Dan Debicella, a Republican running for Congress ffrom the 4th District, and Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Foley are each featuring their wives in their ads.

Foley's ad aims to present a softer side of the candidate. It shows Foley strolling in the autumn sunshine with his wife Leslie, who talks about her husband's devotion as a husband and father.

A Quinnipiac University poll released earlier this month showed Foley faces a significant gender gap. His opponent, Dan Malloy, has a 15-point advantage among women. Will Leslie Foley's ad be enough to close that gap?

Meanwhile, Alexandra Debicella is starring in her husband's ad because she wanted to "set the record straight about [his]...support for women,'' she says. Debicells supports "a women's right to chose,'' she says.

And, she said, Debicella believes rape victims have the right to access to emergency contraception but "he voted not to force Catholic hospitals to distribute it.''

Debicella's Democratic opponent, U.S. Rep. Jim Himes, has launched Women for Himes, to galvanize support.

But Alexandra Debicella accused the Himes camp of "distorting" Debicella's stance on the emergency contraception bill.

Rasmussen has Democrat Richard Blumenthal's lead down to 5 percent points over GOP rival Linda McMahon.

All eyes will be on the Quinnipiac University poll, which is set to drop tomorrow at 6:30 a.m.

The LA Times has an interesting story on candidates for political office across the country who have experienced money woes or filed for bankruptcy.

In years past, a candidate's financial hardships might be have been fodder for an opponent, who'd use money woes as evidence of "poor judgment [or] perceived ethical lapses,'' the Times writes. But not this year, when so many voters are hurting as well and sympathy could impact their choice on election day.

Which brings us to Linda McMahon. The multi-millionaire U.S. Senate candidate wasn't mentioned in the Times piece. However she has made her bankruptcy a centerpiece of her campaign. Her ads talk about the pain she felt as a young wife and mother who had to collect S&H Green Stamps.

Yet questions about that bankruptcy continue to linger. I asked McMahon's campaign back in July for copies of her bankruptcy records and was told the campaign does not have them.

Bob Englehart weighs in on the increasingly nasty governor's race.

http://blogs.courant.com/bob_englehart/2010/09/september-26-2010.html

The day after ex-president Bill Clinton came to Connecticut to fire up the Democrats, a big labor is stepping up its attack on Republican Linda McMahon.

"Don't Let Linda McMahon Put the Smackdown in Connecticut Workers," says the mailer sent out by the Connecticut AFL-CIO.

It's part of a national campaign by the AFL-CIO to drop 3.6 million pieces of mail to union members across the nation.

The anti-McMahon mailer points out that the union has endorsed her Democratic opponent, Richard Blumenthal. It paints McMahon as a callous, super-rich executive who cares little about her employees.

"The mailer explains how McMahon puts her own WWE workers in danger; by not providing,  health insurance and  retirement benefits. Linda also opposes workers' rights in the workplace, and  buy a Senate seat,'' states a union press release.

AFL10089_FINAL_CTSEN[1].pdf

Hartford's Veronica Airey-Wilson has applied for accelerated rehabilitation - a special form of probation - in the Eddie Perez corruption scandal.

Airey-Wilson, a longtime Republican who attended the party's national convention in San Diego in 1996 when Bob Dole was the presidential candidate, was arrested following an investigation that came as part of the spillover into the scandal of the Hartford mayor.

Three lawyers' groups announced Tuesday that they will sponsor what will be a second debate between Republican Martha Dean and Democrat George Jepsen, candidates for state Attorney General.

The two candidates already have squared off once, on September 23, in a debate sponsored by the Connecticut Law Tribune and the University of Connecticut School of Law.

Here are the particulars on the next AG debate:

The Connecticut Bar Association (CBA), the Connecticut Trial Lawyers Association (CTLA) and the League of Women Voters  of Connecticut, Inc., (LWVCT) will host an attorney general debate on Monday, Oct. 11, from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at Quinnipiac University School of Law's Grand Courtroom in Hamden, Conn.

The debate will present an opportunity for three panelists to ask questions of the two attorney general candidates, Democrat George Jepsen and Republican Martha Dean, to help voters better understand their positions. 

Panelists are Livia DeFilippis Barndollar, CBA member and partner at New Canaan's Marvin Ferro Barndollar & Roberts LLC; David N. Rosen, of New Haven's David Rosen & Associates PC; and Christine Horrigan, vice president and board member of LWVCT.  Timothy S. Fisher, Hartford attorney and Distinguished Practitioner in Residence at Quinnipiac University School of Law, will moderate.

