Category: Tia Albright
Money and Issues Affecting District 5 Race
FECNewBritain
The New Britain Herald
Tia Albright
Boston University Washington News Service
October 18, 2006
WASHINGTON, Oct. 18 – In Connecticut’s 5th District, 12-term Republican Rep. Nancy Johnson has raised three times as much money as her Democratic opponent, Christopher Murphy, but the race is considered one of the most competitive in the nation.
“I think the race is close,” said Massie Ritsch, communications director for the Center for Responsive Politics, a non-profit, non-partisan research organization based in Washington that tracks money in politics and its effect on elections and public policy. “For the Democrats there are added values that aren’t reflected in campaign fundraising. There is the unpopularity of the president, the war and the Republican Party in general.”
As of Sept. 30, Johnson raised $3,468,668 and had $1,081,111 cash on hand, while Murphy had $367,524 left from the $1,910,891 he raised, according to financial reports the candidates filed with the Federal Election Commission.
Johnson has spent almost $100,000 more than she has raised and still has more than $1 million left to spend. She said that the extra money was left over from her previous campaign.
She said one of the reasons she has raised so much money is that she attracts voters from all walks of life, including people from varying professions and with different opinions.
“I’ve always been proud of the breadth of my fundraising base,” Johnson said. “I think it’s a healthy and good thing.”
Ed Patru, spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, said money enables candidates to get out their message. “Nancy Johnson’s huge financial advantage is absolutely a liability for Chris Murphy in this race,” Patru said.
But Jen Psaki, spokeswoman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee said, “The real question is, how big does Nancy Johnson’s cash advantage have to be to convince Connecticut voters that they want more of the same in Washington?”
Although Murphy has raised significantly less money than Johnson, he has raised seven times as much as the average House challenger, according to Opensecrets.org, the Center for Responsive Politics’ Web site.
“Our record-breaking fundraising is a symbol of the support we have in Connecticut,” Murphy said. “The money we raised this quarter is double the amount that any previous candidate against Johnson has raised.”
Johnson, with more than $1 million left, and Murphy, with almost $400,000, intend to spend their remaining cash in the next three weeks.
“Some of the money spent has already paid for things that we’re going to do in the next few weeks,” Johnson said. “Basically the money goes to get your message out and manage the campaign.”
Murphy said, “We’ve already bought our TV time for the rest of campaign, but we are going to continue getting our message out to voters in as many ways as we can.”
MoveOn.org, a political action group that support Democrats, has spent $444,424 independently against Johnson, according to Political Money Line, an organization that tracks campaign finance. No independent expenditures against Murphy have been reported.
Johnson said that ads placed by groups like MoveOn.org should be considered part of her opponent’s expenditures because they use the same language his Web site uses.
“I think all outside ads should be banned, but he’s had tons of outside ads,” Johnson said. “He has had a lot of people coming in and running ads, and it is too bad, because those ads tend to be distorted.”
Murphy also has reservations about outside ads. “We would rather that these third parties stay out of the race,” he said. “I think in the end it would be better if the candidates spoke for themselves.”
Both campaigns have their own polls to point to as evidence of success.
A poll the National Republican Congressional Committee commissioned and the American Viewpoint polling firm conducted on Oct. 1 and 2 showed Johnson with a 10-point lead over Murphy, 52-42 percent.
“What is significant here is that Nancy Johnson holds a 10-point lead over her opponent and she’s well over 50 percent,” Patru said. The poll, he said, shows that Johnson has created a solid base of voters.
Murphy held a 5-point lead, 45-40 percent, in an Oct. 12 poll the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee commissioned and the Grove Insight polling firm conducted.
“I think the poll shows that Connecticut families are looking for a change from their current representation,” Psaki said. “Chris Murphy’s message of bringing change to the way business is done in Washington is resonating with voters.”
Murphy, in talking about the Democratic poll, said, “This is no doubt a David and Goliath race, but like the story goes, David is winning.”
But with three weeks left in such a tight race it can go either way, said Scott McLean, chairman of the political science department at Quinnipiac University.
