Hartford City Council president rJo Winch and state Rep. Douglas McCrory both said Monday that they will not be running for mayor of Hartford.

Winch says she will seek reelection to the city council in the November 2011 election. McCrory was recently elected to his state legislative seat in the 7th District, and he will be returning to the state Capitol when the General Assembly reconvenes on opening day on January 5.

"In spit of all Hartford's wrongs, I have not lost hope,'' McCrory said. "I can't lose hope. My biggest investment is here in Hartford - my family.''

He added, "I will guarantee the people of Hartford this. The candidate I get behind will have my whole-hearted public support. And if you thought I worked hard for my re-election bid - watch out.''

Both Republicans and Democrats came out for the retirement party of Channel 30's chief political reporter Tom Monahan, who has been covering Connecticut for the past 45 years.

The crowd included U.S. Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, U.S. Senator-elect Dick Blumenthal, Lt. Governor-elect Nancy Wyman, Attorney General-elect George Jepsen, and former Gov. John G. Rowland, among others.

The Hartford Courant's Java column has the details at http://www.courant.com/entertainment/celebrity/java/hc-fillo-monahan-1123-20101122,0,3956099.column

The president's bipartisan debt panel has come up with a number of controversial proposals regarding Social Security in its draft report. (Among them: gradually increase the age until it reaches 69 in 2075 and lower cost-of-living increases.)

But U.S. Rep. John Larson, a powerful Democrat from East Hartford who sits on the House Ways and Means Committee, signaled today such changes would be a tough sell for Democrats.

Larson called any effort to privatize Social Security a "non-starter" and said the federal government needs to "honor the committment" it made to those who have paid into the system.

While Larson said he would be open to defecit-reduction measures "that are constructive and make sense," he also expressed a reluctance to touch Social Security.

"This is a bedrock program for the American people,'' Larson said at a press conference at the Legislative Office Building this morning hosted by the Connecticut Alliance for Retired Americans.

The FBI has raided two hedge funds in lower Fairfield County as part of a widening probe of the investment industry.

The raids were at Level Global Investors in Greenwich and Diamondback Capital Management in Stamford.

http://www.courant.com/business/hc-hedge-fund-raid-aftershock-20101123,0,3330927.story

Will state Rep. Steve Fontana become the state's next insurance commissioner?

Fontana, a veteran Democratic lawmaker from North Haven, is now in the running after losing his re-election bid in an upset that stunned many at the state Capitol.

Fontana had been among those seeking to become the next House majority leader, and insiders said that his defeat reminded them of the loss by state Rep. Jessie Stratton of Canton, a liberal Democrat who had been running for House Speaker before losing in her district to Republican Kevin Witkos in November 2002.

The final tally of the state's closest gubernatorial election in 56 years entered the historical record Wednesday - with the official certification of Democrat Dan Malloy's 6,404-vote victory over Republican Tom Foley out of more than 1.1 million votes cast on Nov. 2.

"By certifying these election results, we are officially putting into the record books the final word on one of the closest elections in the history of our state," said Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz, the state's top elections official. "This only serves to underscore the point that every vote truly does count." State law requires the secretary of the state, along with the treasurer and comptroller, to "declare what persons are elected" on the last Wednesday of November.

Malloy and his lieutenant-governor running mate, Nancy Wyman, were certified as winners over the GOP ticket of Foley and Mark Boughton by 567,278 votes to 560,874 votes - the second-closest gubernatorial election to 1954, when Democrat Abe Ribicoff defeated Republican John Lodge by a margin of 3,115 out of 920,000 votes cast.

To all our readers, we say: Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanks for coming back and reading this blog on a regular basis in what many considered to be the most interesting election season in 40 years. That was the last time that the U.S. Senate and governor's races were as competitive in the same year. And no one ever spent $50 million on any U.S. Senate campaign in Connecticut until this year.

Our records show that we have had 1,800 posts since this blog began in 2007 at the end of the legislative session - and many of you have been reading since the beginning.

We can promise that we will continue to cover all the comings and goings at the state Capitol as the new administration, the new constitutional officers, and the new General Assembly start their work in January.

When Tim Bannon walked onto the Yale University campus as a freshman in the late 1960s, he unknowingly embarked on a lifetime of chance opportunities that would profoundly shape his life and career.

