Connecticut
Post posts about what is happening in the State of Connecticut.
Do Platforms Matter?
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sat, 05/15/2010 - 09:39Earlier this month, Jon Kantrowitz posted a diary on MyLeftNutmeg entitled, The Connecticut Democratic Party Platform - Can We Do Better?. The diary received five different comments. Two were about content, and three were about process. Bruce Rubenstein wrote, that people “would have better success meeting with candidates and getting them to commit to progressive issues then worrying about a document that wont be read after the Convention.” Others wrote about the workings of the platform committee and expressed the view that concerns about the platform would not be heard. All of this begs an important question, do platforms matter?
I would like to suggest that what matters might not be the platform itself, but the discussion about the platform. This discussion can take place online. It can take place in meetings with candidates, in face to face gathering, or in smoke filled backrooms. How these discussions take place says a lot about the transparency and the invitation to become involved that candidates and parties make, or fail to make.
As a person advocating greater governmental transparency, I believe a good starting point is in transparency at the party level. Back in 2004, I ran a website, platform.smartcampaigns.com. It is no longer up, but is available on archive.org. We listed as much information as we could get about delegates to the convention, as well as to the various committees, like rules, credentials and platform. We posted various copies of platforms from 2000 and 2004 and talked together online about what better platform planks would be. Various amendments that were discussed ended up being adopted by the platform committee. We can argue about whether or not it really made any difference, but I consider it part of the movement towards opening up the Democratic Party as well as the broader movement towards increased government transparency.
Can we foster such a discussion here in Connecticut as we approach our State Democratic Convention? The Platform Committee is reportedly meeting Monday evening at 6 PM at State Central. The convention starts in less than a week. It seems like we won’t have as much of a chance to open up the process and the discussion as we did at the national level in 2004, but there is still a chance.
Hopefully, members of the platform committee will report back to their constituents about the meeting and solicit more involvement in the establishing the platform, and ultimately in the discussions and activities around who our next statewide elected officials should be. Hopefully, candidates can use these discussions to invite more people to become involved with their campaigns and encourage people to look at the issues and not the personalities of the candidates. Hopefully all of this can be a step in returning our country to a government of, by and for the people.
(Cross-posted at MyLeftNutmeg.)
#ff
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Fri, 05/14/2010 - 16:08#twushi @MiyasSushi @visitnewhaven @jcnork @giuliag @JoeCascio @larafoldvari @Clare60269 @cvelardi
Today, a bunch of Twitter friends got together for sushi @MiyasSushi. It was incredible. Some of the people were the same people I went to the New Haven Symphony Orchestra last night with and were mentioned in my previous #ff message.
Bun spent time talking about the various dishes he presented, and I streamed a little bit of it live on Qik, until my batteries died. Below is an example:
Saving Gemma
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Thu, 05/13/2010 - 18:10I remember a section in Winnie the Pooh, where Piglet asks, “Pooh, what is the first thing you think of in the morning?”
Pooh replies, “I wonder what’s for breakfast.”
Piglet responds, “I think about all the great, wonderful things that are going to happen to me.”
To this, Pooh says, “It’s the same thing.”
I thought of this today as I sat down to write this blog post. You see, every morning, I turn on my computer and find hundreds of new emails needing to be read. I think, “I wonder what’s in my inbox today.” Then, I think about all the great wonderful things that are going to happen to me today. Often, it is the same thing.
So, when I sat down this morning, I was thinking about writing blog posts about Connecticut politics, programming cellphones, and the evolving nature of online communications. Instead, I found a bunch of messages about animals in Connecticut.
The Stamford Advocate has an article about the Greenwich Animal Shelter being full. Greenwich is one of the better shelters in Connecticut. It works closely with Adopt-a-Dog, which is having an adoption day Saturday at Westhill High School in Stamford. As a result, Greenwich only kills about 8% of the dogs that get taken in, much better than the 13% statewide average. It is rare that they have to kill dogs because of lack of space. Instead dogs that are too sick, aggressive, or otherwise unadoptable are the only ones likely to get put down.
