Author Archives: cxpowell

By Chris Powell With political journalism the questions that don’t get asked can be more important than the ones that do. Such was the case with the contrived controversy that arose in the last days of Connecticut’s campaign for governor. In a television interview the Republican nominee, Bob Stefanowski, reiterated for the umpteenth time hisContinue reading “Questions that aren’t asked can be the most important”

By Chris Powell Debating this week for the second and final time of the campaign for governor, Democrat Ned Lamont and Republican Bob Stefanowski put on an instructive show. Even the third-party candidate, Rob Hotaling, added something important, if not what he intended. Aggressive and full of details, Stefanowski prompted Governor Lamont to perform betterContinue reading “An instructive confrontation for the governor candidates”

By Chris Powell Connecticut now may have its equivalent of Chairman Mao’s Red Guards, consisting of Central Connecticut State University students and members of the Connecticut Citizen Action Group who, according to news reports, last week pretended to purge racism from the office of the Republican registrar of voters at City Hall in New Britain.Continue reading “Red Guards raid City Hall; and the essence of politics”

By Chris Powell Reading the campaign flyers, postcards, and handbills that have been flooding Connecticut’s mailboxes on the eve of a state election, people might think that personalities are the only reasons for voting. Almost all candidates for the General Assembly profess to care, to support good schools, to want to reduce crime and restrainContinue reading “Campaign flyers stress trivia while serious issues abound”

By Chris Powell Another state election campaign has prompted candidates to pander to parents and teachers about the wonderfulness of Connecticut’s public schools. Of course neither parents nor teachers want to hear that their schools are not really so wonderful. Instead parents want to believe that, as in Lake Wobegon, all students are above average.Continue reading “Connecticut’s student performance was sinking long before epidemic”

By Chris Powell As a stalwart of the Democratic left, where much politically correct demagoguery originates, U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal may deserve the P.C. demagoguery hurled at him last week by Fox News and his Republican challenger, Leora Levy. But it was demagoguery all the same. Levy touted a Fox News report asserting that asContinue reading “Bilge from Fox and Levy; and state isn’t flourishing”

By Chris Powell Another front has opened in Connecticut’s flag war, this time in Stonington, where, responding to a complaint and acting on legal advice, the school superintendent determined that the “rainbow” or gay pride flags teachers had placed in their classrooms are political and told teachers to remove them. Whereupon students and others complainedContinue reading “Rainbow flag, being political, doesn’t belong in classrooms”

By Chris Powell What happens in Connecticut when a 15-year-old lives in a home with abusive and neglectful parents, drug abuse, and violence, ends up on the street, joins his friends in car thefts, gets high on marijuana, steals another car, leads police on a chase, drives the wrong way on a one-way street, strikesContinue reading “Delinquent’s derelict family gets rich at public expense”

By Chris Powell Since the government of Saudi Arabia is repressive, should people care that the Republican nominee for governor, Bob Stefanowski, has been doing consulting work for a Saudi company in which the Saudi government is invested? Maybe people should care, but not before they decide whether they care that so many of theContinue reading “Stefanowski’s Saudis are bad so how can Biden’s be good?”

By Chris Powell For years environmental extremists and animal lovers have been telling Connecticut residents that they must learn to live with the state’s growing population of bears. But live with them as roommates? The state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection reports that as of last month bears have broken into homes in theContinue reading “Living with bears is no fun; and early voting is too vague”