Tuesday, May 21, 2013
 

Politics

Scott Walker offers CT GOP a conservative prescription

The union demonstrators outside a Connecticut Republicans’ fundraiser Monday showed that Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin remains a lightning rod for curtailing the collective-bargaining rights of public employees.

But does Walker’s battles with labor in the Midwest make him a role model for GOP candidates here? Walker thinks so. So does Jerry Labriola, the state GOP chairman who invited him to deliver a pep talk to a struggling party and headline its major annual fundraiser, the Prescott Bush Dinner.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker addressing the Prescott Bush Dinner.

Rail chief says service to resume Wednesday

Commuters file off buses that substituted disrupted train service Monday. (Photo courtesy of The Hartford Courant)

Defense rests without offering evidence in political corruption case

New Haven -- The defense rested Monday without offering testimony in the conspiracy trial of Robert E. Braddock Jr., the campaign aide whose arrest a year ago opened a scandal that mortally wounded the congressional candidacy of Christopher G. Donovan.

The jury in U.S. District Court will get the case Tuesday after closing arguments in a trial that focused on what the government says was an attempt by the owners of roll-your-own cigarette stores to bribe Donovan, a Democrat who was then the speaker of the state House of Representatives.

Robert Braddock Jr.

Testimony: Donovan's biggest money men had stake in legislation

The two biggest fundraisers for then-House Speaker Christopher G. Donovan’s 2012 congressional campaign were Harry Raymond Soucy and Mark Masselli, men with significant financial interests before the General Assembly, a campaign official testified Friday.

Soucy delivered $27,500 from donors trying to ensure that their roll-your-own cigarette business remained free of Connecticut’s steep tax. Masselli, who raised at least $15,000, obtained a $15 million bonding authorization for his community health centers

Christopher G. Donovan, who was then speaker of the Connecticut House, responding last year to the arrest of his congressional campaign finance director. (file photo)

Political fixer testifies about effort to bribe House Democrat, GOP leaders

His name was Harry Raymond Soucy, a brash union man and correction officer who portrayed himself in the backroom of a Waterbury smoke shop as a political fixer able to get things done at the Connecticut State Capitol.

His solution: Bribes disguised as contributions, including cash he says he left in one legislator’s office refrigerator.

Not a defendant, but Chris Donovan's reputation on trial with his ex-fundraiser

New Haven – He is not charged. He wasn’t in court. But former House Speaker Christopher Donovan was a major presence Monday as testimony opened in the political corruption case that derailed his 2012 congressional campaign.

Robert Braddock Jr. leaving U.S. District Court in New Haven with his lawyer, Frank Riccio II. Braddock was campaign finance director for former House Speaker Christopher Donovan.
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Washington -- The National Park Service said Tuesday that it's behind efforts to turn Hartford's Coltsville neighborhood into a national park, with several conditions.

One is a new evaluation of the financial stability of the owners and investors in the 260-acre site on the bank of the Connecticut River.
A major Coltsville developer is Colt Gateway. A big investor is Chevron, an energy company that invests in Coltsville because it was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 2008, making the area eligible for special tax breaks.

The state legislature's budget-writing panel maintained a massive cut to hospitals but reversed a controversial reduction to health care for poor working parents in a $43.9 billion, two-year budget that effectively matched the spending level sought by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy.

A brief moment's reflection for victims of terrorism in Boston coincided Monday with a long-awaited groundbreaking in Hartford for a monument honoring Connecticut war veterans, a roster covering 1.3 million living and dead.

Current events intruded on history as Gov. Dannel P. Malloy led a moment of silence at 2:50 p.m., precisely one week after the first of two bombs exploded at the Boston Marathon, killing three, wounding scores and unsettling millions.

The legislature's tax-writing panel put Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's proposed car tax repeal on the shelf Friday, but leaders insisted the concept would be revisited before the full legislature adjourns on June 5. 

And while Malloy didn't get his way when it came to the car tax, the Democratic-controlled Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee embraced most of his other proposals, endorsing more than $110 million in new taxes next year, a controversial energy auction, and a break for tax delinquents in a vote along party lines.

Bipartisanship, we hardly knew ye.

Hartford's flirtation with inter-party cooperation ended Friday as the General Assembly returned to the fiscal crisis, an issue expected to dominate the remaining six weeks of the 2013 session and the 2014 race for governor.

After months of coping with the Newtown school massacre, which yielded a gun-control law praised for its scope and bipartisanship, the Appropriations Committee's revisions to Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's budget Friday marked a reboot of the annual session.

Washington -- Gov. Dannel Malloy has proposed spending the lion's share of about $72 million in federal Hurricane Sandy money to upgrade and repair housing on the coast, leaving towns short of money to recover from the storm.

"We really tried to find the best allocation we could," said Anne Foley, Connecticut's undersecretary for Policy Development and Planning.

She said helping homeowners is the administration's first priority.

Before the federal government will release any of the $71 million in Storm Sandy relief it has apportioned for Connecticut, the state must seek public comment on its plan to use the funds.

Gov. Dannel Malloy's office released that plan today.

“This funding isn’t just about getting people’s lives back to normal following the devastation that occurred last year,” Malloy said in a press release.  “It’s also about making sure that when things are rebuilt, it’s done in a way that makes them more resilient to future storms."

George Tirado, a Waterbury police detective and smoke shop owner, pleaded guilty Friday to a federal conspiracy stemming from the effort to influence tobacco legislation with hidden contributions to the congressional campaign of former House Speaker Christopher Donovan.

He is the seventh defendant to plead guilty in a case that torpedoed Donovan's campaign last summer, yet has yielded no charges against him. Donovan's former campaign manager, Josh Nassi, is among those who have pleaded guilty.