Last night, Republican delegates to State Senate Conventions gathered to nominate candidates for the Connecticut State Senate.  Though a number of terrific candidates were nominated, there were very few competitive Conventions.  The only contested Convention was in the 8th State Senate District, where State Representative Kevin Witkos, of Canton, and Simsbury Selectwoman Moira Wertheimer sparred for the Republican nomination.  The seat is being vacated by Sen. Thomas J. Herlihy, whose 2006 race was among the closest in the State.

State Rep. Witkos is a six year veteran of the State House and a sergeant with the Canton PD.  Wertheimer, in addition to her work on the Board of Selectmen in Simsbury, is an RN.  Wertheimer focused on her diverse background of achievements while highlighting the strategic advantage of running as a Republican candidate out of Simsbury a la Sen. Herlihy.  Witkos emphasized his experience and compelling biography as a law enforcement officer when making his pitch to the delegates.  In the end, the Convention voted 36-12 in favor of State Rep. Witkos. 

The race may not be over, however.  Wertheimer’s 25% of the delegates automatically qualifies her for a spot on the August primary ballot if she so chooses.  It remains to be seen whether the race is headed to primary or not.  Regardless of the candidate that ends up the Republican nominee, it is clear that the Republican line will be occupied by a terrific candidate when Labor Day arrives.

Presumptive Republican nominee John McCain has beat the Democrats to the punch on this one.

Yesterday, McCain for President head honcho Rick Davis sent out an e-mail to the Faithful pushing a new set of McCain for President wares - the “eco-friendly” product line.  You can now purchase your “unstructured organic cotton canvas” hat or a tote bag, the description of which is: “5 ounce organic cotton, lightweight and affordable, is woven in the United States where each part of the process can be certified organic”.  Neither Sen. Clinton nor Sen. Obama have such featured items yet.  It is a heady day for Republicans, who have often been far behind the curve when it comes to 100% organic cotton onesies.

Less heady by far for the GOP was the surprising special election loss in Mississippi’s rock-ribbed Republican 1st Congressional District.  In the low-turnout special, Travis Childers, a “Democrat” whose policy positions actually make him more conservative than many New England Republicans, won a 54%-46% victory over Republican Greg Davis.  Fortuitously, the National Republican Congressional Committee is on the second floor of the RNC Building, so those jumping out the window this morning won’t have far to fall.

With this loss, and the continued jitters in some circles about the portent of a Barack Obama candidacy, some Republicans are already starting to eulogize the 2008 election season as a wipeout.  We finally discover who were those people that bought into that “permanent Republican majority” talk of not so long ago.  Add this all up, then pile on the “John McCain hates Global Warming” messaging from this week from Camp McCain and you quickly get the Old Guard looking for the exits. 

But while they are running away, cooler heads are starting to wonder if this year’s Republican primary voters had looked into their crystal ball and seen what was coming.  McCain’s big breaks with President Bush over global warming, Gitmo, and pork barrel spending may be just what the doctor ordered for Republicans in 2008.  Generic balloting is all doom-and-gloom for Republicans - if you haven’t heard “1994 in Reverse” yet, just wait a bit - but McCain is competitive in battleground states across the nation. 

So stop snickering - order your 70% bamboo, 30% organic cotton, biodegradable t-shirt now.

In her acceptance speech Monday night before Third District Democrats, nine-term incumbent Rosa DeLauro praised herself for “making the tough decisions,” as the most liberal member of Congress. She said the “middle class is being squeezed like never before,” and promised continued vigilance against big oil and mortgage lenders.

One of DeLauro’s recent “tough decisions” was her leadership on the issue of horse meat, or rather the “slaughter” of horses who have come to the end of their lives in the pen or prairie.

According to the Jim Santomaso of the Livestock Marketing Association, the ban creates a humanitarian problem since there is no way to properly dispose of horses who are dying or head to the final grazing area in the sky.

DeLauro’s Agriculture subcommittee ending funding for oversight of three horse slaughtering facilities in the country, effectively ending the practice. You, know, a day doesn’t go by when someone from Derby or East Haven calls this office to complain about horse slaughtering and how cruel it is. But that is the DeLauro mindset. Turns out this policy, a priority for someone who represents a district with a few horses grazing in maybe Orange, has consequences.

“We told the lawmakers that horse owners want and need a legitimate, practical and humane way to dispose of their horses that have come to the end of their useful life, but still have value as a slaughter animal,” Santomaso said.

The “terrible result” of legislation banning this slaughter, he said, “is to close legitimately operated food processing plants, based solely on cultural and emotional arguments. And that sets a very dangerous precedent of banning a legitimate meat product for reasons other than food safety or public health.”

Supporters of the ban, Santomaso said, have been successful in framing the issue “as an emotional one, similar to a person dealing with an ailing pet. What we told members of Congress, and their staffs, is that the horse slaughter issue can, indeed be an emotional one. But it’s much more than that.  It encompasses humane animal treatment, private property rights, and economic rights.  LMA’s member businesses are the marketing agents for thousands of U.S. horse owners.

