Orient Lodge

This evening, Democrats across the State of Connecticut will gather at conventions to select their nominees for State Senate. Some of these conventions will be small quiet affairs where old friends gather to nominate their current State Senators for another term.

Saturday was the Democratic State Convention in New Britain. I had family events to attend to and couldn’t attend. However, Christine Stuart has this report up on CT NewsJunkie.

Tonight will be the Democratic Congressional Seat conventions. I haven’t heard details about the conventions in the first and third congressional districts. It is clear who the nominees will be and the conventions are likely to be about as exciting as the State Convention was.

Over in the Fifth Congressional District, Chris Murphy’s convention is supposed to start this evening at 6:30 PM at Crosby High School, 300 Pierpont Road, Waterbury. In the Second Congressional District, Joe Courtney’s nominating convention will take place at UCONN Storrs Campus Rome Commons Ballroom, starting at 7 PM.

While I’ve received more emails about Courtney’s convention than I have of any of the other incumbents, the most buzz right now is about the Fourth Congressional District Convention, where Jim Himes is expected to receive the nomination. It is taking place at the Cesar Batalla School, 606 Howard Ave, in Bridgeport, also starting at 7 PM.

The Himes campaign also has an interesting idea, become a Virtual Delegate. You can donate and make a nominating speech. The event is also up on Facebook and there is an after party.

Since I’m driving to Virginia tomorrow, I’ll probably miss these conventions. However, there are plenty of other great conventions coming up. Later, I’ll post information about some of the State Senate Conventions that will happen next week.

Baby alpacas are expected at Alpaca Hill Farm in Seymour, CT in a couple of weeks.

Alpaca Hill Farm has a small shop on their farm which we stopped at just before Christmas last year. We had a great discussion with the owners and they mentioned that they had some alpacas that were do sometime in the spring and we might want to stop by in May to see some baby alpacas.

Well, as Fiona and I were out doing errands today, we drove past the farm, and I thought, let’s stop by, see if anyone is there, and if so, if there are any new alpacas. It was a beautiful spring day, and Eileen Warner was sitting on the deck. She told us that the alpacas are due in about two weeks, so they are planning on having an open house, hopefully sometime around mid June.

As we were chatting, Tom Warner showed up with three recently shorn male alpacas in his trailer. It is striking how small a newly shorn alpaca looks. Tom and Eileen led them into the field as Fiona and I watched and patted the herd dog. The new alpacas got to know their new surroundings as they glanced warily at the dog, curiously at the ducks, and even more curiously at the alpacas they will be living with.

We look forward to a chance to see some baby alpacas in the next month or two.

(Originally posted as a comment on MyLeftNutmeg)

Quick random comments: (More to follow when I have a chance).

I met both Michael Renzullo and Matt Brennan at the Northwest Leadership Breakfast at Audrey Blondin’s a few weeks ago. Matt ran for State Senate last time around, and with almost no funding got a third of the vote. He believes that with a level playing field, he can defeat the incumbent. Mike Renzullo has been running a strong campaign, doing a nice job of tying it into service politics, such as participating in Earth Day and the MS Walk in Litchfield. They are both great candidates and are actively trying to raise funds to qualify for the CT Clean Election program

While we are talking Clean Elections and the State Senate races, it is worth noting that John Hartwell has met is goal of qualifying for clean election funding. Martin Goldberg has been working hard on qualifying, as has, I am told, Art House who has an exploratory committee set up for his run in the 8th Senate District. Latest rumors are that Frank Farricker who ran for State Senate last time in the 36th District isn’t planning give it another shot with Bill Nickerson retiring. If the Democrats field a good candidate this could be another interesting race to watch.

Connecticut State Senate Candidate, Mike Renzullo will be walking in the Multiple Sclerosis walk at 9 AM starting in Litchfield. He is encouraging people to join him for the walk. If you can’t make it to Litchfield, there are several other walks going on through out Connecticut today. Mike is running a great campaign, including service politics into his activities and sending out a great newsletter.

In his latest newsletter, he has a great section about picking up trash on Earth Day.

Last Saturday was Earth Day, and folks gathered at Coe Park in Torrington for a city-wide clean up. I was assigned to pick up trash at a park on Oak Street. This is where older kids hold Little League games and play basketball, and there is a playground for the younger kids. My cousin Kevin used to live in that neighborhood, and we used to go to this park as kids. This is a perfect example of how we can all have a direct effect in making our communities a little nicer. In about an hour and a half, I picked up an entire trash bag full of cigarette butts, broken glass, cans, bottles, food wrappers, and other various types of refuse. While I was working, a couple of the parents who were there watching their kids joined in, and started collecting trash, too!

For a more traditional campaign event, please consider stopping by at the fundraiser for Martin Goldberg who is also running for State Senate in Connecticut. The event starts at 2 PM at the home of Geena Clonan and Peter Schrobenhauser, 1119 Sasco Hill Road, Fairfield, CT 06824. Details can be found on MyLeftNutmeg.

