Sunday, March 26, 2006

A Few Small Changes

The look of the site is changing ever so slightly as I learn more CSS (let's hear it for library school! It's not just books anymore!). I haven't messed with things too much, but I've changed around some font sizes and some other things. The biggest change is the new logo at the top. I always hated the way the old one looked, and I like this one better. Oh, and blockquotes, which unfortunately Blogger still won't let you do in comments, are now in a nice shaded area with a dashed border.
Like so.

The site looks a lot better in Firefox. If you're using IE: why?

In political news, Bridgeport Democratic leaders have endorsed Malloy as their delegate selection approaches Monday night. Bridgeport is the state's largest city and has the largest contingent of delegates (Proud Moderate Dem informs me that this is not so, New Haven has more).

At this point I think Malloy's going to win the convention. If DeStefano doesn't have the more liberal cities, what does he have? If the cities (New Haven excepted) go strongly for Malloy, the towns will follow.

The issue seems to be electability:
"We are proud to support Dan Malloy in his run for Governor," [Bridgeport DTC chairman John] Stafstrom said. "It's time for Democrats to line up behind the candidate who can win in November." (Bridgeport)

At this point, Malloy has done a good job of quietly (and not-so-quietly) persuading Democratic leaders that he could do a lot better against Rell than DeStefano, and that he's a more stable, reliable and traditional candidate.

The primary, of course, is another matter, although a huge amount of pressure will be brought to bear on the convention loser to drop out so Democrats can face Rell as a united front. The fundraising numbers for this quarter are going to be revealing: DeStefano's only raised about $150,000 so far, although he might manage 300K or so. I know this because the DeStefano campaign put out a release about reaching $3 million on March 22nd: they were at $2.84 million according to a January 10th press release about the last quarter of 2005.

DeStefano does have the advantages of having wider name recognition and more cash on hand (probably near $2 million) than Malloy.

Source

"Bridgeport's Democratic Leaders Endorse Malloy for Governor." Press Release: Dan Malloy for Governor, 26 March, 2006.

49 comments:

Anonymous said...

hey genghis, not a big deal but new haven has the most delegates at 69, bridgeport has 61. looks like the delegate count will be tight and maybe there will be some deal making on the floor. will be fun to have some excitment at a convention again.

Genghis Conn said...

That's strange. I suppose I should know this, but are delegates tied to number of registered Democrats and not to overall population?

It will be nice to have an exciting convention.

Anonymous said...

GC, nice work on the site

your analysis explains why Johnny D is picking up the income redistributionist hammer against Dannel....funny, he wasn;t so upset with robber barons when Bob Matthews came looking for tax breaks?

Anonymous said...

looks far too familar to the layout of Connecticut Conservative

I wouldn't be too happy if it were my layout that was replicated.........

Anonymous said...

GC- right.. delegates are based on number of registered democrats not total population.

Genghis Conn said...

It does? I don't know, I just flipped back and forth between the two and there are still significant differences. The only way this site became any more like Sean's is that I went with the dashed-gray blockquote boxes, which is used all over the place. Mine's apparently a darker gray.

The original templates for both blogs were pretty similar, actually.

And if anyone wants to replicate this layout, they're welcome to it.

Anonymous said...

GC, your comments page is eminently more evolved technically than CT Conservative and I like the new title but the grey boxes do nothing for me. But guess what? Like the rest of 'em I am a guest and just grateful for the forum.

Anonymous said...

Delegate count by town (first column).

Destefano's endorsement list is not too shabby and includes lots of important Dems from small towns. Bridgeport is Malloy's neighborhood and Perez is a DLC ally - not surprising. Malloy's list is also lengthy. I have no idea what will happen, but two cities don't decide it.

GC - Blogger has been down so often lately that it may be time to consider a migration elsewhere.

Anonymous said...

DeStefano/Malloy-

The argument I'm hearing is that Malloy has already been vetted, while DeStefano's closet has a lot of skeletons.

Another argument I'm hearing is that John might not be playing to win, (as Rell's numbers remain strong). Perhalps the DeStefano plan is to go ahead and let Malloy lose, and then be the clear front-runnerfor 2010.

Genghis Conn said...

Bluecoat,

Actually, I'd like to make the page as usable as possible. Is anyone having a hard time reading the blockquote boxes? I may lighten the background color to a much lighter gray.

If anyone ever has suggestions for what I could do to make this place easier to use, let me know.

Anonymous,

Yeah, Blogger's been stinking it up lately, but they are free and I don't want to change URLs unless I really have to.

Anonymous said...

Guess a Malloy win would be a black eye for LT Gov Sullivan.... but let's face it, he is irrellevant anyway.

One Fairfield County Dem who will be happy to see that arrogant guy leave.

Anonymous said...

Whoever is counting delegates, I saw a press relaease that Fairfield's Drew is backing Malloy so my guess is all 24 from Fairield will go that way.

Anonymous said...

Anybody who is intersted can go here to today's NHR for a take on the significance of the Donkey delegate count for guv.

Anonymous said...

Anon 1:31
I hardly consider it a negative that the FBI has not "vetted" Gov. Rell and Mayor DeStefano.

