Shays: Connecticut Republicans in trouble in 2006

[Judi Lynn]

2003-10-29
Shays: Connecticut Republicans in trouble in 2006



MANCHESTER, Conn. (AP) - Connecticut Republicans will have a tough time winning the governor's race in 2006, U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays told the Journal Inquirer of Manchester on Tuesday.

And they won't have Shays, a veteran Bridgeport Republican, as a candidate for the state's top executive post.
"I think, candidly, it's going to be a tough haul for Republicans (in 2006)," Shays told the newspaper.

Besides the fact that there are roughly 200,000 more Democrats than Republicans in Connecticut, Shays said state Republicans will have held the governor's office for three terms and voters tend to want change after a stretch of one party in control. (snip)

(snip) Should Republican Gov. John G. Rowland not seek a fourth term, Shays said Lt. Gov. M. Jodi Rell has earned the right to be the GOP's nominee for governor. Rowland has said he is still deciding whether to run for one more term.


In recent months, Rowland's administration has been beset by controversy, including a federal corruption investigation into alleged bid rigging involving the governor's former deputy chief of staff. Rowland has also paid more than $15,900 in fines and reimbursements to settle investigations with the state Ethics and Elections Enforcement Commissions. (snip/...)

http://www.newstimes.com/cgi-bin/dbs.cgi?db=news&view_records=1&id=56416

[Rowdyboy]

1. Its ALWAYS predicted to be a rough year

for Republicans in Connecticut. Likewise Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Yet election after election Democrats are beated for governor in those states. Democrats have such an enormous registration edge, yet they never win. Obviously, registering by party is pretty much a joke. Frustrating :shrug:

[joeybee12]

3. In CT the Dems are gutless wonders

Rowland is so sleazy, yet they don't raise a stink.

The economy sucks, but they don't blame him, where it should be.

The redistricting in--controlled by those Dem sputzes in the legislature basically guaranteed a 3-2 Republican favor.

Jesus F Christ--if you're the majority party and you can't even redistrict in your favor!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Grins]

7. What the hell is wrong in Conn.?

Your comment struck a cord with me so I went looking into one of my files. (I call it “Republican Family Values”, my record of Republicans saying one thing and doing another. You know; the usual sex, drugs, child molsters, alcoholics, wife beaters - I found plenty.) What I found was this story below. (All the following are from the Journal Inquirer, the first one is in 2003, but I failed to get a link or date.)

Rowland? This guy is a Governor?

“HARTFORD - The link between a Windsor-based investment partnership backed with state pension money and a convicted stock swindler tied to organized crime is stronger than had been suspected by the state treasurer, who last week asked federal investigators to probe the connection. The partnership known as Pioneer Ventures Associates, which included friends and campaign contributors of Gov. John G. Rowland, pumped more than $9 million from the state pension fund into a now-defunct company called America's Shopping Mall Inc."

WAITAMINUTE!!! Doesn’t this sound like Jeb Bush in Florida? Here’s some more:

”The investment, which consultants hired by state Treasurer Denise L. Nappier now value at just $178, represents the single-biggest loss among the companies in the Pioneer portfolio. A report that America's Shopping Mall filed with the Securities and Exchange … reveals that the company's stockholders included the convicted stock promoter, Abraham Salaman of New Jersey....Salaman, of Cherry Hill, N.J., was one of 19 people indicted by a federal grand jury three years ago in a stock-manipulation scheme that The New York Times described as "Goodfellas meets Boiler Room." Prosecutors in the U.S. attorney's office in Brooklyn, N.Y., alleged it was a "pump and dump" ploy in which partners secretly bought big blocks of stock in four companies, boosted the stocks' value by spreading false information, and then quickly sold out. The gangsters, who included the brother-in-law of Mafia hitman-turned-informer Salvatore "Sammy the Bull'' Gravano, furnished protection from irate stockholders not in on the scheme, they added.

The state pension fund is the sole limited partner in Pioneer, which is owned equally by two entities, Pioneer Ventures Corp. of Windsor and Allied Management Partners of West Hartford. Lerman and Ferraro run the former group while principals in the latter include lawyer Jon C. Peters of Hartford, real-estate developer William B. Collins of West Hartford, Meriden lawyer and former state prosecutor Thomas P. Cadden, and James Mengacci, a Naugatuck funeral director whose sister-in-law is Rowland's executive secretary."

