The word is that Democratic Speaker of the House Jim Amann will announce his intention to seek the office of Governor at Milford City Hall at 6:30 Thursday night.
Mua ha ha ha!

Why does Jim Amann want to run for governor? Well, this excerpt from the Journal Inquirer will jerk a tear:

“Right after the holidays, my wife, Terri, and I are going to sit down and have a heart-to-heart talk about it,” Amann said. I have a lot to think about, if I want to continue my political career. Being speaker isn’t forever.”

It looks like there’s a lot of trouble planned for the Speaker at this event, and it isn’t from Republicans. It’s from the lefties who resent his backing of Joe Lieberman. Go to MyLeftNutmeg for details on what he can expect from them.

Speaker Amann is an ethically challenged fellow. This is, after all, the same Speaker of the House who managed to pull in significant donations to the charity he worked for from lobbyists with business before him.

Ultimately, his arrangement was ruled a conflict of interest. But one of the staffers he dispatched to argue before the Citizen’s Ethics Advisory Board that the practice was just fine last April is apparently going to play a significant role in Amann’s gubernatorial bid.

Robert Frankel, chief of staff for House Democrats, is rumored to be the guy Amann will name as his campaign treasurer.

So… if you come to do business with the Speaker or House leadership… are you dealing with the Speaker’s staff… or the Amann for Governor staff?

With the primary process well underway and the battle for delegate counts incredibly tight, the Republican National Convention may well be the sight of a monumental showdown for the Republican nomination. Planning for the Convention, to be held in Minneapolis, Minnesota on September 1-4, 2008, is already in full swing even though many of the delegates to that convention have not yet been named. Yesterday, the organizers for the Republican National Convention held a video conference to announce that Ustream.tv will be the official provider of live, streaming video from Minneapolis.

The 2008 Convention promises to be an exciting event, and the organizers have done a great deal, using technology, to build a better event. They are placing a heavy emphasis on a “Green Convention”. They are reaching out to bloggers to bring them closer to the action. And with Ustream, more people than ever before will be able to see the Convention from an entirely different perspective than ever before.

All this may well whet your appetite and get you asking the question, “where do I sign up?” In Connecticut, the process for selecting delegates to the Republican National Convention is spelled out in the State Party Bylaws. As a winner-take-all state, the 27 bound delegates will be pledged to vote for the winner of the Connecticut Presidential Preference Primary on the first ballot. The winning Presidential candidate’s campaign committee will recommend a slate of delegates to the State Party Chairman, Chris Healy, for selection. Chairman Healy will then bring the slate to the Republican State Central Committee meeting in March for approval.

It goes without debate that things are starting to coalesce for John McCain. After being left for dead six months ago, McCain has risen from the ashes to steal the thunder in all but one of the major GOP contests thus far. With Rudy Giuliani preparing to drop out and endorse McCain, the pool of candidates siphoning votes yet again decreases. Giuliani’s voters are a natural fit for McCain’s moderate/maverick stances on traditional GOP issues.

Mike Huckabee, running low on cash and momentum, has been running for VP since his surprising come-from-behind victory in Iowa. His inability to win in South Carolina was his swansong; Fred Thompson may be to blame for Huckabee’s failure in South Carolina, but McCain yet again emerged with the “Big ‘Mo” out of the Palmetto State, which propelled him into tonight’s contest.

According to CNN, voters whose main issue was the economy favored McCain by eight points. This comes as a shock, after Mitt Romney spent almost ten times as much money on television as McCain attempting to position himself as the candidate with the answers to our economic woes based on his lifetime of success in business. Voters still cast their ballots for “Mac.”

On February 5th, the McCain/Giuliani “coalition” will be facing off against a divided conservative house. With no love lost between Romney and Huckabee, Huck will certainly stay in until February 5th no matter what, just to throw a wrench in Romney’s plans.  With over 1000+ delegates up for grabs on “Tsunami Tuesday,” this scenario, combined with the boost from the Florida win, gives the edge to John McCain for the GOP nomination.

Whodathunkit?

FOXNEWS has declared Sen. John McCain the winner of the Florida Primary.  The other networks are following now, CNN and MSNBC among them.

Time Magazine’s newsblog “The Page” is reporting that former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani will drop out of the race for the Republican Presidential nomination tomorrow and endorse Senator John McCain.

With the win tonight, Senator McCain pulls into the lead in the race for delegates, with 93 delegates pledged to McCain, and Romney in second place with 59 delegates.

Gov. Romney gave a very impressive speech in conceding to Senator McCain tonight, offering a blend of his stump speech with a moving appeal to the greatness of America.

In his victory speech, John McCain is clearly starting the move to bring Republicans back together as the path to the nomination lays out more clearly in front of him.  McCain’s gracious words to Mitt Romney and his supporters, Gov. Huckabee, and most dramatically Rudy Giuliani drew loud applause at the victory rally.  Look for the words “presumptive nominee” start to being spoken about John McCain.

In other John McCain-related news, Second District Congressional candidate Sean Sullivan has endorsed John McCain for the Republican nomination.

The polls have closed in Florida tonight and the numbers are starting to trickle in.  With 35% of the vote in, Arizona Senator John McCain and former Bay State Governor Mitt Romney are locked in a tough battle for first - with McCain seeming to have a narrow edge.  Some in the pundit class are already predicting a very close election and raising the prospect of a Flordia Recount, a la 2000.

On the Democratic side, Senator Hillary Clinton has already been named the winner of the Florida primary, though there were no delegates at stake.

Stay tuned as Florida continues to trickle in.

The Sunshine State, Florida, will be at the center of attention this evening as we find out who Floridians chose when they went to the polls and, God willing, correctly voted for their preferred Presidential candidate. The Republican contest has grown strident in the past few days, as perceived frontrunners Mitt Romney and John McCain duke it out.  We’ll be covering the results here at The Everyday Republican as soon as we get them.

Over at the “big site“, we’ve put together a new feature page for 22nd Senate District candidate Rob Russo.  A win in this special election will make Russo “Lucky 13″ in the Senate Republican Caucus, break the Democratic supermajority in the General Assembly, and give Governor M. Jodi Rell the full power of the veto once again.  This is a race of statewide importance and we’ll be following the race closely as Mr. Russo as he tries represent Bridgeport, Trumbull, and Monroe in the Senate.  The special election to replace Senator/Mayor Bill Finch will be on March 11th.

And finally, we are going to try a new feature on February 5th to track the winners, losers, and all-important delegate counts as the results from “Super Tuesday” come in and shed light on who each Party will nominate to be President of the United States.  We’ll release more details on that soon.

The Hartford Courant is reporting that Senator John McCain will be making a campaign stop in Connecticut this coming Sunday at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield.Details have not been released, but Headless Horseman is reporting that the appearance will begin around 1 PM.

Update by Heath, 3:41pm:

Senator John McCain will visit Connecticut on Sunday, February 3rd at 1pm at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield.  Senator McCain will be joined by Lt. Governor Mike Fedele, Senator Joe Lieberman, Representative Chris Shays, former Congressman Rob Simmons, State Senator Tony Guglielmo and - possibly - Governor Jodi Rell. 

The “Super Bowl Sunday” campaign stop will be at the University Commons, 5151 Park Avenue in Fairfield.

In further John McCain news, he was endorsed today by New London’s The Day newspaper. The paper’s summation on McCain:

This newspaper believes that a general election campaign pitting Sen. Barack Obama, whom The Day endorses in the Democratic primary, against Sen. McCain would be conducted at a high level, focused on the issues and free of the dirty tricks that have become part and parcel of our presidential elections.