Author: Christopher Keating

The issue of Sunday liquor sales is still alive at the state Capitol.

With time running out on the way toward the state-mandated adjournment at midnight May 5, supporters have been publishing full-page advertisements this week in favor of Sunday sales.

The Connecticut Food Association and the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States, known as DISCUS, have paid for the advertisements that say the legalization would lead to more jobs and more revenue for the state. But the Connecticut Package Stores Association, led by longtime lobbyist Carroll J. Hughes, has been winning the battle for years under the Gold Dome by saying that allowing the sales on Sunday will simply spread out the same volume over seven days instead of six.

With the idea placed as an amendment on various bills, Senate Republican leader John McKinney of Southport said he does not see the issue coming up in the final week.

The Sunday sales are “probably not going to be part of an overall budget solution” as the legislature tackles a projected deficit of $700 million in the next fiscal year, he said.

“It’s an extremely controversial issue,” McKinney said when asked by Capitol Watch in the Capitol press room.

“There are Republicans that support and oppose Sunday sales. There are Democrats that support and oppose Sunday sales,” McKinney said. “My caucus will split. [The Senate Democratic] caucus will split. You don’t end up with a bipartisan budget. That type of a controversial issue is better off for another year, where it can stand on its own merits and not as part of a budget.”

Those favoring Sunday sales have created a web site at www.ENDCTBLUELAWS.org

But Hughes has argued repeatedly that the Sunday liquor prohibition is a liquor law, not a blue law. The blue laws were outlawed years ago.

The legislature’s program review committee staff analyzed the issue late last year, saying that the sales should be allowed.

http://blogs.courant.com/capitol_watch/2009/12/program-review-staff-recommend.html

 

State Rep. Elizabeth H. Esty is frustrated.

The rookie Democratic legislator, who attended Harvard College and Yale Law School, says the moderates are not being heard on a wide variety of legislation.

Hartford Courant columnist Rick Green has the details at http://www.courant.com/news/opinion/courant-columnists/hc-green_moderates_voters_0427.artapr27,0,5424484.column

After days of clashes and deadlock that brought the state Capitol to a complete standstill, the legislature’s judiciary committee began voting Tuesday on Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell’s batch of nominees for Superior Court judgeships.

The breakthrough came after Rell said she is committed to nominating more members of minority groups to the bench.

Rell’s spokesman, Rich Harris, said Tuesday that Rell intends to be “appointing a qualified, approved minority candidate to the bench in the coming months, following a thorough and rigorous recruiting and vetting process. Connecticut is a state rich in its racial, ethnic and social diversity, and that diversity should be celebrated.”

One of the problems, Harris said, is that only 4 percent of the candidates on the official list for judgeships are members of minority groups.

Rep. Michael P. Lawlor, the longtime co-chairman of the legislature’s judiciary committee who has often clashed with the governor’s office, said, “I’m delighted about the outcome of this. We all have an obligation – all of us – to reach out … by trying to encourage people to get involved.”

Lawlor encouraged attorneys to take the first step in becoming a judge by downloading an application from the Judicial Selection Commission, which is available online.

Lawlor’s co-chairman, Sen. Andrew McDonald, said the committee did not have sufficient information on which lawyers are on the list in the highly secretive process. While Rell’s nominees have been placed under the spotlight over the past week, McDonald said the issue is much broader than the most recent group of nine nominees.

“We have a lack of diversity in law schools,” McDonald said. “We have a lack of diversity in our municipal law departments around the state. … I can guarantee you that these nominees, if they are approved, are going to be more sensitive” about issues of diversity in the years ahead on the bench.

The first committee vote Tuesday came on John L. Carbonneau, an unaffiliated voter and labor lawyer from East Lyme who attended the University of Connecticut as an undergraduate and later received his law degree in 1980 from the Catholic University of America. While the votes are still open until the committee meeting ends, both Democrats and Republicans voted in favor of Carbonneau.

State Rep. Kenneth Green, a Hartford Democrat, said he is still unclear what criteria are used to determine whether someone is qualified to earn the judge’s robes. Overall, 38 attorneys applied last year, and 24 were rejected, he said.

“I am still very uncomfortable with the process of the Judicial Selection Committee,” Green said. “As an African American male, I was deeply disappointed of not having anyone of color on the original list” from Rell.

Green voted against Carbonneau, but state Rep. Ernie Hewett of New London – who had raised questions recently about racial diversity – voted in favor.

Green said he still has “some very serious concerns” about Republican Laura Flynn Baldini, a Yale-educated lawyer from West Hartford with 12 years of experience at the bar. At 39, Baldini is the youngest of Rell’s nominees and has come under fire for lacking the experience of Rell’s other nominees, including six who are at least 54 years old.

“I think her testimony demonstrated that she is not qualified to be on the bench,” Green told his colleagues early Tuesday afternoon.

But Rep. Kevin Roldan, a Hartford Democrat, immediately defended Baldini – saying that he knows her well as “an intelligent individual, a thoughtful individual” who deserves the committee’s support for a judgeship.

Sen. Edwin Gomes, a Bridgeport Democrat, said he agreed with Green on the overall issue – saying that Green represented the thoughts of the majority of the Black and Puerto Rican Caucus. Gomes said that Baldini did not answer the questions well during her testimony on Friday night, prompting him to vote against her nomination.

Rep. Toni Walker, a New Haven Democrat, and others said that a high number of those in the criminal justice system and in prison are members of minority groups. The judges, however, largely are not.

“It has been a very, very tough road of the last few days,” Walker said. “We have two Connecticuts here, and it’s been wider and wider. … The two Connecticuts have to stop. … We have to have a better system. … If you cannot empathize, then don’t obstruct. You may feel it’s not in your neighborhood, but eventually it will be.”

“The system is broken. Something is wrong,” said Hewett, the father of three children. “When everybody else does 50 percent, you have to do 150 percent just to survive. … I hated what we had to do yesterday, but we had to get people’s attention.”

He added, “It’s about personalities. … Why don’t we just go and change the system and pick who you like?”

Sen. Edward Meyer, a Guilford Democrat and longtime attorney, said, “This issue is not just an issue for the Black and Puerto Rican Caucus. This is an issue for all of us.”

