Saturday, January 07, 2006

Open Forum

The flap over the DeStefano campaign's mixing of mayoral and campaign offices is still making the rounds on the AP wire. This doesn't amount to much by itself. Combined with other "mistakes," though...

There was an anti-illegal immigrant rally in Danbury this morning. Mayor Boughton, who has put pressure on the state and federal governments to address the problem of illegal immigration, distanced himself from the group:

"I think there is an element out there that can be racist in tone, that can project the very worst in human nature," Boughton told WTNH-TV. "I think that there are people that are involved in this particular rally that are doing that."


Jeff Jacobs is still pulling for the NHL to return. I've heard a lot of talk about Howard Baldwin and a new arena, but I'm not holding my breath. I've heard it all before.

What else is going on today?

23 comments:

Anonymous said...

The good thing about Moodygate and Havenwater is that the pols awareness will be heightened that at least the bloggers are watching. Moody gate will never get legs just Rowland's violations of state law never grew legs. It's called prosecutorial discretion and with a week legislature it will continue.

The immigration issue is about the haves and the have nots when you get down to the bottom of it. The illegal immigrants have a skill to sell and the landscapers, restatraunteurs and builders have clients who want to buy products produced with those skills. It's just like people buying at WalMart. Unless you are an economist, tree hugger or union activist you do not think about all the ramifications. Steve Levy, who has partnered with Boughton, is addressing the issue by going after the slumlords that house too many immigrants, the employers that don't follow local rules - in other words, he's using the powers he has a county executive under NYS law. He's a smart and compassionate guy.

CT needs another arena built with taxpayer money. Maybe the Tomasso's can build it.

Great post, Genghis, as always

Anonymous said...

DeLay is stepping down. I suppose the new Dem silver bullet against Shays and Simmons is to tie them to some guy like Roy Blunt no one ever heard of.

well folks, U suggest all the Dems listen to a little Garth Brooks "unanswered prayers".

ctkeith said...

Edpie,

Aren't you proud these 3 called for new leadership AFTER DeLay submitted his resignation letter?

What Troopers they are.

Don't you miss the Days when a blowjob was the countries biggest concern.LMAO

ctblogger said...

I was at the anti-immigrant joke of a rally and I made my comments known on my blog (and I posted a video so you can see for yourselves how much of a joke this rally really was).

Yet another publicity stunt by the Connecticut Citizens for Immigration Control (which is another way of saying a hate-group).

The only thing that annoyed me more than the CTCIC this morning was the cold. Hopefully, the press will not blow this silly event out of proportion.

Anonymous said...

Looks virtually certain that Ned Lamont, with deep pockets and some impressive Dem backers, is going to takeon Joe Lieberman in a Senate primary.

A wrap up of the current rumors and some notes on the political process the soon-to-be-expected announcement will put in motion is at My Left Nutmeg.

Anonymous said...

Looks like Rowland's DPW commissioner, Ted Anson, is the next one in the sights of Nora Dannehy & Co. Anyone surprised that this thing is still brewing? Story here

Genghis Conn said...

Just how much does anyone know about Lamont? There seems to be very little out there about him save the fact that he's wealthy, donates to various Democrats (including Lieberman himself) and is interested in running. If anyone else has some more concrete information, I'd like to hear it.

ctkeith said...

GC,

Ever heard of google? lol

There's plenty out there but you gotta dig.Thats what owners of Blogs are suppose to do.

You could start by clicking on the links in last nights diary comments at kos.

Aldon Hynes said...

I can't say a lot about Lamont. I've spoken with a bunch of people who have been speaking with him. I believe that Jim Dean introduced my wife to Ned when she ran for State Rep. I posted a little about him in a post here back on December 6th.

I believe that he ran for State Senate against Bill Nickerson several years ago, but I can't find references to that race.

He raises a lot of money for the Democrats. Runs a cable company. Lives in Greenwich. Has been talking with a lot of good people, including CCAG, Weicker and the Kennedy's if the reports online are correct.

My understanding is that the top issue is likely to be the war, but there are likely to be a bunch of other issues that emerge.

I'm on the road and won't be able to check in again until late afternoon.

Anonymous said...

I googled "Ned Lamont" and "Edward Lamont" and was struck at how little came up.

Even Armani sells empty suits

Anonymous said...

Dannehy & Co are going where Kevin O'Connor never would look because of his close ties to Rowland and the GOP bigs. Even Ashcroft came to CT and appeared publicly with Rowland when the press, and Curry, was beating a drum about where there is smoke there is fire. The issue won't get legs but it ahould. I goes to O'Connor's abilities. A lot of time went wasted on cleaning up Connecticut corruption because O'Connor wouldn't go after palces where the stones were already unturned.

Genghis Conn said...

A Ned Lamont of Greenwich was the chair of the Investment Advisory Council in the mid-1990s. The Investment Advisory Council oversees state pension funds and advises the state treasurer. He was appointed to his position by Gov. Lowell Weicker. I believe that this is the same man. He was apparently in this position until about 1995, when he started his cable company.

Anonymous said...

So, you think O'Connor doesn't want to expose the Republican bigs? Be happy my Democratic friend that he isn't looking. In state that’s controlled by the D’s, you never know how many corrupt Democrats he may find that were under the sheets with Rowland. Just smile and know you may have got away with one. :)

ctblogger said...

