Ken Dixon's Blog-O-Rama

It’s 9 a.m. and the riggers have The Genius of Connecticut up in the air about four feet, ready to swing onto the $30,000 steel-supported marble pedestal at somepoint. Since she’s still wrapped, the allegorical protector of Connecticut looks more like The Mummy horror-film classic, not to be confused with the amateur hour legislative attempts to tackle the state’s multi-hundred-million-dollar budget deficit. When the wings are bolted on and the wraps are taken off, the Blogster hopes that the statue isn’t a spitting image of Jim Amann, who started the ball rolling on this now half-million-dollar project during his first term as speaker of the House back in the spring of 2005.

It’s 2 p.m. and researchers from the legislative Program Review and Investigations Committee just told lawmakers that contrary to the smoke blown around the issue of Sunday alcohol sales, there’s a potential for creating $8 million in new revenue each year if the “Land of Steady Habits” would think outside its box, grow up and  finallyapprove Sunday sales.

 Sen John Kissel, R-Enfield, who chairs the committee (yes, Republicans are co-chairs this year because it rotates in a bipartisan manner) apparently just delved into his hidden Yippie past, although he claims to have forgotten the author of “Steal This Book,” Abbie Hoffman’s seminal revolutionary tract of the late 60′s. The Blogster can envision Kissel with shoulder-length hair, screaming “Off the Pig” on the streets of Chicago during the 1968 Democratic convention, but believes the senator was probably a grade schooler at the time. Anyway, Kissel asked those in the committee room and beyond in the land of CTN to “steal this report!”

Apparently Larry Cafero, the House minory leader who’s this close to announcing his candidacy for the GOP gubernatorial nomination, is planning on taking care of his home folks in Norwalk with the news. Here’s a copy of an in-house email, obtained by the Blogster.

“Larry we’re all set with The Hour. They’ll have the editorial board and a writer waiting for you at 10 a.m. They’ve agreed to the embargo and were much appreciative of the advance notice and exclusive interview. Jared Ferrari the managing editor will be coordinating the deal.”

Sounds like a dialed-in deal for the local press. The Blogster can’t blame Cafero for slipping the story to his homies in Norwalk. But of course, readers of Blog-o-rama get an advance tip.

the former Democratic gubernatorial contender who couldn’t beat John Rowland back in 2002; or Fred Carstensen the UConn economist; or Bill Cibes; or any number of know-it-alls who slide in and out of the Capitol periodically. Nope, around 6 this morning, a flatbed from a New York art foundry showed up with nearly two tons of “The Genius of Connecticut,” which will be hoisted on it’s marble pedestal sometime this afternoon. The statue’s arrival culimnates a process that began in May, 2005, when the then-newly minted speaker of the House Jim Amann approved an idea to make a poly resin model of the original winged allegorical statue. Well, engineers said that would never withstand the winds on top of the 257-foot dome, so it eventually became bronze, like the original although about a ton lighter. At this moment, around 10:45, men in hard hats are pondering how to move the 18-foot-tall statue, on its side, closer to the $30,000 pedestal.

The Blogster says, grab a sandwich around noon, bring it to the Capitol and watch some contemporary history in the making. The Genius will stay in the rotunda until enough cash is rasied to make structural changes at the top of the Capitol and then hoist the winged statue to the top, where the original was loosened in the Hurricane of 1938, then melted down during World War II.

A couple of the more sensitive, or possibly guilty, lawmakers complained about the recent Blog-o-rama headline (December 10) that suggested hanging legislators during a public hearing last Monday. Of course the Blogster doesn’t want them hanged. He doesn’t believe in capital punishment. How about a sentence of life in the General Assembly with no sign of a budget surplus?

To assuage the potential fears of some legislators, the scaffolding the Massachusetts-based contractors are putting up in the Capitol’s rotunda right now is NOT for a public hanging, but for tomorrow’s arrival of the “Genius of Connecticut,” the reproduction of the bronze allegorical statue that stood atop the Capitol from 1878 until the Hurricane of 1938, when it supposedly was loosened, then removed and finally melted dowen for the World War II effort. The bronze-coated plaster model of the “Genius,” which stands inside the north-side doors of the Capitol, served as the model of the new statute, which was cast in a New York art foundry over the summer.

Tomorrow, the “Genius” will be put upon its $30,000 marble pedestal, where it will reside until someone comes up with about $120,000 to hoist and secure the thing on top of the Capitol dome. For you penny counters, the whole thing was planned when there was a billion-dollar surplus a few years back.  The Capitol Preservation Committee originally planned to warehouse the thing at $11,000 a month, but later decided instead to display the 16-foot-tall piece of art, which will arrive in three pieces tomorrow.

The do-nothing Democrat-dominated General Assembly, given two weeks notice on Gov. Jodi Rell’s call for a special session, will punt again today, with an oblique (Senate D’s haven’t really looked at the House proposal) promise to meet again “before Christmas” to pull off their own tiny steps toward filling the $350-million to $367-million budget deficit. The Blogster assumes that they mean Christmas of 2009, which is in 10 days. So today’s exercise in doing nothing exchange of postures with minority Republicans, will cost a tidy $10,000. Brilliant!

 If you’re in the Capitol and wondering what the marble pedestal is doing in the rotunda, the newly cast “Genius of Connecticut” statue is scheduled to be installed there tomorrow. It will stay there until more than $100,000 is raised to fund hoisting it up on top of the dome. Chances are lawmakers won’t be in the Capitol tomorrow, speaking of missing geniuses.

It’s looking more and more as if the House and Senate aren’t near anything in the way of a deal on Gov. Jodi Rell’s proposed $450 million in cuts to the current budget. That means it’s a growing likelihood that tomorrow’s scheduled special session of the General Assembly will become a “tech” session, in which a couple gavels will meet wood and then lawmakers will go home; and the more optimistic leaders will declare “mission accomplished” in the latest round of ignoring the state’s revenue-starved spending problem.

Possibly sensing the legislative flop sweat, Common Cause in Connecticut, Connecticut Citizen Action Group and the League of Women Voters have planned a newser for tomorrow featuring a pledge from Lt. Gov. Mike Fedele, who announced earlier this month that he will seek to replace Gov. Jodi Rell, to use the state’s public financing. Scheduled to appear are several people who have launched exploratory campaigns and could become gubernatorial candidates themselves: Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz; Dannel Malloy, the former Stamford Mayor; and Ridgefield First Selectman Rudy Marconi. Those three are still in the exploratory phase. Former Speaker of the House Jim Amann of Milford, who has a candidacy committee for governor, has also signed the pledge. Others who have not committed to public funding include the Greenwich millionaires, Ned Lamont on the Democratic side and Tom Foley from the GOP.

 The election activists are trying to lobby the General Assembly to keep the Citizens’ Election Program alive for the 2010 statewide election cycle. Currently the system is up in the air because a federal judge said the landmark 2005 law created unreasonable obstacles to minor parties and petitioning candidates. While Attorney General Richard Blumenthal is confident the state will win on appeal, Gov. Rell and many lawmakers – but possible not enough – want to rewrite the law to make it more inclusive.

 The Commission on Enhancing Agency Outcomes (CEAO), which is co-chaired by Sen. Gayle Slossberg, D-Milford, has scheduled a public  hearing for Monday in the Legislative Office Building, starting at 10. They’re looking for ways to streamline government and make it more efficient, with an eye toward saving big buck$. The panel will accept suggestions, as well as comments on the preliminary list of changes they released on November 30.