“I think the race is pretty close,” McLean said. “A lot of old formulas for a congressional race do not apply when you’ve got an international situation that everyone is focused on, and those issues can neutralize the financial situation.”
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Connecticut Fares Well on Environmental Scorecard
SCORECARD
The New Britain Herald
Tia Albright
Boston University Washington News Service
October 11, 2006
WASHINGTON, Oct. 11 –The League of Conservation Voters praised Connecticut’s congressional delegation Wednesday for their understanding and concern for environmental issues.
“The entire Connecticut delegation deserves recognition for understanding that we need to utilize new solutions to our energy problems, not backwards proposals like drilling in our nation’s last wild places,” said Gene Karpinski, the league’s president
Each year, the environmental advocacy organization rates each member of Congress according to how they acted on what the league views as key votes. This year the group rated seven Senate votes and a dozen House votes, including votes on drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, low-income energy assistance, environmental funding and off-shore drilling.
Connecticut’s congressional delegation is ranked eighth, according to the league’s scoring.
Republican Rep. Nancy Johnson scored 83 percent this year, up from 56 percent last year. She voted with the league on 10 votes this year, but voted for amendments on food safety and oil refineries that the league opposed.
“Nancy is a recognized leader in Congress on protecting the environment,” said Brian Schubert, Johnson’s campaign spokesman. “It is why she has been endorsed by the League of Conservation Voters this year.”
Schubert said that Johnson led the fight to protect the upper Housatonic Valley as a national heritage area, shepherded her bill to protect the Farmington River through the House and led the fight against the Bush administration’s proposal to open a portion of the Arctic refuge for oil drilling.
In the Senate, Sens. Christopher Dodd and Joseph Lieberman ranked high on the scorecard. Dodd was one of 112 members of Congress to receive a perfect 100 percent. Lieberman scored 71 percent, voting with the league on five votes and absent for two.
“I’m gratified that the League of Conservation Voters has identified my record as one strong on environmental issues,” Dodd said, “and I look forward to continuing my work to ensure that our waters stay clean, our air fresh and that our wildlife and greenery are protected.”
The league’s legislative director, Tiernan Sittenfeld,.said that Lieberman has been a continuing supporter of environmental issues and a champion in protecting the Arctic, and that he would have voted with the league on the two votes he missed while campaigning in the state.
The league has endorsed and financially contributed to candidates supporting environmental votes, including Johnson and Lieberman.
“Connecticut should definitely be proud of its record,” Sittenfeld said.
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Connecticut Colleges Failing in Affordability
AFFORDABILITY
The New Britain Herald
Tia Albright
Boston University Washington News Service
October 5, 2006
WASHINGTON, Oct. 5 – Connecticut may be the richest state in the nation, but over the past decade its colleges have become less affordable, particularly for low-income families, according to a report by an independent higher education advocacy group.
In an effort to eliminate decreased college affordability in Connecticut, Lt. Gov. Kevin Sullivan has called for grassroots and legislative action to make higher education a top priority.
“Higher education is now essential for the next generation and the economic future of our state,” said Sullivan.
Connecticut received an “F” in affordability, ranking 43rd among states, according to the report. The state has made no improvement in college affordability since the last report came out in two years ago.
The report was issued by the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, a non-partisan, non-profit group that studies higher education.
“Unfortunately, state government is failing to do anything about it,” said Sullivan. “In fact, if higher education is the bridge to the future, state government is making it more and more expensive to get across.”
At Central Connecticut State University, students and their families are feeling the strain of decreased financial aid and increased tuition costs, and they’re not the only ones.
“We have a lot of working families and middle-class families that are working as hard as they can to educate their children, and they tend to be hindered the most by the cost of tuition and the decrease in financial aid,” said Gladys Colon-Lawson, assistant director of financial aid for Central Connecticut.
College affordability is a widespread problem in the United States. Connecticut, along with 42 other states, received failing grades in affordability, according to the report. The highest grades were given to California and Utah, each of which received a “C-”.
The report grades each state on five different criteria. Connecticut received “A’s” in preparation, participation and benefits, and a “B” in completion.
Colon-Lawson said that the families with multiple children and other expenses that are not included on the state financial aid forms suffer extensively because the aid offices do not consider how far that family’s dollar has to stretch.
