{"id":572086,"date":"2010-05-20T14:08:23","date_gmt":"2010-05-20T18:08:23","guid":{"rendered":"tag:blogs.courant.com,2010:\/capitol_watch\/\/9.78349"},"modified":"2010-05-20T15:26:28","modified_gmt":"2010-05-20T19:26:28","slug":"rep-arthur-oneill-running-for-attorney-general-thursday-announcement-before-saturday-is-not-last-minute","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/572086","title":{"rendered":"Rep. Arthur O’Neill Running For Attorney General; Thursday Announcement Before Saturday is Not Last Minute"},"content":{"rendered":"

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In another twist on the state’s political rollercoaster ride, state Rep. Arthur O’Neill said Thursday afternoon that he is running for attorney general – slightly more than 24 hours before the state Republican convention opens on Friday night.<\/p>\n

O’Neill is working to gather support from delegates before the convention votes on the attorney general nomination Saturday at the Connecticut Convention Center in Hartford.<\/p>\n

When asked why he waited until Thursday to make the announcement, O’Neill said, “I didn’t want to wait for the last possible minute.”<\/p>\n

That last minute would have been Friday at midnight, he said.<\/p>\n

O’Neill made his decision after the shockingly quick ruling this week by the State Supreme Court that Democratic front runner Susan Bysiewicz is not eligible to run for attorney general because she lacks the necessary 10 years of active practice of the law.<\/p>\n

With Bysiewicz out of the race, Republican attorney Ross Garber – her brother-in-law – jumped in on Wednesday. Now, O’Neill has made the same decision. <\/p>\n

O’Neill described Bysiewicz as “a Democrat with a huge warchest and very high name recogntion” – two things that he does not have at the moment. He also described her as “essentially unbeatable unless you were an independently wealthy individual who could afford to spend several million dollars of your own money” because she had already raised a large amount of money.<\/p>\n

“This is an opportunity to take a run at this office,” O’Neill said during his announcement at the state Capitol press room on Thursday afternoon.<\/p>\n

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O’Neill’s announcement is the latest twist in the most interesting year in Connecticut politics in decades.<\/p>\n

There has never been as many open seats in decades – with contests for U.S. Senator, governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, comptroller, and secretary of the state at the moment.<\/p>\n

Incumbent Denise Nappier of Hartford is running for re-election as the state treasurer. All of the other constitutional offices are open as Comptroller Nancy Wyman is running for lieutenant governor and U.S. Sen. Christopher J. Dodd and Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell are not seeking re-election.<\/p>\n

It is still unclear which position Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz will run for. Some expect her to run for comptroller.<\/p>\n

“This is by far the craziest convention on the Democratic side. The Yankees do less trades than what we’re doing now,” said state Rep. Stephen Dargan, a veteran West Haven Democrat who has served for two decades at the state Capitol. “Lembo was running for lieutenant governor. Now, he’s running for comptroller. Glassman was running for governor and runs now with Lamont. Bysiewicz was running for governor. Jarjura was running for governor. Now he’s running for comptroller. Secretary of the State – everybody pretty much stayed the same way there. The only one who is staying is Denise Nappier, our treasurer. … Saturday should be fun. If you’re a political junkie, you won’t be bored this weekend in Hartford.”<\/p>\n

He added, “It’s easier to handicap the horses than it is to handicap this convention.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In another twist on the state’s political rollercoaster ride, state Rep. Arthur O’Neill said Thursday afternoon that he is running for attorney general – slightly more than 24 hours before the state Republican convention opens on Friday night. O’Neill is working to gather support from delegates before the convention votes on the attorney general nomination Saturday […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4001,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-572086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4001"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=572086"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572086\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=572086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=572086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=572086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}