Thursday, January 12, 2006

Open Forum

What's happening around the state today?

34 comments:

Aldon Hynes said...

Yes, it is official, Michele Jacklin is joining the DeStefano Team as Director of Policy and Research.

Personally, I'm very excited about this. I've always like Jacklin a lot and I believe she will add a lot to the team.

Please visit the DeStefano website for the press release.

Anonymous said...

As was said in the other thread, this is a rather strange move by DeStefano. Just what they need: another inexperienced campaign person.

Obviously Jacklin is smart, but with no real experience she's more of a name right now. Hiring someone just to hire someone is never a good idea -- especially in a campaign.

Also, the Courant thing should be a concern for them as well. Anyone who read her last column knows how she feels about them, and I am sure at this point those feelings are mutual.

Anonymous said...

So you mean to tell me that Jacklin was a partisan writer? What?!! I think I've lost some respect for her.

Anonymous said...

Nice job for an impartial member of the fourth estate. You mean her goodbye column/resume wasn't enough of a brown nose job to land a gig with the JI? If an axe grinds in a dying campaign, does it make any noise?

Anonymous said...

I am really confused by this. In one of her columns, did she not remark that Malloy was the Democrats' best shot at beating Rell? Also does this mean her career as a journalist is essentially over? For a journalist, accepting this job is worse than moving into public relations. Having worked in journalism, this move taints your credibility among fellow journalists and sources. I really was hoping to read Michelle's thoughts and opinions on a blog of her own.

Anonymous said...

There are lots of issues Farrell could take Shays on about but in her hometown newspaper yesterday she once again falls in to the trap of trying to link him to DeLay. Running the little rich town of Westport is not like running for the U.S.Congress. And somebody should tell her Nancy Pelosi from the state of fruits and nuts knows nothing about the land of steady habits.

Anonymous said...

With Destefano running flat on COH, I'm suprised he's adding staff. Must be hoping for an inflow of cash going into the convention.

Anonymous said...

I saw an article in the Stamford Advocate that said Shays was rated somehting like 47/53% conservative/liberal in his voting but a quote from Farrel trying to paint him as a bald Rush Limbaugh but I can't find the article on line. She should really give it a rest and talk about how she would be differnet on the issues if she really would be different.

Anonymous said...

Are Democrats embarrassed by Ted Kennedy? I know as a Republican I am when it comes to Tom DeLay. I was just wondering if any Democrat can put aside politics for one minute and realize what a clown this guy is.

Anonymous said...

Next -- the DeStefano Team will hire John Kissel as Director of Outreach. Mrs. Kissel will enter a new role as "Supervisor of the Director of Outreach".

Anonymous said...

Clown is possibly the nicest word used to describe ted kennedy who when running for pres wanted to help the 'fam farmilies'. i am a very proud dem but it makes me sick to think that this guy is a senator when he left a girl to die in a car he drove off a bridge when drunk at chapaquidick(probably spelled wrong, sorry).how he has ever lived with himself after that, or for that matter, how he been called a hero by some of my peers, i have no idea.

Aldon Hynes said...

You know, one of the things that I find amusing is that people will try to make anything look negative. If Mayor DeStefano were to win the Nobel Prize, someone would complain that it means he isn’t spending enough time in New Haven, or something like that.

I am also surprised about how ill informed people are about people who write opinion pieces for newspapers. They complain that opinion writers have opinions. Who would have thought it?

Yes, we are excited about Michele joining our campaign. Yes, it costs money. The reason we raise money is to be able to get our message out. Michele is a great writer who will do a great job getting our message out. Yes, she has criticisms of Mayor DeStefano and the DeStefano campaign. I do too. We are a campaign that is big enough to take well thought out criticisms and confront them. Mayor DeStefano is a strong leader who wants to work together with people who think he can be doing his job even better. We need more leaders like this.

Between the poll, the SEIU, Michele Jacklin and other coming developments, it is a very exciting time for the DeStefano campaign.

Anonymous said...

From the What the HELL is going on with the Ethics of our State Government File, comes todays most recent report that - "Rell staffer loses new job because of resume discrepancy"

If we recall, yesterday the Courant ran an article deatailing how one of Moody's assistants - Daniel R. Moreland - was going to be hired by the (wait for it) - Office of State Ethics(!).

If that in and of itself wasnt enough of a headscratcher, todays AP is reporting that Mr. Moreland has already lost this new job because he(drum roll please) - Lied on his resume!

What in God's good name is going on up in Hartford!?! Its like the blind leading the blind, or more to the point, the corrupt leading the un-ethical(or vise versa)

Complete Article Here

Anonymous said...

I’d like to propose an open question and ask for a response from other commentators.

