Election Results & Conclusion

      Middletown residents voted overwhelmingly across the board yesterday for Democrats proving party affiliation matters most in this City. It can also be surmised that national party identification translates to local voting tendencies as well. This does not surprise the Insider that many locals cannot make this jump. Many individuals say they vote for the candidate and not that party, but in reality do not. 


    We have received numerous sentiments supporting Republican candidates, but, asking that we do not publicly acknowledge them because they do not want their neighbors or liberal friends to know they have crossed party lines. 
     Sadly, as a result of the contentious presidential election, this  fear of peer pressure and persecution from both sides against friends and family with rivaling views was illustrated in heated arguments on social media sites through out the country. Have you expressed your political persuasion at all this year and gotten an ear full from a "friend" on your facebook wall? Have you felt the need to put your two cents in when someone you know shows who their picks are on their wall? Our case in point; free speech resulting in unsolicited advice on both sides was rampant!
     It does no good to claim one supports a candidate but do so privately! This election proved this point.
       City residents chose to re-seat two decade plus long incumbents (Serra, DeLauro) proving the "new blood" adage irrelevant. 84% of eligible voters came out for the presidential election. To say the Democrats were the only party to advocate for women and minorities was a falsehood that stuck around all through this election. Democrats exploited this exaggerated myth to their advantage. 
    The walking contradictions to the lie spread by Democrats that conservatives don't care about women, family, and minorities being Republican candidates  Len Suzio, Wayne Winsley, Deborah Kleckowski, Callie Grippo.  Winsley, a minority, unfortunately could not overcome the DeLauro machine, which campaigned heavily this cycle in minority communities. Delauro campaigned in   Middletown churches with predominately minority parishioners for example, specifically under the guise of " explaining Obamacare to women" as we reported earlier this year. We hope Winsley stays in the game and his plan of economic reform & development don't end with this bid for office.

      The surprise of the night was the dent the new face on the block Republican Callie Grippo put in the cult like following of 22 year incumbent Joe Serra's tally. The Insider hopes to see Grippo back in two years to finish the job!

     Kleckowski held steady over Lesser; the Insider feels and had this not have been such a contentious presidential election year, she could have easily over taken Lesser for the 100th Distric.t Again, Wesleyan (of which ironically Kleckowski is a graduate of, but we are doubtful students know that, and Lesser a drop out of), with the aide of the Middletown Democratic Town Committee, provided pizza and buses to to get students to the polls.

     Probably the most unfortunate results of the evening were that of the close race between one term incumbent Suzio and Bartolomeo who eeked ahead with 450 votes. Suzio championed the cause to end the early release program of violent criminals such as sex offenders, rapists, and murders. He also lead the fight to suspend the crippling gasoline tax. The week before the mayor's of both Middletown and Meriden, orchestrated by Bartolomeo, held a press conference on false charges of push polling by the Suzio campaign. During the press conference, both mayor's admitted that there was no evidence to prove the allegation. Suzio also used his position to advocate and vote for spending cuts at the state and vowed not to raise taxes, something which no Connecticut Democrat in office has stated on record to date.

     The Insider surmises (because Suzio's messages were SO clear) that Middletown and other 13th District residents enjoy the gas tax, higher taxes all around, and are ok with the release of violent offenders into our community! Hey, maybe they are relatives, you never know. We hope Suzio makes a come back and sticks around to keep the vital messages he put forth out there.

      Our own blogger SteadyJohn pointed out that National commentator Bill O'Reiley summarized the presidential election as this:

"It's about FREE STUFF, at least half of the nation's folks want FREE STUFF! The murders of four Americans at Benghazi mean nothing to the drones and leeches. Only the military can save us now. Until now the generals have been quiet lap dogs in uniforms licking the master's boots. The usurpation in our highest office continues unopposed; it's the end of America the Beautiful."