In his second semester, he met another low-key, unassuming freshman named Garry Trudeau. Bannon was soon co-editing the Yale humor magazine with Trudeau, but there was no way of knowing that this young freshman - who had plenty of artistic talent - would become the creator of the internationally known "Doonesbury'' comic strip.

Bannon later found himself depicted briefly by his friend as a character in the famous strip -- as T.F. Bannon, a lawyer in the same profession as the real life Bannon.

Fast forward 30 years.

After decades of jobs in and out of the political arena, Bannon was working as a lawyer in Stamford and struck up a friendship with the city's longtime mayor, Dan Malloy. On his second attempt - and after six years of campaigning - Malloy won the race to be Connecticut's next governor. And one of Malloy's first decisions, even before he won on election night, was to ask Bannon to be his chief of staff.

In the same fortuitous way that he obtained key positions for Gov. William A. O'Neill, state Treasurer Denise Nappier, and U.S. Sen. Gary Hart, Bannon's chance to work with Malloy came only because of timing and circumstances.

"It was all unforeseeable,'' Bannon said in an interview. "That's been a lot of the excitement. It's been a career by epiphany rather than a career of design. ... It's been exciting. I have no regrets.''

Malloy recently quipped that if he had won the governor's race in 2006, he would have picked Bannon then as his chief of staff. But Bannon says that was news to him.

"He hadn't shared that with me,'' Bannon said, laughing.

Bannon is now working seven days a week -- "seven full days'' -- as he scrambles to help set up an administration that has so far announced the hiring of a chief of staff, a budget director, and a transition press secretary. Bannon's Blackberry chirps constantly during an interview as job seekers and Malloy supporters try to reach him in his other position as co-director of the transition team.

With degrees from both Yale College and Yale Law School, the 63-year-old Bannon could have worked for the same law firm for 30 years and lived a happy, lucrative life. But he never took that route. Instead of plotting out a long-term corporate career, he answered the call numerous times from high-level Democrats and gained a reputation as a governmental trouble-shooter.

"All of us knew Tim was going places -- we just thought it was Washington,'' Trudeau said in an e-mail exchange. "But he loves the state. When you're local, you can feel the direct impact of what you do. I think he enjoys that.''

Trudeau and Bannon worked hand-in-glove on The Yale Record, the humor magazine that Bannon led as chairman with Trudeau as the editor-in-chief.

"To this day, he addresses me as chief,'' said Trudeau, who recently celebrated the 40th anniversary of Doonesbury. "The Record, like most college publications, had some 20 names on the masthead, but was usually written and assembled by three people in 48 hours four times a year. Tim and I were often among those three people, so we rose to the top swiftly.''

Government Service

Bannon has been moving toward the top of state government through a decades-long career that allowed him to investigate the various nooks and crannies of key state departments. That will provide him with a deeper vision as Malloy's chief of staff because he has studied some of the departments that he will now oversee.

His trouble-shooting career started with the O'Neill administration. Bannon held a variety of positions, fixing problems involving the operations of the departments of motor vehicles and corrections, along with the workers compensation system.

Through his friend, attorney James Wade, Bannon got his initial introduction to O'Neill when O'Neill was still lieutenant governor. Several years later, in January 1985, Bannon, then 37, was helping to write O'Neill's State of the State Address - after Ronald Reagan had won a national landslide and the Republicans had gained control of both the House and the Senate in Connecticut. That was a sensitive speech, with O'Neill trying to reach out to the Republicans, who controlled the House for only two years before O'Neill won re-election in a landslide in 1986.

The young speechwriter and troubleshooter eventually rose to commissioner -- overseeing the state tax department for O'Neill.

"As a lawyer, I had an understanding of tax law,'' Bannon said. "It was extraordinarily satisfying because I had been parachuted into various agencies, but now I had a chance to be helpful from being there full time, every day of the week, in a leadership capacity.''

But, as usual, Bannon did not stay long. It was a two-year stint. He later worked for O'Neill as a special counsel and served a total of six years with O'Neill until the administration ended in January 1991.

When asked to name his favorite job after working for more than 40 years, Bannon said: "That's a hard question to answer. Some jobs are just ripe for the moment in your life, and you think of them at the time as your favorite job. I tend to like jobs that are really challenging, where you're not just stepping in to continue someone else's practices.''

