CAPITOL WATCH

Lt. Gov. Michael Fedele on CPTV This Weekend

Lt. Gov. Michael Fedele is the main guest on Connecticut Public Television's "On The Record'' this weekend.

Fedele chats for 18 minutes with host Steve Kotchko on a wide variety of topics, including politics and the state budget. He said that state budget officials are anxiously awaiting the expected flood of income tax returns that will be arriving in the next few days, including those that are postmarked right before the annual deadline on Tuesday night.

"Everybody's holding their breath for the April 15 numbers,'' Fedele said during Friday morning's taping in Hartford.

The programs airs at 9 p.m. Friday, 10:30 a.m. Sunday, and 11 p.m. Monday, along with a re-broadcast on the CT-N network on Sunday night.

--Christopher Keating

Broadwater Blown Out Of The Water; Ruling Hailed By Gov. Rell, Save The Sound; Blumenthal Says It's Not Over Yet

Everyone from Gov. M. Jodi Rell to Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz is grinning today as word has spread that New York State will sink the highly controversial Broadwater project in the middle of Long Island Sound.

Connecticut politicians have been battling against Broadwater for years, and it was initially uncertain how the new New York State governor, David A. Paterson, would weigh in on the issue. A press conference is scheduled for today at the waterfront Sunken Meadow State Park on the north shore of Long Island, abutting the Sound.

"We did it!'' Rell said in a statement. "Those are the words I used when we won the fight to save our sub base, and I have to tell you - it feels great to use them again today. We did it! We did it! We did it! Of course, we had a little help from our friends in New York.''

"Broadwater simply was not the answer to the energy question,'' said Leah Schmalz, director of legal affairs for Save the Sound, a program of the Connecticut Fund for the Environment. "There are alternatives available to us that can meet demand and would be online faster than Broadwater would.''

Rell, Schmalz, Attorney General Richard Blumenthal and others were scheduled to be at Silver Sands state park in House Speaker James Amann's hometown of Milford this afternoon to hail the decision.

Before heading to Milford, Blumenthal said, "It's not over yet - as Governor Paterson and I talked this morning. Interestingly, he's very well informed on Broadwater - much more than Governor Spitzer was. It's a good day.''

Blumenthal told a small group of reporters in Hartford that Paterson told him to take the rest of the day off.

For further information, see www.courant.com.

--Christopher Keating

Film Great Gene Wilder Tells a Hartford Crowd How, in a Flash, He Decided on a Lifetime of Acting; His Talent is Assessed

Renowned film comedy star Gene Wilder of Stamford said Wednesday that, when he was 11, he watched his sister perform onstage - and immediately decided he wanted to be an actor.  Wilder - the original screen Willy Wonka in 1971, who also gave classic performances in movies such as Mel Brooks' comedies "The Producers," "Young Frankenstein," and "Blazing Saddles" - told of his youthful epiphany during a short speech in accepting a lifetime achievement award from the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism.

Wilder, 74, related the story to a couple of hundred listeners in the marbled atrium of the Legislative Office Building in Hartford, during a ceremony in which he and three others were honored with Governor's Awards for Excellence in Culture and Tourism.  He recalled:

"This all started for me when I was 11 years old and I saw my sister do a dramatic recital of Guy de Maupassant's 'The Necklace.' And there were about 200 people - about this size - at the Wisconsin College of Music, and everyone was talking a lot. And then the lights went down and a spotlight hit the center of the stage, the curtain opened, and out came my sister. And for 20 minutes she did this - she memorized this - dramatic reading. And you could hear a pin drop. And I thought to myself that that must be the greatest feeling you could get, unless you happened to be God.

"And I went up to her teacher afterward, and I said, 'Mr. Gottlieb, could I study with you?' And he said 'How old are you?' I said, 'eleven,' and he said, 'If you still want to when you're 13, come back and see me.' And the day after my 13th birthday, I went back to see him.

