SOTS RACE HEATS UP IN NEW HAVEN

On May, 25th the candidates for SOTS faced off in front of a crowded room in the Hall of Records in New Haven, CT. The candidates running for SOTS are: Attorney Audrey Blondin, Developer Robert Landino, Rep. Andrew Fleischman, Realtor John Nussbaum, Rep. Evenlyn Mantilla and Norma Rodriguez. Andrew Fleischman and Evelyn Mantilla weren't able to attend due to an important vote in the General Assembly, they sent proxies to speak for them. The event was rather crowded with many resident's coming in support of Norma Rodriguez being that New Haven is her hometown. The event had some big names attending such as George Jepsen and Nancy Dinardo. The Candidates agreed that the major issues of the office of the SOTS are: Campaign Finance with the public financing of campaigns, adopting Electronic Voting Machines with voter verified paper trails, promoting Connecticut small bussinesses, enforcing ethics around the state and Connecticut's voter participation. There was talk about free airtime for campaigns and optical scanners from some of the candidates. Audrey Blondin stressed the need for the next SOTS to have local level experience. Audrey stressed that there alot of important issues ahead of us, adding that the state or federal government shouldn't put unnessesary costs or mandates on our local town's and cities if they aren't going to help pay for. She stressed taking a slow approach when dealing with issues like replacing our old voting machines, because of the magnitude of different technologies with electronic machines and the costs involved. Audrey spoke about a need to have a code of ethics in every town, to give residents a venue for voicing thier concerns about thier elected officials. The Candidates also agreed that all of the new machines must not only have a voter verified paper trail, but must be ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) compilant. It was a great night to be a Democrat and makes this blogger think that we will keep the SOTS spot for the Democrats for many years to come and we Dems are posed to win Governor in 2006!!!! Democrats Unite...