Blumenthal
HARTFORD, Conn. (Legal Newsline) - The woman who challenged one of Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal's outside counsel policies is again running for state attorney general.
Martha Dean announced last week that she will seek the Republican nomination, eight years after she unsuccessfully ran against Blumenthal in a Democratic primary. It was during that campaign that she decided to challenge Blumenthal's policy.
That policy says private attorneys currently performing work for the Attorney General's Office may not contribute to an attorney general candidate.
"Connecticut needs to go in a very different direction," Dean said Thursday, according to a report in the Connecticut Post.
"The state of Connecticut is entering a full-blown crisis. We can tread water and be swept over the falls, only to be crushed by rocks, or we can take the emergency measures that are needed now."
The report added that she will have a press conference March 16 and said Blumenthal used the office for his "own personal political purpose."
Blumenthal suspended the policy, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled Dean's argument moot in 2009 because it did not think it would be re-implemented.
In 2005, the General Assembly passed legislation that prohibited contributions from state contractors and prospective state contractors to certain committees affiliated with attorney general candidates.
As a result, Blumenthal said the bar on contributions would be permanently superseded by the legislation. Blumenthal noted a difference between the policy and legislation, though.
His policy applied to all contracts, while the legislation pertained only to contracts worth more than $50,000.
Blumenthal is running for U.S. Senate.
From Legal Newsline: Reach John O'Brien by e-mail at jobrienwv@gmail.com.