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Every month, The Washington Post ranks the 10 closest Senate races in the nation, with the state in first place seen as most likely to switch parties in 2010. The state achieving that distinction for November is Connecticut.
We’re number one, as they say, because the latest Quinnipiac Poll gave incumbent, five-term Sen. Chris Dodd a 54-percent disapproval rating and had him losing not only to Republican front-runner Rob Simmons by double digits, but also being beaten by former ambassador Tom Foley and doing no better than a statistical tie if he were to run at this time against the wrestling mogul Linda McMahon, businessman Peter Schiff or Waterbury state Sen. Sam Caliguiri.
The theme of the poll, said poll director Douglas Schwartz, is “anybody but Dodd.â€
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All this makes you wonder if Dodd is at least thinking about not running, about accepting a Cabinet appointment or a prestigious ambassadorship from President Obama or simply announcing it’s time to go.
Probably not.
“Expect there to be increased pressure from party leaders — behind the scenes, of course — for Dodd to step aside in the wake of these poll numbers,†wrote Chris Calizza, the Post political writer who rates the races. “If he [Dodd] does back down,†Calizza continued, “state Attorney General Richard Blumenthal would immediately step in and be a strong favorite. If Dodd keeps running, it’s getting harder and harder to see how he wins.â€
This view from an outsider is true enough, but it’s also true that Blumenthal could enter the race as late as January or February and still be the strong favorite he is today. This wouldn’t be so for most politicians but Blumenthal enjoys the advantage of having appeared in mostly favorable news stories on Connecticut TV newscasts at least once a week for more than 20 years. You can’t buy that with even Linda McMahon’s millions.
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We can expect Dodd to try to regain his strength by launching another expensive TV ad campaign between now and the next Quinnipiac Poll. If the ads work and the tea bag-packing Simmons annoys too many voters with his less than subtle move to the right and McMahon or some of the others prove to be flashes in the proverbial pan, Dodd may survive. But if the poll numbers aren’t any better next time and the Republicans avoid looking too Republican, Dodd could be considering that Cabinet opening or an ambassadorship to some nice place.
The senator may already be wishing he had taken the opportunity to succeed Ted Kennedy as chairman of the Senate Health Committee and lead the fight for passage of health-care reform, which continues to be very popular in Connecticut. But he chose instead to keep his job as chairman of the Banking Committee and cast himself as the crusader battling to reform the industry that nearly did him in. Now, every day there’s bad news about unemployment and the economy, voters are reminded of their senator’s too cozy relationship with the industry he failed to regulate before it was too late.
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Back in September, when only 48 percent of the voters disapproved of Dodd, one of the senator’s spokespersons, Colleen Flanagan, wrote off the opposition by pointing out, “There are still so many people who have no idea who half these people are,†these people being candidates Linda McMahon, Tom Foley, Peter Schiff and Sam Caliguiri, all of whom are now polling ahead of or in a tie with Dodd.
The voters may still not know who “these people†are but they know Dodd — maybe too well.
Dick Ahles is a retired journalist from Simsbury. E-mail him at dahles@hotmail.com.
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Telecom Reg’s Best Kept On the Books
When Connecticut land-use commissions update their regulations, it seems like a no-brainer to jettison old telecommunications regulations adopted decades ago during a short-lived period when municipalities had authority to regulate second generation (2G) transmissions prior to the Connecticut Siting Council (CSC) being ordered by a state court in 2000 to regulate all cell tower infrastructure as “functionally equivalent” services.
It is far better to update those regs instead, especially for macro-towers given new technologies like small cells. Even though only ‘advisory’ to the CSC, the preferences of towns by law must be taken into consideration in CSC decision making. Detailed telecom regs – not just a general wish list -- are evidence that a town has put considerable thought into where they prefer such infrastructure be sited without prohibiting service that many – though not all – citizens want and that first responders rely on for public safety.
