CoventryCat86
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I'm causing trouble again
- Thread starter CoventryCat86
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CoventryCat86
Corresponding authority
- Joined
- Jun 18, 2003
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- 12,599
Hmmm, I did not realize that the Hartford Courant site requries registration. Let's try this:
Rowland's Lobbying Questioned
Calls Create Static Over GOP Election
April 23, 2004
By JON LENDER And ELIZABETH HAMILTON, Courant Staff Writers
With his own future on the line, Gov. John G. Rowland is investing some of his remaining political capital in a fight over a position virtually unknown outside political circles - the job of Republican national committee member.
It is a risky investment, because the battle over Rowland confidant Jo McKenzie's survival as one of Connecticut's two members on the Republican National Committee threatens to become messy.
Rowland's image already has suffered after admissions that he lied about gifts and favors he received from state contractors and subordinates. Also, he is the focus of both a federal criminal investigation and a legislative impeachment inquiry.
McKenzie, who holds a vaguely defined, $84,000-a-year job overseeing affairs at the governor's residence, also has been drawn into the scandal. She has been subpoenaed in both the federal grand jury probe and the impeachment inquiry.
Now, after a two-week effort by Rowland to help McKenzie fight off a challenge by lawyer Ann M. Moore of Milford, allegations of intimidation and illegality are emerging from members of the Republican State Central Committee, whose 72 members will vote on the national committee seat May 8.
One of those members is Patricia Fers of Ansonia, who is leaning toward supporting Moore and has received two phone calls from the McKenzie camp - one from McKenzie on April 9, the other from Rowland on April 13. She said she told McKenzie in the first call that she needed time to think and would call back when she decided.
Then on April 13, she came home from her state job at the Department of Children and Families and found a voice-mail message from Rowland that made her feel "intimidated" and, later, "fearful," partly because of the thought her employment by the state could be affected. She had lost a previous state job in a recent layoff.
Nothing in Rowland's phone message sounds like a threat, but Fers said the mere fact that he called was worrisome. "I felt that I was being thrown the big guns," she said. "And I felt angry and hurt that this would even be tried."
"Hey Pat, it's the guv," went the message on Fers' answering machine. "I'm calling to encourage your support of my Mama Jo. I know there's a little battle going on here and I sure would hate to see us dump Mama Jo after all she's put into our party. So I'm asking as a favor to have you support Jo. I'd very much appreciate it. I'll be in the office tomorrow, so try to get back to me or Chrissy. This is no time to be splitting up the party and making a spectacle out of this thing ... So give me or Chrissy a call back tomorrow. I'll be in the office. I've got a busy schedule tomorrow, but I'll be around. Thanks."
Fers said, "I thought the call was inappropriate, and I decided not to return the call."
Rowland's mention of "Chrissy" in the message referred to Christine Corey. She is the longtime scheduling aide in Rowland's office who made news late last year with the disclosure that she and her husband, Paul Corey - Rowland's appointee as chairman of the Connecticut Lottery Corp. board - had given the governor the now-famous hot tub for his Litchfield lakeside cottage.
Corey acknowledged two weeks ago that she was making calls in behalf of McKenzie, but she insisted her pro-McKenzie efforts were "on my own time," not the state's - a claim inconsistent with Rowland's invitation for Fers to call him or Corey at the Capitol office.
Another member of the Republican State Central Committee, William Jenkins of Chaplin, said he received a call at home from McKenzie April 7 about 2 p.m. on his answering machine. The caller I.D. indicated it was from a state phone number - which Jenkins, a Moore supporter, called "inappropriate."
Jenkins is working as a temporary state employee for the House Republicans during the legislative session, and he said "people are constantly being reminded around here not to use the phones for political purposes during work time."
Rowland's spokesman, Dean Pagani, said he could not comment on the issues raised by Fers and Jenkins Thursday.
"I have no direct knowledge of any of that," Pagani said.
Rowland and McKenzie should not be lobbying Republican Party members from their offices at the Capitol, Pagani said, because "there shouldn't be political work being done in the office."
