From Paddi's Desk
by Paddi LeShane
Feeling the love? Not so much, it seems.
So this week, the national news stole the campaign trail headlines with the Iowa and New Hampshire primary results as there was lots of noise about who did well and who is slipping away. As the old Irish saying goes "It's still a long way to Tipperary," and who knows who will survive until the next month. There is a lot of early voting lined up in February in anticipation of more caucuses/primaries leading up to March 3rd, aka Super Tuesday, when the chicken comes home to roost.
At the beginning of this presidential campaign season, I wrote about the need to narrow the down field and it looks like that's happening now and definitely will happen by Super Tuesday, if not sooner. I don't consider myself (nor would others) an expert on presidential politics but for one who spends a lot of her career based on her "intuition", I'll repeat myself from an earlier blog. In order for the "blue team" to have a chance at taking back the Oval Office, they have to be selective, stop kicking the tar out of each other and find a candidate that can appeal to the middle of America and win back the independents and those moderate or fiscally conservative Democrats to win.
Enough of that race, how about this week's headlines in New Haven where long time and respected Senator Martin Looney from New Haven has not one
but two potential challengers for his seat in November? Senator Looney, who began his service in the House in 1981, normally has a boring race with no challenger. As of this week he's being targeted by two potential challengers, one from the left and one from the right. Ouch! Senator Looney is best known for his tenure as the powerful chair of the Judiciary Committee and then working his way up the Senate Leadership as Majority Leader and has served as President Pro Tempore for the last five years.
With the huge turnover in New Haven politics, it is fair to say many see an opportunity for grabbing the seat. It very common at this stage of the election year for a candidate from the opposing party (in this case, Republican) to announce early and start to run the comparison of what they believe and their vision as a Senate candidate against the incumbent's voting record. Someone who challenges within its own party is maybe one of the messages the candidate wants to send.
First, they want to let the next generation move the district's constituency into the next decade. (On a personal note, this reason is one I really feel bad about. Years of experience is extremely helpful in public policy roles and if you're the top leader in one of the chambers, your district is so much better positioned than any new candidate could ever be.) Second, the Democratic potential challenger might be hearing that Senator Looney is second guessing a re-election campaign and they want to be in a position to be talking to local supporters to get a leg up in the Democratic primary. Or thirdly, they really do want the Senator to retire and are willing to "take him on" in a primary! Yikes, that's a risky one to follow!
The
New Haven Independent ran a story this week reporting that Senator Looney has in fact filed the paperwork for his re-election campaign, so maybe door number two doesn't reflect the motivations for the interparty challenge. An interesting note, in the same story written by Sam Gurwitt, he mentions that Alex Taubes (Democratic challenger) says his vision of what "fresh perspective" is definitely different than Senator Looney's vision is for the 11th Senatorial district. He's interested in either winning the seat outright or pushing Senator Looney to be even more progressive. Presto! A fourth door now opens! Maybe the challenger thinks he can change the direction of the district another way by putting the heat on Senator Looney to use his leadership position to move CT further left and more in line with the challenger's vision.
Is that good for Connecticut's economy? Not so sure.
We'll keep an eye on this race and how it might impact the Senator's legislative agendas. It is definitely a generational race. It pits a 20+ year veteran against two potential challengers who have never won an elected seat. Both are under the age of 32, have strong opinions differing opinions and are looking to take advantage of the large collegiate voter base of New Haven.
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CT Agency Corner
DCP Embarks on Digitizing License Renewals
by Michael Johnson
This month, DCP was proud to report that their license renewals overseen within the agency grew to being 82% online which was by far the largest spike seen by the agency since implementing online renewals.
As indicated by DCP, they have continued to expand online credentialing, renewal and reinstatement services in order to ensure businesses can comply with state requirements as efficiently as possible. DCP has made 295 credential types available to be renewed online and that number is continuing to grow based on demand to make government more seamless to portal through registration.
An additional state service set to streamline registrations is an initiative led by Governor Lamont called "One-Stop" where anyone creating a new business will not have to register on multiple sites and instead go to one website to take care of registrations with Department of Labor, Secretary of State, Department of Revenue Services and Department of Economic and Community Development. That initiative, set to launch later this year, will be considered as a major achievement of the administration's efforts for making systems interfaced by residents more seamless.
Here is a chart with more background on the DCP initiative:
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Year
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Number of Credentials Renewed Online
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Number of Credentials Able to be Renewed Online*
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% of Online Renewals
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2015
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122,066
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187,192
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65%
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2016
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107,722
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159,200
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68%
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2017
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141,836
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191,613
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74%
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2018
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130,589
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173,424
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75%
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2019
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157,076
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191,451
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82%
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Did You Know?
This Week in CT History
February 14th, 278 AD
Origins of Valentine's Day
On February 14, around the year 278 AD, Valentine, a holy priest in Rome in the days of Emperor Claudius II, was executed.
Claudius believed that Roman men were unwilling to join the army because of their strong attachment to their wives and families. To get rid of the problem, Claudius banned all marriages and engagements in Rome. Valentine, realizing the injustice of the decree, defied Claudius and continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret.
When Valentine's actions were discovered, Claudius ordered that he be put to death. The sentence was carried out on February 14, on or about the year 270.
Legend also has it that while in jail, St. Valentine left a farewell note for the jailer's daughter, and signed it "From Your Valentine."
For his great service, Valentine was named a saint after his death.
In 496 AD, Pope Gelasius decided to put an end to the Feast of Lupercalia, and he declared that February 14 be celebrated as St Valentine's Day.
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Municipal
Roundup
by Ryan Bingham
It's no secret that allocating money from our budget to a variety of projects creates tension. As Governor Lamont addressed earlier this month, Democrats and Republicans are working together to adequately make decisions on our spending. The proposed projects include maintenance of areas of state transportation and upgrading communal facilities.
As we know, the state's bond package was leveraged by Governor Lamont to try to get a vote on a transportation package, a package which included the installation of electronic tolling. A proposed $1.4 billion was considered an ideal amount, but last week an estimated $1.7 billion was reached instead. "It does bear out the fact that he's giving out $300 million more than his debt diet," Minority Leader Senate Len Fasano said. "All of a sudden, there's $300 million that we couldn't afford that we're now affording." These comments were met with similar responses as well as ones in opposition.
"Long-overdue, these state funds for local transportation and infrastructure investments are critical to a municipality's efforts to plan and implement their projects effectively, which is important for public safety and economic growth," said Kevin Maloney, CCM's spokesman. The Connecticut Conference of Municipalities are in favor of this new budget as it will be directly funneled into municipal aid. However, their concern is the toll proposal taking away aid from much needed infrastructure projects. The clock is ticking as municipalities are still anxiously awaiting these much needed dollars.
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2020 Behind the Scenes
by Chelsea Neelon
This week, we featured Representative David Wilson who represents the 66th House District.
What motivated you to run for office?
I ran for office because I didn't like the direction the state was going, and, like many of my constituents, I was angry that, instead of taking the appropriate steps to dig us out of the recession, the people running our government chose to burden businesses and the middle-class with policies that make it more expensive to live and do business in Connecticut. I decided that the best way for me to fend off these disastrous policies was to get involved and run for office.
What are some of your legislative priorities this session?
Given that the short session is designated for making budget adjustments, my main priority is simple-no new taxes. As a legislature, we instead need to make tough choices that cut spending, create efficiencies within our government, and provide relief to those that want to stay in Connecticut but can't afford to do so.
Last question! What's your favorite hobby?
Fast cars, motorcycles, and golf-in that order.
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