Political Capitol

For blog readers from the Stamford Advocate’s neck of the woods, state Sen. Bob Duff, D-Norwalk, is hosting a forum tonight at 7 p.m. at Norwalk City Hall on the H1N1 virus and the state’s response.

Guests include Terry Rabatsky-Ehr, field epidemiologist for the state Department of Public Health; Dr. Eliot Husarsky, internist and infectious disease physician with Norwalk Hospital; Tim Callahan, Norwalk’s director of public health; and Dave Knauf, Darien’s director of public health.

I had to roll my eyes when, while reading our newspaper chain’s coverage of Vice President Joseph Biden’s trip to lower Fairfield County yesterday to survey stimulus-funded work on the Merritt Parkway, I came across the following quote from state Republican Chairman Chris Healy.

“The fallacy of the stimulus program is the public knows the stimulus program is just stimulating misery. To stand by the side of the road and say ‘Look, we’re making the Merritt Parkway better,’ it’s comical, but unfortunately there are a lot of people out of work.”

While Healy condemns the stimulus program, his own Governor and the few members of his party left in the state legislature have, at least in my experience, had nothing but good things to say about it.

Let’s go to a press release from Aug. 6 released by Governor M. Jodi Rell in which she touts some of the 30 stimulus-funded transportation projects, the Merritt work included, underway in Connecticut.

And Rell certainly put a positive spin on the Merritt work when she first announced it in March.

I’ve also covered a couple of ground breakings attended by Rell and Republican state Senators and members of the House of Representatives who are not shy about standing in front of the television cameras and praising the benefits of stimulus projects for their districts.

I’m certainly not in love with the Merritt construction and the accompanying traffic congestion when I’m driving home late at night from the capitol.

And who knows, maybe when Rell leaves office and writes her memoirs, she’ll let her disdain for federal money out and reveal how she had to hold her nose whenever her staff issued a press release praising the stimulus package.

But for now it would be nice if Connecticut Republicans could come up with a consistent message about the federal stimulus program.

Imagine being a GOP candidate in 2010 and having to figure out your stance on the stimulus – “It’s bad! No, it’s good! Well, it’s good if I’m running in a local race and my district benefited. But if I’m in a federal race and want to tap into the anger over big government and a growing federal deficit and get out-of-state support, THEN it’s bad. Although my Governor, who’s a Republican, said it was good for our state. But my Party Chairman said it was bad. Head … hurting. Too many contradictions. So … confused …”

There’s been precious little media coverage or commentary about the decision this year to eliminate the state’s Property Rights Ombudsman, which was created by state lawmakers in response to the public outrage over 2005′s U.S. Supreme Court decision regarding the use of eminent domain in New London.

I’ve reported and blogged on the topic occasionally during the course of the year and have been surprised at the lack of interest in the bi-partisan decision to close the office as part of the budget crisis.

I find the whole story a fascinating example of how fickle voters and politicians can be and how one year’s important initiative is the next year’s budget cut.

So I was pleased to see that The Hartford Courant’s Jon Lender decided to use his column this past weekend to delve into the topic. As his headline reads: “A Much Touted Reform Is Undone.”

Rumors have circulated for months that former U.S. Senate candidate Ned Lamont, a Greenwich Democrat, is considering entering the race for Governor in 2010.

And considering some of the criticism Lamont has leveled at Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell recently, it’s understandable his supporters continue to hold out hope their man will step forward in the coming months and shake-up the existing field.

I was talking a bit today with Lamont about President Obama’s just-announced visit to Stamford Oct. 23 (Lamont worked hard for Obama’s campaign) and figured I couldn’t let the opportunity pass to broach his gubernatorial prospects.

I asked him if he was really considering running or if I could be the reporter to write the “Lamont is not entering the Governor’s race” story.

“I would just say Ned is still going around the state, I still care deeply about the issues, still have my public policy center up in Central (Connecticut State University), but I’m not doing anything on the political front,” Lamont said. “It just seems like the state’s in a state of perpetual campaigns. They never end. We spend so much time campaigning and so little time governing.”

He added when I pressed a bit further: “I’m not considering anything right now. I’m just taking care of business and helping out some mayoral and first selectman candidates who have asked me to come.”

It was mentioned to me this summer by one political insider that Lamont had visited the White House and was debating a future in Connecticut politics versus a position in the nation’s capitol/Obama administration.

“I thought about at one point maybe doing some work down there in Washington but I’ve got a son at home and you don’t go there part time,” Lamont said. “You go down (with) both feet, six days a week. Maybe in the future but not right now.”

So does all the above mean Lamont is not running in 2010 or he’s thinking about it?

UPDATE: I missed this great Oct. 3 blog post by Hartford Courant columnist and radio personality Colin McEnroe on this very same topic.

Both are making a comeback.

Like the award-winning star of “The Wrestler” and upcoming “Iron Man II,” the long-dormant Super 7 project is suddenly making headlines and garnering all sorts of attention.