"I started studying acting. I didn't really know what acting was. I just knew I wanted to be an actor - I think because of that performance that my sister gave - and when I was 16, I did my first season of summer stock, near Poughkeepsie. And after the season was over I went to New York, and I saw 'Death of a Salesman' by Arthur Miller, starring Lee J. Cobb and Mildred Dunnock. That's when I got my first real glimmer of what acting was - and 14 years later I was in the TV two-hour special of 'Death of a Salesman' with Lee J. Cobb and Mildred Dunnock. And several years later I got to know Arthur Miller. And I just want to thank the commission for this wonderful honor, and especially because Millie Dunnock and Arthur Miller also received this award. And I would like to thank the mainstay of my life, Karen Wilder, for these last 18 years."

Wilder - who also is a writer, director and producer - received the award and some analytical praise of his talents from Steve Karp of Stamford, founder and producing director of Stamford Theatre Works.

"While many may easily acknowledge that the ability to make people laugh is a genuine talent, few understand how really difficult it is to do, especially in a dramatic context," Karp said. "I personally consider the magnitude of Gene Wilder's talent to be on a par with those considered to be among our greatest comedic film stars, including Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. Gene's sensitively intelligent, quirky, quiet, warmly romantic, and often underplayed comedy - akin to Chaplin's and Keaton's - comes from an extraordinary understanding of human behavior, in tandem with a unique gift for knowing just exactly what is funny.

"But it is Gene's considerable training as an actor that has enabled him to reveal the humanity in all his portrayals, so that even his most eccentrically comedic performances are grounded in the human truth and experience of his characters. This takes more than simply talent. It takes years of hard work and the accumulation of knowledge of just what makes people tick."

Karp noted that Premiere Magazine in 2006 ranked Wilder's title-role performance in "Young Frankenstein" (1974) as No. 9 among the "100 Greatest Movie Performances of All Time." For what it's worth, according to the website www.filmsite.org, Wilder's performance outranked No. 10, Robert DeNiro in "Raging Bull" (1980), while the eight above Wilder were: No. 8, James Stewart in "It's a Wonderful Life" (1946); No. 7, Dustin Hoffman in "Midnight Cowboy" (1969); No. 6, James Cagney in "Yankee Doodle Dandy" (1942); No. 5, Bette Davis in "All About Eve" (1950); No. 4, Al Pacino in "Dog Day Afternoon" (1975); No. 3, Meryl Streep in "Sophie's Choice" (1982); No. 2, Marlon Brando in "On the Waterfront" (1954); and No. 1, Peter O'Toole in "Lawrence of Arabia" (1962).

--Jon Lender

Capitol Dealings on WNPR on Thursday Morning

The legislative session will be the topic of discussion from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. Thursday on WNPR radio's "Where We Live'' program.

Susan Haigh of The Associated Press and Christine Stuart of www.ctnewsjunkie.com will be among the guests.

--Christopher Keating

Rowland Would Keep His Pension Under Deal; Caruso Wants To Force A Vote on Pension Retroactivity; Deal Later Blows Up With No Votes in House or Senate

It was a bizarre day of twists and turns at the Capitol that started out with sky-high hopes and ended in frustration.

The day started with a deal under which former Gov. John G. Rowland would have kept his $50,000-per-year pension under a compromise ethics package that was scheduled to be debated by the state Senate.

But the entire deal blew up on Wednesday night with no votes in either chamber. Votes are not expected until next week at the earliest.

Lawmakers have been calling for the revocation of pensions for politicians who are convicted in the future - rejecting a call by some legislators for a 10-year reachback period to cover Rowland and Democrats  such as former Sen. Ernest Newton and former Rep. Jefferson Davis who pleaded guilty to crimes in the past. Both Rowland and Newton have not started collecting their pensions because they have not reached the age of 55.

Senate President Pro Tem Donald Williams, the highest-ranking senator, said that revoking pensions retroactively was a problem "not only for the governor, but the House and Senate as well.''

