HARTFORD — After the state Supreme Court today ruled that  Secretary of  State Susan Bysiewicz  does not meet the qualifications to run for attorney general, she ended her bid for the office.
Democrat  Bysiewicz said in a statement she is  ”tremendously disappointed” with the state Supreme Court’s  decision, which was unanimous. And she strongly disagrees with the decision.

Connecticut law requires the attorney general to have worked 10 years as a lawyer. Bysiewicz had argued that her 11 years as secretary of the state and six years as a corporate lawyer in Connecticut should count.

Republicans maintain that Bysiewicz’s tenure as secretary of the state should not count. A lower court had ruled that Bysiewicz had met the requirement. The state GOP then appealed to the state’s highest court.

A Democratic blogger first suggested she did not have the required 10 years of active legal experience, prompting Bysiewicz to sue her own office and the state Democrats in hopes of a ruling to clear up the question.
Superior Court Judge Michael Sheldon had earlier found that Bysiewicz’s tenure as secretary of the state can count toward the 10 years of active practice of the law she needs to run for the top legal job.

The state Republican Party appealed Sheldon’s ruling, which sent the case to the state Supreme Court.

An Associated Press  report is included in this article.

HARTFORD —  Attorney General Richard Blumenthal today announced measures enabling a crackdown on companies that illegally misclassify employees as independent contractors — recommendations of a state commission on worker misclassification that he co-chairs.

Blumenthal said that labeling employees as independent contractors costs workers “benefits, taxpayers revenue and honest businesses a fair opportunity to compete for work.”

The Joint Enforcement Commission on Worker Misclassification, which Blumenthal co-chairs with acting Labor Commissioner Linda Agnew, has investigated misclassification for a year.

The commission’s proposed measures include increasing the penalty from $300 per violation to $300 a day per violation; strengthening criminal sanctions against misclassification and joint investigations of misclassification complaints with other state agencies.

HARTFORD – Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, in testimony submitted today to the state General Law Committee, urged creating a state Office of Condominium Ombudsman after his office received hundreds of complaints from condominium owners over the past year involving disputes with condominium associations.

The legislation would create a self-funded state commission — with no financial burden to state taxpayers — to review condominium unit owner complaints concerning violations of state condominium laws by the association’s board of directors, officers or professional managers.

The ombudsman would also review complaints about violations of condominium bylaws concerning finances, calling or conduct of association meetings or access to public records of the association. The ombudsman would review any disputes and, if necessary, it would hold a hearing and issue orders to resolve problems and ensure that bylaws and state laws are respected.

The proposal encourages that unit owners and associations first seek to resolve disputes through a dispute resolution procedure before relying on the state ombudsman.

“A Condominium Ombudsman would provide help to outmatched, overwhelmed unit owners who are fighting for their basic rights under our condominium laws,” Blumenthal said. “Many of the complaints received by my office concern failures by association boards of directors to follow basic governance principles such as adopting an annual budget with notice to the unit owners, holding fair elections for the board of directors, providing key financial information about the association, and fairly imposing association fines.

“Some of these complaints are based on deliberate indifference by association boards to association bylaws or state condominium laws — or a lack of full understanding of condominium association responsibilities.

“The current law is unfair to unit owners. The law imposes certain responsibilities on condominium association boards of directors and establishes certain rights for unit owners. The unit owners must hire — at their own expense — a lawyer to enforce those rights and responsibilities while the association boards of directors can defend themselves using association funds, raised through assessments on the unit owners. Thus, unit owner funds are used to defend lawsuits brought by unit owners themselves.

“A Condominium Ombudsman will provide much-needed assistance to unit owners and provide an important enforcement tool for our condominium laws.”

Blumenthal proposes that the office be funded through a simple fee structure: a small $4 per unit annual assessment on condominium associations in the state. This charge is the same as assessed in Florida in order to pay for that state’s ombudsman program. There are approximately 240,000 condominium units in Connecticut so the $4 charge will yield $960,000.

In addition, the proposal requires a filing fee of $35 (the same as in small claims court prior to last session’s increase) paid by the complainant and another $35 filing fee paid by the association. The fee on the association also encourages the association to resolve the matter prior to intervention by the ombudsman. If there are 1,000 complaints filed, this fee will yield $70,000.

Finally, the proposal increases the condominium manager’s filing fee from $100 annually to $400 biennially. There are 300 registered condominium managers so the fee will generate $120,000 in revenue every two years.

Blumenthal’s office has received hundreds of complaints from condominium unit owners regarding violations of state condominium laws or condominium bylaws by their association board of directors.

Under this proposal, the Attorney General, upon referral by the ombudsman, may bring a civil action to enforce the provisions of the condominium bylaws or state statutes regarding condominiums. A provision of the legislation would allow the ombudsman to impose a civil penalty of not more than $200 for any knowing violation.

WASHINGTON — Eric Holder today moved closer to being the first Black attorney general of the nation.

He picked up bipartisan support after a flood of support from the likes of Barbara Streisand and some Republicans.

In a 17-2 vote, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted to recommend Holder’s confirmation to the Senate. The Senate is expected to vote on Thursday.

The two senators who voted against Holder in committee were Republicans John Cornyn of Texas and Tom Coburn of Oklahoma.

But Holder had high praise from key senate leader.

“Eric Holder is a good man,” said Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. “He’s a decent man. He’s a public servant committed to the rule of law and he will be a good attorney general.”

Most senators echoed Leahy’s sentiment. The opposition made their concerns known.

Cornyn said Holder’s actions in the Rich pardon and the commutation of sentences for Puerto Rican nationalists left him with “doubts about his judgment and his independence.”

Both Coryn and Coburn said Holder doesn’t understands the terrorism threat, and is hostile to the right of individuals to keep and bear arms.