So, while people struggling with higher energy prices, pay more taxes than any other state in the union and watch the equity in their homes evaporate, Rosa DeLauro continues her quest for animal justice.

There has to be a joke in there someplace.

The year of 2006 was a fateful one for GOP State Representative Diana Urban, of the 43rd State House District.  At first, she was widely rumored as a potential candidate to run for the open 18th State Senate seat, before ultimately yielding to State Rep. Lenny Winkler.  Undeterred, she waged an ill-fated bid for the United States Senate, soliciting petitions at local fairs and parades before ultimately falling far short of the required number of signatures to gain ballot access.  With those quixotic endeavors behind her, she cruised to an easy re-election in the 43rd House seat on the Republican line.

But she wasn’t done yet.  Just two weeks after winning re-election Urban announced that she was switching her party to Democrat from Republican.  The move angered many Republicans who saw that State Rep. Urban had stayed on the Republican line while the former State Representative from Stonington/North Stonington, U.S. Congressman Rob Simmons, appeared on the ballot above her name - and while Simmons racked up solid victories in both towns.  With Simmons narrowly defeated, she flipped to Democrats knowing that the hometown hero Simmons would likely not be on the 2nd Congressional ballot again. 

There were many words thrown about in those days by Republicans - traitor, turncoat, back stabber - and the fact being that Urban effectively lied to her constituents by appearing as a Republican on the ballot was particularly insulting.  Feelings of revenge soon turned to exasperation as Representative Urban turned her energy, in a very public fashion, to advocating against the use of the ankus on elephants during the 2007 Legislative Session.  Though some folks found the cause honorable, in the light of other prevailing State issues - like the highest per capita tax burden in the United States of America, like having high electricity rates, or being the State that has the fastest loss of 18-34 year olds in the nation, the issue seemed somewhat less worthy of the grandstanding it received.  And her constituents knew it.

Republicans in Stonington & North Stonington have been discussing the race in the 43rd District for months now, plotting their strategy.  With the Republican nominating Conventions for multi-town State House districts coming up on Thursday, May 15th, the time was right for an engaging young Republican from Pawcatuck, Brian Kluberdanz, to make his announcement of candidacy.  New London’s The Day had the story today.  In his comments to the newspaper, he spoke about why he is running: ” I thought it would be a great way to give back to the community. I think a lot can be done for Stonington and North Stonington.”  Brian is a graduate of Stonington High School and Boston University.  He did not comment for the newspaper about his affinity for elephants and/or bullhooks.

Though the district has been held by a Republican since 1991 - Rob Simmons until his election to Congress in 2000, and then by the GOP version of Diana Urban - it will promise to be a competitive district this fall.  Urban is well known for her extensive door-to-door campaigning, bragging to The Day that, ”I’ll start walking the district next week so I hope he has his walking shoes on.”  But with a great deal of hard work and a generous dose of accountability for her actions, the race in the 43rd District will certainly be one to watch in November.

On Saturday, May 10, Republicans from all over Connecticut gathered in their respective Congressional Districts to nominate Republican candidates for U.S. Congress.  With Sen. John McCain at the top of the ticket and Congressional approval ratings at a strong 21%, fielding a full slate of candidates will hold Congressional Democrats accountable for their mistakes over the past 16 months.

We’ve already reported on the rousing nomination of First Congressional District candidate Joe Visconti.  His Convention was well received by many of the delegates in attendance, with most commenting about it being the “most energetic” Convention they had seen in years.  In Eastern Connecticut’s Second Congressional District, Captain Sean Sullivan was nominated to challenge one-term Congressman Joe Courtney.  In accepting the nomination by unanimous voice vote, Sullivan used a humorous story from his submarine days to make the case for his candidacy:

“I am reminded of a time in command of a submarine when we were conducting exercises in the southern Gulf of Thailand. The ship was sitting on the surface in shallow waters and a large tanker approached with constant bearing and decreasing range. If you are a mariner, you know constant bearing, decreasing range is no good. Ultimately, the range will be zero and a collision will ruin your day.

My supply officer was the contact coordinator. Navy Supply Officers are affectionately known as “Chop”. They put on a great meal, but most are not great mariners.

On this occasion, my Chop called to the bridge with a recommended course change to the east. It was a good course to avoid the tanker and all the other ships in the area. It was a textbook course change for collision avoidance. Only one problem. If we turned to the east, we’d run aground on Vietnam! I did not take that recommendation.”  - Sean Sullivan, May 10, 2008

In the Third Congressional District, Boaz ItsHaky, a Bethany acupuncturist, is the Republican nominee.  Bo has a diverse array of interests and a compelling personal story - growing up on a kibbutz in Israel, serving in the IDF, and then migrating to the United States.  A Member of the Republican State Central Committee from the 17th State Senate District, Bo will continue his great service to his Party and to his adopted nation.  Hopefully the voters of the 3rd Congressional District will “Go with Bo” on Election Day.

