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Two more Democrats - former federal prosecutor Chris Mattei and former West Hartford Mayor Jonathan Harris are formally exploring runs for governor in 2018, joining an increasingly crowded field of potential candidates from both sides of the aisle.

Less than a week after Democratic Gov. Dannel P. Malloy declared he will not seek a third term, Mattei and Harris announced their intention to file paperwork with state elections officials to create exploratory committees. They joined Democratic Mayor Dan Drew of Middletown, who began his exploratory campaign in January, and Jacey Wyatt of Branford.

In a nearly three minute video posted on YouTube, Mattei outlined his reasons for running. "We've arrived at a troubled time,'' he said. "It seems that the values that I grew up with and that so many of us share are being put to the test every day."

A Windsor native who was the former chief of the financial fraud and public corruption unit for the U.S. Attorney's office, Mattei is best known as the prosecutor who won a conviction against former Gov. John G. Rowland, who is currently serving time in federal prison. Mattei, who lives in Hartford's West End, is an outsider to electoral politics, at least compared with some of his potential rivals who have served as mayors or legislators.

Joe Visconti of West Hartford, who ran twice as a Republican, also filed papers on Wednesday for a 2018 governor's run. He said he plans to bypass the state party convention and go straight to a primary, which requires collecting 8,500 Republican signatures. His move would be a repeat of 2014 when he garnered enough signatures to run against Malloy and Greenwich business executive Tom Foley.

In his video, Mattei, 38, makes a play for Democrats who are newly energized by the election of President Donald Trump. "This is a time for citizenship,'' he said. "What I believe is that if we are to resist what's happening in Washington, that work starts right here at home."

In another move prompted by Malloy's announcement, Harris stepped down as commissioner of the state Department of Consumer Protection earlier this week in a move that frees him up to raise money for a campaign. The Democrat, who served as state senator and state representative in addition to mayor, said Tuesday that he is considering a gubernatorial bid.

"I'll be filing an exploratory committee for statewide office with the goal of running for governor,'' Harris said.

While he plans his political future, Harris will be working as a lawyer at Feiner Wolfson LLC, a Hartford law firm.

But Harris reiterated his intention to sit out the 2018 governor's race if Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman runs. Wyman, who turns 71 on Friday, has not publicly announced her plans yet.

Although Wyman has remained silent on her future plans, Capitol insiders say they doubt that Harris would have quit his high-paying, secure state job if Wyman was going to jump into the race.

On Wednesday, Wyman declined to comment to The Courant.

State Sen. Ted Kennedy said he had not made any final decisions about running for the open seat either, but is leaving the possibility open.

"I'm thinking about it,'' Kennedy told The Courant.

Even before Malloy announced his decision, more than a half dozen Republicans had expressed interest in a gubernatorial run. The list of declared candidates includes Shelton Mayor Mark Lauretti, U.S. Army veteran Micah Welintukonis of Coventry and state Rep. Prasad Srinivasan of Glastonbury. Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton, former U.S. Comptroller General David Walker, Trumbull First Selectman Tim Herbst, attorney Peter Lumaj, and Fairfield County business executive Steve Obsitnik are among the candidates who have formed exploratory committees for a possible gubernatorial campaign.

House Speaker Joe Aresimowicz of Berlin, who is not running for governor, said he hopes the governor's race will have no impact on the General Assembly as lawmakers wrestle with important bills before the legislative session wraps up June 7.

"In all sincerity, hopefully none,'' Aresimowicz said when asked Wednesday by The Courant. "This is not a time when we can put our political ambitions ahead of what we need to do for the state of Connecticut. ... It's going to require anyone who is interested in a future office to play it straight, to come to the table, be honest, and not come in, drop a bomb and then go out and do a press conference. I pledge not to do that. I pledge to stay at the table around the clock for however long it takes.''

He added, "We can't do it if people are playing political games.''

Originally posted here:
Two More Democrats and a Republican Interested in Running for Governor - Hartford Courant

Common Dreams

What are the Super-Rich Democrats Waiting For? Common Dreams Democratic Party loyalists are always complaining about the big-money fat cats behind the Republican Party's candidates and platform. Over the last few election cycles, the Democratic Party has lost most state legislatures, governorships, the US Senate ... and more »

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What are the Super-Rich Democrats Waiting For? - Common Dreams

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) is the current darling of the left which tells you just how crazy Democrats have gotten.

