Try to think of an issue that would put Richard Blumenthal and Rob Simmons on one side with Chris Dodd, Joe Lieberman and (tepidly) Linda McMahon on the other. Well, the headline above gave it away. It’s the reconfirmation of Ben Bernanke as the Chairman of the Federal Reserve. Both Blumenthal and Simmons said Bernanke should go and someone fresh and new should take control of the Fed. Dodd, Lieberman and McMahon said Bernanke should stay. McMahon hedged on the question, saying she has high respect for the president to make his own choice for Fed Chairman.

Opponents blamed Bernanke for not preventing the financial crisis of 2008. Supporters said he managed the crisis well and deserved another term. He was approved Thursday, ending speculation that anger about Wall Street bailouts could cost him his job. Bernanke’s confirmation on a 70-30 vote came three days before his current term is scheduled to expire.
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Get those scorecards out—add another page—and get ready for an update of who is running for what; or at least thinking about it.

R. Nelson “Oz” Griebel officially entered the race for governor—as a Republican. Well-known for his work on economic development issues, he has very little name recognition statewide. He pledged to end Connecticut’s reputation as an anti-business state. Also getting closer to a run for governor is Waterbury’s Democratic Mayor Michael Jarjura. In 2005, Jarjura lost the primary for mayor but won the office in a write-in campaign in which his supporters passed out pencils. Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton, a Republican, is also considering running for governor. Finally, former Republican state party chairman Bill Hamzy, currently an influential state Representative from Bristol, is making noise about running for attorney general while criticizing Democratic frontrunner Susan Bysiewicz.

Stay tuned; I’m sure there’s more to come.

The Shad will leave the hard analysis of President Barak Obama’s State of the Union address to those who do that sort of thing for a living. For the record, Obama seemed to genuinely try to reconnect with the average American given the lessons learned over the past year. The Shad was also happy Obama didn’t buckle to the right wing (who have blasted him in every instance) and made it clear the mess he walked into. The speech was great but the judgment comes, like many things in life, in the follow through.

One major distraction for at least this viewer was Vice President Biden. He was visible is the vast majority of TV shots of the president and he was constantly nodding his head and making comments of affirmation, apparently to himself. If this was baseball season, no doubt some minor league team would be hard at work this morning planning “Joe Biden Bobblehead Doll Day.” Maybe the Wilmington Blue Rocks would be interested.

Sen. Chris Dodd looked like that was the last place he wanted to be last night. Joe Lieberman looked particularly disinterested
*
The next session of the state legislature opens next Wednesday. There will be plenty of pomp and circumstance and usually a speech by the governor. That will be followed by the usual spin from each party (The Shad’s author was a part of the group that composed the Democratic response to such speeches for many years, working with a “war room” of brilliant senate democratic staffers. We then proposed our work the senate president who would put his own stamp on it). It always starts with great promise but the 2010 session, will be dominated by the budget. The current year’s budget deficit is, according to some estimates, more than a half a billion dollars.
*
There will attempts at debating and passing some other bills that deserve attention but will likely not get the spotlight they deserve. As the days go by, we will no doubt hear complaints that “we can pass [insert passed bill] but we can’t fix the budget.” That rhetoric always amused this writer because it implies that if all the legislators all went home, we’d get a budget deal. It didn’t work this summer and it won’t work this spring.
*
One issue on some lawmakers’ radar screens is a proposal to require seat belts on school buses. It’s not a new issue but has gotten new-found attention following a deadly crash earlier this month. The crash claimed the life of Rocky Hill teenager Vikas Parikh and injured a number of students on I-84 near the Hartford-West Hartford line. The bus tumbled down an embankment.

