Political Capitol

A source close to House Minority Leader Lawrence Cafero, R-Norwalk, just confirmed that when he meets with the capitol press corps at 2 p.m., he will announce plans to run again for his legislative seat in 2010.

Cafero had been hinting at a run for Governor in recent months and earlier this year formed an exploratory committee for an unspecified statewide office.

From a journalistic standpoint I thought that Cafero’s entering the race would have made it more interesting and honestly believed up until today that he was going to go for it.

But others speculated correctly this morning that if Cafero were running, he would have held a campaign rally, not scheduled a press conference in the House Minority’s legislative offices.

Linda McMahon’s referencing President Abraham Lincoln’s time as a wrestler  during our interview with her to lend credibility to her business, World Wrestling Entertainment, is being mocked by her critics.

This is not the first time McMahon has invoked Lincoln to defend the company and its programs.

She dropped Honest Abe’s name early this year during her confirmation hearings to join the state board of education. Here’s my blog post from Feb. 12.

Today I bumped into someone who knows a thing or two about liquor and wine sales in the state of Connecticut and a thing or two about how things work up at the capitol.

We got to talking about the renewed debate over whether state lawmakers should allow the sale of alcohol on Sundays to help address the budget deficit.

This person told me it has been suggested to Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell that, as an alternative, Connecticut allow supermarkets to sell wine along with the beer that they already stock.

I’ll look into this further Monday.

The General Assembly’s Democratic leadership this afternoon announced the legislature would convene in special session at 2 p.m. on Monday – which happens to be the exact same time House Minority Leader Lawrence Cafero, R-Norwalk scheduled a news conference to announce whether he will run for governor in 2010.

“Hey. They’re the majority. They can do whatever they want,” Cafero just told me by phone. “I guess they felt given all the times during the day, 2 p.m. was the time they’d do it.”

Cafero said he was not consulted on the start of the session.

“Are you kidding?!?! Chris (Donovan, the House Speaker) calls. ‘Hey Larry, if you don’t mind…’,” Cafero said sarcastically.

Cafero said he might bump his conference to 1:30 p.m.

I had an interesting conversation yesterday with Malcolm Pray of Greenwich.

The founder of Pray Automotive was included on a list of endorsements Lt. Gov. Michael Fedele of Stamford issued soon after he announced his bid for governor earlier this month.

“I think he’s done a good job as lieutenant governor. I think he’s qualified for the job,” Pray told me.

But then Pray added he is very good friends with Tom Foley of Greenwich, who since Fedele’s announcement decided he was also interested in the GOP nomination to replace Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell.

“Unfortunately I had endorsed Michael long before I knew Tom was going to run,” Pray said.

So would Pray have backed Foley over Fedele had he known?

“That’s an unanswerable question at this point,” Pray said.

I give Pray credit for standing by Fedele.

But with the volatility of the state’s political landscape, I think this might be a cautionary tale for all of those people – Republicans, Democrats and otherwise – who are coming out so soon endorsing particular candidates.

Driving to the capitol today I spotted a car with a special Tennessee license plate that read “Choose Life.”

It was the first time I’d seen such a vanity license plate in Connecticut.

I’m of course familiar with the Connecticut DMV’s vanity plate program, which funds efforts to, among other things, protect Long Island Sound.

But it turns out Connecticut DOES have such plates (thanks to some readers for correcting me).

And they did spark debate back in 2006.

They also caused controversy in Tennessee.

Fascinating. I’m on the road quite a bit and have not seen any Connecticut residents with these plates.

Just a few days after a prominent liquor lobbying group renewed the call to allow the sale of booze in Connecticut on Sunday, the issue is gaining some attention within the legislature and, subsequently, on the front page of The Hartford Courant.

I figured with all the attention being paid this week to Lieberman and the media labeling him an “independent”  some might assume he had registered as an unaffiliated voter or perhaps joined the “Independent Party.”

(And, just to be on the safe side, his hometown newspaper should be certain he had not made a quiet switch).

But no. Lieberman still maintains the big “D” next to his name on Stamford’s voting rolls, as he did after losing the party’s nomination in 2006 and while campaigning last year for GOP Presidential Nominee U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona).

In July, 2008, after he endorsed McCain, I asked Lieberman, who relishes his self-styled independent Democrat status, why he had not registered as an unaffiliated voter.

“That’s a hard thing for me to do,” Lieberman said at the time. “I’ve been a Democrat all my life.”

I spoke that same day to Nick Skenderis, owner of the Galaxy Diner in Bridgeport, where Lieberman stopped for one of his chats with constituents.

Skenderis, a Democrat, at the time was not pleased with Lieberman’s backing McCain. He said only in America can a politician be a Democrat, call himself an independent, and support a Republican.