"This was a stumbling block,'' Williams said. "The Constitutional argument was on the minds of a lot of folks.''

Rep. William R. Dyson, a New Haven Democrat who is the dean of the legislature, had said that some legislators were reluctant to impose sanctions retroactively on their former friends and colleagues.

Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell worked out the compromise with legislators and hailed the agreement.

"This bill represents the hard work of both chambers, and I appreciate the leadership of the lawmakers involved in forging this compromise,'' Rell said.

But Rep. Christopher Caruso, a Bridgeport Democrat who co-chairs the committee that oversees ethics, still wants to force a vote on pension retroactivity that would reach back for 10 years. He denied that he had signed on to anything agreed to by the Senate Democrats.

"It's not done,'' Caruso told Capitol Watch. "The macaroni isn't cooked. It's like throwing the hot potato to someone and if they drop it, you blame them.''

Regarding statements by the Senate Democrats that the ethics package is historic, Caruso said, "Everything's a breakthrough up in that room. It's a country club. We know that.''

"Vindicated." At Least, That's What I Think He Said.

     "Vindicated," a profanity and an apparent reference to the 2006 campaign of U.S. Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman was all I could make out in a voicemail today from Tom Swan, the king of the mumbling, cryptic voice-mail. 

     OK, what is this about?

   The answer was revealed in an e-mail from Tim Tagaris, Swan's comrade-in-arms on the Ned Lamont campaign.

     TIm provided a link to a story in the Advocate of Stamford about the FBI concluding that the crash of Lieberman's web site on primary day was due to the campaign's own incompetence, not dirty tricks by the Ned Lamont campaign.

     Swan managed the Lamont campaign. Tagaris handled its ample web activities.

     The failure of Lieberman's underpowered, underutilized web site generated some primary-day coverage, primarily on TV and radio. Lieberman suggested that something evil happened. We pretty much ignored it, based on the idea that a server rented for 15 bucks might fail all by itself.

     The feds previously have said that Lamont's folks were blameless. The story today offers some details, based on documents that the feds recently handed over in response to an old FOI request.

     -- Mark Pazniokas

    

Rowland, Bozek, & Gunther in the Crowd at Retirement Party For Ex-Sen. Louis DeLuca

Hundreds of insiders came out Monday night for a retirement dinner for former Sen. Louis DeLuca, including former Gov. John G. Rowland.

DeLuca had been one of Rowland's staunchest supporters and never called for him to resign as Rowland faced an FBI investigation and an impeachment inquiry. DeLuca and then-Senate deputy GOP leader William Aniskovich were among the few lawmakers who attended Rowland's resignation speech at the governor's mansion on a warm day in June 2004.

Rowland and his wife, Patty, attended Monday's party for DeLuca at the Grand Oak Villa in Watertown - a town that was one of DeLuca's former strongholds in his Senate district. Former Sen. Thomas A. Bozek of New Britain was in the crowd, along with Sen. George "Doc'' Gunther of Stratford. Now 88, Gunther has since retired as the dean of the state Senate after a 40-year career in the chamber that dated back to his first election in November 1966.

Among current legislators, the attendees included Rep. William R. Dyson, the dean of the legislature, and Rep. Sean Williams of Watertown, a longtime ally of DeLuca.

DeLuca generated headlines in January 2003 when he hired Bozek as a part-time researcher for the Senate Republican caucus for seven weeks in order to allow Bozek to qualify for full benefits as a state retiree. Bozek had been only seven weeks short of the 10 years necessary for pension and health benefits. The Democrats had not hired Bozek because he continued to run for his old Senate seat as a Republican after being defeated by now-Sen. Donald DeFronzo in a delegate primary in the 2002 election.

"There is no story here,'' DeLuca said at the time. "We only wanted to help him when his own party would not.''