In the evening, Fiona and I will make a second attempt at a show on BlogTalkRadio. I was fairly disappointed that there were technical problems last week. Support from BlogTalkRadio seemed fairly responsive during the attempt, but the problem was not resolved during the show slot, and the folks at BlogTalkRadio failed to follow up on what happened or how it has been addressed, so I am a little bit dubious about whether the show will end up happening this week, or the quality of BlogTalkRadio’s service.

Anything else exciting going on?

From May 20th through May 23rd, the 18th annual Computers, Freedom, and Privacy conference will take place in New Haven. This year’s topic is Technology Policy ’08. Early bird registration ends today, so if you are thinking of attending and haven’t signed up yet, today would be a great day to sign up.

In addition, “The Yale Journal of Law & Technology (YJoLT) is seeking essay-length submissions concerning the technology policy platform of the new American presidential administration.” The deadline for the entries is May 5th, and details can be found on the YJoLT Essay Contest

More information can be found at the CFP 2008 Main Page as well as many other sites they list, such as their Facebook Group and their blog. On their blog they have a post entitled Bloggers Wanted. If you are a blogger and planning on attending, please let the organizers know.

It looks like a great conference and I look forward to attending as much of it as possible.

(Initially posted at MyLeftNutmeg).

Thirteen Republican State Senators have introduced an amendment to S.B. No. 442, AN ACT CONCERNING AUTHORITY OF BOARDS OF SELECTMEN AND THE VALUE OF PROPERTY NECESSARY FOR ELIGIBILITY TO VOTE.

The amendment, LCO No. 5346 states, in part,

(b) In each primary, election or referendum, when an elector has entered the polling place, the elector shall (1) announce the elector's street address and name to the official checkers in a tone sufficiently loud and clear to enable all the election officials present to hear the same, and (2) (A) present to the official checkers [the elector's Social Security card or any other] any valid preprinted form of identification which shows the elector's name and photograph and either the elector's address [,] or signature, [or photograph,] or (B) sign a statement under penalty of false statement, on a form prescribed by the Secretary of the State, that the elector is the person whose name appears on the official checklist.

These sort of amendments have frequently been introduced in many states in an effort to suppress voting by people who do not have photographic identification. It particularly targets the poor, minorities, and young voters.

Please, quickly contact your State Legislators to oppose this amendment.

Update: They have also introduced it as Amendment LCO No. 5350 to SB 447, AN ACT CONCERNING ELECTRONIC FILING OF CAMPAIGN REPORTS.

Today, George Bush visits Connecticut to raise funds for David Cappiello’s bid to unseat Congressman Chris Murphy in Connecticut’s Fifth Congressional District. However, his visit is also bound to help raise money for Chris Murphy as well as for Jim Himes, who is challenging Chris Shays in Connecticut’s Fourth Congressional District.

Chris Murphy sent out an email asking for people to donate here. Charles Monaco sent out an email pointing out the CT Progressive Bloggers Act Blue page raising money for both Chris Murphy and Jim Himes.

Connecticut Opposes the War has been organizing protests for both Hartford, where Bush will “read a statement on Malaria Awareness” and in Kent. Visit their website for details.

Other upcoming political events in Connecticut include two events for Democratic State Senate candidates. Martin Goldberg, who is running for State Senate in the 28th District, Easton, Fairfield, Newtown, and Weston, will be having a fundraiser on May 4th from 2 until 4 PM at the house of Geena Clonan and Peter Schrobenhauser in Fairfield. Susan Bysiewicz, Jim Himes, John Hartwell, Dan Malloy, Kim Fawcett, Tom Christiano, and Tom Drew are all expected to be in attendance.

Also on May 4th, is the Multiple Sclerois walk. It will be taking place in several towns across Connecticut. Mike Renzullo, who is running for State Senate in the 30th State Senate district, recently sent out an email encouraging people to participate. He went to high school with Geizha Ahles, who is fighting MS and they will be participating in the Walk in Litchfield.

I like it that Mike is using his campaign to encourage people to get involved in more than just the political process. It reminds me of the Service Politics Institute up in Burlington, VT, which does a great job of tying politics and service together.

Will Service Politics be part of the discussion in the Panel discussion about 21st Century Activism and the Future of the Democratic Party taking place at Fairfield High School on May 13th? I sure hope it is. This panel will include Jim Dean, Jim Himes, Kim Fawcett and Ken Flatto and be followed by a concert by BUILT IN MOTION

In this same vein, Mitch Fuchs, chair of the Fairfield DTC has sent out an email highlighting a concert to benefit the Connecticut Burns Care Foundation. It will take place May 29th, and details can be found on the Connecticut Burns Care Foundation website.

So, whether you want to protest with folks in Hartford or Kent, attend some fundraisers in Fairfield, or go for a walk to raise money for the MS Society, there are plenty of upcoming opportunities to be involved here in Connecticut.

I'm in a meeting in New York, but I just got a call from Kim saying that Speaker of the Connecticut Assembly, Jim Amann is not running for re-election. I didn't get a chance to get details.

Update: It is also being reported at
cthouserules, CTNewsJunkie, MyLeftNutmeg, as well as My diary on MyLeftNutmeg