Connecticut Governor Jodi Rell (R) announced today she won’t seek re-election in 2010.
Hartford (WTNH) – Governor Jodi Rell has just announced that she is not running for re-election.
More from My Left Nutmeg:
UPDATE: Lt. Gov Mike Fedele announces that he intends to run for governor.
UPDATE 2: CTNewsJunkie has more details on Rowland-Rell’s announcement.
"After much soul searching and discussion with my family, I have decided not to seek re-election next year," Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell said Monday at a impromptu 5 p.m. press conference.
Rell fought back tears as she recounted her five years as governor and the people she has met throughout the state. "At some point you really do know inside that it’s time to get a new chapter in your life," Rell said.
Rell, who took over in July 2004 from scandal-plagued governor John Rowland (R), had been milling whether or not to run for months. Once the most popular governor in the nation, Rell had seen her poll numbers slip in the wake of a series of negative stories about her connections with a pollster at UCONN.
Whispers in the state said that the timing of Rell’s announcement — she announced her retirement this afternoon in a press conference — was tied to the release of a Quinnipiac University poll set to be released tomorrow that showed her losing significant altitude in advance of 2010.
Three Democrats are seen as the likeliest nominees — Secretary of State Susan Bysiewicz , Stamford Mayor Dannel Malloy and 2006 Senate nominee Ned Lamont. It’s not immediately clear whether state Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, the most popular politician in the state and someone long rumored as a governor or Senator, might run. (Initial reports are that Blumenthal remains a "no" on the contest.)
"I feel confident that our bench of candidates for this position will bring to the table the kind of ideas and proposals that Connecticut voters will be able to relate to and have confidence in," said Democratic state party chair Nancy DiNardo. "This is good news for our party, and the people of this state."
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The only people who ever rated Jodi Rell favorably didn’t know about her. Well before she took over from convicted criminal John Rowland informed citizens knew Rell was, at best, a murderous hypocrite and at worst, as corrupt a politician as the worm she replaced in the governor’s mansion.
It’s best to think of Jodi as a deer tick, sucking her sustanence from our state. The infections she bequeaths us by her bloodlust will, like lyme disease, take a long course of treatment to eradicate.
Can’t wait until she’s gone.
Translation after much begging the RNC would not give me the cash my pollsters said I needed to do as many TV
commercials as they felt it was needed to counter act the GOP’s negative Brand Name in my state.
They said they don’t have the money.
Even though I pointed out that if anything were to happen God Forbid to Holy Joe I would be picking his replacement.
Even though Holy Joe is the only thing keeping GOP filibuster hopes alive.
For the GOP the party of big Business to say that they don’t have the cash to protect Holy Joe in case anything happens means the RNC’s books are funny.
Obama wants some Lefty Love support Ned:) Now!
Wow!
Some good news today.
She would have kicked Ned’s ass.
Can’t wait to find out the story behind this story; betcha there’s more than poll results here.
“RELL-ationship with a UCONN Pollster”???
Ahhh! From the link to the Hartford-Courant
“HARTFORD, Conn. – At least one subpoena for documents (e-mails, memos and other records) has been issued as part of an investigation into a government efficiency project conducted for Connecticut Gov. M. Jodi Rell’s administration…Others are already prepared, seeking documents or sworn testimony.
Investigators are looking into whether the two-year, $220,000 project overseen by a University of Connecticut professor and pollster was used to help Rell politically.”
Here’s a good compilation of news stories on the progress of L’Affaire Jodi. Seems both UCONN and Quinnipac were acting, not as independent pollsters, but as arms of Rell’s re-election campaign.
Maybe we could get Lieberweasel to run and win getting HIM out of the Senate.
I’m betting none of the Dems tries to get Short Ride on board their campaign. Nothing like welcoming the Kiss of Death to one’s campaign.
Can you explain?