Fedele Fires Back.
It isn’t difficult to see what Lieutenant Governor Michael Fedele will spend his campaign funds on if he defeats Tom Foley’s action for an injunction. Fedele spokesman Chris Cooper declared in a written statement this afternoon, “”This frivolous action is a patent attempt to divert attention from recent scandals that have led voters to question Foley’s temperament, integrity and truthfulness.” (Emphasis added.)
Expect to hear more talk of Foley’s arrests and the night he spent in a Long Island jail in 1981.
9 comments
Interesting that the Fedele team calls a motor vehicle incident from 29 years ago a “recent scandal” — After this week’s blatant attempt to defraud CT’s taxpayers, this team has no credibility.
I actually don’t blame Fedele as much as I blame the SEEC. The SEEC in it’s attempt to validate their program and most importantly their fat, state jobs, bent the law so much so that they broke it by issuing an “Advisory Opinion” and unfortunately Fedele followed their bad advice.
Chris Cooper’s spin is pathetic. He should be directing his anger and aggression at the SEEC and not Tom Foley and/or Oz Grebal.
A few thoughts…
– First, I don’t understand your concern, Kevin, that Foley’s move will force Jodi Rell’s hand. Foley has not (at least in this action) challenged the constitutionality of the CEP, only the way it is being administered. In fact, if the SEEC’s completely arbitrary decision is allowed to stand, it will only undermine the arguments of those who actually believe in the publik financing (ie, the system is a crock).
– I wonder if Foley approached Elliot Gersten about representing him. If not, I wonder if Fedele/Boughton will.
– If Fedele can’t spend his grant, does he even have enough money to hire a lawyer?
– On that same note, this is really Fedele’s moment of truth… there is true financial peril here, and it’s not just the 2.5 million that’s at stake. The Bysiewicz thing cost the Republican party $140,000. If Mike loses, the legal costs alone will eat up the rest of his campaign money.
– Will Dick Blumenthal agree to defend the SEEC? Typically the AG would represent an administrative agency. I could see the AG deciding the SEEC is simply wrong.
– On that same note, if any Democratic elder has Dick Blumenthal’s ear, I’d be screaming for him to just let this go and force the SEEC to get outside counsel. I’d much rather compete against Tom than Mike in a general election.
– Is there anyone besides Fedele/Boughton who will defend the SEEC’s statutory interpretation? I haven’t even seen ACR try and make a good faith defense of the advisory opinion, or justify the double dipped contributors.
FYI, now that Foley has filed suit, should the court decide it can reach the ultimate issue here, in interpreting the CEP’s enabling statute, it will be guided by General Statutes Section 1-2z which provides:
“The meaning of a statute shall, in the first instance, be ascertained from the text of the statute itself and its relationship to other statutes. If, after examining such text and considering such relationship, the meaning of such text is plain and unambiguous and does not yield absurd or unworkable results, extratextual evidence of the meaning of the statute shall not be considered.”
I would like the candidates for Attorney General (GOP & Dem) debate this in a moot court setting. Now THAT would be entertaining AND insightful!
Tactically, Foley may win the battle here only to lose the war. The idea of him campaigning jointly with Mark Boughton at some point was a little difficult to imagine even before Friday’s lawsuit was filed. Now that Boughton and Foley are ostensibly opposing litigants, the concept is almost impossible to imagine.
Regardless of the lawsuit’s outcome, it is becoming increasingly unlikely that if both Boughton and Foley win the primary, Boughton will stay in t. I’ve said it before: the office of lieutenant governor is inherently one of the weakest positions in state government, and the job would be unbearable under a governor who resents you for repeatedly trying to team up with some other clown in the primary.
If Mark felt there was a chance he could work with Foley, he would have remained as neutral as possible after the convention. But this is not the case.
The bottom line: Expect to see Tom Foley win the primary, and then suffer the embarrassment of watching the party nominated lieutenant governor drop out.
Fuzzy, Rowland and Rell had little if anything to do with on another while Rowland was Governor and it’s pretty obvious that Rell and Fedele had even less to do with one another over the past four years.
Boughton won’t quit, he obviously wants the job, he’s campaigning for it and even tried to raise “dough” as he likes to say. If he quits, that shouldn’t “embarrass” Tom Foley at all, it would only embarrass Mark Boughton. If Tom Foley wins the primary and Mark Boughton actually does quit, the Republican State Central Committee fills the vacancy in nomination. Who better to fill it with than Mike Fedele who is certainly the most qualified person.
These two are just weakening the party’s chances come November. It’s clear to me that Fedele’s inability to raise the required funds himself is just further proof that he doesn’t have what it takes to win a general election. If this fight goes on longer than the ruling today it could definitely prove to be an unwanted distraction for the rest of the primary season. If this issue keeps distracting all of us we’ll never get to see these candidates take a stand on any of the issues that actually matter instead of election law. That’s definitely not going to help in the general election.
Joey, I know this may sound wrong to you but I don’t give a rat’s a$$ about “issues.” Issues are for political junkies to get all excited about and engage in childish debates with one another on.
It’s all about WINNING and putting the strongest, hardest working candidate forward, a candidate who has proven he or she has surrounded him or herself with a competent campaign team and has an organization in place that can get the job done in the general election.
Let’s face it, Ozzie has absolutely, positively nothing going for him on any of those fronts and neither does Fedele. I’m supporting Tom Foley for these reasons. I know that all three of the Republicans in the primary if they were to become Governor would pretty much do the right thing, there really isn’t a big difference between any of them on the stupid “issues” you think are so important.
I’ve known Mike Fedele for 18 years and I think very highly of him. I’ve known Tom Foley for six years and nobody knows who the hell Oz Grebal is other than the Democrats he gives money to and the loser remnants of the twice failed McCain for president crew who can’t find their asses with both hands. I really wanted to like Mike Fedele as the Republican candidate for Governor but as time went on, he gave me every reason to not support him or vote for him. He won’t campaign outside of Fairfield County, he has a horrible campaign staff with the exception of newly added staffer Jim Conroy but he’s too little, too late. That Chris Cooper guy is just a first class jackass. Bottom line is Fedele cannot win in the general election, at least not this year.
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