Succeeding Moody

When he takes over in the corner office in the governor's suite after Malloy takes the oath of office Jan. 5, Bannon will have one of the most powerful jobs in an administration that has vowed not to simply continue the past practices.

The chief of staff -- depending on the amount of power given by the governor -- can be the second most powerful person in the state. Under Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell, Chief of Staff M. Lisa Moody was widely acknowledged as a hugely influential supervisor who gave orders to commissioners and managed the public message that went out regarding the popular Rell administration.

Garry Trudeau, the creator of the famed "Doonesbury'' comic strip, is known for maintaining his privacy and generally avoiding interviews.

But he recently agreed to an e-mail exchange regarding his former Yale University classmate, Tim Bannon, who was recently named as the new chief of staff for Governor-elect Dannel Malloy.

Bannon was briefly depicted in the strip by his friend as T. F. Bannon, an attorney who matched the profession of the real-life Bannon.

(The strip on the left, which should be read going down the page, was initially published in November 1979. The one on the right was published later that month.)

U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman, who serves as chairman of the Senate Homeland Security committee, is responding with outrage to the release by Wikileaks of thousands of cables between and among diplomats around the world.

"Wikileaks' deliberate disclosure of these diplomatic cables is nothing less than an attack on the national security of the United States, as well as that of dozens of other countries,'' said Lieberman, one of the veteran members of the Senate Armed Services Committee. "By disseminating these materials, Wikileaks is putting at risk the lives and the freedom of countless Americans and non-Americans around the world. It is an outrageous, reckless, and despicable action that will undermine the ability of our government and our partners to keep our people safe and to work together to defend our vital interests. Let there be no doubt: the individuals responsible are going to have blood on their hands. I stand in full support of the Obama Administration's condemnation of Wikileaks for these disclosures. I also urge the Obama Administration -- both on its own and in cooperation with other responsible governments around the world -- to use all legal means necessary to shut down Wikileaks before it can do more damage by releasing additional cables. Wikileaks' activities represent a shared threat to collective international security.''

U.S. Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, who has remained relatively quiet about exactly what he will be doing after his six-year term expires in January, is being considered to be the next chairman of the Motion Picture Association of America.

The issue was detailed in The New York Times and then in Politico for the job that pays an estimated $1.2 million annually. That would be a big pay increase for Dodd, whose Senate salary is about $165,000 per year.

Dodd is currently preparing for his farewell speech on Tuesday on the floor of the U.S. Senate.

When the state bought a church down the street from the state Capitol three years ago, it was seen as the future home for storage space for the state library and practice space for the Hartford Symphony Orchestra.

Instead, the building gained some prominence as a temporary shelter for the homeless during the freezing winter months last year when a nearby Salvation Army shelter closed.

Now, Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell is seeking $4 million at the December 10 Bond Commission meeting to fund major upgrades to the building's mechanical and electrical systems, as well as fire protection and fire code improvements.

"These upgrades are absolutely necessary,'' Rell told reporters Monday at the former church. "It beats building a new building.''

"It is a gorgeous, historic building that cannot be replicated,'' Rell said. "You certainly couldn't pay to replicate this building. We're excited about this. It's a lot of work.''

Reporters kept their coats on inside the building, which is kept at 55 degrees as the state is trying to save money while it faces a projected deficit of $3.4 billion in the next fiscal year.

When the church building came up for sale three years ago, state officials jumped at the opportunity.

"I saw it and was struck, not only by its ideal location, but by the beauty of its design and by the way it fit so well into the cluster of buildings around it,'' Rell said. "This project fits neatly with my administration's emphasis on smart growth. Rather than building a new building, this acquisition preserves an historic structure and spares virgin land from new construction.''

Attorney General Richard Blumenthal is keeping up with the Kardashians.

Blumenthal announced Monday that an attorney for the Kardashians - known around the country for their reality show - had announced the family was dropping its association with a prepaid debit card that Blumenthal had criticized as being appealing to "financially unsophisticated young adults'' who could end up paying high fees.

"I am cautiously pleased that the Kardashians are terminating ties to the Kardashian Kard -- a prepaid debit card loaded with predatory fees," Blumenthal said in a statement. "A larger lesson -- common to other prepaid debit cards -- is that targeting young adults with predatory card terms and conditions may bear close scrutiny and caution.''

