Monday, July 18, 2005

Upcoming Event / Open Forum

Wednesday night from 7pm-8pm there will be an open question-and-answer session with Democratic Secretary of the State candidate Audrey Blondin. Go ahead and post questions here if you don't think you'll be able to make it. There hasn't been much talk here about the Secretary of the State race, so this is a great chance to understand the issues involved. I'll post another reminder tomorrow.

Otherwise, this is an open forum.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

An update on federal campaign fundraising from the NH Register by way of the Bristol Press. Some highlights:

[Nancy] Johnson... reported raising just over $425,000 and $663,267 since last November, with a whopping $1.7 million on hand....

Among the two Democrats vying to run against Johnson, state Sen. Chris Murphy, R-Cheshire, reported raising $101,214 during the quarter -- the first of his campaign -- with $100,122 still in the bank. The other Democratic candidate, Paul Vance of Waterbury reported raising $17,700 during the quarter--also his first -- with $10,646 on hand.

U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays, R-4th District...starts the second half of 2005 with a fundraising head start of roughly $375,000, his campaign said. .... Farrell filed her new candidacy after July 1, allowing her to begin fundraising during the current third quarter.

U.S. Rep. Rob Simmons, R-2nd District.... reported raising $321,333 with $520,000 on hand at the end of the reporting period....Democrat Joe Courtney, ... reported having raised $221,000 by the end of the June quarter, with $211,000 on hand, the former figure a record for the same point in a 2nd Congressional district challenger.

U.S. Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, D-Conn., raised $1.5 million during the quarter...
Lieberman faces a challenge for the nomination from liberal Democrat John Orman of Trumbull... who said he would report roughly $1,000 in receipts.

Comments:
Chris Murphy's 100K total is not too shabby in comparison to Courtney's record $221K fundraising in the 2nd District, particularly given that Murphy had to spend all but the last couple weeks of the quarter at the state legislature and he has much less recognition than Courtney. Vance's total does not lend him credibility as a challenger.

In any case, it's obviously a big uphill battle against the Johnson DC corporate money machine. In the first quarter of this year, NOT ONE of her individual contributors was a Connecticut resident. In both quarters, most of her money came from PACs, particularly health & insurance PACs.

Courtney could put up a good fight and offer a real alternative (most of Simmons' money also comes from PACs). Orman is apparently running a purely symbolic race.

Anonymous said...

MikeCT, you write, "Vance's total does not lend him credibility as a challenger."

Yeah, let's let the insiders, (and their pocketbooks), decide on who our candidate should be.

Yeah, of course the big donors here want Murphy. They want access and influence. Me, personally, I suggest we give Mr. Vance sometime to develop his candidacy before we write him off.

The fact that Dem politics in CT is such an insiders-only game is part of the reason we can't win Congressional Seats, or the Governorship.

See who gave money to Murphy:

http://query.nictusa.com/cgi-bin/dcdev/forms/C00411660/179561/sa/11A1

Genghis Conn said...

Not surprisingly, national PACs are taking a big interest in the 2nd District race, just like they did last time. For those who live in the district (like me), expect plenty more annoying campaign ads to be left on your answering machine.

As for Vance, he may have a useful issue in the fact that Murphy actually moved to another town in order to run in the 5th District (while still remaining in his state Senate district).

Genghis Conn said...

DeanFan,

Yeah, I remember him giving some sort of excuse for why he did it. I don't quite remember what.

His senate district straddles two congressional districts, so I suppose the move made sense. I wonder if this means he's going to run concurrently for his state senate seat next year?

Anonymous said...

So today I got something in the mail from Nancy Johnson, one of those taxpayer funded puff pieces that shows how 'great' Nancy has been for all of us. Spare ME!

The most disgusting thing about this mailer is that she has a 'letter' about her views on Social Security. Her view seems to be TAKE NO POSITION and hope no one notices.

Anonymous said...

It would be interesting to see how many donations to the campaigns come from small donors, in Nancy Johnson's case it is all big business.