Larry Cafero has given up on negotiations with Democratic leaders on the subject of the State budget. According to a Ken Dixon CT Post report:
Larry Cafero has given up on negotiations with Democratic leaders on the subject of the State budget. According to a Ken Dixon CT Post report:

Minority Republicans, predicting that an imminent budget deal between Gov. M. Jodi Rell and legislative Democrats will not contain enough spending cuts, abandoned bipartisan negotiations on Saturday.

The Republicans said they are afraid that the deal will fail to address the state’s looming multi-billion-dollar deficit.

Speaker of the House Christopher G. Donovan, D-Meriden, called the GOP protest “unfortunate,” but he welcomed their input if they want to rejoin talks.

Rell’s office said Saturday that a negotiated restructuring of the $19-billion budget scheduled to begin July 1 has not been reached.

House Minority Leader Lawrence F. Cafero Jr., R-Norwalk, and Senate Minority Leader John McKinney, R-Fairfield, said during a mid-afternoon news conference that it became plain to them Friday night that their input was being ignored by the Republican governor and majority leaders.

“The macaroni’s cooked,” Cafero said in a news conference outside the House chamber, backed by dozens of House and Senate Republicans. He said he participated briefly in a bipartisan meeting Friday night, but walked out around 9:15, when it became clear that GOP concerns were not part of the talks.

“I’m disappointed in the product,” McKinney said.

“I’ve known all along that the governor is faced with dealing with a Democratic majority that has a veto-proof majority, a Democratic majority who in many budget negotiations have sat there with their hands folded, unwilling to move.”

The GOP leaders said they will not participate in further negotiations because their ideas for further union concessions; privatization of state services; and a reduction in the 52,000-member state government workforce, have been ignored.

“We put forth all of our ideas understanding that they would be discussed, picked and choosed from and unfortunately we found out that’s not going to be the case,” Cafero said. “The governor and the Democrats are on the precipice of a deal.”

He charged that the pending agreement does not include major attempts to address multi-billion-dollar deficits projected in the fiscal year that starts July 1, 2011.

McKinney said recent news of an increase in revenue may have hurt the cause of fiscal austerity.

“Unfortunately, I believe that news of having some extra revenue has given license for the people who are in charge not to engage in or try to seek and find real structural reform for our budget, for how we spend money and how we do business,” McKinney said.

“It appears that the will of the majority is now to simply put a Band-Aid on the problem and not to try to seek and fix the problem.”

Yes, yes, yes.

I’ll take mine with salsa and that delicious humble pie with coffee.

Senator McKinney has in fact declared his intention to seek re-election to the state senate, throwing the door open to anybody who wants to take a stab at Fairfield County’s Congressional seat. And that means anybody.

More likely suspects include State Senator Dan Debicella, who is clearly interested in something other than a supporting role in the hopelessly outnumbered Republican State Senate caucus, and he’s got the “right” kinda cred to gain support from the Washington power structure of the GOP (there is some speculation that McKinney’s moderate Republican didn’t play well with the “C” streeters, et al). Then of course there is Debicella’s peer from Greenwich L. Scott Franz. And how about Mayor Moccia?

But if the Republicans really want to take a run at Himes, they may want to take a look at this guy. He’s an out-of-the-box prospect who could cut into Himes in his Bridgeport base.

Without something unexpected, Himes is looking like a pretty good bet for next year. Continue Reading

In my previous post I mention that State Senator John McKinney of Fairfield is the GOP’s presumptive nominee to take on freshman Democratic Congressman Jim Himes in CT04 next year; Turfie admonishes in the comments therewith that it is not a done deal.

I throw down a wager with Turfie here: dinner & drinks at Fat Cat Joe’s says I’m right, McKinney shall be the GOP nominee in CT04.

What say you, Turfgrrl?

In the interregnum, who shall persuasively argue for any other contender for that slot? Continue Reading