Political Capitol

Got a little tidbit today about Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell’s office while working on a budget story.

Rell does not plan to replace Christopher Cooper, one of her spokesmen and a veteran state employee who recently took advantage of the retirement incentive offered by lawmakers to thin the ranks in light of the budget crisis. That leaves three staffers in her press office.

“It will be very difficult with the loss of this position but we will attempt to have three other current staff members absorb the duties,” reads the memo.

This strikes me as a “no brainer” considering all hell would break lose if Rell, who continually tells residents that the state must, like the average family, make difficult decisions and cut back during tough financial times, were to replace Cooper. But it’s nice to actually have confirmation of the decision.

Cooper continues to perform his duties on a voluntary basis during the ongoing budget battle.

I’ll let Jon Lender with The Hartford Courant provide the dirty details, but long story short, while Sen. Minority Leader John McKinney, R-Fairfield and House Minority Leader Lawrence Cafero, R-Norwalk were in lower Fairfield County Tuesday criticizing the Democratic majority’s tax hikes, Democratic leaders were quietly continuing budget talks with Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell back in Hartford.

Here’s where I come in. Bear with me.

Lender reports that while Cafero was apparently left out of the loop and clearly annoyed about it, Rell’s office said McKinney knew about her meeting with the Democrats. And he goes on to quote McKinney as later confirming he overheard during Monday’s bi-partisan negotiating session with the Governor that Rell would be meeting Tuesday with Democratic leaders only.

HOWEVER during a mid-morning appearance in Stamford Tuesday I asked McKinney when budget talks were going to resume. This week? Next week? He said he did not recall a date being set during Monday’s meeting. You’d think if he’d really known Rell and the Democrats were getting together that very day he’d have mentioned it…

So who really knew what, when? And is this any way to negotiate a bi-partisan budget?

I spoke briefly this morning with Senate Minority Leader John McKinney, R-Fairfield, following a press conference in Stamford. McKinney said he is 99 percent sure Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell will later this year announce she is going to run for another term in 2010, although he added she has not specifically told him her plans.

While we were talking I managed to convince myself she’s running for the following reasons:

1. If Rell does not intend to run again, why prolong the budget battle, which threatens to be the longest the state has gone without an approved two-year fiscal plan in recent history? McKinney contends she is just being who she is – someone who cares about the future of Connecticut – so Rell continues to fight the legislature’s Democratic-majority’s tax hikes. I’m a bit more cynical. I think if she was not running again she might have caved sooner and we’d have a deal by now. And I’d say the same thing about a Governor from any other political party. Unless you’re not running for office, then you’re always running for office, if you get my meaning. You weigh the political consequences of every action. She’s putting up a fight for a reason, and I think that reason is so she can use it in a re-election campaign.

2. She’s on a roll scheduling faux “bill signings” around the state to highlight legislation that she signed months ago. Take today’s visit to a day care center in West Hartford to tout a new law banning bisphenol-A or BPA, a chemical used in many plastics, that she signed on June 3 (scroll down to view the bill’s history).

It’s not like her signing the bill into law flew under the radar. It was covered by the mainstream press and environmental publications.

Why spend her summer making such appearances if she has already decided this is her last term in office?

Of course, this, along with her forming an exploratory committee, could all be some sort of a ploy to keep folks guessing at Rell’s future and prevent her from being viewed as a lame duck. A bit of reverse-psychology on the part of Rell Chief of Staff Lisa Moody.

And now I know what keeps Stamford Mayor Dannel Malloy and the other Democrats who are doing their own exploring (i.e. hoping the popular Rell doesn’t run) up nights.

I. Gotmore and Mimi Knott-Yew – two of the so-called Billionaires for Budget Cuts who have been traveling the state criticizing Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell’s opposition to an income tax hike on the wealthiest (many of whom live in lower Fairfield County), were in Stamford today greeting Republican legislators attending a press conference at Avant Business Services.

The Republicans last week issued a “no tax increase” alternative budget to the most recent two-year spending plans the legislature’s Democratic-majority and Rell put on the table the week before. Although mainly critical of the Democrats, the Republicans also oppose Rell’s proposed tax increases on corporations, cigarettes and liquor.

Billionaires for Budget Cuts, sponsored by the Working Families Party, have mainly stuck to the Hartford area since launching their protest, so it was interesting to see them make their way to the southwestern corner.

“Jodi’s been doing a good job but it seems the House and Senate Republicans will do a better job protecting us,” I. Gotmore (real name Stacey Zimmerman) said in a brief interview.

I got a bit of a laugh out of them when I asked why none of the Billionaires is using the moniker L. Scott Frantz - the name of the wealthy Republican Senator from Greenwich. I have no clue if Frantz is really a billionaire, but he is financially secure enough to forgo his legislative salary.

