Scully Communications

For many people the $787 billion federal stimulus program is merely an abstract concept that has not shown itself in any real way to the average individual. When the law passed, President Obama said there would be “an unprecedented level of transparency and accountability.”

According to MSNBC, the government’s own website is at www.recovery.gov, where the president promises “every American can go online and see how their money is being spent.” Recovery.gov, which is operated by the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board and relies on data reported by recipients of Recovery Act funds, has been widely criticized as inaccurate and poorly presented.

Another popular site for tracking stimulus data is www.recovery.org created by Onvia.com, a Seattle-based firm that uses public records to gather and publish information on government jobs, for sale to contractors.
Much of the stimulus package is being spent on programs such as unemployment benefits and Medicaid, but hundreds of billions will go toward contracts, grants and loans to restore bidges and roads.

Just how is this type of spending working out in Connecticut? According to Onvia, of the $665.1 million being spent in the state on contract work, New Haven and Fairfield counties are leading the way. By far the largest project being paid for with stimulus money is the reconstruction of the Route 1 Amtrack bridge in New Haven County at $73 million. That’s followed by the New Haven Rail Yard project at $30 million.
Connecticut’s list of projects seems fairly routine when compared to others around the country. According to MSNBC and Onvia, the National Park Service is offering somewhere between $5,000 and $25,000 to a contractor who can install a “bat-compatible gate” in Great Basin National Park, Nevada. The gate will keep humans out of an old mine while preserving access for the six species of bats that live there. Interested bidders should know that the 8-by-8-foot gate needs to be built 57 feet inside the mine in Lincoln Canyon. The job site is 2.2 miles and a 1,000-foot elevation gain from the nearest dirt road.
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Pfizer employees and the business community in New London are rightly concerned about news that the company is moving about 1,5000 jobs across the river to Groton as part of a corporate merger. Company officials say the jobs will stay but anytime the term “merger” is used, people start to panic. Meanwhile, New London is pretty much the jilted bride at the altar. It was just 10 years ago that Pfizer spent nearly $300 million on its New London waterfront headquarters.
The pending loss of the New London campus could also complicate the city’s effort to redevelop the Fort Trumbull area. Those efforts,of course, led to the city’s seizure of private homes through eminent domain and a battle that ended with US Supreme Court decision in the city’s favor. One wonders what Suzette Kelo is thinking now.
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What if (now lame duck) Gov. Rell called a special session of the legislature and nobody came? Actually, they would have to come, they just don’t have to do anything. That may very well be the case if the governor calls the state House and Senate into session to act on her latest deficit mitigation plan. State Comptroller Nancy Wyman says the state’s budget is more than $624 million in deficit already (they just passed it a little more than two months ago). The governor says she will call a special session. But while she has that power under the state Constitution, she has no authority to make them act.
The hang-up is that Democrats, who control both the House and Senate, say the governor has not yet implemented spending cuts called for in the existing budget and those cuts must be part of her new plan if they are to act on any more. The visual of lawmakers hanging around, doing nothing is not a good one for the public…in an election year.
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The departure of Gov. Rell from the political scene for 2010 was compounded yesterday by a new Quinnipiac Poll that shows Secretary of State Susan Bysiewicz leading Democratic while Attorney General Richard Blumenthal is leaving the door open for a possible run. This confluence of events has led to a complete free-for-all on the Connecticut political landscape with names of potential candidates for various offices flying everywhere.

The Q-Poll shows Bysiewicz trailing Rell by just six points (the poll was taken before Rell’s announcement Tuesday). When voters were asked about a potential primary, Bysiewicz got 26% from registered Democrats; former US Senate candidate Ned Lamont 23% and outgoing Stamford Mayor Dan Malloy just 9%. But before Lamont fans get too excited or Malloy backers start to panic, it should be noted Lamont had just entered the picture when the poll was done (so he was in the headlines) and he enjoys at least some name recognition from his ultimately unsuccessful challenge to Sen. Joe Lieberman in 2006.