I dug around a bit more on the Journal website and found a whole bunch of sleaze. I never would have believed it about Connecticut – but Connecticut is worse than NJ!

This guy?

” Gov. John G. Rowland insists electronic-mail messages from Enron Corp. employees who say he had a key role in at least one Enron venture in Connecticut are inaccurate and misleading, …. Meanwhile, Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, who is charged with recovering $220 million the Connecticut Resources Recovery Authority lost in a complex and controversial deal with Enron, said the e-mail messages are "evidence" that raise "serious and troubling questions'' both he and federal authorities are investigating.
<http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=10393470&BRD=985&PAG=461&dept_id=161556&rfi=6>

This guy?

” (Lawrence) Alibozek, who served as Rowland's deputy chief of staff from October 1997 to July 1999, admitted in federal court Monday to agreeing "with other persons to accept cash, gold, and other things of value" in return for helping people get deals with the state. Alibozek said he accepted payoffs for projects steered to the Department of Public Works and the Department of Children and Families, according to court records.

Federal authorities did not name the other persons involved. …A senior member of the Rowland administration, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Associated Press that the governor's office received two federal grand jury subpoenas, in November and December, seeking information related to Alibozek and (Co-Chief of staff, Peter) Ellef. Ellef held the co-chief of staff's post from 1997 until last spring, when he left during the controversy over the Connecticut Resources Recovery Authority's $220 million deal with now-bankrupt Enron Corp.”
<http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=7335462&BRD=985&PAG=461&dept_id=161556&rfi=8>

Or: A construction company associated with the family empire at the center of the corruption scandal involving at least one former aide to Gov. John G. Rowland was essentially run for years by a close friend and adviser of the governor, top-ranked lobbyist Jay F. Malcynsky. Malcynsky, a lawyer and former chairman of the Connecticut Republican Party…" <http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=7363023&BRD=985&PAG=461&dept_id=161556&rfi=8>

What the hell has happend to Connecticut?

[Lori Price CLG]

12. Well, I think our elections are stolen here, as well.

In 2000, the state voted 65% to 35% in favor of Gore-Lieberman.

Pls. tell me how Republican Enron-steeped wife-beater John Rowland 'legally' won in 2002, after he took the state right down the sewer.

-Lori

[jiacinto]

8. Bad Dem candidates and brusing primaries are the answer

nt

[davidinalameda]

2. Shays needs to switch parties

he's a better Democrat than some of the reps on our side of aisle

[joeybee12]

5. I LOATHE SHays!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sure, he votes progressively, but he is always giving verbal rim jobs to Dumbo! It's sickening. He makes me sick--he'll never change--his district is country club Repukes. He wouldn't get elected as a Dem.

[David__77]

6. He could go independent.

I think that there is strong centrist independence in New England that is not at home in today's GOP.

[0rganism]

9. Why? He'd just be inviting a 3-way race against another repuke

Plus, as a house republican, he can get all kinds of party perks.

[PROGRESSIVE1]

4. The Dem challenger Bill Curry of ESPN fame was....

to put it nicely, BORING!!! His campaign lacked good ideas, he was poorly organized and he only had $1.8 million dollars to spend as opposed to Wife Beater Rowlands, $5 million!

Look for AG Blumenthal to run and kick the Repugs ass next time around!

[The Magistrate]

10. Democrats In New England

Are going to have to bite the bullet, drop this "vote for the candidate not the party" nonsense, and cast ballots onthe Party line. If these "moderate" Republicans wish to continue in office with Democratic votes, let them do the right thing and change their party affiliation. Otherwise, they simply serve to cement reactionary dominance of the Congress, whatever their private protestations to the contrary.

"LET'S GO GET THOSE BUSH BASTARDS!"

[Lori Price CLG]

11. Great!!

"Connecticut Republicans will have a tough time winning the governor's race in 2006, U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays told the Journal Inquirer of Manchester on Tuesday." :bounce:


I don't believe Reichwing maggot Rowland won in 2002, either -- the entire state knows he was steeped in the Enron debacle. Very odd.

-Lori Price


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