A recent Quinnipiac poll showed that requiring seat belt on school buses has the support of 3 out of 4 Connecticut residents surveyed. State Rep. Tony Guerrera (D-Rocky Hill), who is also the co-chair of the transportation committee, is sponsoring a seat belt bill this year. Many such bills have been proposed over the years but there may be new support for it because of the Jan. 9 crash.
*
State Senate Majority Leader Martin Looney (D-New Haven) is putting his considerable political weight behind a proposal dealing with high school athletes who suffer concussions. “When in Doubt, Sit it Out” is the slogan advocates are using to back the bill that would put the student-athlete under greater scrutiny when he or she comes close to returning to play.

The author of The Shad suffered a number of concussions when playing high school and college hockey back in the mid-‘80s (yes, that explains a lot, I know). Back then, the treatment was to keep you in the hospital overnight, waking you up occasionally to make sure you didn’t slip into a coma. Rarely did the injury keep the player out of the next game. Now, much more attention is paid to such injuries—and rightly so.

There have been many stories in recent years about professional athletes returning to play too soon from a concussion only to be hurt again and jeopardizing their careers. But this bill, also strongly backed by education co-chair state Senator Tom Gaffey (D-Meriden), would make Connecticut—along with Washington and Oregon—the only states to adopt a “comprehensive law protecting student-athletes from the effects of concussions.”

The Shad will leave the hard analysis of President Barak Obama’s State of the Union address to those who do that sort of thing for a living. For the record, Obama seemed to genuinely try to reconnect with the average American given the lessons learned over the past year. The Shad was also happy Obama didn’t buckle to the right wing (who have blasted him in every instance) and made it clear the mess he walked into. The speech was great but the judgment comes, like many things in life, in the follow through.

One major distraction for at least this viewer was Vice President Biden. He was visible is the vast majority of TV shots of the president and he was constantly nodding his head and making comments of affirmation, apparently to himself. If this was baseball season, no doubt some minor league team would be hard at work this morning planning “Joe Biden Bobblehead Doll Day.” Maybe the Wilmington Blue Rocks would be interested.

Sen. Chris Dodd looked like that was the last place he wanted to be last night. Joe Lieberman looked particularly disinterested
*
The next session of the state legislature opens next Wednesday. There will be plenty of pomp and circumstance and usually a speech by the governor. That will be followed by the usual spin from each party (The Shad’s author was a part of the group that composed the Democratic response to such speeches for many years, working with a “war room” of brilliant senate democratic staffers. We then proposed our work the senate president who would put his own stamp on it). It always starts with great promise but the 2010 session, will be dominated by the budget. The current year’s budget deficit is, according to some estimates, more than a half a billion dollars.
*
There will attempts at debating and passing some other bills that deserve attention but will likely not get the spotlight they deserve. As the days go by, we will no doubt hear complaints that “we can pass [insert passed bill] but we can’t fix the budget.” That rhetoric always amused this writer because it implies that if all the legislators all went home, we’d get a budget deal. It didn’t work this summer and it won’t work this spring.
*
One issue on some lawmakers’ radar screens is a proposal to require seat belts on school buses. It’s not a new issue but has gotten new-found attention following a deadly crash earlier this month. The crash claimed the life of Rocky Hill teenager Vikas Parikh and injured a number of students on I-84 near the Hartford-West Hartford line. The bus tumbled down an embankment.

A recent Quinnipiac poll showed that requiring seat belt on school buses has the support of 3 out of 4 Connecticut residents surveyed. State Rep. Tony Guerrera (D-Rocky Hill), who is also the co-chair of the transportation committee, is sponsoring a seat belt bill this year. Many such bills have been proposed over the years but there may be new support for it because of the Jan. 9 crash.
*
State Senate Majority Leader Martin Looney (D-New Haven) is putting his considerable political weight behind a proposal dealing with high school athletes who suffer concussions. “When in Doubt, Sit it Out” is the slogan advocates are using to back the bill that would put the student-athlete under greater scrutiny when he or she comes close to returning to play.

The author of The Shad suffered a number of concussions when playing high school and college hockey back in the mid-‘80s (yes, that explains a lot, I know). Back then, the treatment was to keep you in the hospital overnight, waking you up occasionally to make sure you didn’t slip into a coma. Rarely did the injury keep the player out of the next game. Now, much more attention is paid to such injuries—and rightly so.

