Campaign Finance Reform panels at C.C.S.U. discuss what happened and where we are now.   Keynote speaker Gov. Rell who responded to the change in contribution amount.  One-year max for investigation not questioned.
If you wondered how the political game works in Connecticut, you should know Gov. Rell opened the meeting and put ethics first.  Others didn't seem to understand.  ("Ethics?") Check out where Legislative leaders have moved after their terms in office... 



FIRST PANEL:  Legislators who were there in 2005.   Some familiar faces.
            
S.E.E.C. recent settlement noted by former Minority leader of the Senate.
At around 2 hours and 20 minutes, former Senator McKinney tells the full story.  It explained to me why the Democrats may have paid the enormous and unpresedentedly large settlement with S.E.E.C. .

The second panel was about the organizations who support campaign finance reform (i.e. Common Cause) - find it at  2:27:37.  We didn't watch after introductions and bios given.


Then there was a closing and special presentation by S.E.E.C. Executive Director.
And C.C.S.U. department chair. closes the event and thanked former Governor Rell for starting the Citizen's Election Program.  Total 4 hrs 31 minutes

 This whole event ran longer than the most recent day of Special Session in the House! 


Bold Challenge:  Governor Asks Legislature For Major Reforms In Month
January 6, 2005
By MARK PAZNIOKAS (now with CT MIRROR) And CHRISTOPHER KEATING, Courant Staff Writers

In her first State of the State address since scandal chased John G. Rowland from office and left her as governor, M. Jodi Rell Wednesday challenged the General Assembly to pass ethics and campaign reforms in the next month.

"I believe there exists, within all branches of government, both the consensus and the political will necessary for reform," Rell said. "We've been talking about reform for months. Let's just do it."

.."Opening day is like having a newborn child. When he's born, you think he'll be president of the United States. Eighteen years later, you're trying to keep him out of jail," said Rep. Robert Farr, R-West Hartford. "Five months from now, we'll be struggling to get a budget out and hope that we can leave with our dignity."

Story in full at Courant.

The State of Rell
January 2, 2005
By MARK PAZNOIKAS, The Hartford Courant

None of it was planned, not the 10-year legislative career, not the 9½ years as John G. Rowland's lieutenant governor, not the six months as one of the most popular governors in Connecticut history, not the past two weeks as a cancer patient. But M. Jodi Rell always has adapted to the adventure of her 58 years, somehow choosing the right fork in the road, even if she always did want one last peek at the map.

Rell is a maker of lists, a weigher of options. She can drive her chief of staff, M. Lisa Moody, to distraction, demanding more data, more facts when the time comes to make a decision. She refused to name anyone to the State Ethics Commission without time-consuming background checks, even though the commission was slowly imploding. Last month, the day after she decided against granting a reprieve to Michael Ross, she awoke at 4:15 a.m. and rehashed in her mind all that she had read about the serial killer and his victims...

Story in full at Courant.