It has been a busy week since the Connecticut Democratic State Convention opened, and the results have been widely reported. Because of this, it is tempting to skip my convention recap. On the other hand, I’ve had several different discussions about what happened at the convention over the past week. Different stories are emerging and different people have heard some parts but not others. In light of this, I am writing a recap that leans more towards a personal opinion, unverified blog style collection of advocacy talking points instead of a more journalistic reportage. For further background on how I approached the convention, read 2010 CT Democratic State Convention Recap – Background

When I arrived Friday evening, I was riding with a friend who is a strong Lamont supporter. As we approached the convention, there were signs galore. Supporters of various candidates were out in force, especially Malloy and Lamont supporters holding signs and chanting. There was the good natured competition from opposite sides of the street as supporters of different candidates traded chants.

The parking lot of the Expo center was filled with many people sharing their views about their candidates and reconnecting after having not seen one another since earlier campaigns. Friday night was supposed to be all about the U.S. Senate race and there were a lot more supporters of Merrick Alpert there than I expected to see. Many were old died-in-the-wool anti-war Democrats. Yet one person held up a sign questioning Alpert’s anti-war credentials. It noted that Alpert had given money to the Lieberman campaign just days before the Lieberman-Lamont primary. That would be enough to get some anti-war Democrats to question Alpert’s credentials.

I must admit, I’ve never thought much of Alpert. His walk across Connecticut was good campaigning, but that is about as much as I can say for good stuff about him. His mailing rubber chickens to members of the press calling Blumenthal a chicken for not debating him, and even worse, his chicken videos, were schoolboyish at best.

When the convention started, it was difficult for Chairwoman DiNardo to get the attention of delegates. Everyone was too busy chatting and catching up. When the convention did start, there were reports from various committees and then the nominations. Alpert’s supporters handed out a copy of the speech that Alpert wanted to give at the convention and complained about the rules committee not allowing him to speak. The people nominating Alpert made the same sort of complaints and read Alpert’s speech. This struck me as also being a bit petty.

Based on a random drawing, the fourth congressional district was the first to vote in the roll calls. This was beneficial for Alpert since a lot of his support came from Fairfield County. I was surprised to find that he was receiving five percent of the vote. Many had expected he would receive two percent of the vote or less. As the roll call dragged on, I wandered out the tables set up by various campaigns and advocacy organizations.

I stopped by a table that was giving out campaign swag from the Susan Bysiewicz’s ill-fated Attorney General campaign. I chatted with the supporter at the table. There was a sense of sadness as they gave away their stuff.

Listening to the roll call, in the background, I heard an announcement. Chairwoman DiNardo was telling the delegates that Merrick Alpert would address the convention. I ran back to the press pit. Alpert took the stage and acknowledged that he was not receiving enough support to wage a primary. He graciously urged his supporters to vote for Richard Blumenthal. It was, perhaps, Alpert’s finest moment in his campaign and it seemed he generated more than enough goodwill to offset the ill will some of his earlier antics had generated.

One of the rumors that spread around the floor Friday night was that Senator Dodd would make an appearance to add his support to Blumenthal’s campaign and people said they had seen some of Dodd’s staffers around the outskirts of the audience. This did not happen, and soon everyone headed off to the various parties of the weekend.

Since I was travelling with a Lamont supporter, we fairly quickly passed through the party that the Malloy campaign had set up in the parking lot of the convention center and headed straight to the Blumenthal campaign party. This was a relatively quiet event with a cash bar. We chatted with friends, and noted the visit of both Dan Malloy and Ned Lamont to the party. After this, we headed over to the Lamont party. This was a big raucous event where we saw many old friends. There was some arm twisting going on at the party, but it was about trying to get possible candidates to run for State Representative.

Saturday morning, I got off to a late start as my travelling partner overslept. The convention started off again with reports from various committees. Tessa Marquis stood up and offered an amendment to the platform calling for age-appropriate sex education. Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell was a bad policy in the military. It is an even worse approach to sex education, rivaled only by ‘Just say no’, which has now become the Republican answer to any efforts to address problems our country faces.

Sex education language had been discussed by the platform committee and had been removed. The first voice vote on the language on the floor seemed to close to call, and Chairwoman DiNardo asked for a second voice vote. Nervously, reporters looked at one another. Would there be a roll call vote on this amendment? Would there be other amendments? This could lengthen out what already looked like a really long day. The second voice vote sounded pretty close to the first from my vantage point in the press pit. Yet Chairwoman DiNardo pronounced that the amendment had passed. A second amendment was harder to hear from the press pit but based more easily. Later, delegates reported that it sounded like female voices had voted for sex education and male voices had voted against it.

The first office to be considered Saturday morning was for State Treasurer. Incumbent State Treasurer Denise Nappier was running unopposed and there were speeches about the good job she has done so far, especially standing up for shareholders.

This was followed by the Governor’s nomination. Many people were focused on this, but I had consistently said Dan Malloy would get the nomination and Ned Lamont would get enough delegates to earn a place on the primary ballot. The numbers would be clear enough so that there would not be any interesting political maneuvering. The nominating speeches were fairly uneventful. Audrey Blondin probably brought the most energy and engaged the crowd most in her speech. State Representative Gary Holder-Winfield continued to demonstrate his independence from the New Haven political machine and offered a speech in favor of Dan Malloy. Later, two New Haven delegates would break ranks and vote for Malloy.

