This morning, the Connecticut Office of State Ethics released a report that a total of $38.6 million dollars was spent on administrative and legislative lobbying in Connecticut in 2009. The top client lobbyists by expenditures were CBIA, Northeast Utilities, AT&T CT and Affliates, CT Hospital Association, CT Conference of Municipalities, Connecticut Bankers Association, the Knights of Columbus, Altria Client Services and Affliates, CT Association of Health Plans and the CT State Medical Society.

Early this afternoon, Attorney General Blumenthal opined

that the requirement of “ten years’ active practice at the bar of this state” set forth in Conn. Gen. Stat. § 3-124 is not unconstitutional, and that it constitutes more than simply status as an active member of the bar.

In short, this opinion is that the law which would prevent Secretary of State Susan Bysiewicz from running for Attorney General is valid. What this will do to Ms. Bysiewicz’s plans at this point remain unclear, as do the implications to the races for various constitutional offices.

Also, it was announce today that Janice Andersen has been certified as a Clean Elections Candidate for Special Election Campaign, Stratford’s 120th Assembly District. As such, she will receive, $19,500 to run her campaign. That is, of course, provided that the Second Circuit Court of Appeals does not strike down the law before hand.

Addressing this concern, Gov. Jodi Rell today proposed her ideas on how to save and strengthen the State’s Campaign Finance Law. Key aspects to her proposal include removing the reversion provision, eliminating additional qualifying criteria for candidates of minor parties and petitioning candidates, and adjusting the sizes of the grants.

In other times, all of this would have lead to interesting discussions at Connecticut Local Politics. However, today Genghis Conn, who has run this site since he started it, announced that he was shutting it down. He spoke about seeking to try and keep it going, but recognized that no one wanted a blog with the legal baggage that Connecticut Local Politics has. It don’t know what the legal baggage is and why a group like Citizen’s Media Law Project hasn’t stepped in to address the issue.

Tomorrow, the Regular Session of the Connecticut General Assembly starts. There will also be a Free Clinic in Hartford. Then, on Thursday, the
Hartford Police Department's Traffic Division will conduct a DUI Enforcement checkpoint on Thursday, February 4, 2010, from 7:00 p.m. to 3:00 a.m. Returning legislators should consider themselves warned.

In previous times, all of this would have been discussed at CT Local Politics. Now, a new venue will need to be found.

(Cross posted at MyLeftNutmeg.)