A limited number of seats are available to the public.  Admission is free.  Those interested in attending should fill out an attendance request form at http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/WEB22B8Y9MTHTK.

Connecticut will try to stop plans for what a commuters' group calls "stealth fare hikes" on Metro-North.

Gov. M. Jodi Rell on Tuesday said Connecticut is "ardently opposed" to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's proposal to eliminate price breaks for riders who buy tickets by mail or over the Internet. Those discounts can be worth 2 to 5 percent.

The MTA is also proposing to make one-trip tickets worthless seven days after purchase, doing away with the current 180-day window. The agency also would begin charging $15 to redeem unused tickets.

"These proposals will have the effect of turning away passengers at the very time we are doing our best to make public transportation options more attractive," Rell said.

The CT Rail Commuter Council, a riders' advocacy group, lobbied Rell over the weekend to intervene. Chairman Jim Cameron said the changes would discourage passengers from buying online or by mail, leading to longer lines at ticket machines.

State officials will speak against the proposals at one of the MTA's hearings, which are set for Wednesdayat 6 p.m. at the University of Connecticut's Stamford campus and Thursday  at 6 p.m. at Union Station in New Haven.

-- Don Stacom

The Rell administration's recent hiring of a state agricultural inspector without experience or education in farming -- while bypassing several job applicants who possessed such credentials - has key legislators considering a bill to tighten state personnel procedures next year to prevent such future hirings.

Agriculture Commissioner F. Philip Prelli's July 16 hiring of Debra Hinman -- a former pizza restaurant chef and school bus driver who is the mother of an ex-aide to Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell's chief of staff -- was labeled "outrageous" by state Sen. Edith Prague, D-Columbia, co-chairwoman of the legislature's labor committee.

Prague said she read a Government Watch column disclosing the hiring in Sunday's Courant and now plans next January, when the legislature reconvenes, "to see what the labor committee can do to keep people from getting jobs unless they have the qualifications. ... There's something very wrong with a commissioner being able to put somebody who doesn't qualify into such an important position."

MIDDLETOWN - In their first debate of the general election season, the three top gubernatorial contenders disagreed Tuesday night as they delivered their prescriptions to fix the struggling public education system.

Democrat Dannel Malloy, Republican Tom Foley, and Independent Party candidate Thomas E. Marsh faced off on teacher performance, charter schools, union influence, and tenure in a 50-minute forum on a makeshift stage in a public school gymnasium in this central Connecticut city.

The three candidates had not appeared together until Tuesday night, and they are scheduled to appear again this morning at the Connecticut Convention Center in Hartford. The televised debates begin next week with the first contest to air on Fox Connecticut at The Bushnell Center For The Performing Arts in Hartford at 7 p.m. Tuesday.

Malloy said the biggest improvement in the schools that was passed by the state legislature this year was allowing for more parental involvement in failing Connecticut schools.

"I do believe there is a money question,'' Malloy said, adding that all schools should report the exact amount of money that finally gets into the classroom and how much is spent on administration. Based on Stamford's current system, Malloy said he would push for a universal pre-K system across the state. He said he was the only one running for governor who has actually pushed for school reforms, including the creation of two magnet schools in Stamford.

In stark terms, Foley said the state is facing huge problems in public education.

"This is a war, and we are losing it,'' Foley said in his closing remarks. "If I'm elected governor, education and jobs will be my top priorities.''

Foley noted that the New Haven public school system is spending $13,000 per student, and added that the total does not need to be increased.

"That's plenty,'' Foley said.  "We don't need an increase to improve the schools in Connecticut.''

Foley said "the special interests'' have blocked reform in the education system, and improvements need to be made.

Foley said that Malloy has been "in front of the teachers' unions supporting the status quo'' for tenure in the public schools.

Malloy countered that the American Federation of Teachers in Connecticut has pushed for improvements in the New Haven school system.

"This is not: ' I'm for reform' or 'I'm for teachers,' '' Malloy said at the forum at the MacDonough School at 66 Spring Street, not far from the famed O'Rourke's Diner. "You can be for reform and for teachers at the same time.''

Stating that virtually all of the major education organizations in the state are backing Malloy, Marsh questioned whether any changes to the status quo can be made when the chief players have been operating the system for decades.