Anonymous said...

Malloy was vetted by the chief state's atty not the FBI so if Moodygate is a measure of how it's done, nobody is wearing a badge of cleanliness. And the public doesn't expect it either since afterall, they are all politicians.

Anonymous said...

Flatto is on Destefano's list of endorsements so I wouldn't make that assumption.

Anonymous said...

delegate count is actually based on a formula which adds registered dems plus count total for kerry/edwards divided by two, then divided by 500.

Anonymous said...

Anon 3:30,

You cant compate "Moodygate" with what Malloy went through. Do you remember how LONG that took? I think coming out totally clean after an investigation of that magnitude says a lot.

Anonymous said...

oh, the Mike Bergin campaign slogan again "They didn;t arrest me!"

from the AP 5/5/05

"Investigators conducted about 100 interviews and pored over thousands of pages of documents related to city contracts, officials said. At one point eight inspectors worked the case, which began in December 2003 when authorities received allegations of wrongdoing, Morano said.

Some of the contractors who worked on Malloy's house in the wealthy Shippan section of Stamford won city work through bid waivers. Malloy said he had nothing to do with selecting the contractors, but as mayor he does sign bid waivers.

Alex Ferrara, an excavator who worked on Malloy's house, has said he was assured by the mayor's brother, Kevin, that the city would lower his back taxes if he agreed to cut the $25,000 bill by almost half. Ferrara and city officials said the tax relief never came through.

Malloy said he was unaware of any conversation with his brother and Ferrara, while his brother has not returned calls for comment.

Malloy, 49, said he struggled to pay for the major house renovation but received a windfall from his former law firm and later sold land to a police commissioner he appointed"

Anonymous said...

Greenwich Time has article today on speculation that First Selectman Jim Lash is being considered for Rell's running mate.

http://www.greenwichtime.com/scn-gt-lash1mar26,0,1989885.story?coll=green-top-headlines

CT's version of Mike Bloomberg, he has more money than most would need in a lifetime. Seems unlikely that he would consider it.

I'm hearing New Britain Mayor Stewart, Dolly Powers, Tony Gugliemo, John McKinney and David Cappiello.

Also hearing that Rell will announce mate last week in April.

Any other names?

Anonymous said...

heard through the blogvine that a new blog will be starting soon and will serve as a factchecker for the upcoming political races, with its pirpose to show both sides to every story and also factcheck the comments made of posts. no need for you to worry genghis but ctblogger, connecticut conservative, lamont blog and myleft netmeg should take note....

Anonymous said...

I say Lou Deluca for Lt. Governor. Why would she pick Cappiello when she could have Deluca? Incidentally, tell David to keep saying that he doesn't know who keeps posting all the positive bull about him and the negative about his Senate father. Sure, Nice try David!

Anonymous said...

Lt. Gov. on the Republican side is between Stewart (New Britain) and Kalinowski (State Rep-100th). O'Connor was also considered at one point. Just the rumors I am hearing. Who knows for sure except Rell herself?

Both Stewart and Kalinowski would be great picks. Stewart would bring a city (New Britain) out for a R Governor and just the fact that he can win in such a D city shows his appeal to all voters. Kalinowski i don't believe has ever lost a race. He beat out an incumbent D in 2002 and won again in a rematch in 2004 in a district that has over 1500 more D's as oppossed to R's. Before this he served two terms as First Selectman fn Durham. His biggest attribute is his experience as a retired former Secret Service Agent. He also served on the Governor's Impeachment Panel so his name is known throughout the state.

Both would be great choices.
Just my opinions.

Anonymous said...

ConnDOT is looking at tinkering with the underutilized HOV lanes in the Hartford area in another myopic study described here in today's NHR. Of note are these concluding remarks:

The study found that areas where HOV lanes succeeded had a number of factors in common, including: a metro area of at least 1.5 million; heavily congested highways leading to a central urban location; high levels of bus service; and strict enforcement to prevent single-occupant cars from using the special lanes.

Hartford’s metropolitan area had a population of only about 857,000 people, according to the 2000 census.

One area where HOV lanes proved a failure was in northern New Jersey along Interstate 80 and Interstate 287, according to the federal study.

New Jersey began operations of its high-occupancy vehicle lanes in 1994. Four years later, New Jersey officials decided to open up those lanes to regular traffic.

The federal study concluded that HOV lanes failed in New Jersey partly because the lanes didn’t achieve the state’s goals for increasing car pooling and reducing traffic on regular highway lanes. The HOV lanes became extremely unpopular and were the target of numerous stories in the media.


and I once again conclude: There is no comprehensive plan for congestion mitigation for CT

Anonymous said...

I don't know how worried R's are about Nancy Johnson, especially with her fundraising lead- but if they are Stewart would presumably help R turnout in New Britain.

Anonymous said...

Jim Brennan is the leading candidate for Lt.Gov. Jim has a great personality and is intelligent. Jodi will want somebody without any political baggage. Jim is a real peoples person and Jodi will pick him over Stewart, Cappiello, Kalinoski, or anybody else their friends continually attempt to promote. So remeber, Jim Brennan will be the next L.G. Rell-Brennan 2006

Anonymous said...

