The problem in politics is that you make as many enemies as you do friends.  Such is the sad case of Mr. Ken Curran, of Bethlehem, who was nominated by Democrats in the 32nd Senatorial District to run for the seat vacated by Sen. Lou DeLuca. 

Mr. Curran has been active in Democratic political circles for several years now, so when he decided to take a shot at the 32nd Senatorial District he had a lot of chits to call in as he faced fellow Democrat John T. McCarthy, a man whose resume included a tour as the U.S. Ambassador to Tunisia, amongst a host of qualifications.  Between long-owed favors and the quality of a decent man, local Democrats chose to repay their debts and nominate Ken Curran.

The Waterbury Republican-American pointed out a particular irony this morning in their paper, commenting thus:

“Sen. DeLuca’s successor will be picked in a special election Jan. 15. The Democrats standard-bearer will not be John McCarthy of Woodbury, a former undersecretary of State whose ambassadorial postings included Lebanon and Tunisia. Rather, it will be Kenneth Curran of Bethlehem, a party hack who managed Hartford Mayor Eddie Perez’ 2007 re-election campaign, which diverted city funds to pay for campaign literature. Mayor Perez now is the subject of a grand jury investigation into municipal corruption.”

For what it is worth, we at CTGOP filed the complaint with the State Elections Enforcement Commission on this issue of the diverted city funds for campaign purposes, which we’ve previously examined in our post, “Whitewash in Hartford“.  Mayor Perez’s office sent the “Hartford Educator” newspaper to every home in Hartford with his face plastered all over it, which was a violation of election law.  We filed the complaint in May 2007.  After having spent an estimated $20,000 of city taxpayer dollars for the mailpiece, the State Elections Enforcement Commission fined Mayor Perez a whopping $839.00 one week after his re-election victory in November.  Mr. Curran was the Mayor’s adamant defender in this case.  Interestingly, we learned today that Mayor Perez may be squabbling over the details of the paltry fine – apparently an $839 investment for $20,000 worth of return is still too high a price for “Fast” Eddie Perez.

The Rep-Am finishes with this story from 2001:

“But Mr. Curran’s claim to fame is his harassment of a Bethlehem Democrat in 2001. The victim, Dan Parlato, only wanted Mr. Curran to apologize for calling him at home in the middle of the night to berate him: “I hope you’re happy we lost the election. It’s your fault. I want to meet with you. We’ll settle this face-to-face. I’ll take care of you.” Mr. Parlato told police that was his fourth disturbing call from Mr. Curran during that election cycle.

Police charged Mr. Curran with second-degree harassment. He served 20 hours of community service to make the charge go away, but has never admitted wrongdoing, dismissing his actions as merely poor judgment. Poor judgment and hypocrisy describe the Democrats for nominating a harasser to run for a seat vacated by a man whom they deemed a stain on the Senate for committing a similar offense. At least Sen. DeLuca had the decency to admit his mistake and take his punishment like a man.” -Waterbury Republican-American, “Harassment Hypocrisy”

Mr. Curran does not have the experience appropriate for the job of State Senator, nor apparently, does he have the proper temperament.  All things considered, we’d rather he be blogging, too.