Posts Tagged ‘Connecticut’

From the Associated Press:

The Connecticut Republican Party has filed an appeal, challenging a superior court judge’s decision last week that found Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz (BYE’-suh-witts) legally qualified to hold the office of state attorney general.

State GOP Chairman Chris Healy says the party filed the appeal on Tuesday.

He says Judge Michael Sheldon’s ruling that Bysiewicz has actively practiced law for at least 10 years is “precedent-setting” and should be reviewed.

Bysiewicz’s lawyers argued that her six years in private practice and 11 years as secretary of the state should count toward the 10-year requirement. Bysiewicz had sought the legal ruling.

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From Courant.com:

The election-year saga of Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz didn’t end with her victory in Superior Court last week: A judge said she’s eligible to run for state attorney general — but now, Republican State Chairman Chris Healy wants to know why current Attorney General Richard Blumenthal is taking so long to finish an ongoing investigation of Bysiewicz, a fellow Democrat.

And, in case you thought this was dying down, Blumenthal threw an intriguing new element into his response: There are new and unspecified allegations in a case that involves the Bysiewicz campaign’s use of a controversial database created by her taxpayer-funded office.

Blumenthal said his office “is reviewing all of the whistle-blower allegations made against the Secretary of the State, including some received very recently.”

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From courant.com:

A Superior Court judge ruled Wednesday that Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz is eligible to run for state attorney general.

Judge Michael R. Sheldon’s ruling sends Bysiewicz into the May 21-22 state Democratic nominating convention without the cloud of legal doubts that had been following her since she declared her candidacy for attorney general in January.

The doubts centered on whether Bysiewicz met the requirements of a state statute that says Connecticut’s attorney general must have engaged in the “active practice” of law for 10 years in the state.

The statute doesn’t define what “active practice” means — and Bysiewicz went to court for a judge’s ruling to clarify the question. Sheldon never said exactly what “active practice” means in his 93-page ruling, but at the end of it he wrote that “the plaintiff, as a Connecticut attorney-at-law since 1986 who performed the … duties of her office as Connecticut’s Secretary of the State since 1999, has engaged in active practice at the bar of this state, within the meaning of [the statute], for at least 10 years.”

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From ctpost.com:

Regardless of any court ruling in her case, Susan Bysiewicz has demonstrated her unfitness for the office of Connecticut Attorney General.

It became clear during three full days of testimony and argument that while Bysiewicz, a lawyer, may have managed a coolly efficient office as secretary of the state, she has not been engaged in the “active practice” of law as required by state statute for those who would serve as attorney general.

Though she’s a lawyer and was in active practice for more than five years before becoming secretary of the state 11 years ago, that doesn’t meet the statutory requirement of at least 10 years active practice.

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