     While one theory out there is that the increased dependency on government aide attached with larger government, caused voting strictly across party lines in favor of the Democrats who advocate this dependency; hope should not be lost for our country or Middletown community.

     An Anonymous commenter left a statement on our previous post this morning saying: ""Haha you lost completely across the board. Be nice and respect people you disagree with, it may come to help you in the future." 

     Staff at the Insider unanimously agree that this is something we should never do, nor should readers. NEVER stop questioning your government. Elected officials are not deities to be feared, worshiped, and "respected" without fault.  NEVER suck up to get favors. Its that simple. To disagree civilly is what the Constitution is based on. The First Amendment allows for this blog to exist and allows for us to examine our government and force transparency; something  we owe ourselves to do. 

Working together does not mean blind acceptance of status quo in federal government or on even the small scale locally right here in Middletown. The "favor system" of who knows who can end if we want it to.
(Of course when the same faces who hurt the system are voted in over & over, this can't happen... )

     The Insider would like to congratulate all the victors of the election no matter what party! We sincerely hope that the Democrats this time around take steps to actively stop the persecution of conservatives, work across the aisle for once, and over all stop bleeding tax payers dry! Working families are hurting, education is hurting; that hurt is something that surpasses party divisions, races, ethnic groups, sexes, sexual orientations, religions etc. -it is a universal hurt.  Time to move forward.

The complete precinct by precinct results from the City Clerk are here:https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B1OYjxtLEgUwOHBtRnUtVlZnOW8

Question #1, $37M appropriation and bond for connection to the Mattabassett Regional Sewer Project

YES: 11,003

NO: 4,942

Question #2, $4.85M appropriation and bond for Senior Community Center at Eckersley Hall

YES: 10,881

NO: 5,259

State Assembly District 33

Joe Serra(D): 6,349

Callie Grippo(R): 2,519

State Assembly District 100

Matt Lesser (D): 6,673 

Deb Kleckowski (R): 3,055

State Senate District 9

Paul Doyle (D): 8,871

Joe Dinunzio(R): 3,024

State Senate District 13

Danté Bartolomeo (D): 3,886

Len Suzio (R): 2,704

U.S. House District 3

Rosa DeLauro (D): 12,833

Wayne Winsley (R): 3,802

U.S. House District 1

John Larson (D): 1,493

John Decker: 599

Michael DeRose: 43

Matthew Cora: 10

U.S. Senate

Chris Murphy (D): 12,487

Linda McMahon (R): 6,470

Paul Passarelli: 396

President

Barack Obama (D): 13,830

Mitt Romney (R): 6,105

Johnson: 206

Anderson: 76

Jill Stein: 31

Tom Hoefling: 2

Guest Blog: The Connecticut Flip

The Connecticut Flip 

Summary of a series of articles on Political Events in Connecticut by Tim D. Enchanter

This month I began to feel that our State of Connecticut has the potential to surprise those who tend to write it off as either an easy victory for one political party or a lost cause for the other.  Things are working in a different direction than most are used to with regard to electoral change and party shift.

I must admit that I am often one of those who believe this state is almost impossible to change.  It has been almost completely taken over by a political machine which rules from the top down.  The reason for this belief can best be illustrated by the 2010 Gubernatorial Election.

The Midterm Elections (when Senators and Congressmen run for re-election in the middle of a President’s term) were a referendum on the President’s agenda as people rose up against establishment politicians.  This so-called “Conservative Wave” swept the country, but seemed to crash impotently against political barriers in states run by Democrat political machines.

Please note that the following pieces of information have been accumulated over a 5 year period from news reports, radio reports, phone calls, testimonies, and observed actions.  I have remembered all of this and report the puzzle pieces here so you can put them together yourself.  I leave it to those who are supposed to conduct investigations to actually conduct them and verify their validity.

