Political Capitol

I understand from some very reliable individuals that Attorney General Richard Blumenthal flew out to the West Coast today to “get real” and tape an episode of “Dr. Phil” on classifieds website Craig’s List.

Blumenthal lead a successful effort last year to convince Craig’s list to take down ads for prostitution and other illegal activities.

I understand the “Dr. Phil” program, not the state, footed the bill for Blumenthal’s travel expenses.

Today was the first meeting of the Commission on Enhancing Agency Outcomes, a bi-partisan group of lawmakers and former state officials charged by the General Assembly with proposing efficiencies in government.

The hope is some of their proposals can be incorporated into whatever two-year budget agreement Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell and the Democratic-majority General Assembly reach in the coming months.

“There are so many overlapping functions in our state agencies,” Sen. Gayle Slossberg, D-Milford, a commission co-chairman, said at a press conference earlier today to kick-off the group’s efforts.

Another member – Sen. Bob Duff, D-Norwalk – said there are “no sacred cows” and “everything’s going to be on the table.”

The other co-chairman – Rep. James Spallone, D-Essex – spoke about the urgency to get to work.

“We have a very short time frame,” he told reporters. “We’re going to have to be nimble and efficient ourselves.”

But when the group wrapped up a brief organizational meeting at 3 p.m., Slossberg announced they did not have a date for a future meeting and would have to get back to the members on that.

“Please make sure the clerk has every which way we can get a hold of you,” Slossberg said.

UPDATE: Slossberg just called to explain.

“What I should have said is we’ve identified a couple of areas where we’re developing working groups – human services, economic development, and technology for a start,” Slossberg said.

She said those groups will be submitting proposals, as will individual members and department heads and, she hopes, the public through a new website.

“Once we start percolating ideas the full commission will meet again to hash it out, figure out what makes sense and what doesn’t, and make recommendations,” Slossberg said. “We don’t have another meeting scheduled until we have formal meeting work that needs to be done.”

It didn’t take a phonecall last month from one of the lawyers representing Charla Nash to figure out her family would be filing a lawsuit over the attack that has ruined her life.

I’m going to let a journalist who does NOT work for a Stamford-based newspaper weigh in.

Somehow I missed Agriculture Day at the capitol during the past two sessions but have heard some folks talk about how it’s the best day of the legislative session.

Essentially a bunch of farmers and other folks who work Connecticut’s land or work to preserve open space come up to the capitol and set up booths with brochures, bumper stickers, exhibits (live bees!) and … perhaps most importantly … free samples.

You’ve got your donuts. You’ve got your raw oysters and clams. You’ve got your chowders – clam and corn. You’ve got your homemade pies and your dips and your sunflower seeds and your popcorn.

And there’s grape juice and maple milkshakes to wash it all down plus, for those who got there early enough, a little tomato plant seedling to grow at home.

So the Family Institute of Connecticut yesterday called for Sen. Andrew McDonald, D-Stamford and Rep. Michael Lawlor, D-East Haven, to be stripped of their titles as chairmen of the legislature’s Judiciary Committee over proposing potentially unconstitutional legislation to give Catholic laity more control over parish finances.

“The leadership of Rep. Lawlor and Sen. McDonald on (the bill) was an attack on religious liberty that must be remedied by the removal of their co-chairmanships,” Family Institute head Peter Wolfgang wrote Democratic leaders.

He was, as expected, quickly rebuffed.

Catholics might have been furious at McDonald and Lawlor and they made it known from the pulpit and at protests here in Hartford last week. But the fact is the underlying state law their bill would have changed (the Religious Corporations Act) might also be unconstitutional because it specifically outlines how the Catholic church can operate, mixing church and state.

Longtime critics of McDonald and Lawlor over their support of civil unions and gay marriage, Wolfgang did what he had to do to satisfy his constituency. But removing chairmanships over potentially unconstitutional legislation that might have altered a potentially unconstitutional law? It’s just not happening.

More constructive would be fielding candidates to run against McDonald and Lawlor in 2010. And in fact, a contender just emerged to challenge McDonald.

Over the past few years lawmakers in lower Fairfield County have sought to ban fuel distributors from charging different amounts for fuel to gas stations in the state – so-called zone pricing.

The idea is the ban would decrease prices at the pump, particularly in Southwestern Connecticut, which does tend to have some steep costs (although honestly there are a few stations in Fairfield which I’ve found recently do not charge all that much more than some of the cheaper stations on the Berlin Turnpike near Hartford. And frankly after paying $4 plus a gallon last year, I feel like I’m saving money wherever I fill up).

