Connecticut Commentary: Red Notes from a Blue State

U.S. Senator Dick Blumenthal thinks Donald Trump Jr. may have colluded with Russian operatives to deny Hillary Clinton the presidency. Other leading Democrats have asserted that President Donald Trump is a traitor. Blumenthal believes that recent emails may demonstrate " bombshell evidence of criminal intent " on the part of Trump Jr. But then, Blumenthal believes lots of things. There was a time when he believed he had served as a marine in Vietnam, but he didn’t. In the absence of a crime, there can be no criminal intent – just unfulfilled intent. There is little question that Trump Jr. and other Trump operatives intended to receive and possibly make use of promised data dirt damaging to Hillary Clinton when the Trump amateur opposition research team met with a Russian lawyer who failed to deliver the dirt.

We all know incumbent politicians have an edge over challengers. Their campaigns usually are flush with contributions, and this year is no exception to the rule. US Senator Dick Blumenthal, to choose but one of the seven members of Connecticut’s all Democratic US Congressional Delegation, has an arsenal of cash in his campaign coffers, while his Republican opponent, Dan Carter, has far fewer munitions. “Them that’s got,” Billie Holiday sings, “shall get; them that’s not shall lose. So the Bible says, and it still is news.” Mr. Blumenthal has raised $8,639,009 for his campaign, Carter $361,934.  In addition, Mr. Blumenthal will rack up nearly all Connecticut’s media endorsements. Favorable press has been piling up in his corner since he began his public service career forty years ago.

We all know how it works: If you are a politician who outpaces your opponent in money and lustrous fame, you hide-out during elections, contextualize yourself by feeding the media tons of approving releases put together by a faithful staff -- and await reelection. Dick Blumenthal, presently Connecticut’s Senior U.S. Senator, is such a person. A millionaire by marriage and an incumbent, he has the riches of King Croesus in his campaign kitty. His Republican opponent, Dan Carter, is the poor boy of the current campaign for the U.S. Senate. According to a recent report in CTMirror , “Blumenthal’s campaign reported having more than $5.3 million in its war chest as of June 30, after having spent more than $1.6 million, while Carter’s campaign reported only about $70,000 in cash on hand.”

The Trump rally in the heart of still wealthy Connecticut -- Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, located in Connecticut’s uber-rich “Gold Coast” – was hot in both the literal and metaphorical sense. Five thousand supporters of Donald Trump braving the heat, 100 degrees and climbing, were packed like sardines at the University awaiting the saving word. Trump rallies are political chautauqua events. What’s a chautauqua rally without steaming hot crowds, eh? A flop, that’s what.

All the members of Connecticut’s U.S. Congressional Delegation, as well as the state’s progressive Governor, are supporting former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for President rather than the amiable Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont. Mr. Sanders is the grandfatherly, flower-child socialist who recently buried Mrs. Clinton in the nation’s first New Hampshire Democratic Party primary: Sanders 59, Clinton 38, a real whopping. Some argue that returns from both the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary are indicative rather than definitive. Mrs. Clinton, who has as many cat-lives as Achilles heels, is expected to survive the Sanders drubbing. Lady Clinton has oodles of cash on hand, a wealth of down-and-dirty political campaign experience, a morally flawed ex-President husband, and the unenthusiastic backing of the Democratic Party establishment. Mr. Sanders has so far proven to be a worthy adversary, but there are cracks in the Sanders foundation that Mrs. Clinton seems...

Governor Dannel Malloy, Democratic Party Bigwigs in Connecticut and the members of the state’s all-Democratic US Congressional Delegation are, at long last, in for Hillary Clinton as their Party’s presidential nominee. For weeks, the Democratic crowd had been indifferently plunging their big toes in the nomination pool. Now, in unison, all have jumped in, satisfied that Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, a fire breathing progressive, has earnestly decided to withdraw behind the nomination curtain. Fresh from having indicated he would not veto a progressive state budget that effectively violates every important promise he made on the gubernatorial campaign stump – no tax increases, no red ink budgets, no untoward budget gimmickry, and the like – Mr. Malloy now has found time to issue a generic endorsement of Hillary Benghazi.