Regarding Malloy, whom he referred to as "Dannel,'' Foley said, "He is a career politician.''

Republican Tom Foley is quickly closing the gap against Democrat Dannel Malloy in a race for governor that is now too close to call, the latest Quinnipiac University poll shows.

Malloy is ahead by 3 percentage points, but the margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points makes the battle too close to predict in an increasingly nasty race.

One of the key shifts is that the all-important unaffiliated voters - the largest voting bloc in Connecticut - have moved toward Foley in recent weeks. The race had previously been a flat-footed tie among independents, but the latest survey shows Foley ahead by 6 percentage points among independents.

A longtime business executive from Greenwich, Foley has poured more than $4 million of his own money into the race against Malloy, who is receiving up to $6 million in public financing.

The latest poll shows Malloy ahead by 45 percent to 42 percent with 12 percent undecided. Another 22 percent say they could change their minds before election day on November 2.

In the previous poll that was released in mid-September, Malloy had been leading by 9 percentage points with 8 percent still undecided and 26 percent saying that they could change their mind before the election.

While many politicians and political observers are obsessed with polls in the heat of the campaign season, Malloy's campaign manager says he views it differently.

In response to the survey showing that Foley is closing the gap, campaign manager Dan Kelly, said, "We don't pay much attention to polls. The same poll had Dan down by 3 the day before the primary, a race he won by 14 points. Dan tells us to campaign as if we're in second place, 10 points down. So that's what we do.''

Malloy and Foley have clashed sharply in television commercials in recent weeks, and several new ads are hitting the airwaves today.

Foley is broadcasting a new commercial this week that was being shown Wednesday on the morning news programs. The ad mentions that Malloy sought a pay increase as Stamford's mayor, saying, "Malloy raised taxes year after year. ... Dan Malloy: a career politician whose policies kill jobs.''

Foley has particularly focused on the loss of 13,843 jobs in Stamford since the peak employment year of 2000. Malloy has repeatedly stated in commercials that he helped create thousands of jobs as mayor, but state labor statistics show that there was a net loss of more than 5,000 jobs during his 14-year tenure leading the city. In addition, the unemployment rate - which measures the employment of Stamford residents as opposed to the overall number of jobs in the city - jumped by 58 percent during the Malloy years.

In a new ad, Malloy focuses on employees who had once worked at a factory that Foley owned at The Bibb Company in Columbus, Georgia. The company's longtime textile mill closed about two years after Foley left the firm as chief executive officer in 1996. Lt. Gov. Michael Fedele aired a similar commercial during the primary, but Foley countered that some of the workers who appeared in Fedele's commercial had never worked at the factory and others thought they were being interviewed for a documentary about the mill.

In another new, anti-Foley commercial by the Democratic Governors Association that aired before 7 a.m. Wednesday, a narrator says that Foley "devastated a community and thousands of lives'' in Georgia as he and his company "made millions.''

Folely is also airing a 30-second commercial that features his wife, Leslie Fahrenkopf Foley, an attorney who attended Yale University and the University of Virginia who says that she has worked with many impressive people during her career. She adds that there has been "no one more impressive than Tom Foley - so I married him.''

The latest Q poll was released at about 6:40 a.m. Wednesday.

State Rep. Zeke Zalaski, D-Southington, offered an idea Wednesday for how to deal with any state judges who refuse to take unpaid furlough days: If they don't take furlough days like nearly all other state employees have been required to do, then the legislature should not approve their reappointment when their current terms expire.

Last week, The Courant disclosed that 26 jurists at the Superior, Appellate and Supreme Court levels did not take even one furlough day during the past fiscal year, when nearly all of the 55,000 other state employees had to take three.  Gov. M. Jodi Rell read the Courant article and then wrote the judges a letter, asking that they either take the furlough days retroactively or repay the state.

On Wednesday, Zalaski jumped into the controversy by issuing this statement: "I agree with the Governor's call for Connecticut judges who have not taken unpaid furlough days to take those days as soon as possible. However, I may have a solution to their display of arrogance. How about, no furloughs, no reappointment. I understand we have a separation of powers in our state Constitution, but the legislature does have the power of reappointment.  Let's tie their reappointment to whether or not they take furlough days or take unpaid time off."

State Rep. Zeke Zalaski, D-Southington, offered an idea Wednesday for how to deal with any state judges who refuse to take unpaid furlough days: If they don't take furlough days like nearly all other state employees have been required to do, then the legislature should not approve their reappointment when their current terms expire.