To make things worse, Canine Influenza is making the rounds in New York City.
Then, I received an email about the Meriden Humane Society. They work very closely with the Meriden Animal Control Officer. Meriden has a higher kill rate, with 15% of the dogs being killed. Some of this is because of the number of dogs they get from people abandoning them on the highway where I-91 and I-691 meet. Also, the numbers I have are older numbers, and the cooperation between the Meriden Animal Control Officer and the Meriden Humane Society has improved and I suspect that the next set of numbers I get will be lower. Like Greenwich, they are running out of space at the Meriden Human Society.
This was followed by an email about Vernon Animal Control. I don’t know much about what is going on in Vernon. They only have three dogs listed on their website, but they have an even higher kill rate than Meriden.
But the email that really got my attention as about Gemma, a deaf young pit bull at the Manchester Animal Shelter. Gemma has been there for three months and hasn’t had a lot of interest shown in her. She became aggressive over a rawhide and the animal control officer has decided to kill her.
While this horrified some rescuers, it did not come as a surprise. Dogs that have been at a shelter for an extended period can get a little kennel crazy and become harder to adopt. On top of this, Manchester is one of a handful of shelters that kills more dogs than it adopts out, and only two other such municipalities kill more dogs than Manchester.
Fortunately, it appears as if things are changing in Manchester and there is a concerted effort to save Gemma. We will have to see if it will if the efforts will bear fruit. If we are fortunate, perhaps a rescue organization like Adopt-A-Dog will form in Manchester.
Meanwhile, people concerned about adopting a dog may want to go to the Adopt-A-Dog adoption day mentioned above, in Stamford, or attend the Durham Pet Fair on Sunday where many great rescue groups will be bringing their dogs.
I wonder what’s for breakfast tomorrow.
The Other Campaigns
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Thu, 05/13/2010 - 05:09Here in the State of Connecticut, we are preparing to elect a new governor. The Democratic Party has two strong candidates vying for attention. 2006 U.S. Senate Candidate Ned Lamont is taking on 2006 Connecticut Gubernatorial Candidate Dan Malloy. The Democrats will have their convention in a little over a week to select their nominee and there is a lot of last minute jockeying for position.
The latest development has been the selection of running mates by these two candidates. Ned Lamont chose Simsbury First Selectwoman Mary Glassman to be on his ticket and Dan Malloy chose Connecticut Comptroller Nancy Wyman.
For those not acquainted with the role of First Selectman, it is similar to being the mayor of a town. The comptroller is essentially the State bookkeeper. With Nancy Wyman running for Lt. Governor, that has opened up the Comptroller’s office as another interesting state wide race. Connecticut Healthcare Advocate Kevin Lembo, who has been running for Lt. Governor worked for over six years as Assistant State Comptroller. Before he started his race, he said that he would not run against Nancy Wyman for Lt. Governor. So, he has now abandoned his bid for Lt. Governor and is running for Comptroller. Also running is State Representative Tom Reynolds, who had set up an exploratory committee to run for Comptroller, but set that aside when Wyman announced plans to stay as Comptroller. Now that Wyman is seeking the Lt. Governor’s office, Reynolds is declaring his candidacy for Comptroller. There are also rumors that former Lt. Governor Kevin Sullivan and New Haven Alderman Jorge Perez are considering the position.
The other big race in Connecticut is for U.S. Senate. Attorney General Richard Blumenthal is running for this position, leaving the office of Attorney General an open seat. Current Secretary of State Susan Bysiewicz is currently running for that seat as is former Democratic State Party Chair George Jepsen. This opens up the Secretary of State’s seat. House Majority Leader Denise Merrill and New Haven Alderman Gerry Garcia are both running for this seat, both of whom have appeared on Fiona’s radio show.
The only Constitutional office seat not open this time around is State Treasurer. This is the first time that I can remember that the majority of Constitutional seats were up for election.