The report found that community college costs the average Connecticut family 22 percent of its household income and a four-year public university costs families 29 percent of their income before financial aid. Private school tuition far outweighed the financial burdens of public colleges and universities, costing the average family 71 percent of their household income.
In 1997, Central Connecticut State University’s cost for tuition and room and board was $8,984 for in-state students and $14,462 for out-of-state students, according to a university tuition pamphlet.
Almost ten years later the cost has increased to $13,474 for in-state students and $21,414 for out-of-state students, said Colon-Lawson.
The report said that while the cost of tuition has risen by $1,842 for four-year public institutions from 2000 to 2005, the median income of Connecticut residents didn’t change, but tuition increased 41 percent.
“To make higher education more affordable, let’s be sure annual state appropriations at least keep up with inflation in the cost of higher education,” said Sullivan.
According to a higher education report by the Campaign for America’s Future, a non-profit progressive organization focused on policy, state appropriations for education in Connecticut fell by 21 percent per student between 2000 and 2005.
Student debt, on average, has increased nearly 60 percent since the 1990s, according to the report.
Sullivan said that Connecticut student financial aid programs need to be funded at the levels leaders have promised but rarely met.
“Unless we get the public and candidates for federal and state office to focus this year, it’s just going to be more of the same for Connecticut: higher education costs, more burden on families and students, big debts for higher education borrowing, and a ‘brain drain’ that sends more than 5,000 of our best and brightest out of state,” Sullivan said.
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$2.9 Million for Connecticut High School Educationon
FUNDS
The New Britain Herald
Tia Albright
Boston University Washington News Service
October 5, 2006
WASHINGTON, Oct. 5 – Students at New Britain High School are attending the school with the highest student-to-teacher ratio in Connecticut and one of the lowest graduation rates. But help, in the way of federal funds, is on the way.
Connecticut will receive a five-year grant of $2.9 million from the U.S. Department of Education to support the development of small, safe and successful learning environments in large high schools throughout the state, Sens. Christopher Dodd and Joseph Lieberman announced Wednesday.
“We know that in a large school like ours, one of the most important things for our students is to build personal connections, and this can be achieved with smaller learning communities,” said Michael Foran, interim principal of New Britain High School.
For the 2004 to 2005 school year, the average student-to-teacher ratio in state high schools was 20 to 1, according to the Connecticut State Department of Education. New Britain High, which has 3,300 students, had an average of 26 students per teacher, the highest in the state.
With a graduation rate of 73 percent, the school ranked 10th from the bottom out of 174 high schools in the state, according to the state agency.
New Britain High School will open a ninth-grade academy next fall. The ninth graders will be put into groups of approximately 100 students each with teachers who work only with students in their group. The students will get to know the teachers better and the teachers will get to know the students, creating a better learning environment, Foran said.
“Ninth grade is the key transition year for students, and students who don’t get off to a good start are less likely to graduate,” Foran said. “There are tremendous benefits to making school environments smaller.”
Foran said that creating smaller learning communities doesn’t automatically create smaller classes.
“One of the problems financially is that as smaller learning communities come into existence, we have to create more classes, so if the grant allows, then it may lead to smaller class sizes,” Foran said. Since the grant was just announced, it has not been decided how much money each school in the state will get.
Awarded under the No Child Left Behind’s smaller learning community program, the grants focus on improving high school for students by providing them with a more personalized high school experience, which will help improve academic and social achievements and performance, according to the senators’ press release.
“We know that in a large school like ours, one of the things that is most important is for students to build personal connections, and smaller learning communities can meet those needs,” Foran said.
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$500,000 Given to Connecticut to Aid Workers
GRANT
The New Britain Herald
Tia Albright
Boston University Washington News Service
October 3, 2006
WASHINGTON, Oct. 3 – Connecticut will receive $500,000 in federal funds to help workers get back on their feet after losing their jobs for trade-related reasons.
The U.S. Department of Labor made the grant to aid the state in providing job training, relocation and employment programs for workers, Nancy Johnson, R-Conn., announced Friday.
