State News

Concerning Delegates and Integrity of Process at 2012 State GOP Convention

You may be unaware of this proposed resolution, (see below).  I have a strong opposition to this proposal and believe that the State Party does not have the right to tell town committees how to vote.  You may have another opinion.  

We will be discussing this at our next town committee meeting.

This Resolution has been proposed by Mark Pappa, Scott Veley and Martha Dean.

RESOLVED, that prior to selecting delegates to the State Convention, Town Committees shall ask appropriate questions of potential delegates concerning their paid involvement or business affiliation with any candidate’s campaign;

RESOLVED, that Town Committees should endeavor to avoid the appearance of impropriety by selecting delegates to the State Convention who are not on a campaign’s payroll or in a vendor or other business relationship with any candidate’s campaign; and

RESOLVED, that prior to selecting delegates to the State Convention Town Committees shall obtain the commitment of any prospective delegate to wear (if selected as a delegate) an appropriate disclosure, to be decided upon by the State Convention’s Rules Committee, in a conspicuous place at all times during the State Convention, which disclosure will identify the delegate as on the payroll of a specific campaign or in a vendor or other business relationship with a specific campaign.

http://www.courant.com/news/politics/hc-ctgop-future-20110807,0,2972348,full.story

The Hartford Courant article touches on many facets of Jerry and may give you an understanding of his plans for the CT GOP. You will learn who Jerry is, where he came from and what he thinks about the upcoming elections. Labriola has pledged to be "a fair dealer and an honest broker" with all candidates.

I look forward to working with our new chairman and if you want to talk to him call: 860-826-7378 or e-mail him at jlabriola@ctgop.org

Joe Courtney is going to be on the WXLM radio with Lee Elci on Tuesday, August 16th. (sorry for the short notice). There are some folks going to go to the station and hang around and see if they can talk to him (ok, others may call this protesting). The goal is to get Joe to met the public and talk about his participation in the Washington debacle.

In the last many months, Courtney has been keeping a pretty low profile when it comes to “town hall” meetings because he doesn’t want to answer questions about his votes. (this is my opinion).

If you live in the New London area and 7:30 AM isn’t too early – maybe you will want to drink your coffee on the corner of 7 Governor Winthrop Blvd, New London, CT. You can listen live from your computer at www.wxlm.fm – click on “listen live” and maybe you can call in to the show and ask a question at 860.442.9956.

If you are looking for someone to meet up with: Bud Fay (860-625-2323 cell) is organizing.

Jerry Labriola was elected as party chairman on Tuesday, June 28th along with his new team of executive member:

• Vice Chairman - Hon. Themis Klarides – Derby
• Secretary - Arthur J. Scialabba - Norwalk
• Treasurer - Gary Schaffrick – Bristol

Let’s be sure to give them a warm welcome and our full support as they work on their ideas and direction for the Republicans of Connecticut. I don’t have e-mails for the team, yet, but call the office at 860-826-7378 and give them well wishes.

The Connecticut Working Families Party has violated both state and federal election laws during its attempt to aid Democrat candidates for statewide offices last year according to a complaint filed by the Connecticut Republican Party Friday.

“The Working Families Party has been long known to be a hollow organization which merely exists to prop up Democrats by funneling money to liberal candidates,” said Republican State Party Chairman Chris Healy. “It appears the WFP doesn’t believe it has to play by the same rule.”

The complaints – filed with both the state Election Enforcement Commission and the Federal Election Commission – show that the WFP made unauthorized donations and transfers.

It made illegal campaign fund transfers to the campaigns of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, Attorney General George Jepsen, Treasurer Denise Nappier, Comptroller Kevin Lembo and Secretary of the State Denise Merrill. Expenses were listed as coordinated with reimbursement sought but none of the campaigns made payments back to the WFP.

In addition, the WFP State Account made a total of $30,000 in transfers over the last year to a federal Political Action Committee – CT Working Families Federal PAC-d.b.a.Take Back Congress. Those types of transfers can only be made to a federal “party” account. Regardless, the transfer never appeared as income on the FEC report for the WFP-Take Back Congress organization.

Two other statewide candidates were the beneficiaries of organizational contributions by the WFP but no campaigns were established by the candidates to receive them.

To read the details of the compliant go to: www.ctgop.org

If you haven’t been following the reapportionment committees work – I’ll give you a little of my own take on the issue:

The purpose of redistricting is to establish and maintain voting districts that are faithful to the principle of one-person, one-vote.

In Connecticut, responsibility for redrawing legislative and congressional district lines rests with the General Assembly. With the assistance of an 8-member legislative Reapportionment Committee, the General Assembly is required to redraw district lines every ten years based on the results of the decennial federal census.

So what that means to you? Depends on where you live. Enfield, for example, is being discussed to move to Congressional District 1 (Larson’s area)...we now sit in Congressional District 2 (Courtney’s area). I (along with my town council) want to stay right where we are..District 2.

Now I’m not one who thinks that others should do “my heavy lifting” so I took advantage of the Public Hearing last night (July 6) and headed for Norwich. I must say Norwich has a beautiful downtown area and what a lovely City Hall – but that is a side bar – I took advantage of the 3 minutes to express my reasons for keeping Enfield in the existing district.

I believe Enfield has been treated fairly by our previous Congressman, Simmons and our current one, Courtney. Both have an office in our community and both keep Enfield in their “scope” to be sure we are thought about down in Washington. But that really isn’t enough; Enfield is a town, we act like a town and we call ourselves a town.

Our current form of government is run by volunteers on our town council and board of education and our community of interest is much like our fellow neighbors (Somers, Stafford, Ellington, Tolland, to name a few) and we take care of ourselves and our residents.

Not to say Hartford and the other District 1 folks have a different philosophy, but they are not like us. We don’t have a BIG CITY mentality and we don’t want one. We act local and we want to stay local.

I can’t say that my thoughts carry a lot of weight, but it is better to take advantage of public hearings and speak, than stay home and let someone else do it for you (hopefully).

If you have interest in getting your two-cents heard, there is still time:

July 18 – Norwalk – 7 PM
Common Council Chambers, Norwalk City Hall, 125 East Avenue

July 19 – New Haven – 7 PM
Fair Haven Middle School, 164 Grand Avenue

July 20 – Hartford – 2 and 7 PM
Room 2C, Legislative Office Building

Don’t let someone else do your lifting.