Blumenthal for Governor, Bysiewicz for Senate?

I'm a Wisconsinite, but I have to ask CT Dems:

What are the chances of Blumenthal running for Governor in '06?

And if Lieberman retires, how about Susan Bysiewicz running for his U.S. Senate seat?

Bysiewicz is already running for governor, as are a few others (DiStefano of New Haven, Malloy of Stamford?). However, Blumenthal is the 500 pound gorilla in the race and would swamp the others. He is sort of like a small state version of Eliot Spitzer.

(Dodd or Lieberman would be 800 pound gorillas if they ran for governor...)

I don't see Lieberman retiring. However, I could see John Larson running for Lieberman's seat if Lieberman retired or went to Homeland Security. Larson is very good and a solid liberal (I think he voted against the Iraq War...)

If Larson (or maybe Rosa DeLauro) ran for Lieberman's seat, I could see Bysiewicz running for Congress, or maybe former West Hartford mayor Jonathan Harris.

Susan Bysiewicz and Richard Blumenthal, our Secretary of State and Attorney General respectively*, both served in the state government with the unforgettable Rowland, and neither showed signs of having any significant clue about the corruption that permeated that administration. This kind of takes the shine off the biggest argument against Jodi Rell, who as Lieutenant Governor was also lost in the fog of unknowing.

If I'm going to actively support anybody vs. Rell, I think I'd better take a closer look at DiStefano and Malloy. I don't know what to make of DiStefano and I'm not sure he's done much of anything for New Haven. I'm utterly ignorant about Malloy.

Jeff, I'm with you on Larson. If Lieberman resigns or retires, I think he'd be a fun candidate.


* Being long-winded, for the benefit of other out-of-staters who might be wandering through.

He claims he did nothing wrong, but there is some sort of quid-pro-quo thing that seemed to have gone on down in Stamford. However, even if nothing went wrong down there, it may not be a good time for somebody to have that even implied about them.

Maybe somebody more familiar with the Malloy situation can fill us all in?

Malloy is the mayor of Stamford.

What could Blumenthal have done about Rowland? If he does anything, he gets slammed by Rowland & his surrogates for a partisan attack? Bysiewicz doesn't have a lot of power, does she?

Blumenthal might have been the one Democrat in Connecticut who had the cred to go after Rowland and his friends. He's done some good things for this state, and it's possible that he had been working behind the scenes on the corruption. Wwe may never know all of it.

A Rell/Blumenthal match would be a whole bunch of "who knew what when", though, and probably not very conducive to airing the state's problems. (Not that elections have been successful at that lately anyway.)

As for Bysiewicz, I just looked at her Web page, and no wonder I never heard of anything she ever did! She honors firefighters, visits civics classes, announces that people like electronic voting.... (This is http://www.sots.state.ct.us , not her campaign page, which is http://www.bysiewicz.org .) Apparently that's the nature of the job. Yeah, not much she could have done about Rowland or anything else.

If I sounded unjustly negative, it's probably because I'm having the devil of a time trying to get over the November blues.

him to run against Lieberman. I love Larson!! I was a little disappointed in his vote yesterday, but 99% of the time he is on the right side. I would love to work for him! I like Susan or Colin McEnroe for Gov. I have always understood that Blumenthal is a bit of a social klutz. And I will always love Bill Curry -- he was quoted as saying he wanted a bumper sticker that said "don't blame me, I voted for me". I love when he is on with Colin. He always says the right thing. Kevin Sullivan also impressed me the other day when he was on Colin.

It is all a waiting game now in ct democratic politics. everyone who is looking to run for governor in ct has to wait and see if Dodd decides to run or not. If he doesn't run, then Blumenthal will most likely run for governor. Dodd wins the democratic nomination in a landslide, so there is no point in Blumenthal announcing now, just to have Dodd enter the race and split the party in half

I live in Stamford and am very involved with the local party, so I am compelled to support Mayor Malloy. Mayor Malloy is a great guy. He has done a wonderful job in Stmaford and will go far. Probably a little more centrist than I would like. He has put together a very strong war chest for his 2006 Gubenatorial bid and my daughter helped a little with his campaign. His campaign website was http://www.danmalloyforgovernor.com/ but it seems to be down right now.

I do believe that the investigation into his dealings are without merit, however, there is enough of a perception of possible wrong doings that it could hurt him.

I am also a big fan of John DeStefano http://www.destefanoforct.com/ He seems a little more liberal, which fits my policies. Some people have questioned some of his actions and New Haven politics can be pretty messy.

Susan Bysiewicz http://www.susanforgovernor.com/ is some what contriversial. She is a real go getter and people seem to love her or hate her.

As noted before, Dick Blumenthal is the 500 pound gorilla. Dick is great. He has done great as Attorney General, and is a very accomplished politician. I know a few people that aren't excited about him, but they are a very small minority.

The 800 pound gorilla is Chris Dodd. Many people see him running for Governor. It has been suggested that if he runs for Gov. he would plan on appointing Blumenthal to fill his senate seat. This opens up the Attorney General seat, which George Jepsen, who is currently State Chair is rumored to be seaking. With Bysiewicz currently seeking the governorship, the Secretary of State seat is open. Currently, Audrey Blondin is running for that seat http://www.audreyblondin.com/ I don't know of anyone else currently running.

Other interesting questions remain: Will Lieberman take a position in the Bush administration? If so, what happens to his seat? If not, will he run for re-election in 2006? There has been talk of people mounting a primary challenge to him if he seems vulnerable and he does get mixed reviews by a lot of people.

Another question is, who will run for Lt. Governor. There has been some talk about a Dodd/Farrell ticket. I'm a very big fan of Diane Farrell.

Enough for this morning's edition of inside CT Politics.

I think the perception of wrongdoing may kill Malloy, and the fact that he is not known outside of the region.

And, what is up with those Anti-Destefano signs I've seen in Hartford this week? Something about not allowing the circus to come to Hartford