“Losing their jobs turns these people’s lives upside down, both in terms of their job loss and financially being able to pay the bills,” said Michael Bartley, regional job center director for the Connecticut Department of Labor. “It also affects their self-esteem because losing a job is a stressful and anxiety-filled experience.”
Bartley said many workers who have been employed by the same company for years face a tight labor market, making it difficult to find jobs in similar trades that pay comparable wages.
“Training, relocation and employment programs open doors for workers to get skill training to aid them in the competitive job market,” Bartley said. “They can get advanced training in their field or retrained in a field with more job openings.”
Funds are awarded under the trade adjustment assistance program, a government program that works with state and local agencies to provide assistance to American workers whose jobs are affected by international trade.
The program provides money for the agencies to set up relocation programs and job training so that affected workers are able to go back into the increasingly competitive job market and find jobs.
“The goal is for workers to return to suitable employment as soon as possible,” Bartley said. “Any money that can be poured into the system will have a significant impact.”
In 2005, 55,293 people registered for income support, one of the categories of aid under the trade readjustment assistance program, according the U.S. Department of Labor.
Each year the program receives more than $220 million from Congress.
“This important grant will help Connecticut workers stay competitive in our global economy,” Johnson said. “Workers affected by trade deserve access to cutting-edge training that will help them find new jobs and take advantage of new opportunities.”
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Artificial Pancreas Could Improve Diabetes Patients Lives
PANCREAS
The New Britain Herald
Tia Albright
Boston University Washington News Service
September 28, 2006
WASHINGTON, Sept. 28 – At 6-foot-11, Chris Dudley appears strong as he towers over others in a Senate conference room, but the former Portland Trailblazers’ center has struggled with diabetes.
“I myself have been proactive with my diabetes and have experienced difficulties,” Dudley said. “Yet, I live each day constantly worrying about the damage this cruel disease is doing to my body.”
Dudley was born in Stamford, Conn., and graduated from Yale University in 1987. At the age of 16 he was diagnosed with type 1, or “juvenile,” diabetes.
On Wednesday he was one of the panelists at a Senate committee hearing that discussed the potential for an artificial pancreas that would eliminate the need for insulin injections and blood testing.
“I tell children to be proactive in managing their diabetes,” said Dudley, who in 1994 created the Dudley Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to kids and diabetes. “But what I realize and the children unfortunately have to realize, is how difficult managing diabetes actually is.”
Dudley recalled a scary experience when, after a workout, he was driving home when his blood sugar suddenly dropped. The hypoglycemic reaction led to an accident in which he drove his car into a tree at 40 mph, he said.
The sixth leading cause of death in America, diabetes affects 21 million people. Type 1 diabetes, which typically occurs in childhood, is an autoimmune disease that occurs when the body attacks the insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas.
All forms of diabetes cost the health care system more than $130 billion a year, said Arnold Donald, president and chief executive officer of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International. Over time, people with diabetes are at a high risk for heart disease, kidney disease, blindness and amputation.
“Fewer complications can, arguably, lead to one of the greatest health advances and financial savings in medical expenditures in U.S. history,” Donald told the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
An artificial pancreas would create a link between two existing technologies – an insulin pump and a continuous glucose sensor that provides real-time data about the changes in glucose levels and alarms the patient if levels are going too high or too low. The alarm would allow patients to regulate their blood sugar by eating or taking insulin before they are in a dangerous situation.
The key to creating an artificial pancreas is finding a way to connect these two technologies. At Yale University Medical School and five other scientific institutions, researchers are seeing promising results in clinical trials that are working to “close the loop,” Donald said. These programs are funded by the foundation.
“While not a cure, an artificial pancreas has the potential to significantly improve diabetes care and management and to alleviate patient burden,” said Griffin P. Rodgers, acting director of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.
Aidan Sweeney of Gray, Maine has the same boundless energy as all four-year-old children, but he is living with type 1 diabetes. His mother, Caroline Sweeney, spoke as a panelist while Aidan sat by her side.
“As parents, we try from the moment our children are born to protect them from any harm,” Sweeney said. “Two years ago, I never felt more helpless when all I could do was hold the tiny hand of my 22-month-old son in the intensive care unit and pray he would not die. I vowed at that moment to do everything I could to find a cure for diabetes.”