As a private citizen who is a registered unaffiliated voter, I have the right to voice my concerns according to the First Amendment of the US Constitution. Keep that in mind when you read the following and yell about how I “can’t say that” without documented proof.  I am not filing charges or taking any action other than telling you my thoughts.  Also keep in mind that anyone who actually takes the time to do the research could assemble said proof.  The fact that nobody has filed any charges should speak volumes as to whether or not you are being served by those you have elected.

Prior to Election Day 2010, the Chairman of the CT GOP raised alarms about boxes of ballots being shipped to an abandoned lot in Bridgeport.  The day after Election Day, Democrat operatives came to polling places with bags of ballots that they wanted to be counted, not explaining where they “found” them.

On Election Night, the Bridgeport polling places ran out of ballots, and Secretary of State Susan Bysiewicz ordered the polls in Bridgeport to remain open an extra 2 hours, notifying residents by phone to go and vote after normal closing time.  

The Senatorial race was called in favor of Democrat Richard Blumenthal at the normal closing time before any vote counts were posted.  In the race for Governor, Republican Tom Foley was ahead of Democrat Dan Malloy all night according to the running vote tally, yet the CT News anchors were reporting Malloy the winner.  Even one of the anchors could not understand why and was informed there were things she did not know.

The city of New Haven waited until 3pm the following day to start counting votes, yet the results had already been reported.  As everyone was paying attention to what was happening in Bridgeport, nobody seemed to notice or care that 20,000 new votes were cast in New Haven by people who had apparently registered during the month before the election.

Years earlier, the Mayor of New Haven, Democrat John DeStefano, had made New Haven a sanctuary city for illegal immigrants, issuing Driver Licenses and Voter IDs to anyone asking for them.  Back in 2007, it was discovered that the New Haven Mayor’s office had ordered the workers at Social Services to generate Social Security numbers for those who did not have them.  The Social Services Office used a random number generator and didn’t bother to check with the Federal Social Security Office to find out if they were giving one person the number of another.

The FBI seized boxes of paperwork related to this.  The FBI has been waiting many years for a US or CT State Attorney General who is actually willing to prosecute these numerous cases of Fraud, Document Falsification, and possible Identity Theft.  Unfortunately, under both Bush and Obama Administrations, no such person could be found as charges of racism drown out calls for laws to actually be enforced.

Meanwhile, the comparatively few illegal immigrants arrested at the border have been found with instructions detailing how to go to Yale New Haven Medical Center for any treatment desired and then file for IDs from the New Haven Social Services Department.  Numerous attempts to get CT News reporters to investigate all these issues have been met with either yawns or accusations of racism.
Continued:

Guest Blog: Tag Team Debating

Tag Team Debating

Part of a series of articles on Political Events in Connecticut by Tim D. Enchanter

Watching the political debates, I noticed something that nobody seems to be talking about.  Then again, most people are concentrating on just the Presidential Debates between President Obama and Governor Romney.  Some people are talking about the Vice-Presidential Debate between Vice-President Biden and Congressman Ryan.

But just two hours before the Vice-Presidential Debate I also watched the Senatorial Debate between Congressman Chris Murphy and Linda McMahon.  This gave me a perspective on the Vice-Presidential Debate that continued to be validated in all the subsequent debates, Presidential, Senatorial, and Congressional.  It seemed like I was watching Tag Team Debates.

Maybe the involvement of McMahon, famous CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment (formerly known as the World Wrestling Federation), inspired this thought.  But it was the consistency of the other side which made me think this way.

It is one thing to have similar ideology, similar ideas, and similar solutions to similar problems.  That is expected of a political party.  But it is quite another matter to see the same personal attacks used against different opponents, no matter who they are, even when those attacks make no sense.

For example, Chris Murphy accusing Linda McMahon of being part of the fictitious “War On Women” is blatantly slanderous and incredibly stupid considering that Linda IS a woman.  Even when she points this out, Murphy continues the mantra like a brainwashed cult follower.  This quickly stops sounding like an argument and starts sounding like a script reading.

