90 percent turnout predicted in Connecticut

November 3, 2008 2:10 pm Leave a Comment

By Zeke Miller

NEW HAVEN, 2:10 p.m. — In the month before Tuesday’s election, Connecticut registered an unprecedented number of new voters. Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz announced Monday that 134,502 residents registered to vote in the month of October, bringing the total of new voter registrations since January to over 300,000. Over one third of the newly registered voters are between the ages of 18 and 29, she said.

“The incredible interest in this year’s election is reflected in the voter registration numbers,” Bysiewicz said in a statement. “It is truly inspiring to see so many 18 year olds and 80 year olds registering to vote for the first time.” (more…)

What do nine terms in the House get you? One minute at the DNC

August 27, 2008 6:06 pm Leave a Comment

DENVER, 6:07 p.m. — Representative Rosa DeLauro of New Haven addressed the Democratic National Convention today. One of a handful of House members to speak, DeLauro only had three paragraphs’ worth of time on the podium, but she made it count, challenging Senator John McCain on the issue of fair pay for women.

“The Supreme Court ended a woman’s right to challenge discrimination, and when Congress tried to change it, John McCain didn’t even bother to show up to vote,” she said. “Barack Obama was there. He voted yes. As president, he will continue saying yes to equality for women because he knows that women can’t afford more of the same falling wages and income.”

The full speech — all 130 words of it — after the jump. (more…)

DeLauro to speak tonight

12:41 pm Leave a Comment

By Thomas Kaplan

DENVER, 12:37 p.m. — Representative Rosa DeLauro, Democrat of New Haven, will address the convention this evening. She is scheduled to speak along with several other members of the House of Representatives between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. Mountain time.

Other speakers of interest to Elis include former U.S. President Bill Clinton LAW ’73 and Senator John Kerry ’66 of Massachusetts, both of whom will speak between 7 p.m. and 8 p.m. Mountain time.

Someone’s missing from this picture…

10:49 am Leave a Comment

The Connecticut delegation posed for a group photograph at the Marriott Tech Center following breakfast this morning. Can you spot who’s missing?

By Thomas Kaplan

DENVER, 10:48 a.m. — After they had breakfast at their hotel this morning, members of the Connecticut delegation to the Democratic National Convention migrated toward the lobby to take what Senator Christopher J. Dodd called “a family picture.”

Absent, of course, was one of the elder statesmen of that family: Senator Joseph I. Lieberman ’64 LAW ’67, who will speak at the Republican National Convention next week. I couldn’t resist asking Dodd whether he missed his old Senate pal.

“Yeah!” Dodd told me. “I do. I wish he were here.”

Others, however, do not. “If he showed his face,” a Texas delegate told The New York Times yesterday, “he’d have to leave town in the back of a trunk.”

Too early to be fired up and ready to go

August 24, 2008 7:05 am Leave a Comment

By Thomas Kaplan

WINDSOR LOCKS, Conn., 7:05 a.m. — I came to Bradley International Airport this morning with high hopes.

This was not going to be any ordinary plane ride, I told people. As the only direct flight from Hartford to Denver on Sunday, the eve of the Democratic National Convention, this was going to be a four-hour-long Obama rally at 30,000 feet.

Or so I thought until I arrived at the gate a few minutes ago.

No “Change We Can Believe In” banner. No Dick Blumenthal. No chants of “Yes we can!”

Frontier Airlines flight 314, departing Bradley at 7:30 a.m., looked like just another flight. From listening to conversations here in the airport, I gleaned that a few of the folks waiting here at the gate are delegates, but I don’t recognize any of them.

No matter. Soon, Connecticut’s 60 delegates will be in Denver, and presumably the enthusiasm there will top the general stupor here in the early morning hours at Bradley. Really, I shouldn’t complain. By the end of the week, I probably will be praying to never again hear a “Yes we can!” chant.

