Secretary of the state candidate Richard J. Abbate said this week that the governor's campaign "hasn't been terribly cooperative to those of us on the underticket" and failed to provide the help he had anticipated.
"I fully expected that I would receive a phone call in the first week or two after the convention inviting me to a general strategy meeting with the governor," Abbate, former president of the Connecticut Association of Registrars of Voters, told the Journal Inquirer this week. "What I expected never happened.
"The fact of the matter is there was no real concept to taking a team approach to the Republican ticket this year," he added. "There has been no statewide coordination." (Phaneuf)
He's right, of course. The expectation this year, as in the past two elections, was that the Republican underticket by and large was there for show. None of them were really expected to win against powerful, well-funded Democratic opponents. All of the candidates for constitutional offices, excluding the governor, lag behind their opponents in fundraising by an overwhelming margin.
This is too bad. Why should Richard Blumenthal or Nancy Wyman be in their offices for as long as they like? Why should they face no serious opposition?
It's a shame that the state GOP has essentially ceded control of the legislature and the constitutional offices to the Democrats. How likely is it that they will cede control of the 2nd, the 4th and the 5th congressional districts, should they lose those? What about the governor's office in 2010? Will Jodi Rell be our last Republican governor?
A healthy democracy needs a healthy and competitive opposition. The Republicans need to get their act together.
Source
Phaneuf, Keith. "GOP underticket candidate says he feels abandoned." Journal-Inquirer 26 October, 2006.
15 comments:
Go, Mike DeRosa.
Rell's campaign is all about her. It's all about her overcoming the "accidental governor" stigma she feels each and every day but refuses to acknowledge. It even showed in her choice of an LG candidate. Michael who? George Gallo works for Rell. That means he'll back a larger minority in the legislature but SOTS means nothing to her.
The DeStefano ad reminding her of the 2002 convention is also hitting home with some voters who were ambivalent about the race.
In order to build a party for the long-term, you need ideas. Rell doesn't seem to have a set of firm ideological convictions. Her issues page on her web site is laughable (it would be ok if this were say, February, but it's October, and the election is only two weeks away). She's a Republican because she's been one, but there's certainly not much in the way of vision. So it's hard to build support for an underticket. What exactly is the goal of the state party?
John DeStefano has a bunch of detailed policy positions. Problem is, most of them involve a repeal of the law of supply and demand, or a government-sponsored shifting of resources from one group to another. A lot of it seems like blatent pandering. And of course, a lot of the higher taxes on various groups are being spent multiple times.
The 2nd, 4th and 5th CDs will be in play in 2008 and 2010, no matter who wins this time. All three of them are fairly competitive, and both parties could, with the right candidates, have a strong chance in all three. So the NRCC will always be targeting these districts. After 2010, who knows what redistricting will bring. If a Democrat wins the governor in 2010, and the Democrats still have both houses of the legislature (which looks like an almost sure thing at this point), they may implement some sort of Gerrymandering to remove Republican competitiveness from some or even all of the districts.
GMR,
Another reason to support changing the way we draw districts.
There is no CT Republican Party only a Cult of personality that latches on to whomever they feel can win the governorship.This cult has only about 20 to 25 members and they decide everything for the socalled Republican Party.
CTGOP is a joke. They never help the under ticket.
The worst problem at the head quarters is J.R. Romano.
He actually stated that he would even lie to get elected.
He called the voters "Stupid".
Anon 1:01,
"Go, Mike DeRosa."
Absolutely. Couldn't agree with you more. Oh wait. I'm sorry, I thought you said "Go away Mike DeRosa."
Never mind.
Rell's had years with Rowland to build her image and the incumbant position in the current election, none of the underticket races have had that advantage.
Farr wants to be a judge and Cook a senior state executive, adding to their pensions) they aren't serious candidates.
Anon. 2:19 care to provide a link to verify your comments or are you just in the business of slandering people because you work for the House Democrats?
GMR and Ghengis,
Connecticut doesn't do redistricting the way you think. If you check the constitution, you'll see it's a bipartisan approach where neither party has any real edge. The Governor plays no role at all, except to appoint people designated by the four top legislative leaders (2 Dems, 2 Repubs) to a Commission if a plan isn't approved by an eight member Committee (4 Dems and 4 Repubs) and 2/3 of both chambers first.
So a plan can't be approved unless both parties agree (even if one party had more than 2/3 of both chambers, a plan can't get there unless the evenly divided Committee approves it). No obnoxious Texas Republican redistricting schemes can happen here, nor can either party, if they have a majority of the legislature and the Governor, impose their plan, as often happens elsewhere.
The Democrats really screwed up last time in the Congressional redistricting, pouring tons of Democrats in the 1st and 3rd while leaving three Districts that can be held by the GOP. The most egregious sin was taking Middletown out of the 2nd. Like Rosa DeLauro needed another Democratic city in her District?
Abbate is very full of himself and would have great trouble winning a legislative election here in Cheshire
I'm not surprised he's blaming Jodi for how his campaign is doing
A5:08,
I did know how it worked--what I don't like about that system is that it is set up to benefit incumbents. Both parties can go out of their way to create safe seats. I'd like to see it done by a panel of retired judges, myself. Uh, any judge except ol' Tocco, of course!
And A8:11 is right--switching Middletown for Enfield was a big, big mistake for the Dems.
GMR thinks DeStefano is going to repeal the laws of supply and demand or something. By definition government actions like zoning do that. Big deal. And if he wants to stop spending government money to create jobs - like the $1million per job at Adrien's landing or the $50,000 per job at Cabela's that's fine with me - but I wish he'd go beyond saying he plans to close loopholes.
The democrats have overwhelming control of the house and senate. The Republicans don't have the backbone to make their party relevent in this state, They are content to feed scraps off the democrats table. As for the people who post on this blog, I hope your happy with a party that taxes people and businesses out of this state, pretty soon you won't be able to afford CT either.But, what does it matter as long as democrats control everything.
Post a Comment