Such regs come in handy when egregious tower sites are proposed in sensitive areas, typically on private land. The regs are a town’s first line of defense, especially when cross referenced to plans of conservation and development, P&Z regulations, and wetlands setbacks. They identify how/where the town plans to intersect with the CSC process. They are also a roadmap for service providers regarding preferred sites and sometimes less neighborhood contention. In fact, to have no telecom regs can weaken a town’s rights to protect environmental, scenic, and historic assets, and serve up whole neighborhoods to unnecessary overlapping coverage and corporate overreach. Such regs are unique to every town and should not follow anyone else’s boiler plate, especially industry’s.
Connecticut is the only state that has a centralized siting entity for cell towers. The good news is that applicants must prove need for new tower sites in an evidentiary proceeding and any decisions have the weight of the state behind them. The bad news is that the CSC used to be far less industry-friendly and rote in their reviews, which now resemble a check list. There is an operative assumption at CSC that if an applicant wants a tower, they must need it, otherwise why spend significant money to run the approval gauntlet? This reflects a subtle shift over the years at CSC from sincere willingness to protect the environment toward minimal tweaking of bad applications with minor changes. The bottom line is that towns really cannot rely on the CSC to do all the work for them.
What CSC issues telecom providers is a “certificate of environmental compatibility” after an evidentiary proceeding (not unlike a court case) with intervenors, parties, expert witnesses, and the service provider’s technical pro’s sworn in and subject to cross examination. Service providers get to do the same with any opposition from intervenor/party participants – like towns and citizens -- and their experts. It’s an impressive process whose ultimate goal is the fine balancing between allowing adequate/reliable public services and protecting state ecology with minimal damage to scenic, historic, and recreational values. They unfortunately often fall short of their mandate – like approving cell towers with diesel generators over town aquifers -- evidenced by CSC only rejecting about five cell towers in the past 15-20 years.
The CSC was founded in 1972 and clarified its mission in the 1980’s to prevent the state from being carved up willy-nilly by gas pipelines, high tension corridors, and broadcast towers. With the sudden proliferation of cell towers beginning in late 1990’s, it became the most sued agency in Connecticut by both an arrogant upstart industry if applications were denied and by towns/citizens when bad sites were forced on them. CSC gradually formed a defensive posture that drives their decisions toward industry with deeper pockets and attorneys on retainer.
For citizens, nothing can wreck one’s day like the CSC. It behooves towns to protect what little toolkit they have, and understand the legal parameters of the CSC’s playing field. The CSC is not a “normal” government agency where municipal/citizen redress is based on logic and local support. Their process is largely immune to everything but specific kinds of evidence – like town regs with setbacks/fall zones, radio frequency transmission signal strengths, sensitive areas identified, and detailed wildlife inventory, among others.
There is a current cell tower fight involving two intervening towns -- Washington and Warren; both with good cell tower regs – over a tower site within 1200’ of a Montessori School, near Steep Rock’s nature preserves with comprehensive geology/wildlife databases that include endangered, threatened and special concern flora and fauna, on established federal/state migratory bird flyways, within throwing distance to a historic site capable of being listed on the Underground Railroad, and with an access road on a blind curve entering a state highway that will permanently damage wetlands, vernal pools, and core forests. There are well credentialed environmental experts, including Dr. Michael Klemens, former chair of Salisbury’s P&Z, as well as the former director of migratory bird management at the US Fish and Wildlife Service, and an RF engineer testifying to alternative approaches, plus three attorneys representing intervenors. It is the most professional challenge I have seen at CSC since Falls Village successfully mounted one that protected Robbins Swamps several years ago.
The hearing is ongoing, with uncertain results. To see what it takes today to stop an inappropriate tower siting, see Docket #543 under “Pending Matters” at https://portal.ct.gov/csc before removing local cell tower regs – the lowest hanging fruit that any town can possess in case it’s needed.
B, Blake Levitt is the Communications Director at The Berkshire-Litchfield Environmental Council. She writes about how technology affects biology.