Aidan wears an insulin pump around his waist 24 hours a day, his mother said. The pump is connected to an inch-long catheter, which has been changed more than 500 times in his short life and runs beneath the skin on his bottom, his mother said.
“I stand before you today, with my son, my hero, asking for your support in saving his life,” Sweeney said.
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Medicare Donut Hole in Connecticut
Medicare
The New Britain Herald
Tia Albright
Boston University Washington News Service
Sept. 26, 2006
WASHINGTON, Sept. 26 – In Connecticut as many as 90 percent of residents enrolled in Medicare Part D drug plans are at risk of falling into the “doughnut hole,” a gap in their prescription drug coverage, according to a report last week by Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee.
“We’re talking about millions of seniors and disabled Americans, their families and their children are watching a deal they thought they were going to get and they’re not because they’re falling into this doughnut hole,” Brad Woodhouse said during a conference call organized to publicize the report. Woodhouse is communications director for Americans United for Change, a group that advocates eliminating the gap.
Medicare Part D includes dozens of drug insurance plans. Plans with lower premiums usually include the gap in coverage but some plans with higher premiums do not. Under plans with the gap, insurance each year pays 75 percent of prescription drug costs after a one-time deductible until the total cost of drugs reaches $2,250. After that the beneficiary falls into what has been nicknamed the doughnut hole and is responsible for 100 percent of the drug costs until the total cost reaches $5,100. After that the plan will cover 95 percent of the costs.
“Millions of seniors and disabled Americans are going to be devastated by the Medicare Part D doughnut hole,” Woodhouse said.
Beneficiaries are still required to pay their monthly premium even if they are in the gap.
Programs that offer full coverage have premiums that cost, on average, $40 more a month, so many low-income families choose a plan with a gap to save money. The report estimates that 88 percent of participants, or 7 million people nationwide, will fall into the gap.
“If Medicare, as one entity, was allowed to negotiate directly with drug companies you could save potentially $50 billion in the program because Medicare negotiating for all beneficiaries would have much greater bargaining power with the drug companies,” said Democratic Connecticut State Sen. Christopher Murphy, who is running against Republican Rep. Nancy Johnson.
Johnson said that filling the doughnut hole would cost American taxpayers $450 billion, with seniors and disabled beneficiaries paying 25 percent higher premiums. “They have to ask themselves whether your generation can bear the cost, because 75 percent of the cost is paid by young people,” Johnson said.
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Cancer Ambassadors Come to the Hill
CANCER
The New Britain Herald
Tia Albright
Boston University Washington News Service
September 20, 2006
WASHINGTON, Sept. 20 – Cancer survivors and other advocates from Connecticut and elsewhere around the country came to Capitol Hill Wednesday to lobby for cancer research funding.
“We’re here in Washington asking for three things: the extension and reauthorization of the breast and cervical cancer early detection [program], a five percent funding increase for the National Institutes of Health for cancer research, and for our senators to sign the promise” to follow the American Cancer Society’s proposed agenda to end cancer-related deaths by 2015, said Hedy Field, a Connecticut volunteer from Thomaston.
The lobbying effort, part of an American Cancer Society’s two-day push for federal funding, termed “Celebration on the Hill,” included 39 Connecticut volunteers. They plan to meet with the Connecticut congressional delegation to discuss the funding for cancer research and request their signatures for the “Congressional Cancer Promise,” which lists steps the society argues that Congress must take in helping to fight cancer and “eliminate death and suffering” by 2015.
Field participated in the effort because she has lost four people close to her to the disease: her 49-year-old father-in-law to lung and laryngeal cancer, one grandmother to pancreatic cancer and the other to stomach cancer, and her best friend from middle school to breast cancer at 28.
“I don’t know anybody who hasn’t been affected by this disease,” Field said. “We need to find a cure.”
In 2003, 22.7 percent of all deaths in the United States were a result of cancer, according the American Cancer Society.
In 2005, there were approximately 16,920 cases of cancer diagnosed in Connecticut, and the state spent $2,422,067 on cancer prevention, according to Trust for America’s Health, a public health advocacy group.