Connecticut’s Republican Congressman Christopher Shays was nominated once again in the Fourth CD at Darien Town Hall on Saturday evening.  In accepting the nomination, Congressman Shays commented about the 2006 results, saying: “The last election left me as a caucus of one,” U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays of Bridgeport said in his speech accepting the nomination. “Democrats didn’t really win the election of 2006. Republicans lost that election because we lost our way.”  Shays, the only Republican Congressman from New England, will fight hard to keep his seat from Democratic challenger Jim Himes.

And in the Fifth Congressional District, State Sen. David Cappiello was nominated to face one-term Congressman Chris Murphy.  The 5th had been the one anticipated contested Convention in the State as late as Wednesday of last week.  But the announcement that former State Rep. Tony Nania would not challenge Cappiello ended that storyline.  Cappiello commented that, “The people of Connecticut are tired of a do-nothing Congress that has failed to address their needs, and worse, has an unacceptable habit of saying one thing but doing another.”  Look for Cappiello to wage an aggressive bid for Congress against Rep. Murphy this fall.

In December 2006/January 2007, with the stinging defeats of 2006 still painful, most notably the 83 vote squeaker in Connecticut’s 2nd District that sent Joe Courtney to Congress instead of Rob Simmons, Chris Healy and I spent a considerable amount of time assessing the damage and planning the reconstruction of the Connecticut Republican Party as a statewide political organization.  We then collaborated on a document that would eventually become our strategic plan when Healy became Chairman.  “Fight or Die!”was warmly received by those who reviewed it - indeed, much of the discussion about Healy becoming Chairman was ignited by its circulation.  I returned to Connecticut after five weeks of European backpacking to find that Healy had been elected State Party Chairman and I was hired to help him implement our vision.

Perhaps the keynote section of “Fight or Die!”were the pages that Healy had cleverly dubbed ‘The Electronic Tusk’.  It called for wholesale change in CTGOP’s online footprint - with a robust effort made to push information to Republican Town Committees and similiar organizations via the CTGOP website, a blog, and various other tools.  With more content than ever before at www.ctgop.org, The Everyday Republican having recently celebrated its first birthday (May 4), and numerous other tools coming online, ‘The Electronic Tusk’ has been one of the success stories of Healy’s tenure as State Party Chairman. 

We now use the Internet aggressively to distribute information and advocate for Republican candidates throughout Connecticut, with applications such as:

GOP CONNECT - A recent addition to the CTGOP sphere, GOP CONNECT is our interactive reference map with the contact information for every Republican Town Committee Chairman in the State.  In the near future, each Town’s McCain for President Coordinator will also be listed so that people interested in getting involved with Sen. McCain’s campaign can do so.

Photo Gallery by Flickr - Another new feature, we now post photos from our events and activities on our CTGOP Flickr website.  Already, we’ve posted 249 pictures from an array of events - President George W. Bush’s visit to Connecticut, Senate candidate David Blackwell’s announcement of candidacy, and the First Congressional District Convention.

POTUS 2008 Election Tracker - We added a nationwide, interactive map to track the February 5th, 2008, primary results.  Once the Democrats have settled their own nominating contest, we’ll track state-by-state election polling and electoral vote counts with the map.

CTGOP News Channel - Our YouTube Channel, CTGOP News Channel will be undergoing a refresh in coming days so that we can add new content and expand readership.

Online Petitions - We now use our online petitions application to generate support for CTGOP positions and issue advocacy efforts.  A recent petition on In-State Tuition for Illegal Immigration was signed by more than 1300 people in just three weeks.  We currently are using the petition to collect requests for McCain for President bumper stickers.

Drop.Io- A few of our recent posts have featured mp3 podcasts from Chairman Healy.  Drop.Io allows the Chairman to record these podcasts over a cell phone from virtually anywhere and then post the recording in an easy-to-use format in a matter of seconds.  As the campaign season ramps up, we’ll be using this more aggressively for a number of different activities.

After only one year, and so many exciting events to come (Bush Dinner 2008, Presidential campaign, Congressional and State elections), the online future for CTGOP is bright.  One development at the national level we’ll be following is the new initiative by Soren Dayton, Jon Henke, and Patrick Ruffini - The Next Right.  Bringing innovation and fresh perspective to the Republican Party will be the means via which we make the Party vibrant again, in Connecticut and in the nation.  As we wrote so many months ago now, Connecticut Republicans have a choice: to fight now or perish as a political party. 

We are in the fight now.

First Daughter Jenna Bush - rather now, Hager, got married yesterday evening in Crawford, Texas, at her familial ranch. The lucky groom is former White House aide Henry Hager.

You can check out the photos from the event, provided by the White House.

The newlyweds plan to move to Baltimore, Maryland, in the coming weeks.