Blumenthal added, "Keeping up with the Kardashians is impossible with this card, where consumers lose money before they use money. Even before consumers spend a dime, the Kardashian Kard fees swallow the card's value. The card is filled with gotcha fees and charges, such as $99.95 annual fees, $7.95 monthly fees (after the first year), ATM withdrawal fees, bill pay fees, loading fees -- and even charges for talking to a live operator at their service center and a card cancellation fee.''

"The Kardashians,'' Blumenthal said, "perhaps recognize that fans will be fuming over these money-eating cards. My office remains concerned until University National Bank and MasterCard officially agree to stop selling these cards -- with or without the Kardashian name."

Rumors are swirling that U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd's post-Senate career plan is a $1.2 million gig lobbying for the Motion Picture Association of America.

Dodd's office won't comment but on numerous occassions in the past -- including a Courant editorial board interview in March as well as an interview in August with CT Mirror's Deirdre Shesgreen -- he has said emphatically that he will not lobby.

Moreover, an ethics reform package passed in 2007 provides for a two-year "cooling off" period, preventing Senators from lobbying their former colleagues.  

U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman praised the Pentagon's new report on gays and lesbians in the military, saying it makes clear that most active duty military members have no problem allowing gays to serve openly in uniform.

"The Pentagon report makes it unambiguously clear that the risk of repeal on military effectiveness is minimal, that any risks can be addressed by implementing the report's recommendations, and that a clear majority of active duty servicemen and women have no problem with repeal,'' Lieberman said in a joint statement with Sens. Kristen Gillibrand, D-NY, and Mark Udall, D-CO. "The military has spoken and now is the time to repeal this policy that is damaging to our national security."

Lieberman is spearheading efforts to repeal the controversial policy. " 

"The report is the product of one of the most, if not the most,  extensive studies on a military personnel issue that has ever been conducted and its findings demonstrate that we can proceed with repeal of this discriminatory policy in a way that ensures that the U.S. military continues to be the best fighting force in the world,'' the Senators said in their joint statement. "Men and women, regardless of their race, religion, or sexual orientation, who are willing to fight and defend our country should be allowed to do so without fear of discrimination.

 "We will continue to work with our colleagues on both sides of the aisle to fight to repeal 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' this year. We look forward to the hearings scheduled for later this week where Secretary of Defense Gates, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the chairmen of the Pentagon's working group, General Counsel Jeh Johnson and General Carter Ham, will present the report to Congress."

The following is the prepared text of U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd's farewell speech on the Senate floor Tuesday afternoon.

Dodd did not seek re-election this year, and he will be stepping down in January after 36 years in Washington, D.C., including 30 years in the Senate.

"For more than 200 years, a uniquely American story has unfolded here in the chamber of the United States Senate - a fascinating, inspiring, and often tumultuous tale of conflict and compromise, reflecting the awesome potential of our still young democracy--and its occasional moments of agonizing frustration.

For much of my life, this story has intersected with my own in ways that have been both thrilling and humbling.

As a 14-year-old boy, I sat in the family gallery of this chamber, watching as my father took the oath of office as a new Senator.

A few years later, in 1962, I sat where these young men and women sit today, serving as a Senate page. John F. Kennedy was our president and Lyndon Johnson presided over this body.

Eighteen years later, in the autumn of 1980, the people of Connecticut gave me the honor of a lifetime when they asked me to give voice to their views, electing me to serve as their United States Senator.

For the past thirty years I have worked hard to sustain their trust. I am proud of the work I have done, but it is time for my story and that of this institution, which I cherish so much, to diverge.

Thus, Mr. President, I rise to give some valedictory remarks as my service as a United States Senator from Connecticut comes to a close.

Now, it is common for retiring Senators to say the following; ―I'll miss the people - but not the work.

Mr. President, you won't hear that from me. Most assuredly, I will miss the people of the Senate. But I will miss the work, as well.

Over the years, I have both witnessed and participated in some great debates--moments when statesmen of both parties, gathered together in this hall to weigh the great questions of our time.

And while I wish there had been more of those moments, I will always remember the Senate's debates on issues like Central America and Iraq, campaign finance reform and securities litigation, health care and financial reform.