But, he added, the governor is on duty 24 hours a day and it becomes "very difficult to split those duties."
"I think it important to point out that the governor doesn't have regular office hours," Pagani said.
Richard Foley, a former Republican state party chairman and a Moore supporter, said he has heard from people who have been lobbied by Rowland and McKenzie and felt threatened.
"They have gone way beyond the bounds of legitimate political actions," Foley said. "When you threaten people's livelihoods and when you break state law you have gone way too far."
Moore has a viable shot at McKenzie's position because Republicans feel as if they've been ignored by her, Foley added, not just because she is associated with potentially corrupt behavior within the administration.
Michael Doyle, a state central committee member who works in the governor's Norwich office, disputed this view of the contest for the national committee job and said it is Moore, not McKenzie, who is spreading rumors and bad feelings.
Doyle said he was not lobbied by either Rowland or McKenzie, but acknowledged that's because he never hesitated to state his support for McKenzie, whom he has known for 18 years.
"It was not a hard decision," Doyle said. He recently sent out a letter to Republican state party members urging them to support McKenzie and said he has heard positive feedback in the past few days.
"I think she has the votes," Doyle said, referring to McKenzie.
Rowland's decision two weeks ago to help McKenzie preserve her national committee seat came after some public hesitation. He told reporters April 8 at the Capitol that he was staying out of the battle and had not talked to McKenzie about it. But by April 10 state central committee members began receiving letters from McKenzie saying the governor was backing her.
George Jepsen, Democratic state party chairman, blasted the governor's efforts in behalf of McKenzie Thursday, saying, "This is vintage John Rowland. He says one thing to the public while feverishly doing the opposite in private. They have two plays in their playbook: They try to buy people off - as now, with state bonding money being awarded in select districts represented by members of the impeachment panel - or through fear and intimidation. This is the latter."
The fact that there is even a contest over McKenzie's seat may be a measure of Rowland's diminished clout in the midst of the scandal. One longtime Republican observer said the state central committee is a group of "palace insiders" insulated from the public, and until Rowland's current difficulties, they had always "rubber-stamped" everything he wanted. But no longer.
Rowland's Lobbying Questioned
Calls Create Static Over GOP Election
April 23, 2004
By JON LENDER And ELIZABETH HAMILTON, Courant Staff Writers
With his own future on the line, Gov. John G. Rowland is investing some of his remaining political capital in a fight over a position virtually unknown outside political circles - the job of Republican national committee member.
It is a risky investment, because the battle over Rowland confidant Jo McKenzie's survival as one of Connecticut's two members on the Republican National Committee threatens to become messy.
Rowland's image already has suffered after admissions that he lied about gifts and favors he received from state contractors and subordinates. Also, he is the focus of both a federal criminal investigation and a legislative impeachment inquiry.
McKenzie, who holds a vaguely defined, $84,000-a-year job overseeing affairs at the governor's residence, also has been drawn into the scandal. She has been subpoenaed in both the federal grand jury probe and the impeachment inquiry.
Now, after a two-week effort by Rowland to help McKenzie fight off a challenge by lawyer Ann M. Moore of Milford, allegations of intimidation and illegality are emerging from members of the Republican State Central Committee, whose 72 members will vote on the national committee seat May 8.
One of those members is Patricia Fers of Ansonia, who is leaning toward supporting Moore and has received two phone calls from the McKenzie camp - one from McKenzie on April 9, the other from Rowland on April 13. She said she told McKenzie in the first call that she needed time to think and would call back when she decided.
Then on April 13, she came home from her state job at the Department of Children and Families and found a voice-mail message from Rowland that made her feel "intimidated" and, later, "fearful," partly because of the thought her employment by the state could be affected. She had lost a previous state job in a recent layoff.
Nothing in Rowland's phone message sounds like a threat, but Fers said the mere fact that he called was worrisome. "I felt that I was being thrown the big guns," she said. "And I felt angry and hurt that this would even be tried."
