairman Ed Marcus. How awful this is & what a disaster to have a state constitutional officer beholden to Ed Marcus. In general how is he raising all this special interest money from developers like Konover-is this what we want-a SOTS office bought by special interest money???

Anonymous said...

The Bob Landino Advisory Board link on his run for SOTS and running his business:
http://www.ethics.state.ct.us/Advisory_Opinions/2003_12.htm

Anonymous said...

http://www.ethics.state.ct.us/Advisory_Opinions/
2003_12.htm

Anonymous said...

It is a sad statement about the desperate condition of the Audrey Blondin campaign when her supporters feel they must engage in anonymous, adolescent name calling and make bizarre allegations riddled with inaccuracies. A few examples:

He doesn't even hold the Chairmanship or any important rankings on any important commitities like "GAE".

As anyone can see, Andy is chair of the Education Committee and a member of the Government Administration and Elections (GAE) committee. Most people think that educating our children is important. Some may disagree.

...his seat in the General Assembly is his only job.

As anyone can see from his bio, Andy works as a communications and strategic planning consultant. One of his recent projects was on behalf of a national organization seeking to expand voter registration.

As for Andy Fleischmann he has people making $1,000 contributions to his campaign like Bruce Morrison, the spokesman for former Dem Party Chairman Ed Marcus

While I'm sure Andy would be glad to accept a contribution from Bruce Morrison, who served Connecticut well in Congress, Morrison has not in fact made such a contribution (as anyone can see). (Morrison is also not a "spokesperson" for Ed Marcus, but who's counting all the false statements?)

But I only have one word to say "DEAN" this is a prime example of the old gaurd of the party flexing it's political muscle to get its way.

It is particularly ironic that Anonymous invokes the name of Howard Dean, since Audrey Blondin was quite active and vocal in her support of Joe Lieberman's "old guard" Presidential campaign, serving as a coordinator and traveling to New Hampshire and Michigan to work for him and sing his praises in news articles (see her quotes in the links). In contrast, Andy Fleischmann actively supported Howard Dean and hosted a fundraiser for him - a bold move for a state legislator in Connecticut.

Anyone who knows the state legislature knows that Andy has been a leader for years on campaign finance reform, voter verified paper trails on electronic voting machines, and expanding voter registration. He has more experience working on democracy issues than any other candidate in the race.

Andy's perfect voting record on campaign finance reform, public interest, environnmental, labor, and other issues speaks for itself.

Andy deserves support not only as a strong front runner but because he has been fighting the good fight for all of his political career.

Anonymous said...

Different Anonymous here than the prior blogger. I have seen each of the SOTS candidates at my town committee (as well as Mayor Malloy, Mayor DeStefano and Alderman Paul Vance among others.) As someone who is not tied to any SOTS campaign, I was impressed that Audrey Blondin's roots are in local government. Too often we look to Hartford to pick our candidates. While this is not an anonymous endorsement, this is a state filled with small communities-- our communities are filled with excellent candidates and holding an office in the state house is not necessarily always a plus and should not be seen as a requirement or a STEPPING stone.

Anonymous said...

I agree with the last Anonymous blogger...

"I have seen each of the SOTS candidates at my town committee (as well as Mayor Malloy, Mayor DeStefano and Alderman Paul Vance among others.) As someone who is not tied to any SOTS campaign, I was impressed that Audrey Blondin's roots are in local government. Too often we look to Hartford to pick our candidates. While this is not an anonymous endorsement, this is a state filled with small communities-- our communities are filled with excellent candidates and holding an office in the state house is not necessarily always a plus and should not be seen as a requirement or a STEPPING stone."

I would also like to add that I made a mistake with saying that Audrew excepted a contribution from Bruce Morrison, I like to make a correction and say its "Bruce Rubenstein" the spokesman for former Dem Party Chairman Ed Marcus that he got a contribution from.

Anonymous said...

Jeremy,

To add to the long list of bizarre statements and childish comments for which you have not apologized - Bruce Rubenstein is a long-time progressive activist who has worked hard to support Andy Fleischmann, Joe Courtney, Howard Dean, and the Caucus of CT Democrats, among others. As I understand it, he did some fundraising work for the State Dems. Bruce is an attorney, not a "spokesman" for Ed Marcus. If Blondin feels that raising money for the Democratic Party is morally problematic, she should probably inform her colleagues on the state central committee.