Frantz was one of the eight Republican lawmakers, including Sen. Minority Leader John McKinney, who spent about an hour meeting with Avant Vice President Charles Chiusano and touring the facility.

Chiusano, a Republican who lives in Fairfield and is involved enough in the party to use terms like “Democratic majority” when speaking of the General Assembly, said tax increases will not only prevent Avant from further expanding it’s warehouse operations in Stamford and Hartford, but could drive the company and its 55 employees out of state.

“The Democratic majority want to make us struggle so much we may have to move back into New York and abandon Connecticut,” Chiusano said. Chiusano afterward said he has been involved in some Republican campaigns, but is no “zealot.” He said he is simply pro-business, and that is why he is so concerned about the prospect of damaging tax increases that could further hurt the state’s economy.

He said Avant’s management and rank-and-file employees have all taken pay cuts and unpaid furlough days and the business is reluctant to raise prices on hurting customers.

Sen. Toni Boucher, R-Wilton, took a shot at the Billionaires for Budget Cuts, arguing the protestors are “trying to demonize the concept of excelling, of succeeding.” No one used the word “Communist” to describe the Billionaires/Working Families Party.

Perhaps inspired by the tour legislative Democrats made of the state earlier this summer to decry Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell’s proposed budget cuts, legislative Republicans are hitting the road tomorrow to shine a spotlight on the majority party’s proposed tax increases.

They will appear locally at Avant Business Services in Stamford at 10:30 a.m. then at Alloy Manufacturing Company in Bridgeport at 12:30 p.m.

I like the idea of Sen. Minority Leader John McKinney, R-Fairfield and House Minority Leader Lawrence Cafero, R-Norwalk traveling the state together. It’s kind of like “Planes, Trains and Automobiles” with McKinney as Steve Martin and Cafero as John Candy.

And if that image doesn’t bring a smile to your face then I give up.

Senate Democrats today scheduled a press conference in Norwich to decry the impact of Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell’s proposed budget cuts on school-based health centers throughout the state, including 21 locations in Stamford, Norwalk, Bridgeport and Danbury.

The news release touted the cuts as another example of Rell’s “hurting children and families while protecting the wealthy” – a reference to her refusal thus far to embrace the Democrats’ proposed income tax hikes on higher earners, particularly those living in lower Fairfield County.

This cannot bode well for the possiblity of a budget agreement any time soon.

Earlier this summer Democrats fanned out throughout the state holding press conferences to highlight the impact of Rell’s budget. The rhetoric died off a bit over the past few weeks as Rell and Democratic leaders agreed to a “news blackout” as they intensified efforts to reach a deal.

But then last Thursday the two sides released updated budget proposals, and Rell, while offering tax hikes on smokers, drinkers and corporations, continued to fight income taxes.

So now it appears the Democrats are back to trying to shame the Governor into accepting their proposal.

If so, Jeff Beckham, the spokesman for Rell’s budget office, could not have picked a better time to take his two week vacation.

Freshman U.S. Congressman Jim Himes, a Greenwich Democrat, visited The Advocate’s offices in Stamford this afternoon for an editorial board which focused mainly on health care, the economy and financial services regulation.

At the very end I asked Himes if he was relieved to learn in a story last week by my fellow Hearst reporter, Ken Dixon, that state Senate Minority Leader John McKinney, R-Fairfield decided not run for the 4th Congressional seat next year.

McKinney was the favorite to take on Himes in part because his father, the late Stewart B. McKinney, held the seat from 1971 until 1987.

Himes said he found McKinney’s statement to Dixon about wanting to spend more time with his children “poignant.”

“The hard part of my job has been leaving my family and kids behind” for days, Himes said.

“He would have been a very strong opponent. The probability now is I will face someone less strong,” Himes said.

But he added “I’ll have a tough race. We’re certainly operating as if that will be the case.”

Himes’ victory over long-time Republican incumbent Christopher Shays last fall has been attributed in part to President Barack Obama’s being at the head of the ticket.

As reported earlier this week, legislative Republicans today issued their own no-tax-increase budget – an alternative to both of the two year spending plans put on the table last Thursday by majority Democrats and Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell.

The fact some members of the GOP felt the need to issue an alternative to their Governor’s plan and the absence of any Senate Republicans at today’s press conference  has Democrats labeling this the “Republican Civil War.”

Senate Minority Leader John McKinney, R-Fairfield, shot out a statement to clarify the situation. He said his caucus “remains in unanimous agreement with Governor Rell and our colleagues in the House Republican caucus that the best budget for Connecticut is one that makes government live within its means and does not raise taxes. This budget accomplishes that.”

Whether the minority party’s proposal contributes to the ongoing budget battle or simply complicates it remains to be seen.

On the plus side, this talk of a Civil War inspired me to update the budget soundtrack I put together a few months back with a new song. Enjoy.