There have been many stories in recent years about professional athletes returning to play too soon from a concussion only to be hurt again and jeopardizing their careers. But this bill, also strongly backed by education co-chair state Senator Tom Gaffey (D-Meriden), would make Connecticut—along with Washington and Oregon—the only states to adopt a “comprehensive law protecting student-athletes from the effects of concussions.”

The Shad will leave the hard analysis of President Barak Obama’s State of the Union address to those who do that sort of thing for a living. For the record, Obama seemed to genuinely try to reconnect with the average American given the lessons learned over the past year. The Shad was also happy Obama didn’t buckle to the right wing (who have blasted him in every instance) and made it clear the mess he walked into. The speech was great but the judgment comes, like many things in life, in the follow through.

One major distraction for at least this viewer was Vice President Biden. He was visible is the vast majority of TV shots of the president and he was constantly nodding his head and making comments of affirmation, apparently to himself. If this was baseball season, no doubt some minor league team would be hard at work this morning planning “Joe Biden Bobblehead Doll Day.” Maybe the Wilmington Blue Rocks would be interested.

Sen. Chris Dodd looked like that was the last place he wanted to be last night. Joe Lieberman looked particularly disinterested
*
The next session of the state legislature opens next Wednesday. There will be plenty of pomp and circumstance and usually a speech by the governor. That will be followed by the usual spin from each party (The Shad’s author was a part of the group that composed the Democratic response to such speeches for many years, working with a “war room” of brilliant senate democratic staffers. We then proposed our work the senate president who would put his own stamp on it). It always starts with great promise but the 2010 session, will be dominated by the budget. The current year’s budget deficit is, according to some estimates, more than a half a billion dollars.
*
There will attempts at debating and passing some other bills that deserve attention but will likely not get the spotlight they deserve. As the days go by, we will no doubt hear complaints that “we can pass [insert passed bill] but we can’t fix the budget.” That rhetoric always amused this writer because it implies that if all the legislators all went home, we’d get a budget deal. It didn’t work this summer and it won’t work this spring.
*
One issue on some lawmakers’ radar screens is a proposal to require seat belts on school buses. It’s not a new issue but has gotten new-found attention following a deadly crash earlier this month. The crash claimed the life of Rocky Hill teenager Vikas Parikh and injured a number of students on I-84 near the Hartford-West Hartford line. The bus tumbled down an embankment.

A recent Quinnipiac poll showed that requiring seat belt on school buses has the support of 3 out of 4 Connecticut residents surveyed. State Rep. Tony Guerrera (D-Rocky Hill), who is also the co-chair of the transportation committee, is sponsoring a seat belt bill this year. Many such bills have been proposed over the years but there may be new support for it because of the Jan. 9 crash.
*
State Senate Majority Leader Martin Looney (D-New Haven) is putting his considerable political weight behind a proposal dealing with high school athletes who suffer concussions. “When in Doubt, Sit it Out” is the slogan advocates are using to back the bill that would put the student-athlete under greater scrutiny when he or she comes close to returning to play.

The author of The Shad suffered a number of concussions when playing high school and college hockey back in the mid-‘80s (yes, that explains a lot, I know). Back then, the treatment was to keep you in the hospital overnight, waking you up occasionally to make sure you didn’t slip into a coma. Rarely did the injury keep the player out of the next game. Now, much more attention is paid to such injuries—and rightly so.

There have been many stories in recent years about professional athletes returning to play too soon from a concussion only to be hurt again and jeopardizing their careers. But this bill, also strongly backed by education co-chair state Senator Tom Gaffey (D-Meriden), would make Connecticut—along with Washington and Oregon—the only states to adopt a “comprehensive law protecting student-athletes from the effects of concussions.”