CNNPolitics reports, accurately, Waters is having a moment with the biggest online buzz since Bernie Sanders. Elle dubbed her The Millennials Political Rock Star.

Yet shes every bit the over-the-top lefty shes been for decades. Indeed, shes winning all the praise by calling for President Trumps impeachment.

On the record, at least 25 times.

Last week, she told the Los Angeles Press Club, I want this president impeached. She spent the weekend leading a crowd of activists in an Impeach 45! chant.

But MSNBCs Craig Melvin pressed her on the issue Tuesday, and she quickly insisted, I have not called for impeachment.

No, she claimed, she wants the Russian-collusion stuff investigated first: We need the facts in order to do the impeachment. And Im going to work every day to try and help get those facts and to reveal them to our public until, of course, impeachment has taken place.

Waters, in short, cant be bothered to make sense and thats why they love her.

The rest is here:
Democrats' all-too-telling love for Maxine Waters - New York Post

President Trump took to Twitter on Monday morning to recommendsome reading: a book that suggests Democrats have no ideas.

The book, by Michael J. Knowles,is titled Reasons to Vote for Democrats. The cover promises a comprehensive guide, and the table of contents includes chapters on Foreign Policy, Civil Rights and Homeland Security. The following 260 pages are blank.

A great book for your reading enjoyment: REASONS TO VOTE FOR DEMOCRATS by Michael J. Knowles, Trump wrote on Twitter.

The endorsement of the book, an Amazon bestseller published on Feb. 8, comes as Trump has suggested he might reach out to Democrats for help with health care and other priorities stuck on Capitol Hill.

[Reasons to Vote for Democrats jumps to the top of Amazons bestseller list. But its pages are blank.]

It also comes after some members of Trumps team, including counselor Kellyanne Conway, have faced criticism for crossing ethical lines by using the White House to promote commercial products. Conway plugged the clothing line of Trumps daughter Ivanka Trump in February.

The promotion of Knowles's book, which has a list price of$9.99, was just one of a handful of early morning Trump tweets on Monday, including another in which he took another swipe at the media.

The Fake Media (not Real Media) has gotten even worse since the election, Trump wrote. Every story is badly slanted. We have to hold them to the truth!

Trumpthen weighed in on a special congressional election being held in Georgia, taking aim at the Democratic frontrunner, Jon Ossoff, whom the president called a "super Liberal" and accused of wanting to "protect criminals, allow illegal immigration and raise taxes!

More:
Trump plugs 'Reasons to Vote for Democrats' book filled with blank pages - Washington Post

Bernie Sanders and Tom Perez are working together to build a party that puts economic populism at the top of the agenda.

Senator Bernie Sanders. (AP Photo / John Locher)

It is easy to dismiss the Come Together and Fight Back Tour that this week will take Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and Democratic National Committee chairman Tom Perez to eight cities in eight states this week as mere political theater. But this tour has the potential to finally begin redefininga Democratic Party that is still struggling with its identity after the disastrous 2014 and 2016 election cycles. Thats a big deal, not just for a party that lacks focus but for an American political process that will alter dramaticallyfor better or for worsein the months and years to come.

Political parties change identities over time, as anyone who has watched the sorry trajectory of the Republican Party of Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, and Dwight Eisenhower can certainly attest. Sometimes, parties evolve. Sometimes, parties respond to moral and political demands that can no longer be denied. That was certainly the case for Democrats in the late 1940s and 50s, when wise members of the partybegan to recognize the necessity of a clean break with the Southern segregationists who had historically been central figures in the Democratic coalition.

Though many Democrats still do not fully recognize the fact, their party is again at a moment where it must change.

The party of Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman began veering in the 1970s toward more centrist economic approaches. By the 1990s, it was swamped by so-called Third Way thinking that embraced free-trade fabulism, deregulation of banking and Wall Street, and the cruel lie that there can be some sort of win-win compromise between crony capitalism and the common good. It was never true that all Democrats favored centrist economics, but too many leaders constrained the partys identity with a perceived need to keep on the right side of Wall Street.

