{"id":575502,"date":"2010-05-21T21:32:06","date_gmt":"2010-05-22T01:32:06","guid":{"rendered":"tag:blogs.courant.com,2010:\/capitol_watch\/\/9.78492"},"modified":"2010-05-21T21:44:47","modified_gmt":"2010-05-22T01:44:47","slug":"comings-and-goings-at-the-democratic-convention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/575502","title":{"rendered":"Comings and Goings At the Democratic Convention"},"content":{"rendered":"

Democrats Late In …<\/font><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Nancy DiNardo, Democratic Party chairwoman, gaveled the convention open about 6:15 p.m. Friday. It took awhile to gain control, though. She called for order several times but couldn’t corral more than 1,800 distracted activists. The sergeant at arms then took the podium, also several times, to gain order, asking the assistant sergeants at arms to clear the aisles.<\/font><\/p>\n

… Early Out<\/font><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

During Richard Blumenthal’s speech, diehard supporters clapped at all the right points, but before it was over the majority of delegates were heading for the exits or visiting with friends. Many were reading newspapers, checking their Blackberries, or buying drinks for their friends in the back. The parking lot was filling with exiting delegates, most of them headed for the Lamont\/Glassman or Malloy\/Wyman hospitality tents. While Blumenthal was still speaking inside, there were long lines at the tent bars. “It’s a mass exodus — it’s all over,” said Kyle Anderson, a Hartford delegate. “There’s nothing more to watch. As soon as Merrick Alpert gave his concession speech, there was no point to be in the convention hall.”<\/font><\/p>\n

Eddie Shows Up<\/font><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

A tough week in court couldn’t keep Hartford Mayor Eddie Perez away from the Democratic Convention, where he was mingling and looking relaxed.<\/font><\/p>\n

Lambasting Linda<\/font><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Merrick Alpert bashed wrestling entrepreneur Linda McMahon, who was across town battling for the Republican nomination against former U.S. Rep. Rob Simmons of Stonington and investor Peter Schiff of Weston.<\/font><\/p>\n

“I am running because I cannot stand the thought that Linda McMahon from World Wrestling can buy it, and you can’t tolerate that, either,” Alpert said. He added, “We all know that the highly effective attack in Tuesday’s New York Times was hatched in Linda McMahon’s office. If we settle on our nominee tonight, that exceedingly well-funded and vicious machine, created by Karl Rove but now housed at World Wrestling, will be gifted three additional months to ruin our candidate.”<\/font><\/p>\n

Working The Room<\/font><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ned Lamont was shaking hands and chatting, with a staffer following him around with a video camera. … Stamford Mayor Dannel Malloy, expected to win the party’s endorsement for governor, came through the press area, shaking hands as he moved along.<\/font><\/p>\n

aka Merrick Alpert<\/font><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Merrick Alpert couldn’t give his own speech, but the essence of it was delivered anyway — about 7 p.m., by Gregory Schulte in his nomination.<\/font><\/p>\n

 “The rules committee changed the rules today, and he will not be permitted to speak to you,” Schulte said from the podium. Then he pretty much read Alpert’s four-page speech. The seconding speech was scheduled to be delivered by Shawn Asselin. Alpert and his wife, Alex, stood in the center of the hall and applauded.<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/font><\/o:p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Democrats Late In … Nancy DiNardo, Democratic Party chairwoman, gaveled the convention open about 6:15 p.m. Friday. It took awhile to gain control, though. She called for order several times but couldn’t corral more than 1,800 distracted activists. The sergeant at arms then took the podium, also several times, to gain order, asking the assistant […]<\/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-575502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575502","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=575502"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575502\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=575502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=575502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=575502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}