Oct 4 Free Event: “How American Politics is Undermining the American Dream” [Hmmmm]

 
The Shoreline League of Democratic Women is proud to present
Guest Speaker and Author
Jacob S. Hacker CT State Comptroller Kevin Lembo will give a special introduction.

 7 PM, Thursday, OCTOBER 4, 2012

Henry Carter Hull Public Library
10 Killingworth Turnpike, Clinton, CT 
FREE TO THE PUBLIC
“How American Politics is Undermining the American Dream”
Author Jacob S. Hacker, Ph.D., is the Director of the Institution for Social and Policy Studies, and Stanley B. Resor Professor of Political Science at Yale University. An expert on the politics of U.S. health and social policy, he is the author of Winner-Take-All Politics: How Washington Made the Rich Richer and Turned Its Back on the Middle Class, written with Paul Pierson (2010, paperback 2011). Copies of the book will be on sale at the event.

For more information, call (203) 245-4737 or visit www.SLDW.org. 

 Hacker is also the author of The Great Risk Shift: The New Economic Insecurity and the Decline of the American Dream (2006, paperback 2008), The Divided Welfare State: The Battle over Public and Private Social Benefits in the United States (2002), and The Road to Nowhere: The Genesis of President Clinton’s Plan for Health Security (1997), co-winner of the Brownlow Book Award of the National Academy of Public Administration. He is also co-author, with Paul Pierson, of Off Center: The Republican Revolution and the Erosion of American Democracy (2005) and has edited two volumes—most recently, Health At Risk: America’s Ailing Health System and How to Heal It (2008).

Outrageous: Outside Forces Influencing CT Elections!!!

From Press Release...but frighteningly true!

$32k Out-of-District Campaign Expenditure
Against Leo Canty

Windsor, CT – Area Democrats from Windsor and Hartford today condemned a massive independent expenditure aimed at defeating endorsed candidate Leo Canty in the Oct. 2 Democratic primary revote in the 5th House District.

According to a filing with the State Elections Enforcement Commission, a group called GNEPSA (Greater New England Public Schools Alliance) has pumped nearly $32,000 into the special election to fund Get Out the Vote operations on behalf of Brandon McGee, Canty’s opponent in the primary. GNEPSA is tied to Students First, the Sacremento, CA-based education advocacy organization headed by Michelle Rhee that was launched by Bain and Company, Mitt Romney’s private equity firm. Much of this organization’s money, both in-state and nationally, comes from Republican sources.

CALL YOUR FRIENDS IN WINDSOR! TELL THEM TO GET OUT AND VOTE TOMORROW FOR LEO CANTY!!!!!!!

“I’m outraged that Mr. McGee would allow an out-of-district Republican-backed special interest group to try and buy this election,” said former Windsor Deputy Mayor and retired public school teacher Tim Curtis. “Elections are supposed to be about issues, not about money. Who will Mr. McGee fight for – the people of the 5th district or Bain Capital and other out-of-district Republican corporations?”

Another local Democrat, Vivian Cicero, expressed dismay that McGee would allow Republican Mitt Romney’s company to buy the election. Cicero is a Windsor Town Constable and a member of the Democratic Town Committee. “Brandon McGee should disavow himself from this expenditure and call on these groups to stay out of Hartford and Windsor. No Democrat should accept any form of support from Republicans working every day to defeat President Barack Obama and turn this country over completely to the super-rich and the big corporations,” Cicero said.

Windsor Town Councilor Bill Herzfeld also weighed in on the independent expenditure in the 5th District, calling it a textbook example of what’s wrong with Citizens United, the Supreme Court decision that treats corporations as people and allows unrestricted funding of campaigns by groups like Students First and GNEPSA:

“I never thought our community would be an example of how Citizens United can potentially corrupt elections. It’s outrageous GNEPSA and First Student will spend more in one week than state law allows candidates to spend on the entire primary. This is anti-democracy and anti-public education. McGee’s latest flyer says he will support public education yet he is benefiting from a group that wants to disinvest in public schools. Will the real Brandon McGee please stand up?”