But Rep. Themis Klarides, a deputy House Republican leader, said, “When we talk about minorities all the time, does that include women? As women, we are minorities, technically. Sometimes, it’s confusing to me. … I want to make sure we understand that minorities covers a whole plethora of groups.”

The question over having enough minority nominees on the bench goes back more than a decade for a period covering the past three governors and the past four House Speakers. In the 1990s, then-Rep. William Dyson of New Haven and others pushed hard for more representation and spoke about it on the House floor.

State Rep. Arthur O’Neill, a Southbury Republican, said that 85 percent of Gov. John G. Rowland’s judicial appointees were white, and 81 percent of Rell’s appointees have been white.

“If you’re not sitting at the boardroom table, sometimes you have to bang on the boardroom door to be heard,” O’Neill said. “There needs to be a more aggressive recruitment effort. I’m not going to ask members of the Black and Puerto Rican Caucus how many people they have gone up to and asked them to be judges.”

Sen. John Kissel, an Enfield Republican, said he wanted to commend the members of the caucus for their efforts during a public hearing Friday night.

“There were no inappropriate questions. They were all on point,” Kissel said. “I know what it’s like being a minority – as a Republican in this building in the last several years” in a Capitol where Democrats hold veto-proof majorities in both chambers. “We have a defining moment now to turn a corner.”

But Rep. William Hamzy, an attorney who serves as a deputy House GOP leader, said it is a “dangerous” path to equate the number of minorities in prison with the lack of minorities on the bench.

Rep. John Hetherington, a New Canaan attorney, said, “She has certainly the intellectual strength to become a very fine judge. Judges don’t come to the bench completely formed. They are built by the experience. … She’s young and necessarily of lesser experience, but I have no doubt about her.”

Hetherington mentioned that former U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren, who wrote the majority opinion in the landmark education ruling of Brown vs. Board of Education in 1954, had very little judicial experience when he came to the bench.

Rep. Patricia Dillon, a New Haven Democrat, said, “It’s been wonderful to watch this process. It’s been great democracy. … I do think we’ve fallen behind. That’s simply true. … We’ve also voted on some people with pretty thin resumes who were inside players.”

Dillon said she was sorry that the nominees had been “caught up in forces that are much bigger than themselves” and witnessed multiple delays in the process.

The clash over Gov. M. Jodi Rell’s nomination of nine Superior Court judges was still not resolved Monday night – throwing Tuesday’s meeting of the judiciary committee into jeopardy.

As of 8:30 p.m. Monday, the issue was up in the air, said Rep. Michael P. Lawlor, the committee’s longtime co-chairman.

“If they work it out, we’ll have a meeting” Tuesday, Lawlor told Capitol Watch in a telephone interview. “If they don’t work it out, then we probably won’t have a meeting. … They’re either going to have a deal or not. If there’s no filibustering, we can have an orderly meeting.”

The clash Monday led to the abrupt cancelation of the House session – thus pushing bills back on the calendar as the legislature races toward its state-mandated adjournment of midnight May 5 for the regular session. Both the House and Senate are scheduled to be in session Tuesday.

Besides budget problems, lawmakers raised the issue of a lack of racial diversity among Rell’s nominees – who are all white.

“The Black and Puerto Rican Caucus feels if you’re nominating 10 judges, at least one minority should be in the mix,” Lawlor said.

A bitter dispute over the state budget and the nomination of nine judges brought the state Capitol to a screeching halt Monday as a scheduled session of the House was canceled.

Democrats and Republicans are locked in a clash over politics and money – and some lawmakers say the future judges have become political pawns who have become entangled in the swirling Capitol maelstrom.

The future of the nominees was thrown into doubt when the legislature’s judiciary committee postponed any vote on their nominations. The postponement came at about 2:10 p.m., and the committee will not meet again until Tuesday.

The committee’s lack of action came after a long debate about the qualifications of Laura Flynn Baldini, a Yale-educated Republican who at age 39 was the youngest person nominated this year for a judgeship by Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell.

Multiple Democratic legislators expressed concerns that Baldini has only 12 years as a lawyer and questioned whether she is qualified to be a judge. The members of the legislature’s Black and Latino Caucus have also expressed concerns that all nine nominees are white, and that none of them are African-American or Latino. While Rell makes the final nominations, four of the nine nominees were selected by the Democratic leaders of the House and state Senate.

The lack of action boiled over into frustration as lawmakers said they wasted a crucial day as they speed toward a state-mandated adjournment May 5 for the regular session.

“I’m dumbfounded,” said House Republican leader Lawrence Cafero of Norwalk. “I’ve never seen anything like it – lack of leadership. Chaotic.”

Cafero said the legislature is clearly dysfunctional, but House Speaker Christopher Donovan of Meriden strongly rejected that characterization. Instead, he said he is not giving up on votes on the judges and the proposed $19 billion state budget before May 5.

“We’ll meet Saturday and Sunday if we have to,” Donovan told reporters. “We still have time left. Things can turn around here real quick.”

Republicans said the judicial nominees have become political pawns of the state budget process after some Democrats said they might withhold support for the judges because of their concerns about the state’s ongoing fiscal problems and looming budget deficits. Republicans have rejected the arguments about the fiscal situation in the courts, saying that Rell is seeking to fill only nine of an expected 20 vacancies for the Superior Court. If more judges retire, those numbers could increase.

“Using judicial appointments as a budget pawn, I have grave concerns about that,” said Sen. Michael McLachlan, a Danbury Republican.

Rell’s nominees ran into a major political buzz saw Monday in a public clash on budget and diversity issues. But Baldini clearly came under the most fire of any nominee.

A 1992 graduate of Yale University who later attended law school at Seton Hall University, Baldini was named as a “Super Lawyers Rising Star” for up-and-coming lawyers who are under the age of 40. A justice of the peace in West Hartford for the past five years, Baldini runs a law firm that bears her name in Farmington. Baldini also has ties to Rell, sitting at the same table with her at the Connecticut Convention Center on St. Patrick’s Day for a fundraiser for Catholic schools. Baldini is a major fundraiser and chairs the group that runs the highly popular breakfast, which draws current and former governors, politicians, media personalities, and business executives.