Watching Murphy versus McMahon seemed to me to be watching Obama versus Romney, except Romney wasn’t there and Obama looked like a pasty white college kid trying to act tough.  In fact, if you have ever gotten a call from a college kid paid to read from a phone script you would see the similarities immediately.  Trying to get one of these hapless drones to talk to you is an exercise in frustration.  If the answer isn’t written on the sheet in the designated order, your only hope of intelligent conversation is the phrase, “Let me get my manager.”CONTINUED:

Guest Blog: All Politics are Local except when they are Not

All Politics are Local except when they are Not
Part of a series of articles on Political Events in Connecticut by Tim D. Enchanter

For many months, I have been walking the streets of my neighborhood as part of a health regimen. Once in a while, one or two of my neighbors will stop by and compliment me on both my resolve and the obvious weight loss. During one of these little talks, I received a little insight which inspired this series of articles.
During another chance meeting, Karen and Rick Patrick gave me permission to use their names and one of their business cards. They run a landscaping company named Garden Keeper. As a believer in Free Market Capitalism and in gratitude for the inspiration, I will give them a little free advertising here by giving you their website: www.GardenKeeperCT.com
     The inspiration came when we were discussing the Connecticut race for United States Senate and how Linda McMahon seems to be leading in the 2nd Congressional District. Rick asked me a question which got my mental gears running: “Wouldn't  it be interesting if Mitt Romney won this state on Linda McMahon’s coattails?”
     For those of you not familiar with political terminology, this refers to a candidate at the top of the ticket helping candidates further down the ticket. Imagine a formal gathering where the men are wearing tuxedos. The men’s coats are split in the back. Cartoons often draw analogies between tuxedos and penguins because of the similarity in appearance.
     Now imagine a political cartoon where an important man is entering an important event. His coattails are so long that they drag on the ground behind him. Sitting on those coattails are a couple of less important men who are riding into this event on the coattails of the more important man. Everyone is so happy to see the more important man that the lesser men benefit from his popularity and gain entrance as an afterthought.
Now look at the 2008 Presidential Election. The idea of voting for the First Black President gave Barack      Obama the kind of coattails the Democrats have been dreaming of for decades. People who normally would not vote came to vote for history. Because these people were not familiar with other races, they would just vote for all the other candidates on the same line of the same political party. That is what politicians refer to as coattails. People show up to vote for one candidate and vote for the entire political party. Those who cannot get people to come and vote for them hope to ride into office on someone else’s coattails.
     Those of us running that year as Republicans knew we were all running against Obama. Some of us hoped Sarah Palin would give us the coattails of the First Woman Republican Vice President. Eventually, it seemed that the National Race provided competing coattails that dragged so far along the ground as to affect every race down to the State General Assembly.
      To me, this became evident in Connecticut’s 13th State Senate District, involving the towns and cities of Cheshire, Meriden, Middlefield, Middletown, and Rockfall. Two seats in the General Assembly, the 100th and 103rd Districts, demonstrated this effect as two popular State Representatives lost to challengers benefitting from Obama’s coattails. Ray Kalinowski and Al Adinolfi lost their seats to challengers Matt Lesser and Elizabeth Esty.
     The temporary effect of these coattails became evident when Adinolfi won back his Assembly seat in 2010. http://cthousegop.com/al-adinolfi The voters in the 103rd District remembered the Representative who always cares about their welfare and the vacuum left by Obama’s absent coattails dragged Esty down in defeat.
     Esty is now the Democrat running for the 5th Congressional District, hoping that Obama’s Presidential coattails will help her enter the House of Representatives. Lesser, on the other hand, was able to solidify his power. He did this so well that I feel he deserves his own article. Read my opinions here and form your own:
CONTINUED:

Letter to the Editor: Endorsement Article Portrays Vets' Orgs Inaccurately

 Ken McClellan reacts to an article on the Middletown Patch Blog originally titled "Connecticut Senate Race: Middletown Vets Praise Chris Murphy's Record." The title was subsequently amended. McClellan himself is a veteran and also chairman of the Middletown Republican Town Committee