The Destefano blog has announced that Michelle Jacklin, formerly a columnist and reporter at the Hartford Courant, has joined John DeStefano’s gubernatorial campaign as Director of Policy and Research. Jacklin was also a member of the Courant’s editorial board. DeStefano is quoted as saying in the blog, “Michele has long been one of the most articulate progressive voices in Connecticut politics. She understands the issues that are most important to Connecticut families and I'm excited that she will be bringing her energy, experience, and integrity to my campaign.”

The media often has condemned the “revolving door” through which former politicians pass to enter the market place, the general presumption being that the politician is using his office to benefit himself. Whenever the door has opened to admit a politician, investigative reporters generally have operated on the assumption that the new hire may have compromised himself while in office.

Why are such presumptions shelved when media connected reporters, editorial writers and columnists enter the political theatre? Shouldn’t the save level of scrutiny be applied to them – and for the same reasons? Now that Jacklin formerly has joined the DeStefano campaign, shouldn’t we suspect that her columns and the influence she exerted on the Courant’s editorial board had been exercised for the benefit of her present employer?

Anonymous said...

Excellent post by anonymous, Jacklin's hire should be scrutinized- and her columns do now come under focus. It should also be noted though, in fairness, she was let go by the Courant.

Anonymous said...

You have to give Mr. Morland a lot of credit. It takes a lot of balls to make up a college degree on an application for a job with the state ETHICS commission. I'm sure we'll see Jodi's reaction come out later today that she is "shocked" to find out about this. He'll still keep his job up in Hartford though.

Anonymous said...

Blue in CD2 & Anon(12:13) -

In the interests of fairness, see a considerably more nuanced account of what happened here.

Seems like it might be more about a pissing match between the legislature and Bycel than Moody's secretary taking a new job, even one in the Ethics Commission.

Anonymous said...

People were talking about Michelle Jacklin interviewing with Global Strategies back in September, so it seems like both Malloy and DeStefano were going after her. As far as her columns with The Courant go, they seemed to be Anti-DeStefano if anything. We've just seen a few examples posted on this site of where she took shots at him, so I don't understand the 'scrutiny' question posted by anon 11:41. Can you give an example of an article she wrote while with the Courant that would show any exertion of power that was "exercised for the benefit of her present employer?"

Anonymous said...

Note also this editorial - it says Bycel made it plain it was his decision to hire Moreland.

Anonymous said...

Can I give an example of an article Jacklin wrote while with the Courant that would show any exertion of power that was "exercised for the benefit of her present employer?"

That would be difficult because Jacklin also was connected with the Courant's editorial board, and it may not be possible to extract from Courant editorials those portions that were influenced by Jacklin's contributions.

The real tie may be ideological rather than personal. Both Jacklin and DeStefano share an ideology that may have been advanced indirectly -- as payments are sometimes made indirectly by companies that employ politicians -- by Jacklin in her capacity as a Courant employee.

I do not say there was undue influence. An amiable connection seems obvious, because people do not voluntarily accept jobs with employers they do not feel comfortable with, and Jacklin herself obviously feels at home in the DeStefano campaign.

I think the question is worth exploring, even as an instance of media hypocrisy, and I note that letters sometimes appeared in the Courant deploring the Cohen/Rowland connection and objecting to Cohen's conservative columns on the grounds I've suggested here.

Anonymous said...

Not quite the end of the story. Have we so soon forgotten the hard lessons learned from the corrupt Rowland administration?

Influence may be exerted indirectly. Corruption in the Rowland administration was exerted through intermediaries. As a reporter and columnist for the Courant, Michele Jacklin obviously has had access to information – including an understanding of the political dispositions of her fellow writers at the paper – not available to other candidates for governor. In private business, the sharing of such information would be called “insider trading.”

Businesses hire lobbyists because they know their political connections can “open doors” for them. Might not Jacklin do the same for DeStefano, given her solid political and media contacts? Jacklin also may have access to information, published and unpublished, taken from the Courant, that she may have reproduced in her own files – providing to her new employer an advantage over other gubernatorial contestants.

When the DeStefano campaign hired Jacklin, they were purchasing friendly media access, in addition to the considerable talents posses by an unapologetically liberal political writer. Journalists have been known to spill ink by the barrel criticizing private companies who hire politically connected lobbyists to influence legislation. Why is this form of influence more commendable? Media connected employees are lobbyists, are they not? Perhaps media outlets should be forced by law to require their employees to sign stipulations that they will not work on campaigns until a year has passed from their termination date.

Anonymous said...

And just because it's so fun to yank DF84's chain, let's ponder the hypothetical reaction had Jacklin gone to work for "DLC Dan" - to whose defense she often rose as a columnist.

Search your feelings, DF84. You know it to be true. ;-)

Anonymous said...

The difference between Novak and Jacklin is that Novak does not portray himself as someone who is independent. He lets everyone know he's a conservative. Jacklin wanted people to think that she was an insider and did not take sides...even though her work proved otherwise.