--Christopher Keating

Film Star Gene Wilder at LOB on Wednesday, April 9

The much-admired film actor Gene Wilder of Stamford - the original Willy Wonka, in a 1971 film role sequel-ized in 2005 by Johnny Depp - will appear at the Legislative Office Building Wednesday, April 9, at 5:30 p.m., to receive a lifetime achievement from the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism.

The Oscar-nominated actor created memorable comic characters in movies including Mel Brooks' 1968 "The Producers" (as neurotic accountant Leo Bloom) and 1974 "Young Frankenstein" (as the monster creator who insists his name be pronounced "Franken-STEEN" and, in a recurring Brooks gag, hunches over and limps when his misshapen assistant Igor invites him to "walk this way"). Some of Wilder's other well-known films are "Bonnie and Clyde," "Silver Streak," and "Stir Crazy."  The New Britain Museum of American Art has shown his paintings and he is the author of "Kiss Me Like a Stranger: My Search for Love and Art."  He won an Emmy for work on the TV sitcom "Will & Grace."

Wilder and three others will receive Connecticut's annual Governor's Awards for Excellence in Culture and Tourism.  The others are: author Joan D. Hedrick of Middletown, a professor of history at Trinity College who won the Pulitizer Prize for her 1995 biography "Harriet Beecher Stowe: A Life"; Michael Wilson of Hartford, artistic director at Hartford Stage for a decade, who has directed plays on and off Broadway and around the country at regional theaters; and Vita West Muir of Litchfield, executive and artistic director of Litchfield Performing Arts since 1989, and founder of the Litchfield Jazz Festival and Litchfield Jazz Camp.

The ceremony and reception will be in the atrium of the LOB.  The event is open to the public, although seating is limited, organizers say.  The awards are given to Connecticut residents who have "demonstrated excellence and lifetime achievement in tourism, film, arts or historic preservation." A dozen others will receive "distinguished advocates awards" for contributions in those areas.

--Jon Lender

Delivery Tax Gets Everyone's Attention

Based on the chatter on the talk-radio shows Tuesday morning, the finance committee's proposal to charge the 6 percent sales tax on delivery charges has captured plenty of attention.

The committee approved the measure on a party-line vote last week, but it did not immediately gain a lot of publicity. But after complaints by lobbyists on Monday and a story in The Hartford Courant on Tuesday, the issue was placed onto the legislative radar screen.

"I'm shocked that the legislature would impose a new tax on thousands of people, without a public hearing, without a fully drafted bill and without any accurate estimates of the fiscal impact,'' said Kevin Maloney, president of the Connecticut Messenger Courier Association. "We are not even sure who would be paying the new tax.''

The purpose of the bill was to send nearly $103 million to cash-strapped municipalities from a variety of sources, according to Rep. Cameron Staples, a New Haven Democrat who co-chairs the tax-writing finance committee. The bill calls for allowing cities and towns to keep 50 percent of the money raised from the state's 12 percent hotel tax, along with fully funding the statutory PILOT grants that currently provide only partial funding to cover tax-exempt hospitals and colleges, among others.

Marshall R. Collins, a Glastonbury-based lobbyist for the couriers, said he had not seen anything like the proposed delivery tax in nearly 30 years around the Capitol.

"It's just a horrible concept,'' said Collins. "This is not the best time to start dumping a new tax on anything.''

Michael Riley of the Motor Transport Association of Connecticut, which represents UPS, FedEx and others, said, "They're goring an ox that ought not to be gored.''

--Christopher Keating

Trying To Relax At The Capitol

As tensions increase in the final four weeks at the Capitol, the state's acupuncturists say they've got the answer.

The Connecticut Society of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine was offering "ear-point acupuncture'' and "arm-point acupuncture'' Tuesday in the tunnel between the Capitol and the Legislative Office Building in Hartford.

A spokesman for the group said they were hoping to "get some folks to sit and do a little relaxing after all the food fights that have been going on.''

--Christopher Keating