Rep. Toni E. Walker, a New Haven Democrat who was among the first to speak on the judiciary committee Monday, said Baldini “may be ready in a couple of years, but she needs to get exposure” in the legal world.

Regarding diversity, Walker later said, “As a black woman, we are still falling very short in that regard. … The message has to be that the process is flawed. … With that, I have no apologies for anything that we are saying.”

The questions swirling around Baldini’s qualifications prompted Rep. Gary Holder Winfield of New Haven to ask what are the exact criteria for a person to become a state judge.

“It’s a decision each legislator has to make for himself or herself,” responded Sen. Andrew McDonald, the co-chairman of the judiciary commitee. “There’s no criteria, per se. It’s ultimately a political appointment and a political decision made by this body.”

Winfield and others wondered how Baldini rose so quickly when others wait as long as 10 years between their application to the Judicial Selection Commission and then their nomination as a judge.

“I was disturbed by some of the things I heard her not answer,” Winfield said. “When asked about habeas reform, the prospective nominee seemed not to know” what the legislators were talking about.

Several legislators said they had problems with Baldini’s answers about being a Spanish translator in court when she did not seem to have a strong grasp of the Spanish language.

“It’s like me forgetting to speak English,” said Rep. Ernie Hewett, a New London Democrat. “She’s only been on the list for six months. … Just to run for attorney general, you need 10 years of experience. And she’s got 12, and she’s going to be a judge.”

During the questioning of Baldini at a public hearing last week, Hewett had asked Baldini about her experiences dealing with the minority community. He then spoke in general about diversity.

“If you know how many black couples are living at the end of the street, you’re not living in a diverse community,” Hewett said.

He said later that the committee has members from every ethnic group and that the courts need more diversity on the bench. 

“Something is wrong with the process. You just can’t give me a bone every now and then,” Hewett said.

Sen. Edwin Gomes of Bridgeport said he wondered “how a person moves up that quickly” when some candidates remain on the Judicial Selection Commission’s list for a decade. “She knows nothing about habeas. She has no opinion on the death penalty.”

Gomes said he did not see “proof that she was ready to be a judge.”

At 39, Baldini has three sons with the oldest turning nine years old this week. A former member of Yale’s varsity tennis team, she won the G. Gilbert Shepard Award for athletics and leadership during her undergraduate days and is currently an active member of the alumni association. Her current legal practice focuses on landlord-tenant disputes, residential real estate closings, commercial litigation and personal disputes, debt recovery, and personal injuries, among others.

“There are a lot of people being held hostage. The black community and the Hispanic community are being held hostage as we try to get people on the bench,” Gomes said, adding that the caucus had offered a minority candidate for a judgeship who was ignored. “The reason why I’m venting this way is because I’ve listened to a lot of stuff … and have seen a particularly bad judge being voted on [in the past]. Let’s not talk about putting these people’s lives in suspension.”

Rep. Minnie Gonzalez, a Hartford Democrat, was also concerned about Baldini’s statements about being a Spanish translator in court.

“Most of the answers were ‘I don’t recall, I don’t recall, I don’t recall,’ ” Gonzalez said. “I was surprised [about asking Baldini a question in Spanish]. I thought she would answer me back in Spanish. … I really believe that what she did was lying to us.”

Rep. Bruce V. Morris, a Norwalk Democrat, said Baldini needs “more exposure” in the courts, particularly in the criminal area.

“Her answers were less than enlightening,” Morris told his colleagues. He later said, “We don’t have to rush this today.”

Sen. Paul R. Doyle, a Wethersfield Democrat, said he did not have a problem with the qualifications of any of the nominees Monday. But he said that the judges should not be approved because the state is facing a projected deficit of $725 million in the 2011 fiscal year and more than $3 billion in the 2012 fiscal year. 

“Today, I cannot support any of the nine new judges – primarily on fiscal grounds,” Doyle said. “At this point in time, it’s inappropriate to be creating new judges.”

“I don’t know that we need nine new judges,” said Rep. T.R. Rowe, a Trumbull Republican who is known as one of the most conservative legislators. “I don’t think there is a pressing need for new judges at this time. … Attorney Baldini and eight others are qualified. … Can we afford nine additional judges at the cost we know that they bring?”

Rep. Mary Fritz, a veteran Wallingford Democrat, said she was “very, very impressed” with the qualifications of Baldini and the other nominees. But she, too, said she has fiscal concerns and could vote later on the House floor against the judges.

Rep. Charles “Don” Clemons, a Bridgeport Democrat who serves as chairman of the Black and Puerto Rican Caucus, said the caucus had not had the chance to sit down with the Democratic leadership or the governor’s office to help ensure that minority candidates are nominated to the bench.

“I would like to see more of an extended opportunity to sit down at the table in the future and help with the vetting process,” Clemons said.

During the questions, Republican Rep. Debralee Hovey of Monroe questioned the behind-the-scenes deal to approve the judge-nominees in return for increased funding for the judicial branch that would prevent three courthouses from being closed.

“While there are deals made, I believe it is crass and beneath this committee,” Hovey said.

“You have nine people’s lives that are hanging in the balance,” said Rep. Themis Klarides, a deputy House GOP leader.

Rep. Kevin Roldan, a Hartford Democrat, said that Baldini is qualified.

Some legislators said they were unsure when the House might convene Monday. Rep. Stephen Dargan, a veteran West Haven Democrat, predicted correctly early in the day that the House would not be in session at all Monday.

While many lawmakers questioned the racial diversity of the group, McDonald also questioned the lack of geographical diversity. Three of the nine nominees are from West Hartford, while two others are from East Hartford and Manchester. Only one is from Fairfield County. 

The University of Connecticut police, along with the state police, arrested 100 people over three nights in the annual Spring Weekend.

In addition to the arrests, 20 people were cited by the state police on Saturday night for violations of liquor laws.

http://www.courant.com/community/storrs/hc-spring-weekend-0426.artapr26,0,4217584.story

Hartford Courant columnist Rick Green’s take is at http://blogs.courant.com/rick_green/2010/04/who-pays-for-uconn-spring-week.html

Former Senate Democratic spokesman Patrick Scully says the state should drop its long-running plans for the New Britain to Hartford busway.

