by | Oct 3, 2022 3:13 pm | Comments (7)
Paul Bass Photo
GOP attorney general candidate Jessica Kordas Sunday on Wooster Street.
As she waited for a pie to come out of the oven, Jessica Kordas reflected on how she saw the law help set a 16-year-old free to pursue her dreams.
by | Oct 3, 2022 12:18 pm | Comments (5)
Thomas Breen photos
Marc Criscio: Application submitted for heating help.
Approps Chair DeLauro: "As long as I have the gavel and pen, we're going to increase funding in this area."
Low-income Connecticut residents like Marc Criscio who need help covering their heating bills this winter can now tap into a state energy assistance program newly infused with an extra $20 million.
by | Sep 30, 2022 11:59 am | Comments (1)
Thomas Breen photos
Cutting the ribbon on the rehabbed Ferry St. bridge.
Construction crews wrap up work before bridge's official reopening.
Cars and trucks looking to cross between Fair Haven and Cedar Hill can use the Ferry Street bridge again, now that the state has wrapped up a $3 million rehab of a span that has been closed to traffic for the last five months.
by | Sep 29, 2022 4:51 pm | Comments (7)
Stefanowski Thursday on WNHH FM.
Bob Stefanowski has a strategy for turning around the momentum in the home stretch of the governor’s race: keep talking about parents’ rights and crime and inflation.
by | Sep 29, 2022 9:45 am | Comments (24)
Thomas Breen photo
Winfield at Canal Dock campaign event: "Hungry" for representation.
Gary Winfield upped the ante at a “Black the Vote” campaign rally for the statewide Democratic slate — by urging the party to think beyond 2022 to envision a Black governor.
by | Sep 28, 2022 11:38 am | Comments (2)
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Wednesday's Chamber of Commerce-hosted candidate forum.
New Haven and Hamden Democratic state lawmakers threw their support behind fiscal “discipline” and recession preparedness when faced with a question that will likely dominate this year’s legislative session.
That is: What to do with Connecticut’s record budget surpluses?
by | Sep 23, 2022 12:54 pm | Comments (12)
Attorney general candidate Ken Krayeske at WNHH FM.
Ken Krayeske is asking voters to elect him the next state attorney general so he can settle cases with civil-rights attorneys like himself who file lawsuits on behalf of brutalized prisoners.
Continue reading ‘AG Hopeful: State Shouldn't Fight Its Victims’
by | Sep 14, 2022 9:14 am | Comments (9)
Laura Glesby Photo
Lesley Heffel McGuirk, unaffiliated candidate for state rep.
Lesley Heffel McGuirk’s ideal election ballot would be accessible to residents without any need for registration. It would let voters rank their favorite candidates in order and launch automatic runoff races. And it could be submitted early, so that voters could more easily plan around hectic work schedules and childcare needs.
Heffel McGuirk is spreading this vision for voting reform as she awaits, for the first time, a ballot featuring her own name.
Continue reading ‘State Rep Challenger Pitches Ballot Reforms’
by | Sep 8, 2022 4:43 pm | Comments (27)
Harold Shapiro Photos
Mortgage entrepreneur Greg Schwartz (above), New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker (below) at economic summit.
New Haven’s mayor and a New Canaan CEO agreed that Connecticut needs lots more housing — and differed on how to make it happen.
Continue reading ‘Housing "Bullies?" Elicker, Gold Coast Exec Differ’
by | Aug 25, 2022 11:40 am | Comments (4)
Thomas Breen photo
The Institute Library at 847 Chapel.
The Institute Library plans to embark on a comprehensive set of building repairs and improvements at its historic Chapel Street home, thanks to a recently approved $1.725 million grant from the state.
Continue reading ‘$1.7M State Grant To Support "Full-Scale Restoration" At Institute Library’
by | Aug 12, 2022 12:25 pm | Comments (0)
State Rep. Pat Dillon at WNHH FM.
The New York Mets are on a hot streak, winning 15 of their last 17 games.
Pat Dillon is on a hot streak, too, winning 19 of her last 19 campaigns for state representative.
by , , and | Aug 9, 2022 8:50 pm | Comments (13)
Thomas Breen photo
Erick Russell gives victory speech at Trinity Bar.
Stephanie Thomas (right) with state Democratic Party Executive Director Sarah Locke.
Olivia Gross Photo
Maritza Bond concedes to Secretary of State candidate Stephanie Thomas at Il Gabbiano on Long Wharf.
Maya McFadden Photo
Karen DuBois Walton concedes to treasurer candidate Erick Russell at Jazzy's Cabaret.
New Haven will have a candidate on the statewide ballot this November for the first time since 2006, now that Erick Russell has won Tuesday’s party primary for state treasurer
Continue reading ‘Democrats Tap New Haven's Russell For Treasurer, Thomas For Sec'y Of The State’
by | Aug 9, 2022 5:40 pm | Comments (1)
Thomas Breen photo
Getting out the vote on Norton Pkwy.
A New Haven labor vote-puller had two hills to climb in Beaver Hills Tuesday as he sought to lure voters to the polls for an expected low-turnout Democratic Party primary: muggy weather that felt like nearly 100 degrees, and lack of public interest in two intraparty contests for lesser known statewide offices.
His strategy to confront both challenges: Focus local, local, local.
And offer an air-conditioned car ride to the polls if need be.
by | Aug 8, 2022 8:47 pm | Comments (2)
Thomas Breen photo
Bond at Monday's rally.
“When they say we can’t make it out the hood … I’m a product of that!”
