Primary fever’s on high alert in the state’s largest city as Democratic political operatives prepare for upcoming district conventions as well as expected August contests to choose party nominees. At look at the landscape:
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Tags: Andres Ayala·Anthony Musto·Bill Finch·Chris Rosario·Christina Ayala·Don Clemons·Ernie Newton·Marilyn Moore·Santa Ayala·Scott Hughes·Tom McCarthy
Finch holds hen at ordinance announcement. CT Post photo.
By a 3-2 vote, the City Council’s Ordinance Committee on Tuesday plucked Mayor Bill Finch’s proposal to permit and regulate the raising of up to six chickens. Council members Lydia Martinez and Rick Torres (who says Rick’s too chicken to vote with the mayor?) voted in support of the ordinance. In general, ordinances defeated in committee will come back to the full council as a negative report for a vote, so the mayor’s proposal’s not totally fried.
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Tags: AmyMarie Vizzo-Paniccia·Bill Finch·Brian Lockhart·CT Post·Lydia Martinez·Rick Torres
Jonathan Pelto. Will he?
In 2010, Tom Foley received more votes for governor on the Republican line than Dan Malloy received on the Democratic line. The 20,000-vote difference was the Connecticut Working Families Party line where Malloy’s name also appeared for an extra 26,308 votes. Combined with his Democratic vote haul, Malloy was elected governor by roughly 6,000 votes following a grueling election-day ballot shortage in Bridgeport that created chaos and made national headlines. Four years later, there’s angst in the ranks of the Working Families Party over some of Malloy’s policies including teacher standards and what students are expected to know at various grade levels under the Common Core curriculum–angst fanned by former State Rep. Jonathan Pelto, who’s been a stick in Malloy’s eye for the better part of his term, from Pelto’s blog perch.
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Tags: Dan Malloy·John McKinney·Jonathan Pelto·Tom Foley
UB gymnastics team won its sixth straight national championship.
For six straight years City Council President Tom McCarthy has honored the University of Bridgeport women’s gymnastics team in a public ceremony in City Hall. Mayor Bill Finch has always been a no-show, but he did something Monday night he had never done before, a private–if not public–acknowledgment of UB, a major asset to the city. CT Post reporter Brian Lockhart has more:
Anyone standing in the hallway outside would have witnessed Finch, in an impromptu moment, wading into the small group of nationally recognized gymnasts, introducing himself, shaking their hands and congratulating them.
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Tags: Bill Finch·Brian Lockhart·Bridgeport Hospital·CT Post·Mary-Jane Foster·Tom McCarthy·University of Bridgeport
Retire?
State Rep. Don Clemons is telling legislative leadership in Hartford he will not seek another term after 10 years in the Connecticut Legislature, setting up the comeback of Ernie Newton to reclaim the East End legislative district he occupied prior to Clemons. If there’s a television reality show in the making for politicians, Newton’s gotta be on the list. The self-proclaimed Moses of his peeps is poised to rejoin the State House, irrespective of a federal corruption conviction nearly 10 years ago and a pending state court trial accusing him of violating Connecticut’s program of publicly financed races. As Newton likes to say, all saints have a past, all sinners a future.
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Tags: Andres Ayala·Bill Finch·Don Clemons·Ernie Newton·John Rowland
2011 mayoral candidate Jeff Kohut, in a commentary, does not hold back his observations about state and local political leadership. From Kohut:
The State of Connecticut has become the national policy laboratory for the debate over the remediation of the US public education system, with Bridgeport serving as the principal lab rat in this regard.
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Tags: Jeff Kohut
Seaside Park, now this is green.
Patch, the on-line news site, has published a list of the greenest towns in Connecticut. Bridgeport is greener than several Connecticut cities, according to the rankings, but still not as avocado rich as most communities. Patch listed the city among Connecticut’s least green communities of 169 cities and towns. The survey’s dubious methodology did not factor open space per acre such as thousands of acres of park land, including the 325-acre Seaside Park where a solar field is expected to be constructed by United Illuminating on the former city dump. From Patch:
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Political Primaries, The Favorite Sport In The City
April 24th, 2014 · 3 Comments · Analysis and Comment, City Politics, State Politics
Primary fever’s on high alert in the state’s largest city as Democratic political operatives prepare for upcoming district conventions as well as expected August contests to choose party nominees. At look at the landscape:
[Read more →]
→ 3 CommentsTags: Andres Ayala·Anthony Musto·Bill Finch·Chris Rosario·Christina Ayala·Don Clemons·Ernie Newton·Marilyn Moore·Santa Ayala·Scott Hughes·Tom McCarthy