The proposal has been the subject of numerous press conferences through the years, and Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell went to New Britain during the 2006 gubernatorial campaign to announce progress on the line. The buses still aren’t running.

The plan calls for 11 stops in four communities that include downtown New Britain, East Main Street, Cedar Street in Newington, Newington junction, the Elmwood section of West Hartford, Flatbush Avenue near the West Hartford-Hartford border, New Park Avenue, Park Street in Hartford’s Frog Hollow section, Sigourney Street and Union Station in downtown Hartford.

http://scullycommunications.com/scullyblog/

Jim Vicevich is getting his old job back.

The former business reporter for Channel 3 is scheduled to return to the airwaves Monday morning on WTIC-AM 1080.

Various hosts, including Sebastian, Channel 8 reporter Mark Davis, morning radio personality Ray Dunaway, and UConn women’s basketball coach Geno Auriemma, have served as guest hosts recently.

Vicevich will be back in the Farmington studio in his regular time slot from 9 a.m. to noon.

http://radioviceonline.com/we-are-back-on-wtic/

The Green Party of Connecticut nominated a slate of candidates Saturday for the November election for attorney general, comptroller, treasurer, and secretary of the state.

Based on state law, the party has ballot lines for 2010 for those statewide positions. But since the party lacked the necessary 1 percent of the vote in the 2006 governor’s race, the party does not have an automatic ballot line for governor in 2010.

For attorney general, Stephen Fournier – a Hartford attorney with 30 years of active practice at the bar – gained the party’s nomination.

For secretary of the state, longtime candidate Michael DeRosa of Wethersfield accepted the party’s nod. DeRosa ran in 2006, but he was unable to get into a debate against Democrat Susan Bysiewicz.

David Bue, an investment adviser from Westport, will be the candidate for treasurer against Democratic incumbent Denise Nappier, while Colin Bennet of Westbrook has the party’s support for comptroller in the race against longtime Democratic incumbent Nancy Wyman.

Gubernatorial candidate Cliff Thornton ran on the Green Party line in 2006 and captured 9,585 votes, which translates to 0.85 percent – just short of the 1 percent threshold. He polled ahead of Joseph Zdonczyk of the Concerned Citizens Party, who received 0.50 percent of the vote. Republican M. Jodi Rell won the race with 63.2 percent, compared to 35.42 percent for Democrat John DeStefano of New Haven. Thornton and his campaign manager, Ken Krayeske, fought fiercely to debate Rell and DeStefano in 2006, but it never happened.

Tim McKee, a longtime Green Party spokesman, said before the convention that the party hoped to have 12 to 20 candidates for the state legislature, as well as Congressional races. The party has ballot lines in the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Congressional districts because they have reached the necessary voting levels for ballot access. The Green Party is not on the ballot in areas where the party has less strength – the 4th Congressional district in Fairfield County and the 5th Congressional district in Litchfield County.

The party’s meeting Saturday was held at the Portland Senior Center on Waverly Avenue in Portland.

 

In a late move announced Friday night, President Barack Obama signed a disaster declaration for Connecticut – making the state eligible for federal relief aid.

The aid is available for damage from the harsh storms that led to severe flooding in various regions of the state starting on March 12. Certain areas of southeastern Connecticut were heavily damaged, particularly along rivers and flood-prone areas. The three counties that were damaged the most – and declared eligible for aid – were New London, Middlesex and Fairfield.

“This is the beginning of critical and welcome news for Connecticut,” Governor M. Jodi Rell said in a statement Friday night. “Our state and local governments have been pushed to the limit – and in many cases beyond – by the task of responding to storms that caused extraordinary damage across the state.”

Rell thanked Obama and the state’s Congressional delegation for helping in obtaining the declaration.

Separately, Rell’s request for individual relief – which would be available to homeowners and renters who suffered from the storms – is still awaiting approval by the Obama administration.

The Green Party of Connecticut will be holding a convention Saturday to fill slots on the ballot in November.

Based on state law, the party has ballot lines for 2010 for attorney general, secretary of the state, comptroller, and treasurer. But since the party lacked the necessary 1 percent of the vote in the 2006 governor’s race, the party does not have an automatic ballot line for governor in 2010.

Cliff Thornton ran on the Green Party line in 2006 and captured 9,585 votes, which translates to 0.85 percent. He polled ahead of Joseph Zdonczyk of the Concerned Citizens Party, which received 0.50 percent of the vote. Republican M. Jodi Rell won the race with 63.2 percent, compared to 35.42 percent for Democrat John DeStefano of New Haven.

Tim McKee, a Green Party spokesman, says the party hopes to have 12 to 20 candidates for the state legislature, as well as Congressional races. The party has ballot lines in the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Congressional districts because they have reached the necessary voting levels for ballot access. The Green Party is not on the ballot in areas where the party has less strength – the 4th Congressional district in Fairfield County and the 5th Congressional district in Litchfield County.

The party’s meeting Saturday will be held at the Portland Senior Center at 7 Waverly Avenue in Portland, starting at 11 a.m.

 

Scott Deshefy, an attorney in Hartford, will be the party’s nominee in the 2nd Congressional District against U.S. Rep. Joseph Courtney, a former state legislator in Hartford who is now serving in Washington, D.C. 
 
Ruthann “Rae” Johnson is already a candidate for the party in the 9th State Senate district, which covers Rocky Hill, Middletown, Wethersfield, Newington, and Cromwell. She would be running against incumbent Sen. Paul Doyle, a Democrat from Wethersfield. 
  
Further details are at www,ctgreens.org 

Amid an ongoing battle swirling over their appointments, nine nominees for judgeships were slated to appear Friday in front of the legislature’s influential judiciary committee.

The two most high-profile nominees were the state’s public safety commissioner, John A. Danaher III of West Hartford, and the state budget director, Robert Genuario of Norwalk.

A former federal prosecutor and former middle-school teacher, Danaher served in the U.S. Attorney’s office for two decades before taking his current job to oversee the state police.

“Achieving justice did not always mean seeking an indictment, a conviction, or the maximum possible sentence,” Danaher said of his days in the U.S. Attorney’s office. “A federal prosecutor has the luxury of not bringing cases” if there is not enough evidence to bring an indictment.