And when I am home in Connecticut, I see the results of the work we did every day.

I see workers coming off their shifts at Pratt & Whitney, Electric Boat, and Sikorsky, the lifeblood of a defense manufacturing sector so critical to our national security, and to the economic well being of my state.

I see communities preparing for high-speed rail and breaking ground on new community health centers,

I see the grants we fought for helping cities and towns to build sustainable communities and promote economic development.

In his farewell address after 30 years in the U.S. Senate, Chris Dodd called Tuesday for a new level of civility in an era of hyper-partisanship and said that Republicans and Democrats can pass good legislation only by working together.

Declaring that politics in Washington, D.C. is "completely dysfunctional,'' Dodd said the incoming senators who will take office in January will be facing a political world that "seems to favor speculation over analysis and conflict over consensus.''

"Intense partisan polarization has raised the stakes in every debate and on every vote, making it difficult to lose with grace and nearly impossible to compromise without cost,'' Dodd said in his prepared remarks. "Americans' distrust of politicians provides compelling incentives for senators to distrust each other, to disparage this very institution, and disengage from the policy making process.''

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky described Dodd's speech as "one of the most important speeches in the history of the Senate.'' He said he had never heard "anyone so cogently point out'' the important matters facing the body.

A longtime student of Senate history, Dodd spoke of his love for the august body. That love started back in his childhood when he watched his father, Thomas Dodd, on the Senate floor. In fact, he stood at the same desk for the past 30 years - the desk that his father had used for 12 years until his electoral defeat in November 1970.

"As a 14-year-old boy, I sat in the family gallery of this chamber, watching as my father took the oath of office as a new senator,'' Dodd said at the start of his lengthy speech. "A few years later, in 1962, I sat where these young men and women sit today, serving as a Senate page. John F. Kennedy was our president, and Lyndon Johnson presided over this body.''

After briefly discussing his career and thanking his family, Dodd moved on to the broader theme of his love for the Senate.

On the campaign trail in Connecticut, Dodd was asked once by a Hartford Courant reporter about being one of the longest-serving senators in state history. Off the top of his head, Dodd started talking about Orville H. Platt, a Republican from Meriden who served in the U.S. Senate from 1879 through 1905. He also talked about Joseph R. Hawley, a Hartford Republican who served for 24 years until 1905.

Jacqueline Mandyck of West Hartford -- a political appointee of Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell's who had stood to lose her job as a $107,000-a-year deputy commissioner of consumer protection in January, but on Oct. 22 landed a position on the permanent state civil-service payroll -- has experienced even more good fortune.

Newly surfaced records show that the announced $103,580-a-year salary for her new job at the Department of Economic and Community Development was immediately increased by $10,043, to $113,623.

State officials at first could not explain the salary boost Tuesday, but later provided a complicated bureaucratic explanation that almost made it seem as if it happened spontaneously. Read the full story by clicking here.

In his final speech on the Senate floor, Chris Dodd bemoaned the rise of the "24/7 political media industry that seems to favor speculation over analysis and conflict over consensus."

The new media explosion, as Dodd calls it, coincides with the decline of legacy newspapers, most of which no longer have full-time DC-based political writers. "Case in point,'' Dodd said. "Ten years ago, 11 or 12 reporters from Connecticut covered the delegation's legislative activities. Today there is only one doing the same work."

Yet that wasn't true Tuesday. In a testament to the newsworthy-ness of Dodd's departure (or the persuasive powers of Dodd's press aide, Bryan DeAngelis), the Courant, the Journal Inquirer, the New Haven Register and the Day of New London all sent staffers to Washington to cover the speech. Christine Stuart of CT News Junkie made the trip, as did Laurie Perez of Fox 61 and Dennis House of Channel 3.

One reporter who wasn't covering Dodd on Tuesday is the one who covered him the longest and probably knows him the best. David Lightman joined the Courant's Washington bureau (back when the paper still had a Washington bureau) in the early 1980s, right around the time Dodd first arrived in the Senate. He served as bureau chief until 2007, when he left to cover Congress for McClatchy.

On Tuesday, Lightman was busy filing a story about President Obama's meeting with congressional leaders at the White House, not Dodd's valedictory speech.