"Conn. Hispanics gird to elect 1st state senator" by Michael Melia, Associated Press / July 4, 2011
HARTFORD - A redistricting fight is looming for Connecticut’s capital, a city that Hispanic leaders have identified as the place with the most potential to produce the first Latino state senator.
Hartford has had two mayors of Puerto Rican origin in a row, but its large and growing Hispanic community does not have as much influence in choosing a state senator because it shares a voting district with the predominantly white suburb of Wethersfield.
Related: Around New England: Hartford's Headache
It just goes to show you it is not race or gender that is the problem in politics; it appears to be the position itself. It attracts the worst folk of any ethnicity.
Hang 'Em High in Hartford
Excusing Eddie?
Also see: Hartford to install gunshot sensors
HARTFORD Lawmaker apologizes for reposting slur
You won't find those here.
The First State Senate district, currently represented by eight-term incumbent John Fonfara, tops a list of areas where Hispanic advocates see opportunity to boost the voting power of a minority group whose population in the state grew nearly 50 percent in the last decade. Community leaders are planning meetings with church groups, baseball leagues, and others in hopes of rallying Latinos to speak up at public hearings on redistricting that begin this week.
“There is a lack of representation, and it needs to be increased,’’ said Americo Santiago, a coordinator who represented the Bridgeport area in the Legislature in the late 1980s and early 1990s. “There is no reason in the state of Connecticut, the Constitution state, for us not to have an opportunity to have at least one or two districts that are majority Latino.’’
Actually, we are all suffering a lack of representation. This government isn't listening to us on anything.
In a politically delicate process held every 10 years, a legislative committee must submit redrawn congressional, state Senate, and state House district lines to adjust to changing populations. It will hold hearings across the state through July before submitting its plans for approval by the General Assembly.
Yeah, we are losing a representative where I am, and are going to be folded into one big district.
A loosely organized group of Hispanic leaders has begun identifying districts where the shifting of boundaries could allow Hispanics to become the majority, or at least consolidate their numbers....
Leaders say if they do not like the lines when they are drawn up, they would not rule out a lawsuit challenging the state’s compliance with the federal Voting Rights Act.
Just what taxpayers need.
Derek Slap, a spokesman for Senate President Donald Williams Jr., a Reapportionment Committee cochairman, said officials are always looking to add diversity and look forward to working with the Latino commission on the issue....
The PC thing to say, always.
The biggest challenge for Latinos could be the influence of incumbents and the party machinery.
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And I've got to start doing a better job on consolidation myself:
"Killer captured after 22 years as a fugitive; Found in Mexico after fleeing his Conn. conviction" July 01, 2011|By Dave Collins, Associated Press
HARTFORD - A man captured in Mexico after 22 years on the run from a Connecticut murder conviction was sent to a high-security prison yesterday, hours after he was flown back to the United States from Mexico City.
Adam Zachs, 48, was convicted and sentenced in 1988 for shooting 29-year-old Peter Carone to death outside a West Hartford restaurant after Carone made a joke Zachs did not like....
Zachs and Carone, who both grew up in West Hartford but did not know each other, were watching a college basketball game at the restaurant when someone made a joke about the bar not being clean, police said. Carone then made a "spit-shine" joke, motioning like he was spitting on the bar and wiping it up. That angered Zachs for some reason, police said.
Zachs, who is a slender 5-foot-4, left the bar, got a gun and returned. Zachs and Carone went outside, where Carone said he did not want to fight. He headed back toward the restaurant, and Zachs shot him in the back, police said....
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"Woman, 75, struck, killed by minivan
A 75-year-old pedestrian has died after being backed over by a minivan being driven by an 80-year-old man. Police say Virginia Gerulis of Bristol died Saturday at Bristol Hospital, where she was taken after becoming pinned under the minivan on Saturday morning. Police say Thomas Deroiser struck Gerulis as he was backing out of his driveway on Clark Street at about 11:15 a.m. Police were still investigating the accident yesterday and no charges had been filed (AP)."
A 75-year-old pedestrian has died after being backed over by a minivan being driven by an 80-year-old man. Police say Virginia Gerulis of Bristol died Saturday at Bristol Hospital, where she was taken after becoming pinned under the minivan on Saturday morning. Police say Thomas Deroiser struck Gerulis as he was backing out of his driveway on Clark Street at about 11:15 a.m. Police were still investigating the accident yesterday and no charges had been filed (AP)."