The process of selecting judges has traditionally been secret, and the workings of the Judicial Selection Commission are kept under wraps. Prompted by questioning Friday, Danaher said he applied to be a judge in May 2006 and then appeared in January 2007 in front of the Judicial Selection Commission. On March 5, 2007, he was named public safety commissioner by Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell.

“I did not receive any forms from the governor’s office,” Danaher said when asked if he had been given any background forms to fill out as part of a vetting process. “I didn’t get a package like that.”

When asked by committee co-chairman Michael P. Lawlor about racial issues, Danaher said he found that the group that is the least likely to get a citation after a motor vehicle stop is white women. On the flip side, the group that is most likely to get a citation is Asian males, he said.

Some troopers, Danaher said, issue a citation every time that they pull a car over. Others write citations on a much less frequent basis. A report will be issued on the stops, probably by the end of the year.

Lawlor brought up the high-profile case of Ken Krayeske, a UConn Law School student who was arrested during Rell’s inaugural parade in early 2007. Lawlor said that Krayeske was arrested for exercising his political rights.

“That was a very troubling moment for our state,” Lawlor said.

“That event occurred before I became commissioner. I had no role in that,” said Danaher, who started his job in March 2007.

“Maybe it was Commissioner Boyle. All you guys look alike to me,” Lawlor said. “That might have been Commissioner Boyle. I thought it was you.”

Danaher was congratulated by committee members on both sides of the political aisle. He is expected to gain support from both Republicans and Democrats when the committee votes Monday on all nine of Rell’s nominees.

“I think you have an exquisite demeanor to be a judge,” said Sen. John Kissel of Enfield. “Sometimes people have a very high opinion of themselves. I’ve never seen that with you.”

Regarding his success rate as a prosecutor over two decades, Danaher said that 90 percent of the cases in the federal system are plea-bargained. He mentioned two cases which resulted in acquittals, and “my very last trial was a bench trial, and the defendant was acquitted.”

When asked for his views on the death penalty, he said he handled 13 death-penalty review cases when he worked in the U.S. Attorney’s office.

“It was the law, is the law,” Danaher said. “If I was required to follow the law, I would follow it.

In a gigantic agency as large as the department of public safety with about 1,600 employees, Danaher said he could not satisfy every request. When he recently promoted a colleague to major, there were 29 candidates for one opening. As such, 28 people were disappointed.

“I have done my best to hear people who have problems and concerns,” Danaher said. “I have to make decisions that disappoint people.”

In the upcoming training class for new troopers, 15 of the 75 new trainees are women. In a class that includes African Americans and Latinos, Danaher said the state police are more diverse than they once was.

But one lawmaker said his record as a judge will be under scrutiny.

“If you are approved, I”m going to keep my eyes on you,” said state Rep. Minnie Gonzalez, a Hartford Democrat.

His questioning by state Sen. Michael McLachlan of Danbury went in a completely different direction. McLachlan thanked Danaher for restoring the chaplains at the state police.

“I’m not sure why it ever went away, but I’m glad it’s back,” McLachlan said.

Another key nominee, state budget director Robert Genuario, began his testimony at about 7:45 p.m. Friday. A 1977 graduate of Villanova law school, he received an award for the highest grade in criminal law. A former law clerk in Fairfield County, Genuario spent most of his time in the Bridgeport court house – writing draft decisions and helping judges. He worked directly for T. Clark Hull, who later became lieutenant governor, and Robert Callahan, who later became the chief justice of the State Supreme Court.

A former chairman of the Norwalk school board for three years, he served for 10 years on the board overall. He also served for 14 years in the state Senate, saying that he served the most diverse district in the entire state with millionaires in Darien and poor people in South Norwalk.

After developing an expertise in land-use, Genuario represented developers and neighborhood associations through the years.

“I would consider myself to be a general practitioner,” said Genuario, adding that he would not call himself a trial lawyer despite having done some jury trials.

Genuario said he was not involved in the latest deal to resolve the state’s budget problems and keep all state courthouses and law libraries open – despite the state’s biggest fiscal woes in decades.

“I did not negotiate that,” Genuario said. “I did not participate it in any meaningful way.”

Lawlor noted that the role of the judiciary committee is to “ferret out those who are qualified on paper and don’t have the temperment” to wear the robes. He said, however, that there is no doubt that Genuario has the temperment to sit on the bench.

Kissel noted that he sat next to Genuario for 12 years in the Republican Senate caucus room.

“I don’t recall any time that you raised your voice,” Kissel said, noting that Genuario did not take fiercely partisan positions as either a state senator or a state budget director.

Sen. Edward Meyer, a former prosecutor and defense attorney, said he considered himself “a courtroom rat” and said that he considers Genuario in the same way.

Genuario told the committee that he likely would not have filed an application to be a judge if Rell had decided to run again for another term as governor.

State Rep. Minnie Gonzalez of Hartford said that many state programs have been cut, but the judges are still being funded.

“We’re not gonna lay off no judges,” Gonzalez said. “In my opinion, I don’t think it’s fair – ten new judges when we’re closing the courts and libraries.”

Genuario said he was highly aware of the controversy surrounding the judges.

“I am prepared to live with whatever decision the General Assembly makes,” Genuario said.

Hartford Courant columnist Rick Green says the state should eliminate the Lieutenant Governor’s position and the $110,000 salary that goes with it.

Some future governors, including Democrat William A. O’Neill and Republican M. Jodi Rell, have held the lieutenant governor’s position before stepping up to the state’s highest elected office. Rell served in the post for about 10 years, while others – including A Connecticut Party member Eunice Groark and Democrat Kevin B. Sullivan – have had much shorter tenures.

http://www.courant.com/news/politics/hc-green_lt._governor_0423.artapr23,0,3864648.column

In a related matter, business entrepreneur Lisa Wilson-Foley of Simsbury, who is running for the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor, announced Friday that she would refuse to accept any state money if she is elected to the post.

“The office has a $500,000 annual budget. Eliminating the $110,000 salary, plus a full-time state trooper driver and car and one staff position will trim the lieutenant governor’s office budget by nearly 50%,” Foley said in a statement.

She also announced that after serving for two years, she would start evaluating whether the lieutenant governor’s office needs to be abolished. If so, she would work for the following two years on a plan to carry out the abolishment.