Planned several decades ago, Super 7 was supposed to provide a rapid connection between Norwalk and Danbury for commuters. But opposition from small towns and environmentalists pretty much killed the proposal, and now it is barely on the state Department of Transportation’s radar. The department is instead widening the existing old Route 7.

Early last month The Advocate ran a story about how the DOT, responding to a request from the Governor’s office for lists of saleable assets, suggested marketing the nearly two dozen homes acquired by the state over the years to build the expressway.

Not long afterward, in what I thought was an amazing coincidence, Super 7 supporter Sen. Bob Duff, D-Norwalk, finally released the results of a $10,000, taxpayer-funded UCONN Stamford survey of residents’ support for the project.

Subsequently elected officials from several towns got together and called for “a fuller study” of the unfinished expressway.

And today Sen. Toni Boucher, R-Wilton, a longtime Super 7 foe, announced a press conference will be held at 9 a.m. TUESDAY at Wilton Town Hall “to set the record straight on Route 7 corridor.”

“The transportation plan for the Route 7 corridor is based on solid, quantifiable realities,” Boucher stated in the press release. “Recent speculation about altering this plan to include construction of a super highway does not take those realities into account and is therefore misleading the public.”

She ended with “I’m looking at YOU, Bob Duff.” Kidding. Kidding.

But hey, congratulations to Super 7 for the renewed attention.

At this rate I’m thinking the story of the unfinished project is going to be the next topic Ken Burns tackles after his miniseries on national parks.

Earlier this year comedian, actor and writer Bill Cosby visited the capitol and spent several hours passionately urging lawmakers to pass legislation aimed at promoting responsible fatherhood.

A bill, co-sponsored by Rep. Bruce Morris, D-Norwalk, was passed and signed into law a few months ago by Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell.

Morris has told me he wanted to bring Cosby back to prove Connecticut lawmakers took his words and his visit seriously.

So I thought about Morris this week when our newsapers promoted Cosby’s scheduled appearance at Bridgeport’s Klein Auditorium this coming Sunday.

But Morris today told me although he would have loved to take advantage of the opportunity of Cosby’s being in-state to hold a fatherhood event with him, he does not think it is going to happen at this point.

House Majority Leader Denise Merrill, D-Mansfield, in a brief interview just said she is no longer pursuing changes to the formula that determines how much money municipalities get from the Pequot Fund casino grant.

The Advocate and other news outlets in recent days reported that Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell and the legislature’s Republican Minority were concerned about Merrill’s effort to insert the change at the tail-end of the budget process, particularly because it would likely result in every other city or town losing some (albeit in many instances very tiny) amounts of cash.

Merrill has argued the change corrects some odd language in the grant formula which penalizes Mansfield for UCONN’s recent growth, despite the fact the small town needs any additional funds it can get to help offset the costs of having the school as a neighbor.

“The fact the result in this one case is everybody loses but one town, and the fact that town is represented by the majority leader of the House doesn’t look good,” Cafero said earlier this week.

“It was an effort to discredit me and I take very much offense to it,” the mild-mannered Merrill told me today.

Merrill said she decided to abandon the proposal because she has since learned Mansfield might not be harmed by the current formula over the next year or so.

But she maintains the formula should still be changed and she intends to pursue that during the 2010 legislative session.

Cafero today told me his criticism was not meant to besmirch Merrill’s reputation and she might even have a legitimate concern about the Pequot Fund formula.

“What I’m saying is ‘you picked a heck of a time to do that’,” Cafero said.

New Haven Mayor John DeStefano, a Democrat whose city stood to lose over $32,000 to Merrill’s change, did not return requests for comment when I wrote the initial story earlier this week. But he was at the capitol today so I asked him for his thoughts.

DeStefano said $32,000 is not “a signficant amount for us” but he added it is better for any changes to the Pequot Fund to be discussed in hearings during the regular session.

A story about House Majority Leader Denise Merrill’s, D-Mansfield efforts to alter the formula that divvies up casino grant payments among cities and towns is gaining traction.

The Advocate ran a story today, and I’ve read reports or blog posts from The Day, CT News Junkie and The Hartford Courant as well.

Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell and the legislature’s Republican Minority are complaining because Merrill’s proposal – tucked away in some pending budget legislation – would benefit Mansfield but decrease  grant payments to everyone else.

Merrill argues she is correcting a flaw in the formula that penalizes Mansfield for housing the  University of Connecticut, which in turn puts a lot of financial pressure on the small town.

Here’s the update. According to Derek Slap, spokesman for the Senate Democrats, there was a discussion yesterday between House and Senate leaders to push through Merrill’s change during tomorrow’s special session BUT promise no municipality would experience a loss of grant cash.

And where exactly will Democrats find that extra money to keep cities and towns whole when they’re already struggling to close the two-year state deficit? Slap could not say.