"Hey Pat, it's the guv," went the message on Fers' answering machine. "I'm calling to encourage your support of my Mama Jo. I know there's a little battle going on here and I sure would hate to see us dump Mama Jo after all she's put into our party. So I'm asking as a favor to have you support Jo. I'd very much appreciate it. I'll be in the office tomorrow, so try to get back to me or Chrissy. This is no time to be splitting up the party and making a spectacle out of this thing ... So give me or Chrissy a call back tomorrow. I'll be in the office. I've got a busy schedule tomorrow, but I'll be around. Thanks."
Fers said, "I thought the call was inappropriate, and I decided not to return the call."
Rowland's mention of "Chrissy" in the message referred to Christine Corey. She is the longtime scheduling aide in Rowland's office who made news late last year with the disclosure that she and her husband, Paul Corey - Rowland's appointee as chairman of the Connecticut Lottery Corp. board - had given the governor the now-famous hot tub for his Litchfield lakeside cottage.
Corey acknowledged two weeks ago that she was making calls in behalf of McKenzie, but she insisted her pro-McKenzie efforts were "on my own time," not the state's - a claim inconsistent with Rowland's invitation for Fers to call him or Corey at the Capitol office.
Another member of the Republican State Central Committee, William Jenkins of Chaplin, said he received a call at home from McKenzie April 7 about 2 p.m. on his answering machine. The caller I.D. indicated it was from a state phone number - which Jenkins, a Moore supporter, called "inappropriate."
Jenkins is working as a temporary state employee for the House Republicans during the legislative session, and he said "people are constantly being reminded around here not to use the phones for political purposes during work time."
Rowland's spokesman, Dean Pagani, said he could not comment on the issues raised by Fers and Jenkins Thursday.
"I have no direct knowledge of any of that," Pagani said.
Rowland and McKenzie should not be lobbying Republican Party members from their offices at the Capitol, Pagani said, because "there shouldn't be political work being done in the office."
But, he added, the governor is on duty 24 hours a day and it becomes "very difficult to split those duties."
"I think it important to point out that the governor doesn't have regular office hours," Pagani said.
Richard Foley, a former Republican state party chairman and a Moore supporter, said he has heard from people who have been lobbied by Rowland and McKenzie and felt threatened.
"They have gone way beyond the bounds of legitimate political actions," Foley said. "When you threaten people's livelihoods and when you break state law you have gone way too far."
Moore has a viable shot at McKenzie's position because Republicans feel as if they've been ignored by her, Foley added, not just because she is associated with potentially corrupt behavior within the administration.
Michael Doyle, a state central committee member who works in the governor's Norwich office, disputed this view of the contest for the national committee job and said it is Moore, not McKenzie, who is spreading rumors and bad feelings.
Doyle said he was not lobbied by either Rowland or McKenzie, but acknowledged that's because he never hesitated to state his support for McKenzie, whom he has known for 18 years.
"It was not a hard decision," Doyle said. He recently sent out a letter to Republican state party members urging them to support McKenzie and said he has heard positive feedback in the past few days.
"I think she has the votes," Doyle said, referring to McKenzie.
Rowland's decision two weeks ago to help McKenzie preserve her national committee seat came after some public hesitation. He told reporters April 8 at the Capitol that he was staying out of the battle and had not talked to McKenzie about it. But by April 10 state central committee members began receiving letters from McKenzie saying the governor was backing her.
George Jepsen, Democratic state party chairman, blasted the governor's efforts in behalf of McKenzie Thursday, saying, "This is vintage John Rowland. He says one thing to the public while feverishly doing the opposite in private. They have two plays in their playbook: They try to buy people off - as now, with state bonding money being awarded in select districts represented by members of the impeachment panel - or through fear and intimidation. This is the latter."
The fact that there is even a contest over McKenzie's seat may be a measure of Rowland's diminished clout in the midst of the scandal. One longtime Republican observer said the state central committee is a group of "palace insiders" insulated from the public, and until Rowland's current difficulties, they had always "rubber-stamped" everything he wanted. But no longer.