What’s interesting this year is the faces in the zone pricing battle have changed a bit.

Rep. William Tong, D-Stamford, took on zone pricing during his freshman term in 2007 and 2008 when he sought to convince the General Law Committee to back a ban. His bill was famously killed after Big Oil funded a Quinnipiac University study that scared legislators from other regions into thinking zone pricing might actually raise gas prices on their constituents.

This session Tong’s colleague – Rep. James Shapiro, D-Stamford – is a new co-chairman of General Law, replacing the notoriously anti-zone-pricing Rep. Christopher Stone, D-East Hartford, who retired.

So on March 5 General Law passed Shapiro’s version of the zone pricing ban.

Tong is continuing his battle on a different front. He is a vice-chairman of the Energy Committee, which today passed his Transparency and Oversight of Gasoline Markets Act. The bill stems from Tong’s inability to get the Quinnipiac professors who did the zone pricing study to turn over the data they used to the General Assembly because it is considered proprietary information.

Tong’s bill would force Big Oil to hand over pricing information for the state to analyze.

Tong’s press release does not mention Shapiro and I’m curious if their bills will wind up competing against each other. Some lawmakers who are on the fence about zone pricing might back Tong’s proposal, arguing it could help them obtain the necessary pricing information to determine whether a ban should be enacted in the future.

A press release Tong sent out today states “we’re gaining real traction against zone pricing and once we see this data we’ll see the truth about our gas prices in Stamford and New Canaan.”

House Minority Leader Lawrence Cafero, R-Norwalk and Senate Minority Leader John McKinney, R-Fairfield today proposed amending the portion of the state’s wage act AIG is hiding behind to defend its awarding $165 million in bonuses to employees in the Wilton offices.

“AIG has used this provision in Connecticut statutes as an excuse to give those largely responsible for the company’s financial implosion $165 million in bonuses,” Cafero said in a statement. “The public is outraged and they do not understand how this is possible, given that it is taxpayer dollars that have been used to keep AIG alive.”

McKinney said: “The legislature should move immediately to change Connecticut law. We in Connecticut can do what Congress failed to do, which is protect taxpayers from having their hard earned money used for these exorbitant bonuses.”

Seems like a nice, meaty issue for the GOP minority to sink its teeth into.

Derek Slap, spokesman for Senate President Donald Williams, D-Brooklyn, said his caucus is also outraged and the Democrats are having attorneys review the proposal.

“We’re absolutely open to it if it would help protect taxpayers,” Slap said. “It doesn’t seem to prevent AIG from giving these bonuses … You’d still have to get AIG to agree not to pay them.”

UPDATE:

Attorney General Richard Blumenthal just issued a statement that he has “significant doubts about the validity” of AIG’s use of the Connecticut law and intends to launch an investigation into the matter.

“My office will carefully investigate the merits of AIG’s claims under the Connecticut Wage Act and will take every step necessary to fight this gross misuse of taxpayer money,” Blumenthal said.

He also said he will support any legislation “that credibly and effectively forestalls future abuses.”

UPDATE 2:

Calling AIG’s use of Connecticut law “contemptible” Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell said she too will strongly support any legislation that prohibits entities in the future from using federal or state bailout money “for excessive bonuses or payouts similar to AIG’s outrageous attempt at self-enrichment.

UPDATE 3:

I’m just setting this space aside ahead of time waiting for the next outraged politician to issue a press release on this topic.

State Budget Director Robert Genuario, a former Republican Senator from Norwalk, spent some time this morning fielding questions from the legislature’s Government Administration and Elections Committee on the Governor’s plans to merge or eliminate various state agencies/departments/commissions.

Judging by the questions, some of the proposals – eliminating the office of healthcare advocate, merging the departments of education and higher education, putting the childcare advocate into the department of children and families – face an uphill battle.

Genuario argued many of the agencies were targeted because they seem redundant.

“I just don’t see the necessity for the duplication of services we’ve built up during the good times,” Genuario said, referring to the list of offices facing the ax as … “a SHADOW GOVERNMENT.”

It’s the kind of term which conjures visions of government conspiracies and fuels storylines on television shows like “The X-Files” or “24″.

And, now that I think about it, Healthcare Advocate Kevin Lembo looks so innocent and is so mild-mannered that I’d cast him as the guy everyone THINKS is on the up and up but is revealed to have sent a rogue CIA Black Ops group after Jack Bauer.

To be fair, Genuario, who I don’t think is given to weaving conspiracy theories, afterward gave me a shy smile when I brought up the use of the term and admitted it was not a good choice of words.