Connecticut Commentary: Red Notes from a Blue State

The state Democratic Party, much wealthier than the state Republican Party, is now spending some of its dollars on imported gunslingers such as James Hallinan, a political hessian hired by party central to throw mud at Republican candidates for governor, a certain sign that the election season is upon us.  Democrats in Connecticut hold all the state’s constitutional offices, have veto proof majorities in the General Assembly, and presently have in their campaign coffers 14 times more cash than Republicans. Some of the mudslinging has backfired. Even a few liberal commentators have winced at the slops that regularly cross their news desks  but, as Cardinal John Henry Newman once said, “Throw enough mud and some will stick – stick but not stain.” Governor Dannel Malloy’s low rating in the polls, some commentators have noted, may give Republicans an opportunity to win back the governorship, last held by Jodi Rell, Mr. Malloy’s polar opposite. Mr. Malloy is a pro-union,...

  State Party operations with oodles of cash on hand -- read, Democrats – can well afford to hire a few hessian troops who hide themselves in the political woodwork and snipe at the opposition. One of them is James Hallinan, 31-years-old, a for-hire political operative who travels the campaign trail of Republicans in this or that state and supplies Democrats with chewy media releases. Hartford columnist Colin McEnroe reviewed in a recent column some specimens of  Mr. Hallinan’s handiwork and was unimpressed.