Last week, The Courant disclosed that 26 jurists at the Superior, Appellate and Supreme Court levels did not take even one furlough day during the past fiscal year, when nearly all of the 55,000 other state employees had to take three.  Gov. M. Jodi Rell read the Courant article and then wrote the judges a letter, asking that they either take the furlough days retroactively or repay the state.

On Wednesday, Zalaski jumped into the controversy by issuing this statement: "I agree with the Governor's call for Connecticut judges who have not taken unpaid furlough days to take those days as soon as possible. However, I may have a solution to their display of arrogance. How about, no furloughs, no reappointment. I understand we have a separation of powers in our state Constitution, but the legislature does have the power of reappointment.  Let's tie their reappointment to whether or not they take furlough days or take unpaid time off."

Republican congressional candidates Dan Debicella and Sam Caligiuri have both ascended to the top level of the National Republican Campaign Commitee's Young Guns program.

That means they've met some rigorous fundraising goals (the NRCC won't reveal the numbers) and, because of that, can now expect an influx of resources. NRCC Chairman Pete Sessions launched Young Guns as "a candidate recruitment and training program for House Republicans...it is designed to assist Republican candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives build a foundation for victory,'' according to the Young Guns website.

The announcement from the NRCC is the second piece of good news for Himes Debicella. Respected political handicapper Larry Sabato has just shifted the 4th District from "likely Democratic" to "leans Democratic. "Two straight GOP polls have had the Republican nominee, state senator Dan Debicella, within striking distance of Democratic Rep. Jim Himes, bad news for Democrats worried about spreading their resources too thin to defend almost 100 vulnerable seats,'' Sabato writes. 

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Linda McMahon said the government ought to consider the effects of its mandates on businesses, including the health care overhaul and legislation that increases the minimum wage.

McMahon's comments came this morning during a brief press conference at an East Hartford cleaning business. She was there to collect the endorsement of the National Federation of Independent Businesses, an industry group that's opposed to increases in the federal minimum wage, as well as expanding the Family and Medical Leave Act and efforts to make it easier for employees to join a union.

Any increases in the minimum wage ought to take into account "our total economy,'' McMahon said.

While conceding that the minimum wage has benefitted a lot of people, McMahon said "we ought to review how much it ought to be and whether or not we ought to have increases in the minimum wage.''

McMahon was asked if she knew what the minimum wage in Connecticut is but said she did not know (it's $8.25 an hour.)

She was also asked whether any employees at World Wrestling Entertainment, the firm she and her husband built, earned minimum wage. She said perhaps some summer interns did, but, once again, she said she did not know.

McMahon said she did not solicit the business group's endorsement but was pleased to receive it. Although NFIB has a political action committee, McMahon, a multimillionaire who is self-funding her campaign, will not be accepting PAC money from the group.

Her Democratic opponent, Richard Blumenthal, has received the backing of several large unions.

Is this the gift Democrats have been waiting for?

Republican U.S. Linda McMahon's statements this morning in East Hartford on the minimum wage are drawing sharp rebukes from many quarters.

McMahon was there to pick up the endorsement of a buisness group and when asked whether she shares the group's views about the minimum wage, McMahon equivocated. She said any potential increases ought to be reviewed and the government ought to consider "how much it ought to be, and whether or not we ought to have increases in the minimum wage."

(No, she did not call for eliminating it or even propose that Congress lower it, but in this economic climate, her statements could certainly come back to bite her. So much for that battered lunchbox.) It was a rare misstep for a candidate who is almost always on message and some Democrats and union folks have pounced.

Not, incidentially, Democrat Richard Blumenthal. Just two days after some Democrats publicly urged him to be more aggressive, his campaign had yet to issue an offical comment on McMahon's statements hours after she made them -- though his 1,526 Twitter follows did see the following tweet: "More McMahon's profits before people''

Maura Downes, spokeswoman for Democrat Richard Blumenthal, reacted this afternoon to Republican opponent Linda McMahon's statements regarding the minimum wage.

Linda McMahon laid off ten percent of her workers and takes home $46 million a year so it's no surprise she's thinking about lowering the minimum wage,'' Downes said via email. "Connecticut's families are hurting and  Linda McMahon puts her own profits ahead of people of Connecticut. That's not the kind of U.S. Senator the people of Connecticut need."