Obama buzz fills empty campus

January 15, 2008 5:56 am Leave a Comment

By June Torbati/Staff Reporter

Before most undergraduates had even returned to New Haven from their winter breaks, Yale’s campus was already buzzing with campaign organizing in the run-up to what some have called “super-duper Tuesday” on Feb. 5, when 24 states are scheduled to hold their primary elections.

Hundreds of Connecticut supporters, grass-roots organizers and campaign officials for Senator Barack Obama’s presidential campaign convened Saturday morning at Yale’s Afro-American Cultural Center to urge locals to get involved in the Illinois freshman’s campaign in the remaining weeks before Connecticut’s primary.

(more…)

State in spotlight, city leaders endorse Obama

5:55 am Leave a Comment

By Victor Zapana/Staff Reporter

Usually rendered irrelevant by its late primary date, Connecticut is poised this year to finally make a difference in the presidential nominating contests as one of 24 states voting on the Feb. 5 “Super-Duper Tuesday” — and local leaders are noticing.

(more…)

Af-Am house plays host to Obama CT kickoff event

January 12, 2008 4:23 pm Leave a Comment

NEW HAVEN, Conn. 4:25 p.m. — Although most undergraduates have yet to return from winter break, Yale’s campus is already buzzing with campaign organizing in the run-up to what some have called “super-duper Tuesday” on Feb. 5, when 24 states are scheduled to hold their primary elections.

Hundreds of Connecticut supporters, grassroots organizers and campaign officials of Senator Barack Obama’s campaign for president convened this morning at Yale’s Afro-American Cultural Center to urge locals to get involved in the Illinois freshman’s campaign in the remaining weeks before Connecticut’s primary.

(more…)

DeStefano endorses Obama, says he would be an ‘absolutely dynamic partner’ for New Haven

January 7, 2008 2:41 pm Leave a Comment

WEST CALDWELL, N.J., 2:30 p.m. — New Haven Mayor John DeStefano Jr. has just endorsed Barack Obama for president, according to a 2 p.m. City Hall press release.

“Senator Obama is bringing a whole new generation of voters into the national debate regarding America’s future,” DeStefano, who had endorsed Conn. Senator Chris Dodd prior to his leaving the race last week, said in the statement. “I believe in his message that aims toward optimism, not partisanship.”

Added the eight-term mayor, “He’d be an absolutely dynamic partner for places like New Haven and the rest of the nation.”

John DeStefano with Ward 20 Alderman Charles Blango.

(more…)

Following dismal Iowa performance, Connecticut’s Dodd bows out

January 4, 2008 12:28 am Leave a Comment

NEW HAVEN, Conn., 12:28 a.m. — Connecticut Senator Christopher J. Dodd gave up his long-shot bid for the Democratic nomination for president late Thursday night after a woeful showing hours earlier in the Iowa caucus.

Dodd, who was widely expected to leave the race if he did not finish fourth or better in the caucus, failed to garner one percent of the vote even after moving his young family to Iowa in the fall to enable him to campaign full-time in the state.

“Tonight I am withdrawing from the presidential race but let me assure you, we are not ending this race with our heads hanging but with our heads held high,” Dodd told about 100 supporters late Thursday night at a gathering in Des Moines, Iowa.

“I am not going anywhere,” he added, to loud cheers. “I will be fighting for the United States.”

(more…)

After poll, Gaddis Smith recalls the Republican Yale of 1936

January 2, 2008 9:45 pm Leave a Comment

OLYMPIA, Wash., 9:45 p.m. — While constant polling may drive newspaper circulation, for Yale historian and professor emeritus Gaddis Smith, the horse race is, well, a complete bore.

My calling him over winter break to comment on the paper’s recent presidential poll therefore only added to his unwanted numerical inundation that is increasing on the eve of the Iowa caucuses.

Still, Smith could not help but note Yale’s dramatic political transformation over the past century.

(more…)

Yale Daily News

Tag Archive: Yale on the Trail: Connecticut