Thanks, Mrs. Brennan. Who the hell is Jim?

Anonymous said...

Who is Jim Brennan?

Anonymous said...

GC: Are you still planning on doing an in depth commentary on the Joe Duffey race for US Senate in 1970? Fascinating parallels to the Lamont challenge.

Anonymous said...

The fact that you may not know who Jim Brennan is means nothing. The fact that Jodi does means everything. I too am hearing Brennan for LG and although he is not well known, that is a benefit to Rell because people should be focused on the Governor and not the LG. Looks like the cat is now out of the bag!

Anonymous said...

I keep hearing Stewart for LG too. Not sure if that's the smartest pick, but she's polling in the 80's so it doesn't matter. When will she announce?

Anonymous said...

Anonymous 10:58: What are you talking about???? Answer the question: Who is Jim Brennan and what experience does he bring to the ticket?

Genghis Conn said...

A post about the 1970 Senate race is in the works. Probably Friday.

Anonymous said...

Brennan brings a fresh face and a fresh perspective to the ticket. The fact the he does not have state wide name recognition is appealing. It is so much like Jodi Rell to pick somebody that she has confidence in and surprise the pundits.

Anonymous said...

Anon- Why would Rell worry about a fresh face and a fresh perspective for the ticket?

Those qualifications would limit the LT. Gov catagory to just about every R in the state...

Who is this Brennan guy?

Anyone hear if Malloy and DeStephano are planning to announce running mates before the convention. It looks doubtfull that there will be a compromise ticket between these too campaigns, these guys (and their staff) seem to loathe eachother.

Anonymous said...

That's nice anon, but still, who the hell is Jim Brennan???

Some mentioned Tony Gugliemo...would be a good pick as he is popular and can raise money but as I have said on countless occasions, no chance she will take anyone from the senate...D's are one vote from veto override and she is not about to give it to them by picking a sure thing in a senate race.

Also, and you can quote me now, Jack however the heck you spell his last name (and remember, I have never liked this guy as my previous posts should indicate) will beat Nappier. She is so screwed it isn't even funny. Ad her mess-up to Rell on the top of the ticket and you get DEFEATED!

Anonymous said...

I just checked my sources close to the Rell campaign. They've never heard of Brennan. This is all cooked up by someone trying to be funny. Notice the vague descriptions. There is a Jim Brennan that is a criminal defense attorney in Hartford but they are not considering him. This should end that.

Anonymous said...

bmWho the hell is Jim Brennan? Seriously, can SOMEONE answer that? There was a Brennan on Rowland's staff way back when, but presumably nobody from that world would be able to get on the ticket.

Anonymous said...

I have an uncle named jim brennan, but he lives in California. He is a democrat too.

I'm pretty sure those two factors d.q. him from the discussion.

But as long as we are making up people to put on tickets, I'll go ahead and nominate Jay Peterman. Business magnate, world traveler and owner of a Men's clothing cataloge company. I believe he may live in Greenwich. He is aloof, self centered and out of touch with the common man. Should be a good fit for CT Republicans...

Anonymous said...

What about Vince McMahon. Fits the mold of Peterman except with wrestling and he is a Republican in Greenwich.

Anonymous said...

any truth to the rumor that DeStefano will select LaMont as the LG pick? In order to butress the left and union votes in the primary...

Genghis Conn said...

Are you guys talking about Joe Brennan from CBIA? I have no idea who Jim Brennan is.

As for LG... Stewart's a good pick.

Anonymous said...

Jim Brennan from Cheshire?

Anonymous said...

If Stewart is Lt. Gov. does New Britain go back to the Dems? Or does he have a Deputy Mayor?

Anonymous said...

Ah, Jim Brennan, Jim Brennan, Jim Brennan. Who is Jim Brennan you ask? Well I don't have an answer for you but, and no offense to Jim Brennan, who ever he may be, isn't it sad that his name has been mentioned more today than anyone else's on this blog? It's kinda like George Mason beating UConn, it just shouldn't happen.

Anonymous said...

Bush Was Set on Path to War, Memo by British Adviser Says is the title of this front page article in today's New York Times shown here

just kidding there disgruntled; I too wonder who Brennan is if he is anyone; it's bluecoat here but speaking of the CBIA their economist, Peter Goia, wrote in the CT Post yesterday that the answer to CT's high costs is to to reopen the state employee contracts that their man, John Rowland, negotiated. How stupid and impractical but typical of the CBIA, who has been part and parcel to CT's economic decline with zippo real ideas..

ctblogger said...

New layout looks nice.

It seems like your source credit in the blockquote gets lost with the background. You might want to change the CSS and change the source credit to bold.

Again, nice upgrade. I'm happy that you kept it simple and clean.

Anonymous said...

I live in Cheshire and don't know any local pol named Jim Brennan

sure it's not the Brennan from Middlebury they are thinking of?

Anonymous said...

There is a JOSEPH Brennan from CBIA.

He would bring business dollars into the Rell Campaign.