Anonymous said...

Anoymous 11:41 and tose that followed: Jacklin didn't work for the government as an elected official voting or making decisions for those who voted for her; she didn't work for the government in a politically appointed position; she didn't even work as a career government employee; she worked for a private business that just happened to be a newspaper with an editorial board a little left of center; so she should be able to go on to do anything she damn well pleases as long as it oesn't violate her contract with that news paper but why she would want to work for DeStefano is beyond my comprehension.

Anonymous said...

to be very honest, this bickering between the campaigns about jacklin is laughable. as a dem, the most glaring thing in the most recent poll is the lack of name recognition of our dem candidates. malloy, destafano and their respective supporters and campaigns need to be out there defining themesleves in a positive manner, not getting bogged down with this nonsense. its a political lesson i learned years ago, you cant let hate or dislike of another candidate blurr your vision....

Anonymous said...

Aldon, is Michelle going to find out if the city workers are driving trucks around town drunk?

Anonymous said...

Michael Barone on GI Joe

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/opinion/baroneblog/archives/060112/connecticut_on.htm

Don Pesci said...

No one need accuse Michele Jacklin delivering the goods to DeStefano, who hired her. The analogy drawn is between a) politicians who write laws affecting industries and are then hired by businesses and b) reporters and commentators who are hired by politicians. The practice is widespread, especially on a national level. It is the propriety of the arrangement that is under attack. The primary critics of political cross pollination between politicians and businesses are columnists like Jacklin.

Well, okay – If it is not good for the goose, why should it be good for the gander? Jacklin has a service to sell to DeStefano, otherwise he would not have hired her. The question is: What did he buy?

He bought political expertise and a keen intelligence familiar with political players – including an intimacy with reporters and commentators who work for Connecticut’s only state-wide newspaper. Very soon, hostilities will open – They have already – in Connecticut’s gubernatorial campaign. With bullets flying here and there, is it not advantageous to have on the payroll a former Courant reporter and commentator who knows the lay of the journalistic land? I think so.

How is such an arrangement different than a business who hires a former politician as a lobbyist to lead him through legislative minefields?

no one need accuse Jacklin of anything. She has not yet spent an hour on the job. The propriety of the arrangement is another matter. In some ways, the journalistic political complex is more forbidding than the political industrial complex. The politician who offers his services to a business may not be a hypocrite, unless he has raised moral objections to the evils of revolving doors as a politician. But reporters and commentators who leap over the journalistic fence to hire themselves out to politicians are often hypocrites. And the coin they deal in – a good press and friendly relations with other politicians and media employees – is often worth more than money can buy. Should the media police its precincts and see to it that reporters and commentators who leap the fence stay on the range?

I am asking these slightly provocative questions because no one may expect to see a debate on this issue in the media.

Anonymous said...

Lieberman, Lamont, and the Quinnipiac Poll will be topics on Fox 61's Beyond the Headlines on Sunday.

Anonymous said...

Don:

You make some strong points, but your statement that "the coin they deal in – a good press and friendly relations with other politicians and media employees – is often worth more than money can buy" is overkill at best.

No reporter worth his or her salt -- and those who aren't seldom make it to Capitol or political beats and NEVER last there -- takes anything from a political flack as fact, no matter how long they were down in the trenches with the rest of the gang.

They may be welcomed back with the old repartee. They may get a bit longer attention span. But in the end they are flacks -- just a part of the process.

Aldon Hynes said...

I think Don brings up very important points, although I end up with a slightly different take on things. I am very concerned about revolving doors. My luggage often gets caught in them. But when you get to the revolving door of job changes, I think an important thing to keep in mind is the coins being dealt.

The biggest complaint I’ve heard about people leaving politics to work for lobbying firms is the massive amount of money at play. It is the love of money which is the root of all evil. Those who have worked for local newspapers or as staffers on political campaigns know that if you want money, it isn’t working for a local newspaper. It isn’t working as a staffer for a political campaign.

Will Jacklin represent Mayor DeStefano’s view as she works for the campaign and do it with the same expertise she has shown in her previous writing? Yes. Will she be paid for it? Yes. Just like how I am paid for working on the campaign. Will the vast amount of dollars that she is going to receive working for the campaign cloud her values? Unless she is getting paid an awful lot more than I am, or anyone else I know of on the campaign, that is very unlikely.

Anonymous said...

If Jacklin should get a job as a waitress or a maid at the Hartford Convention Center that would even upset a few of you. Suppose she had been working for a state contractor and went to work for a candidiate, that would be wrong too. She should probably move out of Connecitcut to suit everybody.

Aldon Hynes said...

If she moved out of Connecticut, people here would spin it as an admission of some sort of guilt.

Anonymous said...

Aldon: she is guilty as hell for trying to better herself and I don't even like your guy Destefano.
My money's on Malloy to show up in November but who knows.