I got the samw info as Genghis. This is a situation where you have to turn the computer off and do the old school reporting. I'm making calls to everyone I know right now looking for info on Lamont but it's REALLY hard to do during the weekend.

My Left Nutmeg has been all over this story but I think someone just needs to call Ned up and get him on the record.

...and where the hell is CT's MSM? This story has been out since Thursday night and is burning up the political blogs (state and national).

Aldon Hynes said...

I don’t really have much to say about Ned other than a little hearsay that I’ve heard as well as information I’ve gleaned off of the web.

Genghis, I am quite sure that the Ned Lamont who was chair of the Investment Advisory Committee in the mid 1990’s is the same Ned Lamont that is considering running for Senate. My understanding is that Lamont has stayed in touch with Weicker up to this day.

However, looking at the Lamont Digital Systems (LDS) website, we find that:

Lamont Digital Systems (LDS), a privately held company founded in 1984, is focused on building advanced telecommunications platforms for residential gated communities and colleges and universities.

and from
Ned’s bio
there:

Edward M. (Ned) Lamont, President, Founder & Chairman of the Board, is a twenty-year veteran of the cable television industry and founder of the Company and assists in the management of over one hundred and fifty systems nationwide, including Lake Las Vegas, Kent State University, and the University of California at Los Angeles. A graduate of Harvard College and Yale School of Management, Ned managed the start up of Cablevision of Connecticut's 50,000 subscriber addressable system in Fairfield County, Connecticut.

If you look at the current membership of IAC you will see that people serving on the IAC normally have other occupations as well, so I suspect that Ned served as chair of the IAC while running LDS.

A search of the web lists Ned as being a selectman in Greenwich from 1987 to 1989, and on the board of the Greenwich YMCA from 1999 to 2005. He is also listed as being former co-chair of the Y’s capital campaign.

A little more searching reveals a lot of donations to Democrats. This is also reflected in a search which reveals he was a $50,000+ bundler for the Kerry campaign.

Looking closely at the fundrace data reveals ‘Ann Lamont’ at the same address and working for Oak Investment Partners. Ann’s bio” says:
Ann Huntress Lamont has been with Oak since 1982 and became a General Partner in 1986. Ann focuses on healthcare and financial information technology and services. … Earlier in Ann’s venture career, she developed a number of successful information technology and biopharmaceutical investments. Prior to joining Oak, Ann was a research associate with Hambrecht & Quist, and received her BA in Political Science from Stanford University.

Other searches from Stanford speak about Ann as being in the class of 1979.

There have been questions about whether Ned is related to . There is a picture of
Bill Clinton, Edward M. Lamont, Jr., and Corliss Lamont in 1992 in Greenwich, Connecticut
in
this requiem for Corliss Lamont. This picture, along with references to Ned going to Harvard where Corliss had contributed a lot of money, leads me to think that it is a likely connection.

There is a person commenting on DailyKos about Ned being the grandson of Corliss and this source refers to an Edward M. Lamont born in 1926. This, I assume to be Ned’s father, is listed as Grandson of banker, Thomas W. Lamont. Thomas Lamont was Corliss’ father and a partner of J.P. Morgan.

Based on this, it would seem that Ned has incredible pedigree both in finance and in liberal activism. What he lacks in name recognition among plebeians like myself, he more than makes up for in background.

If Ned has in fact decided to run, he could be the sort of luminary that has been lacking far to long in the Senate.

As a final comment, I think some of the reason this isn’t on the mainstream media yet is that all we have right now are rumors that Ned is running. He may not have made up his mind yet and it may be that people close to Ned are keeping their lips sealed until there is something official. As to the anonymous poster who is so ‘impressed by Lamont's platfom [sic] and strong stand on the issues’, he hasn’t even said that he is running. It isn’t surprising then, that he hasn’t outlined his platform.

Anonymous said...

The Hartford Courant knew about Lamont since the middle of last week, but have no solid news to write- I'm guessign that they'll write a story as soon as the story becomes more concrete.

Anonymous said...

wow, he's made his money wiring gated communities for cable TV

The Democrat party has come a long way since Tip O'Neill....all the way to Lexus liberalism

Anonymous said...

Helluva post, ctblogger.

Not sure the fawning does you justice, but what the heck.

Lamont, at least, ain't another Jack Orchulli.

(Anon 9:29 - It's the "Democratic Party", Winston.)

Anonymous said...

Anoymous 3:10: I'm not a Democrat and I know O' Connor used his 'prosecutorial discretion' to stay away from Rowland for a very long time. The truth is he waited so long they almost didn't get Rowland. O'Connor was duped just like everybod else and stayed blinded for a long time.

Printer's Devil said...

Weicker actually mentioned Lamont on my show during his most recent appearance. I think he threw out a couple of names of people who would be -- to him -- acceptable alternatives to his own candidacy.
Lamont's was one of them.
We'll definitely tackle this whole Lamont thing (could he be "The Shadow"?) on the air today. So that's one MSM precinct heard from.

Genghis Conn said...

Y'know, I've had to stop myself from typing "Lamont Cranston" into the Google search box. It is too tempting.

Anonymous said...

testing

Anonymous said...

Genghis,
Y'know, I've had to stop myself from typing "Lamont Cranston" into the Google search box.

I suspect that 90% of people under the age of 60 have no idea who that wealthy young man about town is. Let's hope he strikes terror in the very souls of sharpsters, lawbreakers, and criminals everywhere.