On the Republican side, Lt. Michael Fedele is in. But Fedele committed a campaign cardinal sin on day one telling reporters he expected Gov. Rell’s support and that the governor told him in private she would back him. Yesterday, when given the chance, Rell begged off any endorsement of anyone. Is she changes he mind or feels to need to stay publicly neutral, Fedele looks bad.

Other Republicans said to be either considering a run or are being courted to do so include state House Minority Leader Larry Cafero, state Senate Minor Leader John McKinney, former US Attorney Kevin O’Connor, former US Rep. Rob Simmons (who would have to leave the current US Senate race) and fellow former US Rep. Chris Shays.

The wild card (as many have written so many times over so many years) is Attorney General Richard Blumenthal who has an approval rating higher than Rell’s. It is generally assumed Blumenthal’s life-long political ambition is to be in the US Senate. However, he would have to wait to 2012, when Joe Lieberman is up for reelection. Being governor for two years would certainly solidify his chances to go to Washington—as if his chances needed any shoring up. And what has people talking now is Blumenthal’s answer to whether he is interested in succeeding Rell. He said his plans are to run for reelection as AG but he acknowledged “people have been talking to me [about running for governor] and I have been listening.”

The bottom line is that the Connecticut political scene is chaotic. Kind of a combination of the running of the bulls and an English soccer match—no one knows who will survive and who gets gored or smacked with a bottle.
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The bucolic town of Kent in the state’s northwest corner seems an unlikely place for controversy that gets national attention. The only issue of note in recent years is the so-far-failed attempt by the Schaghticoke Indians to get federal recognition. But in the past few weeks, a new conflict has arisen.

Resident James Gadiel, who lost his son Peter in the 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center approached town officials to suggest that the town consider erecting a plaque at town hall in his son’s memory. Town officials thought is was a fine idea since Peter Gadiel was a town son who went through the town’s schools. They just needed to decide what would be written on the plaque. The elder Gadiel proposed “James Gadiel, lifelong resident of Kent, murdered in the World Trade Center by Muslim terrorists on Sept. 11, 2001.” That’s where the controversy began.

First Selectwoman Ruth Epstein and Selectman Bruce Adams were concerned about the “inflammatory tone” of the wording. The two say they could find no reference to “Muslim terrorists” or similar language on any other 9-11 memorial across the country. The board of selectmen voted in September against using Gabriel’s wording on any plaque that would be on town property.

Enter alleviator Bill O’Reilly of Fox News Channel. He devoted a segment of his show on Sept. 29 to the issue and has vowed that he’ll charter a bus and “march into Kent” if the town doesn’t agree to Gadiel’s proposed wording. Very helpful.

Gradiel tells the Hartford Courant, “If you look at Holocaust memorials around the world, they do mention the German perpetrators. The Pearl Harbor Memorial does not mention the Japanese, but the museum all around the memorial is all about the rise of Japanese militarism in the 1940s. So, there’s been no attempt to whitewash history elsewhere, but with 9/11 there is this pattern of denying the perpetrators.”

As of now, the two sides are at a stalemate.
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The Hanging Shad is at a loss as to what to think about the victim of the Stamford chimpanzee attack appearing for an interview on today’s “Oprah.” Charla Nash lost both hands, eyes and lips in the February 16 attack. While it is certainly a lesson about the dangers of keep exotic animals as pets, it also comes of the heals of news that Nash’s family is suing the state for $150 million for not heeding warning that the pet chimp was a disaster waiting to happen. In any event, the Tivos and DVRs will be rolling.
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Sad news for New Haven and tennis fans throughout the northeast. The Pilot Pen Company has decided to pull his title sponsorship from the wonderful, end-of-summer event at the Connecticut Tennis Center at Yale after 2010 (This writer has had a fantastic, ten-year working relationship with the PP). The Pilot Pen has become more than just a tennis tournament featuring world-class men and women players from all over the world. It’s a “happening” that includes events for children and families as well putting the very best of New Haven on display every summer. The annual fashion show sells out every year, musical acts entertain the crowds between matches as they chow down on the gourmet selections in the food court.