Some may read this article and get the impression that veterans' organizations have endorsed Chris Murphy. This is not accurate. While individual members of the Democratic Town Committee may have served in the Armed Forces, and they may support Chris Murphy, but you should not give the impression that veterans' organizations are endorsing or supporting any candidate. Veterans' organizations, such as the American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars and the Disabled American Veterans do not support or endorse any candidates for any elected office, and support by individuals who may belong to one of those organizations should not be attributed to 'Veterans'. In fact, the gentleman wearing the American Legion cap in the photo is violating Legion policy by doing so at a partisan political event.
I would appreciate it if you would change the headline, and not give the impression that military veterans as a group are supporting a candidate for elected office.

Ken McClellan
Commander
Council of Veterans of Middletown

Who is Linda McMahon?

Welcome Tim as second official regular blogger!
All guest blogs/letters are published as a courtesy, and do not necessarily represent the views of the Insider Editors. These post are opinion pieces, and burden of proof falls on the author. 
Linda McMahon Reception
Wednesday, October 3rd, 2012 from 5-7pm at the Mystic Marriott in Groton, CT
Part 1 of a short series of articles by Tim D. Enchanter
This reception was attended by people who are important and those who are not so important. Then there was me. We all came to meet Linda McMahon and hear what she had to say about the issues facing our state. Good food, good company, and many Republican Candidates running for office in the 2nd Congressional District.
     Not only did we meet US Senate Candidate Linda McMahon, but we also had the opportunity to meet Congressional Candidate Paul Formica and State Senate Candidates such as Chris Coutu and Mike Doyle. Rob Simmons, Former Congressman from the 2 nd District, gave the introductory speech for McMahon.
     He was introduced as a shining example of the days when we had Congressional
Representation that took the time to meet with constituents and hear their needs and concerns. His speech reminded everyone of those Connecticut concerns that have taken a secondary or tertiary position behind the agenda of DNC and White House policies.
     There are those who wonder why Simmons is supporting his previous rival from the 2010 US Senate Primary. Simmons addressed this in his introductory speech. As Chairman of the Yankee Institute of Public Policy, he cannot officially endorse any candidate but he can discuss economic and policy issues.
     He showed a graph demonstrating how the cost of Connecticut State Government
has grown by over 300% while the population has only grown 8-10% in 40 years. Services
have neither improved nor increased yet spending has. He asked a simple question to Linda McMahon. If 200 of the 378 sources of revenue are responsible for less than 1% of the revenue, why spend so much money paying government employees to collect a smaller amount of money? “Because they want a job at our expense. That’s why.” he said.
     He mentioned the submarine base in danger of being closed by the upcoming defense cuts. He also listed other companies, such as Sikorsky, which would be hurt by those cuts, costing Connecticut many thousands, if not tens of thousands, of jobs in an economy already hurting the vast majority of CT residents.
     Simmons reminded everyone that the US Constitution lists the responsibilities of government in Article 1 Section 8 and one of those is to provide for a Common Defense. He then specified that the State of Connecticut has had the Honor of providing submarines, helicopters, and jet engines for that Common Defense. Linda McMahon, he said, will make certain that Connecticut continues to have that Honor.
     He went on to speak of the latest poll numbers which show the Senate Race is a dead heat horse race and that Linda McMahon is ahead of her opponent in the 2 nd District. He mentioned how Chris Murphy must not understand how much Connecticut supports the military and the nation’s security.
     As I listened to him I realized a simple reason Rob Simmons is supporting his former rival. Rob Simmons is a Patriot who loves his country and his state and sees Linda McMahon as an independent woman who will do what is right for her state and country instead of what she is told to do by party bosses.