Connecticut US Senator Joseph Lieberman was clearly enjoying his time—nearly the entire ½ hour—on Face the State on WFSB-TV (Channel 3) hosted by Dennis House yesterday morning. Lieberman made it clear he wouldn’t hesitate to endorse Rob Simmons or Linda McMahon—both Republicans—in the upcoming election to replace his long time Democratic colleague Chris Dodd. Democratic Attorney General Richard Blumenthal leads both GOP candidates in the most recent polls.
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On the subject of his own reelection race in 2012, Lieberman said he may run as an Independent or even a Republican as he doesn’t think he can win the Democratic nomination. Speculation has been rampant that Secretary of State Susan Bysiewicz has her eye on Lieberman’s seat, even going so far as to refusing to pledge to serve the entire four year term of attorney general, the office she is seeking this November. Former Majority Leader and Party Chairman George Jepsen is also seeking the nomination.
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The debate about what Scott Brown’s victory for US Senate from Massachusetts means for Democrats is almost as divided as the election itself. There are many Republicans who say Brown’s historic upset win over Attorney General Martha Coakley spells bad news for Democrats (particularly incumbents) this fall. Others think Dems will learn from the “Brown Experience” and have plenty of time to make adjustments before November.

Case in point is Attorney General Richard Blumenthal. Does anyone truly believe Blumenthal will blow a 30-point lead a month out and lose to any Republican? Not a chance. Blumenthal is no Martha Coakley.
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Senate President Don Williams and Public Health committee co-chair Jonathan Harris are heading an effort to save the Licensed Practical Nursing Program in the state. Governor Rell eliminated 10 programs at state’s technical high schools. Rell said it would save nearly $2 million in the current fiscal year.

Williams said budget cuts are necessary but it doesn’t make sense to cut programs that create jobs. “Now is not the time to eliminate a successful and proven pro-jobs, pro-economic growth program,” Williams said. The program Rell eliminated graduates approximately 350 students every 16 months.
“Democrats have already cut a historic amount from the state budget, and we will be cutting more in the coming months to meet deficit projections, but we remain committed to maintaining programs that grow jobs,” Harris said.

As the author of The Shad had learned first-hand over the past two months or so, we need as many well-trained nurses as possible. This is a short-sighted cut that should be restored.

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal has said all along that he would run his race for the US Senate “as if he was the underdog,” That looks like even more of a smart approach after Republican Scott Brown upset Democratic Attorney General Martha Coakley this week in Massachusetts.

The biggest similarity between the two races is the size of the lead held by the favorite. Coakley lead Brown by more than 30-points just more than a month ago. In the latest polls here, Blumenthal had similar leads over Republican contenders Rob Simmons, Linda McMahon and Peter Schiff. Additionally, winners will replace Democratic legends: Ted Kennedy in Massachusetts and Chris Dodd here in the Nutmeg State.

Of course, the Connecticut race cannot be spun as a referendum on the health reform efforts of President Barak Obama. Yet Blumenthal’s potential Republican opponent, Rob Simmons is distributing a piece by Politico’s David Cantanese that somehow portrays Blumenthal as a “loser” in the “Winners and Losers” of the MA election.:
“As another Northeastern state attorney general with a big lead in the polls and an interest in replacing a longtime senator, Richard Blumenthal may want to call a campaign meeting Wednesday. Blumenthal, who became the Democratic Senate candidate in Connecticut when Sen. Chris Dodd abruptly announced his retirement, enjoys large polling advantages that would look insurmountable in a different environment.

With a big lead in the polls over Republican former Rep. Rob Simmons and World Wrestling Entertainment executive Linda McMahon, Coakley’s 30 point lead in December would probably be good campaign office wallpaper to serve as a motivational reminder.” The headline of this Shad explains exactly why Blumenthal will win.
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In a preview of an issue that won’t go away anytime soon, candidates for governor weighed in on public financing of their campaign. Republican Tom Foley and Democrat Ned Lamont, both Greenwhich millionaires, oppose it although Lamont said he would participate if all the other candidates did. The rest of the field will embrace public financing (that it, if it is still law—but that needs a blog of its own).