The search is on for another title sponsor. If anyone can bring another big name into New Haven to sponsor the event, it’s Tournament Director Anne Worcester. She has masterfully run the tournament for so many years and will no doubt give it her all to continue this gem of an event.

Now that Gov. Rell has announced what many have predicted for some time—that she would not seek re-election—just about everyone who cares about politics in Connecticut and beyond will have a theory as to why she bowed out. The author of The Hanging Shad, who has been predicting and writing for the better part of a year now that she would not run, is no different. The thought here is that the governor looked at the landscape, the challenges, stress, anxiety, and the prospect of debates another campaign would bring, the multiple investigations of the what appears to the latest ethical lapse of her administration that was built on a pledge of maintaining the highest ethical standards, and decided she simply preferred to pursue the next chapter in her life; a chapter filled with spending time with her husband, children and grandchildren. One can hardly blame her. Those that say there are health issues involved or that she was scared off by an ever-increasing field of Democrats who want the job are very likely wrong in this writer’s view.

Governor Rell was the right person at the right time when then-Governor John Rowland resigned amid corruption charges and an impeachment proceeding. He would eventually spend time in jail as Rell picked up the pieces. She was a reassuring presence for a disillusioned state and restored confidence in government to the extent that’s possible.

But Rell was a Gerald Ford-like figure for the state. She came in as a calming force during turbulent times but never really seemed to put her mark on the office, many times proposing and then retreating from bold action (raising the income tax for a massive infusion of funding for education, drawing a “line in the sand”against new taxes, etc.).

And the albatross that has been her chief of staff Lisa Moody may have proved to be just too much to take for another term. Moody proved to be an interesting paradox for Rell—her greatest asset and her biggest liability. There is no question Rell could not have governed without her. Yet there is also no doubt Moody proved to be an out-of-control, puppet-master in the Rell administration; operating with immunity from the rules everyone else had to abide by and with complete power.

Jodi Rell should be thanked for her public service and wished well as she enters what will assuredly be a more peaceful, family-centric time in her life. Godspeed.
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The question now is: Who will be the Republican nominee for governor with Rell stepping aside? This past summer, Lt. Gov. Michael Fedele declared, “I will be the nominee [if Rell doesn't run].” The certainty of the statement (he didn’t say “I’m running” or “I will seek to be the nominee”) speaks volumes. Fedele clearly views the nomination as his to have after spending years as the loyal number two to Rell—it’s hard to look back on any press avail during Rell’s tenure and not see Fedele over her shoulder.

But there are questions about his electability. He has not won anything on his own, sans Rell, and in fact was soundly defeated in race for an open state senate seat from Stamford in 2002. It is unlikely the Republican party will simply hand the nomination to Fedele. Republican leaders realize that the governor’s office is a unique position in Connecticut. Many voters who otherwise vote for Democrats can be convinced to support a Republican for governor simply because they don’t want to turn to reigns of the state over to one party. The state House and Senate both have a super-majority of Democrats. Many average voters in the state are reluctant to give all the power—particularly the power to tax and spend—to the Democrats. As such, Republican party leaders know they must not blow the chance to retain the office by nominating an untested, relative novice. This bring us back to what The Hanging Shad wrote back on Oct.16: The GOP may look to Senate Minority Leader John McKinney. He is a tested political heavyweight whose concern for his family kept him out of a 4th district congressional race. There is also speculation that former Congressman Rob Simmons may ditch his seemingly stalled candidacy for the US Senate and run or that fellow former Congressman Chris Shays, a moderate, will get in the race. House Minority Leader Larry Cafero has formed an undefined, statewide exploratory committee but his shrill, strident, conservative views make him a tough choice.