Democrats cannot simply say no to Donald Trump; they must provide a coherent alternative to billionaire populism.

Then came the 2016 primary race, which drew clear lines of distinction. The Sanders campaign, with its urgent advocacy for a $15-an-hour minimum wage, fair trade, single-payer health care, taxes on the rich, necessary regulation of big banks, and profound political reform, excited millions of voterparticularly frustrated Democrats, progressive independents, and, above all, the young voters who will decide whether the Democratic Party has a future. And although Sanders did not win the nomination, he won the debate. The party platform reflected his campaigns progressive values. And Hillary Clintonembraced much of his agenda in her fall campaign.

Although Tom Perez did not back Sanders in 2016, he has a long track record of positioning himself on the left onlabor rights and a host of other issues.That helped him when he faced off againsta key Sanders backer, RepresentativeKeith Ellison of Minnesota, ina closely contestedrace for DNC chair.

The Perez-Ellison race was often portrayed as a contest between the party establishment and the Sanders camp, but there was more to it than that. Many 2016 Clinton backers, including Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer and the heads of several major unions, supported Ellison in 2017. And Perez went out of his way to emphasize his belief that the party needed to change.

The party does need to change. It must become dramatically more militant on economic issues. Democrats cannot simply say no to Donald Trump; they must provide a clear and coherent progressive populist alternative to the billionaire populism of a president who never wasand never will becommitted to advancing the interests of workers, farmers, small business owners, students, and retirees.

THE STAKES ARE HIGHER NOW THAN EVER. GET THE NATION IN YOUR INBOX.

Democrats must also provide a clear and coherent alternative to the Third Way politics that weakens the message, and the appeal, of their party. The era of the so-called New Democrats and the old DLC (officially the Democratic Leadership Council but, in reality, as Jesse Jackson explained, Democrats for the Leisure Class) must be finishedonce and for all.

That is, however, easier said than done. Real change is hard. It must be conscious and it must take place in the open. Thats where the Sanders-Perez tour comes in.

The senator and the party chair are working together to send a clear signal about where the Democratic Party stands. That signal will have to get even clearer; but having Sanders and Perez on the same page is important.

Theyre saying the right things,announcing that their tour will speak out for raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour, pay equity for women, rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure, combating climate change, making public colleges and universities tuition-free, criminal justice reform, comprehensive immigration reform and tax reform which demands that the wealthy and large corporations start paying their fair share of taxes.

Democrats need to recognize that real change is hard. It must be conscious and it must take place in the open.

And theyre traveling to the right placesMaine, Kentucky, Florida, Nevada, Utah, and Arizonaacknowledging the need for a 50-state strategy. Theyre inviting the right people, including Ellison (who will appear midweek in Texas and Nebraska with Sanders) and Planned Parenthood Action Fund president Cecile Richards (who will close the week off with Sanders and Perez in Las Vegas).

No one should imagine that this is the end of a process, however. It is only a beginning. But it is the right beginning.

It matters that, in their joint statement announcing the tour, Sanders and Perez correctly assessed the challenging moment in which the party must define not just its agenda but its mission. At a time of massive income and wealth inequality and a shrinking middle class, we need a government which represents all Americans, not just Wall Street, multinational corporations and the top 1percent, they said. Regardless of where they live or their political affiliations, most people understand that it is absurd for Republicans in Congress to support huge tax breaks for billionaires while pushing for cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. They understand that the recent Republican health-care proposal thatwould have thrown 24 million Americans off of their health insurance, substantially raised premiums for older workers, and defunded Planned Parenthood while, at the same time, providing almost $300 billion in tax breaks to the top two percent is a disgraceful idea.

Now Sanders and Perez and millions of grassroots Democrats must push forward. They must build a different Democratic Party. It cannot be a party that merely opposes Trump and Trumpism. What Sanders and Perez and Democratic activists must forge is a Democratic Party that, with its embrace of economic and social justice, can present itself as the absolute antithesis of Trump and Trumpism.

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The Democratic Party Must Finally Abandon Centrism - The Nation.