(Updated: Tuesday, 2:30 p.m.)
Known as 'Landslide Joe', more than 350 Democratic delegates from the Second Congressional District nominated U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney for a second term Monday.

The Vernon Democrat earned the nickname two years ago when he won the seat by defeating then incumbent Republican Rob Simmons by just 83 votes.

Courtney greeted his supporters with handshakes, hugs, and kisses as he stood at the back of a University of Connecticut ballroom listening to his nomination speeches. The speeches were given by a University of Connecticut graduate, Electric Boat employee, and Norwich veteran.

CANTON, Conn. - For voters in Connecticut's Fifth District who are appalled by the Republicans' disastrous foreign policies, and disillusioned by the Democrats' broken promises to fix them, the November 2008 elections will offer a third choice.

Harold Burbank II is running for Congress as the Green Party candidate for Congress, challenging first-term incumbent Democrat Chris Murphy and Republican state Sen. David Cappiello.

Burbank, a human rights attorney, has never worked for a corporation. He has an impressive record of public service in government, in international relations and law, and in the peace movement for over 30 years. It is this experience in justice work and what Burbank calls this "critical moment in history" that drove his decision to run for the Fifth District congressional seat.

Click here to continue reading Gale's report.

Compared to two years ago Saturday's Democratic State Convention at Central Connecticut State University was by all accounts uneventful.

There were no challenges to the three Democratic National Committee member nominations and the rule changes were fairly straightforward.

Without much fanfare, John Olsen, Ellen Camhi, and Anthony Avallone were nominated to go to Denver in August as members of the Democratic National Committee. The largest applause erupted when Stamford Mayor Dannel Malloy took the podium and nominated Mrs. Camhi, as a national committee member.

U.S. Senator Chris Dodd made a visit to the state Capitol Friday afternoon to talk about his credit card accountability act. Dodd's press conference on credit cards was followed by a question and answer segment with the media about the presidential race.

Dodd, once a presidential candidate himself, announced his support for Sen. Barack Obama several weeks after exiting the race himself. Friday he was asked if he would accept a cabinet position if his candidate won the presidential race.

It should come as no surprise to political insiders that John Olsen, a superdelegate to the Democratic National Convention in August, announced Thursday afternoon that he will be supporting Sen. Hillary Clinton.

At a press conference in Speaker of the House James Amann's office, Olsen said he had a strong feeling about Clinton following her victory in the Pennsylvania primary.

Clinton showed me she has the ability to "stand up and do battle," he said.

Forty-three delegates from three towns in the second Senatorial district gathered at the Bloomfield Senior Center last Thursday to nominate both a man and a woman to represent them in May at the Democratic Party's statewide convention.

The group of Democrats also nominated three other delegates to participate on various organizing committees for the convention--where the party will endorse Democratic National Committee members and make changes to state party rules.

Minutes after convening last Thursday Leo Canty of Windsor was appointed to chair the meeting and without objection the 43 Democrats in the room nominated Larry Pleasant of Bloomfield and Helene Shays of Windsor to be their representatives to the convention.

An increasingly firm Howard Dean told CNN again Thursday that he needs superdelegates to say who they're for - and "I need them to say who they're for starting now."

John Olsen, one of Connecticut's 12 superdelegates to the Democratic National Convention in August, said Friday in a phone interview that he's working on getting Mr. Dean an answer.

Mr. Olsen, who is also president of the AFL-CIO, has not yet committed to vote for either Sen. Hillary Clinton or Sen. Barack Obama. In order to help him make a decision, Mr. Olsen is conducting a secret ballot of the AFL-CIO's executive board members this week.

As a superdelegate Mr. Olsen said he's received a lot of comments from a lot of different people and wanted to offer his executive board members a chance to weigh in on the discussion.

A Republican Congressman declined to mimic his party's "read my lips"/ "no-new taxes" pledge at a New Haven gathering. Democrats pounced.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee issued a release the next day attacking U.S. Rep. Chris Shays, a Fairfield County Republican, for remarks he made at New Haven's Belvedere Monday. The event was a "transportation summit." Shays agreed with other speakers that roads, bridges and mass transit need billions of emergency federal dollars for maintenance and expansion. Even though tax hikes are unpopular, a boost in the gas tax is necessary to cover those costs, Shays said.

Click here to continue reading Paul's report.

A week after the presidential primary, Secretary of State Susan Bysiewicz wrote
this letter to Gov. M. Jodi Rell alerting her to the problems with the Centralized Voter Registration System, a computer program that contains the names, addresses and party affiliation of all registered voters in the state.

"The system crashed several times on the day before the Primary and has not yet been completely restored," Bysiewicz wrote in a Feb. 14 letter to Rell. The system "is a critical tool for Registrars of Voters in ensuring the accuracy of enrollment lists and in preventing voter fraud."

The United Church of Christ's nonprofit tax status has been called into question by the Internal Revenue Service because Illinois Senator Barack Obama gave
this speech at the General Synod in Hartford this summer.

Obama, a member of the church, appeared at the Hartford Civic Center on June 23, 2007 to address a crowd of more than 10,000 UCC members, who were passing around dozens of cookies, not political literature, which could cost the church its tax status.

Hartford Mayor Eddie Perez was outraged by the allegations made by the IRS.

In a press release sent out Wednesday, he said, "Monday's action by the IRS is an intimidation tactic aimed at preventing churches and people of faith from hearing from public officials about the important issues of the day."

Perez was so upset by the allegations he sent this letter to Connecticut's Congressional delegation.