“Families around Connecticut have had to tighten their budget belts during this economic downturn,” she said in a statement. “State agencies should have to do the same.”

Wilson-Foley has created a web site at www.wilsonfoley2010.com.

One day after an agreement to approve nine new judges in return for providing enough funding to prevent the closure of any state courthouse, the deal hit a major roadblock Friday afternoon.

Senate President Pro Tem Donald Williams, the highest-ranking senator, said he does not want to approve the judges and the funding for the courts until the entire $19 billion budget is approved. Legislators are scrambling to approve the budget before the legislative session ends at midnight on May 5, but no fiscal deal has been reached.

“I want to see the entire budget for 2011 resolved, not just to resolve it piece meal as to one branch, one agency,” Williams told reporters after a meeting of the top legislative leaders and Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell in her Capitol office. “I think it needs to be part of the entire budget package. We need to resolve it all, not just one branch at a time.”

The latest development is part of an ongoing stare-down among all three branches of government: the executive, legislative, and judicial. Rell, in her final months as governor, is pushing to get nine judges appointed to the bench, but that cannot happen without approval by the Democratic-controlled legislature.

Some lawmakers noted that the deal Thursday between the Rell administration and the judicial branch included only the legislature’s powerful judiciary committee. That agreement never included an agreement between the full Democratic legislative leadership – including Williams – and Rell.

Senate Republican leader John McKinney of Southport criticized Williams, saying there is no reason to hold up the approval of the judges in order to reach an overall budget deal.

“Today’s meeting, while good in many ways, was one step forward, two steps back,” McKinney said outside the governor’s office as Williams stood a few feet away.

The legislature, McKinney said, will be essentially handcuffed for the next two weeks if bills related to funding cannot be passed until the entire budget is resolved. Lawmakers, for example, could not vote on the University of Connecticut’s plans for improvements to the financially troubled health center in Farmington because that involves money, he said.

“Today’s action is a big step backwards in getting an overall budget deal,” McKinney said.

McKinney hopes an arrangement can be reached in the coming days to avoid a showdown where Williams was “holding those judges hostage to try to get a budget settlement, and that would be extraordinarily unfair to those nine individuals – and unprecedented.”

Hiring the new judges is necessary, according to Rell and Republicans, because there could be as many as 31 vacancies in the Superior Court by the end of the year.

Under the funding deal that was announced Thursday, three courthouses that would have closed will now remain open. Those are the juvenile courthouses in Norwalk and Willimantic, as well as the state Superior Court in Bristol. The law libraries in Bridgeport, Hartford, and Litchfield – which were slated to close on July 1 – would now remain open.

The law libraries in Milford, Norwich, and Willimantic, which were all closed on April1, will be reopened under the original deal.

When asked if the judge-nominees are being held hostage, Rell said, “I have heard that comment, but I will tell you, obviously, everything is working around the budget. … We’ll deal with it, and that includes judges.”

For the nominees, becoming a judge would be the crowning achievement of their legal lives.

“I’ll give the benefit to the majority party that they would not play games with people’s lives,” Rell said outside her office. “I don’t think anything is held up or should be held up because we don’t have a budget.”

The original deal, announced Thursday, between the Rell administration and the judicial branch was designed to prevent the threatened closings of three courthouses. The courts were never closed, but three law libraries were closed as of April 1 because of budget cuts as the state faces its worst fiscal crisis in decades.

As such, the deal would essentially limit the budget-cutting powers of the governor regarding the judicial budget.

“We would have to print it as it’s presented to us,” Rell said of the judicial budget.

In another development Friday, lawmakers discussed whether the proposed early retirement program would need approval from the state employee unions.

“The best course of action would be to have their blessings,” Rell said.

House Speaker Christopher Donovan, a longtime union supporter, said that having union support “would be the preferable way to do it.”

“With regard to the early retirement, it is my opinion that it can be done without the unions’ consent, if you will, because it is not a concession,” said House GOP leader Lawrence Cafero of Norwalk. “I’ve read some case law that would allow that to be offered to them without the unions’ check-off.”

In a last-minute agreement that averts a crisis in the state’s courts, Gov. M. Jodi Rell and the judicial branch have reached a deal that will keep open courthouses that had been theatened with closure by the state’s budget crisis.

The deal clears the path for an important public hearing Friday for nine judicial nominees whose futures had been in question in a budget battle involving all three branches of government – the Rell administration, the legislature, and the judicial branch.

“Judicial is ecstatic. They’re very happy,” said Rep. Michael P. Lawlor, the longtime co-chairman of the judiciary committee. “This is what they’ve been asking for all along. It solves the problem. … This is the outcome that everyone wanted.”

The judicial branch will now have enough money to keep various courthouses open that were threatened with closure. No courthouses have been closed yet for budgetary reasons, but some law libraries have been closed. Lawlor did not reveal all the aspects of the deal, saying that the agreement is sensitive and some minor details still need to be worked out.

The judiciary committee and the Democratic-controlled legislature had threatened to hold up the appointment of the nominated judges, including Rell’s longtime budget director, Robert Genuario and public safety commissioner John Danaher.

“She has no control over the appointment of judges. We do,” Lawlor told Capitol Watch late Thursday afternoon. “If the deal doesn’t come together, they won’t be appointed. Period.”

That point was reinforced later Thursday by Lawlor’s fellow judiciary co-chairman, Sen. Andrew McDonald, D-Stamford, who said the Democrats are taking a “trust, but verify” approach with the governor’s office.

Lawlor had said earlier in the week the administration needed to relent and address the judicial branch’s financial problems, or it needed to withdraw Rell’s judicial nominations.  He said if Rell’s office didn’t budge, then the judiciary committee perform its statutory duty to hold a confirmation hearing Friday — but it also would vote by Monday, its deadline, to give “unfavorable reports” on the nominees when it sent them on to the House and Senate for final votes. Then, he said, they wouldn’t reeive those final votes and the nominations would die.

The pressure apparently worked.  Now that Rell’s office and the judicial branch have an understanding, McDonald said that the Democrats’ plan to give the nominees “favorable reports” in the committee vote Monday — but they also will hold any vote to give them final approval in the House and Senate until after both chambers approve a budget bill implementing the terms of Thursday’s deal to help the judicial branch.

