|
|
Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele will pay a visit to Connecticut on Thursday, Hearst Connecticut Newspapers has learned.
The former lieutenant governor of Maryland, who became the first black to lead the GOP in January 2009, Steele is scheduled to attend a fundraiser for the RNC in Noank.
The number of uncontested General Assembly races in 2010 is 10 percent lower than in 2008, according to a news release from Secretary of State Susan Bysiewicz.
Only 54 of 187 races for State Senate or State House lack either a Democratic or Republican candidate this year, compared to 60 unchallenged contests in 2008. With about 29 percent of races uncontested, this year is the lowest since 1998, when slightly under 27 percent of races were unchallenged.
Bysiewicz attributed at least some of the trend to candidates taking advantage of the public financing mechanism of the Citizen’s Election Program law.
Roy Occhiogrosso, senior adviser to Dan Malloy’s gubernatorial campaign, reacted today to Kevin Rennie’s blog report about a film crew that set up this week in front of Malloy’s Stamford home. Occhiogrosso:“Two pretty simple questions for Ned Lamont: did your campaign pay to have someone film and take photographs of Dan Malloy’s house? If so, why?” In his post, Rennie recalled that four years ago, Malloy was cleared of any wrongdoing after an investigation into improvements to the property, located in the Shippan section of the city.
The race for the Republican nomination for attorney general is heating up this week.
First, Ross Garber, who is challenging GOP nominated candidate Martha Dean in a primary this August, challenged his opponent earlier this week on comments she made in April supporting firearms training for schoolchildren. Then on Tuesday two Republican leaders came out in support of Garber’s campaign.
Ross said in a prepared statement on Monday its not the attorney general’s job to “give our schoolchildren guns.”
Dean defended her comments noting that many schools, public and private, already have training on firearms safety as well as rifle teams.
On Tuesday Peter Tesei, the First Selectman of Greenwich, and Greenwich GOP chairman Jim Campbell announced their endorsements for Garber. Tesei said he would begin hitting the campaing trail with Garber as early as Wednesday, when the politicans plan to meet with commuters at the Greenwich train station during the afternoon commute.
Also Tuesday, Dean’s campaign announced the endorsement of former Sec. of the State Pauline Kezer, who served in the office from 1990 to 1994. Kezer was also a gubernatorial candidate in 1994, losing the party’s nomination to former Gov. John Rowland.
The primary is set for Aug. 10.
By Ken Dixon
Staff Writer
HARTFORD — Peter Schiff, the Weston financial analyst, will be on the Aug. 10 primary ballot for the Republican U.S. Senate nomination, Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz announced Monday..
During a news conference in the Capitol, she said that local registrars through the state said he gathered more than 8,600 signatures.
Also, Rob Merkle and Rick Torres qualified to run in the 4th Congressional District Republican primary against state Sen Dan Debicella, R-Shelton, the endorsed candidate.
Mark Greenberg also qualified to run a 5th Congressional District primary against Republican state Sen. Sam S.F. Caligiuri of Waterbury.
Schiff obtained about 400 more signatures than needed to reach the threshold of 2 percent of enrolled members of the GOP in the state.
Peter Schiff is still short the 8,268 signatures that are required by the state to force a Republican primary for U.S. Senate against Linda McMahon, who won the GOP endorsement outright at the party convention in May.
The deadline for cities and towns to certify petitions and report the number of signatures to the Secretary of the State was Tuesday.
A spokesman for SOTS Susan Bysiewicz confirmed Wednesday that Schiff has some work to do if the financial talking head and money manager from Weston wants to be on the August primary ballot.
“I would say he’s relatively close, but not there yet,” Av Harris said.
Election officials are still awaiting results from a number of municipalities, including Greenwich and Waterbury.
A final tally could be completed by Thursday afternoon, Harris said.
Sen. Jonathan A. Harri, D-West Hartford announced today that he will not run in the Democratic primary for Secretary of the State, leaving the way clear for House Majority Leader Denise Merrill, the endorsed candidate coming out of the Democratic convention.
“This was a difficult decision for me, but ultimately the right one,” said Harris. “It is critical that civic engagement in our state continues to thrive and that we have a renewed commitment to growing businesses and creating jobs. Democrats are well-positioned to make sure both of these goals are reached, and I look forward to helping the party in any way that I can.”
Former Stamford Mayor Dannel Malloy won the Democratic Party’s gubernatorial nomination two weeks ago, and today the state Elections Enforcement Commission announced he has made political history…
—————-
STATE ELECTIONS ENFORCEMENT COMMISSION
AWARDS FIRST GRANT TO GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE
HARTFORD, CT—June 3, 2010 – Today the State Elections Enforcement Commission awarded the first-ever grant to a publicly financed candidate vying for statewide office.
Meeting in a regular session to review 15 grant applications, the Commission unanimously voted that “Dan Malloy for Governor,” candidate committee for the former Stamford mayor, had satisfied the legal requirements to qualify for a grant of $1.25 million for the primary election.
Notably, this is the first grant from the Citizens’ Election Program that has been awarded to a candidate for statewide office. In 2008, the Commission awarded 235 grants to General Assembly candidates. The 2010 elections are the first regular elections in which public campaign financing is available to candidates for statewide office.
“This is a historical day for Connecticut, as we continue to remove the influence of special interest in our political process,” said Albert P. Lenge, Executive Director and General Counsel, “I am extremely proud of the Commission’s staff, especially our audit unit who undertook a monumental task and reviewed more than $270,000 worth of small contributions between $5 and $100 to ensure that Mr. Malloy’s campaign met the required thresholds to qualify for public funds. These same staffers also gave the same level of scrutiny to the other 14 applications that needed to be reviewed during the shortened holiday week for this Commission meeting.”
Malloy faces Ned Lamont, who has opted not to participate in the public financing program and will finance his campaign privately, largely through his personal resources.
Last week the Lamont campaign notified the Commission that it had already spent $2.27 million, which exceeds the applicable primary election expenditure limit by almost 70%.
As a result, the Commission authorized payment of an additional $937,500, to match his opponent’s spending. In total the Malloy campaign will receive almost $2.2 million immediately and could receive an additional $312,500 for the primary election in matching funds based on spending in the race.
“Meeting the required thresholds to receive a grant isn’t easy,” said Beth Rotman, Director of the Citizens’ Election Program “but the fact that the Malloy campaign was able to achieve these thresholds and qualify for a grant proves that it can be done at the statewide level.”
Rotman noted that the Malloy campaign can now focus on communicating with voters on issues of importance, absent the influence of special interests and without the stress of perpetual fundraising.
Copyright © 2013 Hearst Communications Inc.