Moving beyond the state wide races, there are other races worth paying attention to. Recently, Connecticut consolidated many of its probate judge seats. These are not typically highly contested races, and I suspect that many people go to the polling places and don’t know who the probate judge candidates are. Woodbridge has now joined with Derby, Seymour and Ansonia to form a new probate district. The probate judge for Derby, Seymour and Ansonia is running for re-election and the probate judge for Woodbridge is not running.
On Tuesday evening, the Democrats met in Ansonia to nominate Judge Hoyle for another term. There were speeches recognizing his long service to the communities of Derby, Seymour, Ansonia and Woodbridge. Up in Cornwall, CT, Democrats met to nominate Judge Diane Blick. The new probate district there includes the towns of Canaan, Cornwall, Harwinton, Kent, Litchfield, Morris, Norfolk, North Canaan, Salisbury, Sharon, Thomaston and Warren.
Moving beyond the United States, it has been interesting to read the blogs of people from the United Kingdom and the Philippines as they have both recently had national elections. The Netherlands are starting to gear up for their elections and the President of Nigeria recently died after a long illness. Too often we don’t look beyond our local elections to get a sense of how elections are handled in other countries.
So, are you paying attention to other campaigns, either down ticket races in your locality that too often get too little attention, or politics in other areas that are rarely covered?
The Unexpected Nomination
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Tue, 05/11/2010 - 10:18What makes something newsworthy? I pondered this when I learned that bloggers attended the Democratic Third Congressional District Convention last night, but was told that none of the major newspapers sent reporters to the Democratic Third Congressional Convention in Seymour last night.
Others joked with me that you could fairly safely and easily write your report about the convention ahead of time. It almost looks like that is what the New Haven Register did for their article, DeLauro gets nod to seek 11th term in Congress written by ‘Staff’. Eugene Driscoll of the Valley Independent Sentinel wrote a much better article, Dems Nominate Rosa For Eleventh Term, including video and information you could only get at the convention.
It seems as if what makes something newsworthy for larger newspapers is something unexpected; if there is conflict or blood, even better. Conventional wisdom is that it is what sells newspapers, and that is what their business is. Whether it is good for democracy is a different question. Indeed this focus on conflict seems to make debate in Washington less likely to find the best solutions to issues our country faces. People wanting to get their side of the story into the news need to focus on the conflict and not the resolution.
Congresswoman DeLauro does not seem to play those games. Instead, she toils day in and day out to seek real solutions to our nation’s problems. The first four nomination speeches focused on problems with healthcare in our country. Retired railroad employee Claire Phelan spoke about the problem with the donut hole for seniors. Yale student Michael Gocksch spoke about the concern students graduating from college have about being able to maintain health insurance. Small business owner Joseph Bango spoke about the difficulties the health care system has created for small businesses, and cancer survivor Melissa Marottoli spoke about how pre-existing conditions have limited the opportunities for cancer survivors and others. There was nothing new or unexpected in these comments. Anyone who has been paying attention has heard them before.
When Congresswoman DeLauro took the stage to accept the nomination, she said, “I am proud to serve in a Congress that made health care reform a reality.” She put it into the context of doing her job, “It is what it is all about…transforming the lives of people of our great nation”, and she spoke the “reminders of the fundamental decency of the people of our district”. “Fundamental decency” is something that, unfortunately, has come to be unexpected in media coverage of politics.
So, if the traditional formula for news coverage doesn’t work, perhaps we need to look at other formulas. One is the “human interest” story. Congresswoman DeLauro did a good job on this part as well. She recognized the accomplishments of her mother, who served as an Alderwoman in New Haven for 35 years and taught Rosa to expect more out of life. She recognized her husband who celebrated his birthday by attending her nominating convention. She recognized her children and her grandchildren, as well as Ian and Jaimeson Lamb and Anna Saccente who led the Pledge of Allegiance. These children are great reminders about what life is really all about.
The traditional news stories about conflict and the unexpected have led to Congress having a very low approval rating. Yet when we focus on the human interest side of the story, we find something else that is unexpected, a woman that loves her job, works hard for her constituents and is greatly respected. Perhaps these are the stories that we need to hear more of.
(Cross posted at MyLeftNutmeg.)