That judicial budget bill would be transmitted immediately to Rell for her signature, McDonald said. Only after that will the judicial nominees receive votes for final legislative approval, he said.

Lawlor said that none of this was aimed at the judicial nominees personally. He said five of the nine judicial nominees are personal friends of his, and the issue was about principle – not personalities. The nine nominees were potential pawns in a power struggle between all three branches of government.

Rell’s spokesman, Rich Harris, said the administration will have no comment on the latest development. 

Rell and the judiciary committee had been facing a stare-down over Friday’s hearing at the judiciary committee.

“It’s not always just about money,” Rell said earlier Thursday. “I don’t think money is the entire issue. … I think the judicial branch feels that they need to have some autonomy, and I can certainly understand that. … If the legislature passes a budget, and it requires us to do lapses, everybody has to participate in that.”

Rell noted that money is given to the judicial branch in a lump sum, and the judicial administrators make the decisions on whether courthouses or law libraries would be closed.

In another development, Rell said Thursday that she did not remember any red flags being raised before she nominated prosecutor Brian J. Leslie of Wallingford to be a Superior Court judge. Leslie has since asked for his nomination to be withdrawn.

“It has been a while since I reviewed that background check,” Rell told reporters. “But from our review, they felt that he had disclosed everything. … I don’t remember that there was a red flag raised, but it’s been a long time. I don’t remember any red flag being raised. … I read the background checks. It’s just been a long time since I looked at them.”

Leslie, picked by Rell as one of her 10 new nominees for Superior Court judgeships, abruptly asked Monday that the governor withdraw his nomination — and she did so.

Leslie’s judicial chances were torpedoed by the publication Sunday of a column by The Courant’s Kevin Rennie, who reported that Leslie was denied a promotion in 2002 — and then later started “subverting” the chief state’s attorney’s office’s Medicaid fraud control unit, according to sworn testimony by Deputy Chief State’s Attorney Paul Murray in a 2005 deposition.
 
Rennie’s column can be read by clicking here.

In 2006, The Courant’s longtime court reporter, Lynne Tuohy, wrote, “The prosecutor, Brian Leslie, offered to halt the prosecution if Weber agreed not to sue the Medicaid Fraud Unit, but Weber declined. Leslie then offered to drop the case unconditionally, but then-Deputy Chief State’s Attorney Paul Murray overruled him. Leslie asked that he be removed from the case, citing ethical concerns about continuing the prosecution. In December 2003, Murray moved to have the case dismissed.”

Tuohy continued, “Weber testified against Murray’s reappointment as deputy chief state’s attorney before the Criminal Justice Commission in June 2005. Murray told the commission, “I apologized to Mr. Weber for the way this case was handled, but I think it ended in a respectable manner.”

Earlier Thursday, Rell spoke in a radio interview that she was moving ahead with her nomination of the judges.

“I am not withdrawing the judges,” Rell said. “I don’t have money to simply hand out because they want it” in the judicial branch.

Rell noted that the courts have 22 openings for judges, and her nomination of nine judges represents less than half of that total. As such, the money for the judges should already be in the judicial budget, she said.

“This is not new money,” Rell said.

House Republican leader Lawrence Cafero said he expects that there will be 31 vacancies for judges by the end of 2010. The clash over the judges, he said, is part of a delay tactic that has “more to do with the hope that it will be a Democratic governor to fill those vacancies.”

A 70-year-old Greenwich construction executive was sentenced Thursday to probation and home confinement in the corruption probe of former Waterbury Mayor Philip Giordano.

Giordano served in the state legislature and lost by a huge margin in the 2000 U.S. Senate race against Joseph I. Lieberman before being arrested by the FBI in a sex scandal involving minors in Waterbury. He is serving a 37-year sentence in federal prison.

The Courant’s veteran court reporter, Ed Mahony, has the details at http://www.courant.com/community/waterbury/hc-web-waterbury-sentencing-422,0,3819920.story

A long, detailed profile on Giordano from The Courant is at http://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-giordano-2001,0,5431576.story

Two prominent Democratic candidates for governor – Dannel Malloy and Mary Glassman – both sharply criticized the state’s practice of borrowing money for operating expenses that is part of the Democratic-written budget that Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell would not sign.

Malloy and Glassman rejected the practice known as “securitization” during a gubernatorial forum Wednesday at the University of Connecticut’s law school in Hartford’s West End. Four Democratic candidates appeared separately from seven Republican candidates in back-to-back debates in front of about 200 UConn students, alumni, and officials on the law school’s 21-acre campus.

Malloy, who served as Stamford’s mayor for 14 years, said that securitization is “really bad public policy.” 

In the budget for the 2011 fiscal year, the state legislature filled a hole of $1.3 billion by promising to borrow money that would be paid off with money from various state revenue streams. Those revenue streams are not specified under state law, and Rell and the legislators are currently debating over exactly how the hole should be filled.

At the Capitol, each side has blamed the other recently over securitization as no one wants to claim authorship of the idea.

Rell originally called for using money generated from legalizing the keno gambling game, but Democrats have sharply rejected that idea. Instead, they have called for using fees paid by customers of Connecticut Light & Power Co., which has prompted a campaign of radio commercials and newspaper advertisements that strongly criticize the idea.

“Securitization – really what it means is stealing,” Glassman said during the forum. “We stole those monies.”

In an interview after the debate, Glassman said, “We cannot keep stealing from the future to pay for the past. We cannot keep doing it.”

Malloy and Glassman were runningmates during the 2006 Democratic primary before Malloy lost the race against New Haven Mayor John DeStefano. Glassman, however, won her primary for lieutenant governor and then became DeStefano’s runningmate in the eventual race against Rell.

The two Democrats were joined on stage by Rudy Marconi, who has served as Ridgefield’s first selectman for the past 11 years, and former state Rep. Juan Figueroa, who is taking a leave of absence from a universal health care foundation to run for governor.

The Democratic frontrunner in the polls – Greenwich cable television entrepreneur Ned Lamont – did not attend because of a scheduling conflict. His spokeswoman, Justine Sessions, declined to detail the nature of the conflict or say where Lamont was on Wednesday. Lamont, she said, has already participated in more than 15 multi-candidate forums over the past several months and will be attending another one at 2 p.m. Saturday at Shepaug Valley High School in the Litchfield County town of Washington.

