Connecticut Commentary: Red Notes from a Blue State

Editorial page editor of the Norwich Bulletin Ray Hackett notes  that in addition to the piddling legislation one might expect of a legislature and government in transition, two important bills are in the legislative hopper awaiting introduction soon after Governor-elect Dan Malloy is sworn in: “There also are two extremely controversial bills filed guaranteed to serve as major distractions — the repeal of the death penalty and a proposal to allow illegal immigrants to pay in-state tuition at Connecticut colleges and universities. “The Legislature passed a bill last year repealing the death penalty that was vetoed by Gov. M. Jodi Rell. Supporters believe that with Gov.-elect Dan Malloy, the chances of success have improved greatly. Malloy supports the repeal if the measure is not retroactive. That’s a big hurdle to clear, but far from the only problem.” The timing on death penalty repeal, Mr. Hackett notes, is awkward: “First, the trial of accused Cheshire home invasion susp...

Ray Hackett, the Norwich Bulletin’s editorial page editor , has lost patience with Denise Merrill, the Democratic Assistant Majority Leader in the state House of Representatives who is leaving her position to run for Secretary of State. “She came in last week,” Hackett wrote in a barbed editorial, “for an editorial board meeting for candidates in the Aug. 10 primary. I expected her to dance around or avoid any accountability for the state’s fiscal mess. I was flabbergasted by her unbridled arrogance — arrogance that is only surpassed by the depth of the debt — $3.5 billion — that she had a hand in creating.” Hackett was astonished when Merrill blamed the $3.5 billion state debt “she had a hand in creating” on George Bush – “I kid you not.” Trumpeting the Democratic Party line, Merrill claimed that Democratic lawmakers “’cut’ $8 billion over a two-year period from the state budget. But when we asked her where those cuts were made, her response was: ‘I don’t know.’” Two kickers mak...

First, God created the idiot; this was for practice. Then he created the school board -- Mark Twain Over in Manchester, two students, apparently thugs with prior police records, beat up a third student. This attracted the attention of Chris Powell, the no-nonsense Managing Editor of the Journal Inquirer, who wrote a column about it, which in turn attracted the attention of Margarett H. Hackett, chairwoman of the Manchester Board of Education. In his column , Mr. Powell, noted that two months had elapsed since the Manchester student was “beaten so badly that he required brain surgery.” The paper discovered from court proceedings that “the two students charged in the beating already had felony convictions. One of them had a pending plea bargain for assault conspiracy that was about to send him to prison.” Since state law requires police to notify school superintendents when students in they systems are arrested, Mr. Powell reasoned, it was likely that “Manchester's school administrat...