The Wheelhouse

The final debate in this year's race for governor is in the rearview mirror. What did we learn Tuesday night, and what should Ned Lamont and Bob Stefanowski be most worried about before polls open just six days from now? Should it be: Support the show: http://wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Which party can get to 19? That's the number of Connecticut Senate seats that Republicans or Democrats need to win on Nov. 6 to control the legislature's upper chamber. Right now, it's an 18-18 split. But a national Republican-funded super PAC is spending large sums of money  in an attempt to change that. In the state House of Representatives, the GOP needs just five more seats to gain the ma...

We can learn a lot from campaign finance reports. In Connecticut's race for governor, they reveal that the three top contenders, Bob Stefanowski, Ned Lamont, and Oz Griebel, are all dipping deep into their own pockets to fund their campaigns.  Support the show: http://wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Two issues continue to dominate this year's race for governor: taxes and the economy . That notion has been reinforced by the latest Quinnipiac University poll . Of the likely voters surveyed, 31% said the economy was their chief concern, while 26% said it was taxes. Climate change wasn't even an issue listed in the poll question. It's also been left largely unaddressed by those running for govern...

With the nation transfixed on the revelations pouring out of Washington, D.C., how much remaining brain capacity do voters have for Connecticut's governor's race? It's undoubtedly hard to compete for attention against news cycles dominated by edge-of-your-seat histrionics that could shape the direction of the U.S. Supreme Court for a generation. So this week we set out to bring state politics back...

The firestorm in Washington, D.C., over the sexual misconduct charges leveled against U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh is tearing its way through New Haven too. Both Kavanaugh and his latest accuser, Deborah Ramirez, attended Yale together in the 1980s. As Ramirez tells it , the lecherous behavior came during a dorm party at the university and was fueled by heavy drinking.  Support...

This election cycle has been perilous for many Democratic incumbents in Congress. Just look at the primary losses of ten-term U.S. Reps. Michael Capuano and Joseph Crowley next door in Massachusetts and New York. Yet members of Connecticut's all-Democratic congressional delegation are well on their way to being re-elected. The one exception is U.S. Rep. Elizabeth Esty who dropped her bid for a thi...

In recent days, Republican gubernatorial nominee Bob Stefanowski has ratcheted up the pleas for campaign donations . If more money doesn't come in quickly, he may be forced to curtail his television advertising blitz, Stefanowski's wife warned in an email to supporters. This week, ahead of the first debate between the two major party candidates Wednesday night, we evaluate how Stefanowski and Demo...

Connecticut Public Radio, The Connecticut Conference of Independent Colleges, WFSB Channel 3, the CT Mirror hosted the first gubernatorial debate of the general election at the University of Saint Joseph on September 5, 2018.  Missed the event? Listen to the audio above Support the show: http://wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Should she win the Fifth Congressional District race on Nov. 6, Jahana Hayes would no longer be the only black female from New England elected to Congress. Ayanna Pressley , who toppled 10-term U.S. Rep. Michael Capuano in Tuesday's Democratic primary in Massachusetts' 7th District race, would hold that claim too. Unlike for Hayes, there's no Republican opposing Pressley in the general election. T...

Will a second spot on the November 6 ballot be the difference maker for either Ned Lamont or Bob Stefanowski in their bid to be Connecticut's next governor? Stefanowski, already the GOP nominee, secured the Independent Party's cross-endorsement on Sunday. Just 64 members of Connecticut's third-largest political party turned out for its caucus. A majority of them picked Stefanowski over petitioning...

After four days of deliberations, a federal jury Tuesday deemed former Donald Trump campaign chairman and New Britain native Paul Manafort guilty of eight of 18 counts of tax fraud and other crimes. This week we discuss the fallout from that verdict. Meanwhile, here in Connecticut, the quest for Democratic and Republican party unity in the race for governor continues after the August 14 primaries....

Two self-funding millionaires Tuesday secured their spots at the top of the ballot in the November 6 election. Ned Lamont, now the undisputed Democratic Party nominee for governor, trounced Joe Ganim in a race that was called by The Associated Press just 30 minutes after primary polls closed at 8 p.m. Support the show: http://wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this last week before the August 14 party primaries , the debates, and endorsements--not to mention those tree-killing mailers clogging our post office boxes--are coming fast and furious. Here's a sample of the questions we're contemplating at this critical stage: Support the show: http://wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Haddam has been at the center of an uproar ever since Selectwoman Melissa Schlag knelt during the Pledge of Allegiance at a town meeting. For Schlag, it was a way of demonstrating her disapproval of President Donald Trump and his administration's policies. For others, it was an insult to the American flag. Support the show: http://wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information...

With just three weeks before the August 14 Democratic and Republican primaries , taglines and sound bytes are all the rage in the governor's race. Positions on a substantive issue? Not so much. Support the show: http://wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Following his one-on-one summit Monday with Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, Finland, President Donald J. Trump provoked bipartisan scorn for seemingly placing more trust with the former KGB agent than his own foreign intelligence experts over the issue of Russian interference in U.S. elections. But how much will those condemnations influence political races here in Connecticut? Support...

Connecticut U.S. Senators Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy wasted no time lambasting Brett Kavanaugh , President Trump's immediately controversial U.S. Supreme Court nominee. Support the show: http://wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Politics is definitely not for the squeamish. And this year's race for governor is only going to get nastier now that two of the three Republican hopefuls seeking public campaign financing have money to buy television ads to compete against their wealthy, self-funding GOP and Democratic rivals. Support the show: http://wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We almost know who’s going to be on the ballot this August in the race for Governor. Republicans Bob Stefanowski and David Stemerman have officially gathered enough signatures. And so has Joe Ganim. Support the show: http://wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

During their first post-convention debate  Monday, four Republican gubernatorial candidates spoke a lot about state employee pensions, excessive government regulation, and running the state more like a business. Support the show: http://wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to the point in the election cycle when challengers go to great lengths to build name recognition and move up in position. You know, good old-fashioned mudslinging.  Support the show: http://wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Connecticut residents, especially those in heavily Democratic or Republican leaning districts, should be on the lookout for campaign workers soliciting your John Hancock. Five candidates in the race for governor are attempting to petition their way into party primaries this summer. They have until June 12 to submit thousands of signatures to the state for verification. Support the show: http://wnp...

Ned Lamont got his coronation at this past weekend's state Democratic Party convention , as his last remaining rival for the gubernatorial endorsement, Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim, failed to collect the 15 percent of delegate votes needed for an automatic primary. But in other contests, it wasn't the exercise in party unity that Lamont attempted to arrange, especially in the race for lieutenant gov...

It's a political quagmire that arises every election season. Do you unite behind a single candidate in the spring in hopes of avoiding intra-party divisions in the fall? Or do you let the field of competitors duke it out in a primary and pray that one emerges battle-tested with wide support in time for the general election? Support the show: http://wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for p...