Archive - Nov 9, 2009
Reactions to Rell Not Running for Re-election
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Mon, 11/09/2009 - 20:40I must admit that the first news I received that Gov. Rell had decided not to run for re-election came in a press release from Stamford Mayor Dan Malloy.
I thank the Governor for her years of public service to the State of Connecticut, and I wish her and her family all the best.
We now know that Connecticut will have a new Governor in January of 2011.
You have to hand it to Mayor Malloy's team for being quick on the response and ever gracious.
The first place I went to get the full breaking news story was CTNewsJunkie. Sure enough, ten minutes earlier Christine had the story up. Of course the serious political junkies at MyLeftNutmeg had been talking about this for half an hour and the folks at CT Local Politics were gearing up for the discussion.
Three minutes after potential gubernatorial hopeful Mayor Malloy sent out his press release, a release came from as yet announced gubernatorial hopeful Senate President Williams.
Gov. Rell should be thanked for her years of public service and work on behalf of Connecticut residents. I wish her and her family well as they begin the next chapter of their lives. In the meantime, the best thing we can do for the next governor - whoever it is - is to work together to grow jobs and help stabilize our economy.
Two minutes later, Connecticut Democratic Party Chair Nancy DiNardo sent off her comments:
I thank Governor Rell for her service and wish her the best. It's not an easy time to be a governor, and it's clear that Connecticut needs - and deserves - a chief executive who goes to bed every night and wakes up every day thinking about innovative and unique ideas to get this state and its people through arguably the most difficult economic climate in a generation. I feel confident that our bench of candidates for this position will bring to the table the kind of ideas and proposals that Connecticut voters will be able to relate to and have confidence in. This is good news for our party, and the people of this state.
Yet it took over an hour before the ripple was heard in Washington where Nathan Daschle, executive director of the Democratic Governors Association, announced
Connecticut voters are looking for a leader with a vision for the future, an understanding of the economic hardships families face, and the courage to make the tough decisions. We are fortunate to have a strong field of Democratic candidates who are well-known public servants, each of whom has the knowledge, leadership, and judgment to guide the state through these tough economic times.
Moving Connecticut into our list of top-tier pickup opportunities means that the DGA will invest in the state to ensure a Democrat wins in 2010.
However, given the uncertainty concerning the future of the Citizens' Election Program, it is unclear what and when the Democratic Governors Association will be able to do in the race here in Connecticut.
Things just got a whole lot more interesting.
Filing FCC Comments Online: Cablevision Encryption Follow Up
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Mon, 11/09/2009 - 14:48Last month, I wrote a blog post about Cablevision seeking to encrypt basic cable in New York City. I wrote about submitting a comment to the FCC about this a couple weeks later, and a review of some of the comments in the Battle for Digital Cable.
The original public notice listed the reply date as November 6th. The public notice also had a section that said,
"Comments and oppositions filed must indicate that they have been served on Petitioner." It provided a physical address for the lawyers for the petitioner and provided no means of serving the comments on the Petitioner electronically.
As I read through the comments, the only comment that indicated that it had been served on the petitioner was in an errata submitted by the New York City Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications.
I contacted to the FCC to ask how they would consider the comments that have been submitted without having been physically served on the Petitioner and without notice in the comment that it had been so served.
Friday, I received a message back from the FCC pointing to a Memorandum Opinion and Order. In the order, they waived, sua sponte the requirement that required service on all parties and the indication of such service in the responses. They go on to explain that since this was a docketed proceeding in which all of the comments are available in the Electronic Comment Filing System, the needs to service the petitioner directly is unnecessary. In doing so, they provided Cablevision an extra ten days to provide their response.
Personally, I’m very pleased with the development. It means that important comments will be considered as part of the public record. I would like to see this set as a standard. Any time the public can file comments in the Electronic Comment Filing System there should be no additional requirement for service of comments.