There has been a lot of talk about how tight a rein New Haven Democratic Town Committee Chair Susan Voigt keeps on her delegates. I like Susan, but I believe that her tight control of the party is bad for democracy and while it is effective in the short run, it is bad for the party as well. I continue to be undecided in the Governor’s race, but I am glad that two delegates showed their independence in New Haven.

When the voting was completed, Annie Lamont walked through the press area beaming a great smile. It seemed that she was very happy with the results. Soon, during Dan’s acceptance speech, Ned appeared in the press pit. As Dan’s face flickered on the monitors, all the reporters gathered around Ned. His comments about the coming primary seemed to be of greater interest than Dan’s acceptance speech.

The convention then moved on to the Lt. Governor’s race. Some people had expressed concern that Nancy Wyman is such a great candidate that people might vote for Ned for Governor, but not for his pick, Mary Glassman, for Lt. Governor. In the end, the votes for Wyman and Glassman were very similar to the votes for Malloy and Lamont and Glassman easily ended up on the primary ballot.

However, again, we saw the press more interested in activities back in the press pit. Dan Malloy came back to speak with reporters as the nominations for Lt Governor were being made.

Throughout the morning, there were reports that a nomination for Attorney General would be made from the floor. People suggested that some sort of proxy for Susan Bysiewicz would stand up. The word came around that this possible candidate or that possible candidate had been convinced not to stand for election and in the end, George Jepsen was the only candidate and was nominated by acclamation. I like George a lot, although before Bysiewicz was disallowed from running, his campaign had been anemic at best. It seemed like the only reason being presented to vote for George was that he was not Bysiewicz. There are many great reasons to vote for George Jepsen for Attorney General, and finally he had a moment to start talking about the depth and breadth of his experience. It was a great moment for Mr. Jepsen.

The day had moved along fairly quickly, so the vote for Secretary of State would be done by roll call. Barbara Kennelly’s speech in favor of Jonathan Harris received some attention from the press pit, but that was about the only one that people really seemed to notice. Everyone was more interested in the story behind the story. There were reports of a deal between Gerry Garcia’s campaign and Michael Jarjura’s campaign. The New Haven delegation would vote for Jarjura for Comptroller if the Waterbury delegation would vote for Garcia for Secretary of State.

I’ve always liked Gerry and I’ve been torn between supporting him and supporting Denise Merrill. I’ve also always disliked Jarjura and strongly dislike trading votes at a convention. As confirmations about the deal started to come out, it became clear to me that I cannot support Gerry Garcia for Secretary of State. This was compounded by Mr. Garcia’s request that his supporters vote for Jonathan Harris in subsequent ballots. If Mr. Garcia were withdrawing from the race and not planning on being in the primary, it would make sense, but to urge voters to vote for a different candidate during the convention while planning to be in the primary just didn’t seem right to me.

In the end Rep. Merrill easily received the nomination. Mr. Garcia appears as if he would have qualified for the primary without the deal with the Jarjura campaign, and we all moved on to the Comptroller race.

When it came to the Comptroller nominations, there were again a few people that caught my attention. Various people in the press pit commented about Former House Speaker Moira Lyons nominating Michael Jarjura and State Rep Gary Holder-Winfield again went against the wishes of the New Haven delegation and seconded Kevin Lembo’s nomination.

Things apparently got a bit testy when a campaign staffer from a different campaign in New Haven approached members of the New Haven delegation to urge them to vote for Kevin Lembo. Susan Voigt reportedly ordered the staffer to stay away from the delegates and he responded by comparing her to Khrushchev.

As the voting proceeded Ken Flatto recognized that he was unlikely to get the 15% that he would have needed to be on the primary ballot and announced that he was withdrawing his nomination and urged his supporters to vote for Kevin Lembo. Unlike Garcia’s announcement in the Secretary of State’s race, Flatto said he would not be on the primary ballot and instead would support Lembo. Mr. Flatto’s announcement, like that of Merrick Alpert was gracious and I suspect generated considerable good will for Mr. Flatto.

Since the convention, there have been plenty of discussions. Rep. Tom Reynolds, who was also running for Comptroller announced that he would not challenge Lembo in a primary. Discussions about Waterbury/New Haven deal, the tight control that Susan Voigt holds over the New Haven delegation, and the appropriateness of these deals, this control, and various efforts to challenge it have provided a background buzz for the week.

The 2010 Connecticut Democratic State Convention was a great one. There was the drama of contested races, the coronation of beloved candidates as well as the deal making and arm twisting that unfortunately goes along with it. It is a great time to be involved, and I hope people reading this will be more drawn by the good aspects of an exciting convention than put off by the negative aspects.

Updates: 6/3/2010

I'm hearing from other people who have felt shut out of the political process in New Haven and Waterbury due to the tightly controlled machines there.

Also, I've received a copy of the second platform amendment:

A Supportive and Caring Environment for Vulnerable Members of Our Society

Democrats believe that the State budget must not be balanced on the backs of residents who most need care and support, including a growing senior population, children, residents who are unemployed, disabled, mentally ill, homeless, or impoverished, and other vulnerable residents. The State must provide adequate social services, and should strive to improve the quality and cost-effectiveness of these services in community-based programs.