Republican Party Chairman Chris Healy’s phone is ringing off the hook today.

After nearly a month of heart-wrenching tributes, candlelight vigils and outpouring of emotion both here and across the country comes a troubling report that alleges that two University of Connecticut football players started the fight that lead to the death of teammate Jasper Howard October 18. The Hartford Courant ran a front-page “above-the-fold” report Sunday that said freshman players Brian Parker and A.J. Portee were “the aggressors” in the fight with three Bloomfield men. The report also said that the pulling of the fire alarm that sent people scattering outside the student union building where the dance was being held was completely unconnected to the fight. As the people filed out, the paper quoted sources as saying two of the three non-students from Bloomfield went to their car and armed themselves with knives. The fight continued and ended with Howard stabbed to death. John Lomax III is charged with murder. Johnny Hood and Hakim Muhammad face lesser charges.

Anyone who has been following this story must have expected more details to surface—details that may be unpleasant or reflect negatively on the university or its athletes. There are sure to be those who will challenge the veracity of the Courant report, largely because it is based on unnamed sources. After all, no law enforcement entity or official has suggested publicly that UConn players started the fight. However, it is worth noting that the reporters on the story, Dave Altimari, Christine Dempsey and David Owen, all have stellar reputations and rock solid credibility as reporters. Altimari is particularly well known for his accurate, investigative reporting.

The real question is, what happens from here? Coach Randy Edsall has been poignant and courageous in his handling of the situation from being bedside all night with Howard before he died, to handling the unimaginable grief among his players. He is now faced with the accusation that his players started the unpleasantness that eventually resulted in Howard’s killing. Edsall will presumably wait for the official investigation to conclude before taking any action. But this latest revelation must hang heavy on him as he struggles to complete the season and move his team passed the tragedy.

It goes without saying that the two teammates now accused of starting the altercation didn’t for a moment think it could ever result in the murder of one of their teammates—but that’s exactly what happened. There need not be intent for one to be held responsible for the results of one’s actions. It remains to be seen if the players will face criminal charges from this whole tragic set of events. No matter how you look at it, a young has been lost and others have been ruined.
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Governor Rell has been saying all along she would let the people of the state know whether she will seek another term following the municipal elections. Well, they’ve come and gone and now the governor says she will make the announcement by the end of the month.

If she does run again, a full explanation of Dautrich-gate should be priority one. Attorney General Richard Blumenthal has issued at least one subpoena for documents in the investigation of whether a UConn professor used a taxpayer-funded study of state government efficiency to also clandestinely provide political advice to Gov. Rell. More subpoenas are expected. E-mails that have surfaced since the story broke contradict almost all of the governor’s explanations to date. So much so, that Democratic State Party Chairwoman, Nancy DiNardo, again Sunday characterized the governor as “lying.”

As far as the governor deliberating over whether to run again, the media would be well-advised to dispense with the questions about whether Ned Lamont entering the picture would influence her one way or the other. Some political obrservers see Lamont was a one-trick-Iraqi-pony in his challenge to Sen. Joe Lieberman in 2006; when he ultimately couldn’t close the deal in the general election. Nothing he has said or done since then suggests he can even revive the left of the political spectrum support he got then. What he does have going for him is a fleet of armored trucks filled his cash. But to utilize that, he would have to opt out of public financing—a system he once championed—which could lead to charge of hypocrisy. Either way, the governor doesn’t care.
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While Democrats in Congress and here in Connecticut are all but burning him in effigy, Sen. Joe Lieberman is doing national TV appearances, commenting on the bloodshed at Fort Hood last week. Lieberman has said he will oppose a health care reform plan that includes any public option and then compounded that by saying he would likely campaign for some Republican candidates in the next year. It would be only mildly surprising if the next time Lieberman came home to hold one of his famous “diner” forums, he arrived in a car with a big, mechanical middle finger on the roof, rotating for all Nutmeggers to see.