Connecticut Commentary: Red Notes from a Blue State

Blumenthal During a 2018 New Hampshire Public Radio interview, U.S. Senator Dick Blumenthal was asked by his host, Robert Siegel, the following question: SIEGEL: Your letter says that Michael Flynn may have violated the law in his phone call or calls with ambassador Sergey Kislyak. Are you alleging violations of the Logan Act, a 1799 law that no one's been prosecuted under? BLUMENTHAL: There may be violations of that law but potentially of others as well. If there were improper statements or lies to the FBI agents who interviewed him, there are very, very serious questions about his compliance with our laws and also ethical standards. When talking to Blumenthal, NPR hosts should always pay close attention to the qualifiers. Blumenthal, for two decades Connecticut’s Attorney General, is no stranger to rhetorical caveats.   Blumenthal told his NPR host that Flynn “may be” in violation of the Logan Act and there are “questions about his compliance” with the laws o...

The very title of the story in CTMirror was ominous: “ Howls as Malloy tries to shorten leash on watchdogs.” And in the lede paragraph, a dark joweled Richard Nixon is resurrected from his bed of infamy: “Governor Dannel Malloy is attempting the most dramatic makeover of the state's watchdog agencies since their creation as post-Watergate reforms in the 1970s.” Watergate redivivus !

Andy Sauer is the executive director of the Connecticut chapter of Common Cause, which bills itself, according to an introductory blurb provided in a recent interview, as “a non-profit lobbying group that says it promotes responsible, accountable government, and has long fought for campaign finance reform.” Part of this is true. Common Cause is a liberal lobbying group that has aggressively pushed campaign finance reform. The whole gaggle of liberal lobbying groups was there, according to Sauer, at the birth of the campaign finance reform bill, and their influence cannot be overstated. They shaped the bill voted into law by the legislature. Praising Gov. Jodi Rell, Sauer remarked in the interview, “One of the first things she did was [to] meet with campaign finance reform advocates. I was there ... Tom Swan [of Connecticut Citizen Action Group], Karen Hobert Flynn as the chair of Common Cause was there, the League of Women Voters, CONNpirg ... We were the first, and to the best of my k...