With those words, Maritza Bond tapped into her Fair Haven roots — as well as her wealth of organized labor support — to make a closing pitch to supporters to get out the vote for her bid for secretary of the state during Tuesday’s Democratic Party primary.
Continue reading ‘Bond Centers Labor, Local Roots In Closing Campaign Pitch’
by | Aug 8, 2022 12:00 pm | Comments (6)
Staff Photos
Team New Haven: Sec'y of state candidate Maritza Bond; treasurer hopefuls Karen DuBois-Walton, Erick Russell.
Fairfield County crew: Treasurer candidate Dita Bhargava, sec'y of state hopeful Stephanie Thomas.
(News analysis) New Haven versus Fairfield County.
The party establishment versus issue-activist networks.
Who has the best chance to win in a general election.
Who has better qualifications — or makes voters smile more.
Those are the stakes in Tuesday’s Democratic primary elections for state treasurer and secretary of the state, battles of personalities and power bases. Voters will have to wait to weigh in on the bigger questions — like how to run elections and best preserve democracy; how best to invest billions of state dollars — until the Nov. 8 general election, which will be a battle of ideas.
Continue reading ‘Tuesday Primaries Test Strength, Not Issues’
by | Aug 7, 2022 10:19 am | Comments (2)
Laura Glesby Photo
Ring One Boxing's Brian Clark, center, tells candidate Russell (left) and management team's Howard Boyd about a trouble bus stop.
Twenty years had passed since Nakia Dawson-Douglas last saw Erick Russell — until Friday evening, when he knocked on her door.
Dawson-Douglas had known Russell as the kid who worked at Fast Food Deli, his parents’ store, a neighborhood anchor.
Now Russell is a candidate for state treasurer — and he can count on Dawson-Douglas’s vote in Tuesday’s three-way Democratic primary.
by | Aug 5, 2022 3:37 pm | Comments (6)
Thomas Breen photo
Secretary of the state candidate Maritza Bond talking jazz with Ross Collins while campaigning on Colony Road in advance of Tuesday's primary.
Ross Collins took a break from serenading Colony Road with his alto saxophone to talk jazz and politics with — and ultimately pledge his support for — the secretary of the state candidate who came knocking at his door.
by | Aug 4, 2022 11:51 am | Comments (6)
Paul Bass Photo
State Sen. Martin Michael Looney at WNHH FM.
Our Community at Winchester
Martin Francis Looney.
“It took a while, Dad,” Martin Michael Looney said to himself after the final vote was cast, “but we’re there.”
by | Aug 3, 2022 11:55 am | Comments (3)
The state plans to spend $35 million of federal pandemic-relief aid over the next three years on tuition assistance, faculty recruitment, and college-employer partnerships to build up the number of nurses and social workers working in Connecticut.
Continue reading ‘State Launches 3-Year, $35M "Health Horizons" Program’
by | Jul 26, 2022 9:48 pm | Comments (15)
Anthony Quinn/WTNH Photos
Klarides: Playing for both August and November.
Leora Levy: Aiming for the new base.
Can a Republican with crossover appeal still win a statewide primary — without burning bipartisan and moderate bonafides needed to appeal to voters in a general election?
That question hovered unspoken beneath the back-and-forth among candidates in a debate held in New Haven Tuesday night.
by | Jul 26, 2022 3:02 pm | Comments (0)
Oliva Charis Photo
Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz at the Q House Tuesday.
With a deadline looming days away, the mayor and lieutenant governor popped in to the Q House Tuesday to issue a plea to working families: “Don’t leave money on the table.” Apply for the state childcare tax rebate.
Continue reading ‘Families Urged To Apply For Childcare Tax Rebate Before Sunday Deadline’
by | Jul 25, 2022 12:16 pm | Comments (7)
Jordan Ashby Photo
State Sen. Gary Winfield at Newhallville stop-violence fair.
Paul Bass Photo
John Carlson, fellow GOP candidate Eric Mastroianni at WNHH FM.
To Gary Winfield, the job of state legislator is akin to a long-distance runner. He sees the finish line in the distance: Better public education. Humane prisons. Fairer policing. The legislator gets closer every year, step by step, methodically making gains along the way, keeping the ultimate goal in mind.
That record of veteran service is a reason the Newhallville Democrat gave for why he’s running this year for a sixth term as a state senator representing New Haven and West Haven.
That’s a reason John Carlson, a Hill Republican, gave for why he’s challenging Winfield this year for the 10th State Senate District seat: New Haven Democrats have been in power too long, without producing the right results, he argued.
Continue reading ‘Experience Helps? Or Hurts? Candidates Differ’
by | Jul 22, 2022 4:16 pm | Comments (2)
Friday afternoon's Zoom-held special SEEC meeting.
With hours to spare, Maritza Bond won approval Friday afternoon to receive $484,125 in public money to compete in the Aug. 9 Democratic primary for secretary of the state.
Continue reading ‘Maritza Bond's Public-Financing Grant Approved’
by | Jul 22, 2022 2:50 pm | Comments (3)
Ned Lamont announces bill in front of all-electric buses.
Gov. Ned Lamont inhaled the sweltering heat-wave air of the city with the country’s seventh-highest asthma prevalence — and touted a new state law aiming to make that air easier to breathe.
Continue reading ‘On Green, Lamont, Lawmakers Tout New Clean Air Act’
by | Jul 21, 2022 1:47 pm | Comments (0)
Two former state treasurers Thursday endorsed one of the candidates seeking to become a future state treasurer.