CT Disabilities Network Candidate Forum

Insider note: Nice to see a REAL bi-partisan candidate forum with both sides represented:
This event is sponsored by CT Developmental Disabilities Network, CT Council on Developmental Disabilities, UConn Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities and CT State Office of Protection and Advocacy for Persons with Disabilities.
All Congressional and Senatorial Candidates as well as presidential surrogates, have been invited. Come hear the candidates present their platforms on disability issues.
KEYNOTE SPEAKER: John Kemp, Esq.

Invited Candidates:
Linda McMahon ,Chris Murphy, John Henry Decker,Congressman John Larson,Congressman Joe Courtney, Paul Formica
Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro, Wayne Winsley, Congressman Jim Himes, Steve Obstnik, Elizabeth Esty, Andrew Roraback
Surrogates for President Barak Obama and Governor Mitt Romney

For Further Information please contact :
Melissa Marshall at melissa.marshall@snet.net or 860-561-1089

• • Friday, October 12, 2012  3:00pm until 7:00pm, 

• Manchester Community College; Arts, Science & Technology Building

Your Daily Spin from the Middletown Mess!

Isn't it ironic that when the Middletown Mess posts a letter from a Democrat supporting a Democratic candidate for office that there is no Editor's note at the bottom of the letter indicating the author's party position? We already know that the Press bias against local conservatives; this proof can be seen in the shear number of articles posted about Democratic candidates vs. Republicans and others. Take into consideration, Congresswoman & candidate Red Rosa DeLauro visits Middletown  and has paraded around with Mayor Dan Drew & Rep. Joe Serra greasing palms, 3 separate articles alone this summer have been written. Republican Candidate Linda McMahon has hit the street in town as well, and no articles were written. Republican Candidate Wayne Winsley, a veteran,  has attended veteran ceremonies in town with no hullabaloo. Incumbent Candidate Len Suzio holds monthly coffee hours at Rise and Shine Cafe in Middletown and has done so through out his career in office and gets no write up, yet Rep. Matt Lesser decides to meet a select few for at a Dunkin Donuts, and the Mess practically holds a Press conference.

Should Republicans be offended? Well, there is the old adage that true good Samaritans need no praise, and that perhaps calling attention to one's self so frequently is a sign the Democrats are in trouble and are running on shaky platforms that need constant bolstering in the media. Or that the Democrats are just the trendy new phrase "attention whores." This November, voters will decide whose message is best, but the Insider is concerned that the Republicans aren't being given a equal billing especially from media sources such as the Press and the Courant and alike that claim to be "unbiased." At least at the Insider, we where our hearts on our sleeves and tell it like it is.

On July 6, 2012  local Middletown town Democratic Chairman Dan Pickett "wrote" a letter to the Editor published by the Middletown Press praising his choice of Democratic candidate for the 13th District and slamming incumbent Republican Len Suzio- shocking!. Those of us who follow politics know this was most likely a canned letter written by an adviser to the party and published with Mr. Pickett's name, at least we hope for his sake, it came from an intern advisor and not from the pen of Pickett judging from the poorly
 constructed analogies and reasoning behind  arguments against the reelection of Suzio. It should be noted in the article available here, that this article does NOT have an Editor's note displaying Pickett's political affiliation. The reader is supposed to believe this is an Average Joe citizen who wrote this on his own accord. There have also been 3 articles since May "informing" the public that this Democrat is challenging Suzio in the 13th district, all patronizing to the challenger and not the incumbent Suzio, and all a poorly disguised rewording of the same facts.

So what you say? Fast forward to the subsequent letter published in the Press today from Cromwell Republican Town Committee chair and selectman Enzo Faienzo. How do we know who the author is? There is a note form the Editor at the end of the article announcing the a fore mentioned affiliation because the Press wants the public to assume the opinion is biased because it is written by a fellow active Republican.

Bottom line: If voters want the true picture of what candidates are doing around Middletown, do your own research. Know the mainstream media is biased. Republican & Independent candidates are out there doing great things. It's not what you read in the local paper, its what you don't read! People, do your own homework before the November elections.