During the two-day event, the American Cancer Society has erected a “Wall of Hope,” nearly 5,000 banners covered by millions of signatures from across the country, on the National Mall to honor cancer survivors and patients.
Alice Leonard, a Connecticut ambassador and paramedic from Torrington, participated in the event because she never wants anyone to have to experience the devastating effect that cancer can have on an individual or a family.
Leonard’s husband survived non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and has been cancer-free for eight years.
“I’ve also had a lot of friends with cancer, and one very good friend who died from cancer,” Leonard said. “I decided that I needed to do something positive and have money raised for reasearch. I have a 4-year-old grandaughter, and I don’t want her ever to have to hear those words, ‘I have cancer,’ from someone she loves.”
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Johnson Votes for Earmark Reform
EARMARKS
The New Britain Herald
Tia Albright
Boston University Washington News Service
September 18, 2006
WASHINGTON – The U.S. House voted overwhelmingly last Thursday to force members to reveal themselves when using the targeted spending practice known as earmarking.
Connecticut Rep. Nancy Johnson, a Republican, joined House Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, and other legislators in passing the new internal rule by voice vote.
“Taxpayers deserve to know how Congress allocates their hard-earned money,” Johnson said in a press release.
Earmarking is the name used when members of Congress insert into legislation targeted spending provisions that circumvent the usual appropriations processes, which usually includes evaluations of competing funding requests. Critics call the
practice, which has increased in recent years, pork-barreling.
The new measure added to the House rules includes provisions for spending, tax and authorization bills. Under the new rule all bills and committee reports must contain lists of earmarks and the House members who requested them.
“A list of earmark sponsors also makes it glaringly obvious that members of the appropriations committees are hoarding most of the pork for themselves,” said Tom Schatz, president of Citizens Against Government Waste, a group that advocates against the practice. “This inequity will hopefully spur more calls to funnel all federal grants through the competitive process.”
Earmarks have in recent years become a greater point of debate among members of Congress concerned about spending. In the wake of lobbying and corruption scandals, citizens and officials began pushing harder for a more transparent earmarking process.
“Egregious projects like the ‘Bridge to Nowhere’ illustrates the rampant exploitation of the current earmarking process,” said Johnson, referring to a series of earmarks in 2005 totaling $223 million for a bridge connecting the Alaska town of Ketchikan to the Island of Gravina, which has a population of less than 50. The project became a well-known symbol for critics of earmarking.
Schatz said that the availability of the names will keep members of the House from pushing earmarks that are beneficial to their family members or campaign contributors.
“This vote proves that taxpayers’ outrage over wasteful spending can lead to real change,” said Schatz. “Transparency and accountability will definitely make it easier to identify and eliminate waste, fraud and abuse.”
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Dodd Supports Block of Secret Holds
SECRET
The New Britain Herald
Tia Albright
Boston University Washington News Service
September 14, 2006
WASHINGTON – Connecticut Sen. Christopher Dodd joined three other senators, including Rules and Administration Committee Chairman Trent Lott, R-Miss., Thursday in urging final approval of an amendment the Senate passed in March that would put an end to the practice of secret “holds” on legislation.
Dodd, the senior Democrat on the committee, said he fully supports the end to secret holds, which allow senators to anonymously stop the progression of legislation or consideration of a presidential nominee before the measure reaches the floor.
“I’ve never quite understood what value people saw in a secret hold,” Dodd said. “I guess there are some narrow circumstances where people in their own minds may have some justification, but they need to go, that is the issue here.”
The Wyden-Grassley amendment to prohibit secret holds was voted on as part of the lobbying reform bill. Named after the authors, Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, the amendment requires senators who place holds on legislation and nominees to reveal their action to the public within three days.
The bill is currently in the House. Jennifer Hoelzer, Wyden’s press secretary, said the senators hoped the press conference would inspire the House to move the legislation along more quickly.
“There’s no place for something that denies the American people the ability to have a transparent process,” Dodd said. “Secret holds just are a threat to transparency at a time when we’re trying to make sure that people have a full knowledge of what we’re trying to do or what we’re doing in the United States Senate.”
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