“If I had anything to do with Ned not showing up, I apologize,” Malloy said in his opening remarks to the crowd.

The Democratic debate followed a forum by seven Republicans who are seeking the party’s nomination at the convention on Saturday, May 22 in Hartford.

The Republican front-runner in the polls, Tom Foley of Greenwich, and Lt. Gov. Michael Fedele of Stamford both said they would first push for cutting spending instead of raising taxes.

“Revenue is not the answer. That’s the easy cop-out,” Fedele said.

When some candidates said the state does not have a revenue problem, longtime business executive Oz Griebel of Simsbury said the state in fact does have a revenue problem because 100,000 unemployed citizens are not paying income taxes and sales taxes at the levels that they have in the past.

Former U.S. Rep. Larry DeNardis, who has served as a state senator and university president during his long career, noted that the candidates have not unveiled precise, line-by-line plans that would fill the state’s projected $3.8 billion deficit for the 2012 fiscal year.

“No one has a satisfactory answer. I don’t,” DeNardis told the crowd. “This will be the most difficult year in Connecticut history.”

When the candidates were asked how to keep higher education affordable, Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton was the sixth person to speak.

“I’m not sure if I heard an answer,” Boughton said to the crowd.

A crucial way to hold down college costs at UConn and the Connecticut State University system, he said, is to moderate the lucrative pensions and benefits of the employees of the public universities. Boughton is a graduate of Central Connecticut State University in New Britain.

“I don’t think we have a choice,” Boughton said after the forum. “That’s one of the drivers of the budget. … Some of the salaries tend to butt up against the absurd.”

The candidates were introduced by UConn president Michael Hogan, who mispronounced the names of Boughton, Griebel, and journalist Keith Phaneuf, who was one of the questioners at both debates.

CNN is reporting that employees and the political action committee of Goldman Sachs – the Wall Street powerhouse – gave the second highest amount of campaign contributions to Barack Obama.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/04/20/obama.goldman.donations/index.html

Republican candidate Oz Griebel says he would tackle the state’s budget crisis in the same way he did in the private sector – by cutting expenses and consolidating operations.

Griebel is running among a group of Republicans who are currently behind in the latest Quinnipiac University and Rasmussen polls to Republican front-runner Tom Foley of Greenwich. In the latest Q poll, Foley had 30 percent of the vote, compared to 4 percent each for Lt. Gov. Michael Fedele and Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton.

Some insiders believe that Foley, Fedele, and Boughton could end up in a three-way GOP primary on August 10. But before the primary, they will battle for the necessary 15 percent of the 1,465 delegates at the party’s nominating convention on Saturday, May 22 in Hartford. They will clearly be debating the best way to resolve the state’s budget crisis, including a projected deficit of more than $3 billion in the 2012 fiscal year.

“Our current fiscal crisis looks eerily familiar,” Griebel said in a statement. “As the former CEO of BankBoston Connecticut and the Metro Hartford Alliance, I had to make tough budgetary decisions every day – even when they were unpopular.  Specifically, I had to bring our expenses into balance with our revenues and consolidate operations and activities when necessary.  The financial challenges that both organizations faced and decisions I had to make are not dissimilar to those confronting our state today.”

“I knew then, like now, that turning things around would not be easy; yet by demonstrating leadership and fiscal responsibility, I was able to grow our customer and investor bases,” Griebel said. “By leveraging relationships in the field and speaking candidly with our people and stakeholders, I built key coalitions and teams – region by region and sector by sector – methodically making things right.  As governor, I will utilize my experience in turning around previous financial challenges and building teams of varying government and business leaders to re-establish Connecticut’s fiscal sanity, ultimately restoring confidence in and jobs to our state.”

On the Democratic side, Greenwich cable TV entrepreneur Ned Lamont, former Stamford Mayor Dannel Malloy, Simsbury First Selectman Mary Glassman, Ridgefield First Selectman Rudy Marconi, and former state Rep. Juan Figueroa of Meriden are battling for the Democratic nomination.
 

For four hours Tuesday, attorneys delivered their closing arguments in the high-profile civil case over whether Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz is qualified to run for attorney general.

The four hours of arguments was extraordinary – easily ranking among the longest in recent state history.

Even in murder cases, the closing arguments sometimes last less than one hour. Cases in front of the Connecticut Supreme Court – the state’s highest court – are routinely argued faster than the Bysiewicz summations.

In the Beth Carpenter murder-for-hire capital felony case in New London in 2002, in which the defendant was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of release, the closing arguments were shorter than in the Bysiewicz case. The prosecution, headed by now-chief state’s attorney Kevin Kane and fellow prosecutor Peter McShane, had one hour for the final argument. The defense, headed by Hugh Keefe and assisted by Tara Knight, also had one hour. Kane then had time for rebuttal before the case went to the jury, which declared Carpenter guilty on all counts.

Rule 15-7 of the Superior Court practice book, which cites Section 52-209 of the general statutes, says, “The argument on behalf of any party shall not occupy more than one hour, unless the judicial authority, on motion for special cause, before the commencement of such argument, allows a longer time.”

State Rep. Michael P. Lawlor, a longtime attorney who co-chairs the legislature’s judiciary committee, said that Judge Michael Sheldon is obviously being careful in allowing extended time for the closing arguments. One of the reasons, Lawlor said, is that the case has been fast-tracked and issues that might have been settled in the court over the course of months are now all being jammed into the final arguments.

“This may end up in the Supreme Court,” Lawlor said. “If they get there, they’ll get an hour.”

Known for his patience, Sheldon has displayed both patience and perserverance in a courtroom filled with high-profile participants under an intense media spotlight.

“He’s one of the smartest judges in the state – no question about it,” Lawlor told Capitol Watch. “He’s the kind of guy you want dealing with this. There’s a lot of potential ramifications in this. The judge has to be super careful. He wants to make sure he has considered every single thing.”

The Hartford Courant’s veteran political reporter, Jon Lender, has been inside Sheldon’s courtroom and filed this dispatch.

http://blogs.courant.com/capitol_watch/2010/04/judge-shows-skepticism-to-both.html