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6 comments:
As an anonymous poster had hinted, City Councillor Edwin Gomes won the Democratic nomination for the special election for the State Senate seat vacated by Ernie Newton. Gomes lost the 2003 special election to Newton by only 262 votes. Other candidates include Republican nominee Joseph Borges and these petitioning candidates: Rep. Charles D. Clemons, Rep. Lydia Martinez, former Rep. Edna Garcia, and Charles Hare, a "frequent candidate for local office".
Waterbury Mayor Michael Jarjura, having lost the Democratic nomination in a primary to Karen Mulcahy, has launched a write-in campaign. Jarjura is a Republican's kind of Democrat, serving as John Rowland's chief Democratic defender and cheerleader, as Republican Kevin Rennie has noted:
During the height of the Rowland scandals, when it had become clear to the rest of the state that Rowland was a bum, Waterbury Mayor Michael Jarjura prattled off a string of inanities about Rowland's generosity to the Brass City, proclaiming him the greatest governor the state had known.
Jarjura, of course, owed his office to Rowland. In 2001, Jarjura faced a fierce Democratic primary for mayor. Whoever won the primary was likely to win the November election. Rowland, a Republican, announced his support for Jarjura, then a loyal state legislator.
When Rowland staffers began searching their Rolodexes in December 2003 for public officials to utter a few kind words about him after he had confessed to accepting gifts from state contractors, they tracked down one notable in church on Christmas Eve. The holiday spirit did not move him. Jarjura, however, was an easy mark. Blather is his business.
Jarjura also has an anti-choice and anti-gay record, according to the Homophobe HQ blog (Sept 16). But while the irreligious right admires his past record, they are reportedly dissatisfied that he has consorted too often with those of differing views. The Homophone HQ blogger reports that the local irreligious right has flocked to the campaign of his successful Democratic challenger.... Karen Mulcahy. So whoever wins, hooray for Republican Democrats! (Jarjura remains listed on the "Legislative Advisory Council" of the Family Institute.)
The local irreligious right also helped to elect an anti-choice, anti-gay Democratic candidate for state rep, David Aldorondo, over a more progressive candidate, former democracy activist and assistant Secy of State Americo Santiago (Aldorondo used Santiago's support for marriage equality as a club).
Waterbury political life is an embarrassment to Democrats and a nightmare for Republicans (remember Mayor Pedophile).
Jarjura and Waterbury benefitted immensely from the Rowland administration. Hopefully Mulcahy, who will probably win there, will be better than either of the past two mayors.
As for the money race, Ebpie, no one seems to know anything. Which is a little odd, considering how quickly we found out that both Malloy and DeStefano has good quarters last time. I do recall seeing the fundraising bar on the DeStefano site a week or so ago: it wasn't moving much.
Bysiewicz dropped out mainly because she wasn't raising money. The flow of money to Democratic gubernatorial candidates may have slowed down across the board.
Does anybody think that Gov. Rell's sponsorship of the GOP golf tournament sort of breaks her promise to not take money from lobbyists?
Here's a PDF of the invite:
http://www.ctgop.org/ctpress/archives/Golf%20Invite%20Proof.pdf
As long as we have a private system, I don't expect politicians to unilaterally disarm. Obviously, I want a public-financing system. But I do worry that Gov. Rell gets very little ethical scrutiny from a mostly adoring press.
Thoughts?
That golf tournament is a sort of weird gray area, since she isn't actually going to BE there, but the invitations have her name on them. She won't be taking money personally, but her party will, and there's no doubt that the party will use some of that money to help her campaign. She's been so agonizingly careful about ethics and not giving lobbyists the time of day that any sort of gray area is surprising and a little disappointing.
She's still got the moral high ground on legislative Democrats, however, when it comes to reform.
Didn't Rell choose the chair of the Republican State Party and if she is going to allow the use of her name for fundraising efforts, doesn't she control more of that effort than she admits?
She's Rowland-lite in many respects!
Jarjura is a real estate developer, and over the past year or two has done his best to use his position to make big bucks. He has repeatedly shown that he doesn't care about anyone who isn't wealthy. Most recently, he has declared that the mill rate in Waterbury needs to go up two or three points. UP! If the mill rate gets any higher, this city will die. Mulcahy wants to lower the mill rate by 30 points. She wants Jarjura's deadbeat friends to pay the thousands of dollars in back taxes they owe the city. The local paper (the Republican-American) loves Jarjura and has done a clever job of presenting Mulcahy as an unpleasant person (yet everyone I know who has dealt with her over taxes sings her praises). Jarjura will win this election because the people of Waterbury are too dense to know when they're getting screwed over.
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