With the holiday season upon us, we're all busy enjoying the company of family and friends. Even as I extend to you my own family's warmest holiday greetings and greatest hopes for a happy and successful 2006, I can't help but think about the challenges we face in making the most of the coming year.

With the battering our state's reputation took from John Rowland still a recent memory, this week's revelations of unethical political fundraising in the governor's office have shown us all that the job of cleaning up Connecticut's government is not done. I was among the first to call on Governor Rell to suspend her chief of staff, return tainted contributions, and fully disclose the details of her and others' involvement in these activities. The Governor continues to stonewall in providing information on this matter, and most importantly she is failing to provide the leadership Connecticut needs.

Meanwhile, I'm also going to continue to fight for priorities that have been neglected for too long under the Rowland-Rell administration. The greatest of these priorities is rebuilding the economic future of our state. Since John Rowland was elected, Connecticut has fallen to last place in the nation in job creation. Yesterday, the Journal Inquirer ran a story with a headline that I hope you'll agree characterizes my candidacy for governor: "DeStefano says governor's race is about state's economic future".

In 2006, we're going to change the direction of our state, putting Connecticut back on the path to growth and leadership in the global economy. Last place just isn't good enough. We can do better.

This week, we made history in New Haven. Our Board of Alderman voted 21-0 to pass a resolution in support of New Haven becoming one of the first cities in Connecticut to publicly finance local campaigns. We have been fighting for the enabling state legislation to do so for the past three years, and last week's landmark campaign finance reform legislation finally makes it possible.

Congratulations to the tireless activists, advocates and members of the Board who made this possible. Hopefully, New Haven will soon have publicly financed local elections, encouraging greater participation and decreasing the presence of special interests in politics.

I am honored and excited to announce that earlier this morning, Congresswoman DeLauro endorsed my campaign for Governor. For the past 15 years, Congresswoman DeLauro has championed the cause of Connecticut’s working families in Congress and it is my intention to do the same as Connecticut’s next governor.

 In the past few days, we have experienced a tremendous surge of support from Democrats and activists throughout the state who believe we can win back the Governor’s Office and make life better for Connecticut’s working families.

 We don’t have to accept the corruption of a failed Administration, or the corruption of low expectations of what our state can be for the families and children of Connecticut. From creating good paying jobs, to improving our schools, to reducing transportation gridlock, we can do better. 

What happened in New Orleans reminds us what the most fundamental purpose of government really is - to pool our resources and accomplish together what we cannot accomplish alone, to protect us all from the things we can't control to lift us all from the gut-wrenching poverty no one should ever have to endure.

After watching with frustration as we failed as a nation to do these things for the families in New Orleans, we have opened New Haven to 100 families whose homes were destroyed. We will provide them with housing, food, clothing, employment training and schooling. This effort will require all us to work together-but it is our chance to make a significant difference in the lives of our fellow citizens.

I have been overwhelmed already by the generosity of so many of you. The phones haven't stopped ringing with calls from people who want to do their part. Please click here to sign up to make a contribution to the New Haven Hurricane Relief Fund or to donate necessary items.

When faced with crises here and abroad, the generosity of my supporters has been inspiring. Not long ago I appealed to many of you to provide monetary help for victims of the tsunami. Sadly, now I am appealing to you to help victims here in our own country.

Undoubtedly by now you have been overwhelmed by the images of devastation caused along the Gulf coast by Hurricane Katrina. Many have asked how they can help. My office at the City of New Haven has organized a city-wide appeal for donations to the Red Cross that will go directly to provide aid to victims of the Hurricane.

I have asked all city employees to support this appeal at whatever level they can. I want to ask you to please do the same. You can contribute online the Red Cross website by clicking on the link to the right.

Please pass this message along to anyone who think would be willing to give.

Let’s keep the victims of Hurricane Katrina in our prayers. Together, I hope we can make a small difference in the lives of our fellow citizens.

First things first.  About 8,000 families - and really a lot more when you roll in EB - got great news today.  They will keep their jobs!  Jobs that pay mortgages.  Jobs that get kids off to school this Fall.  Jobs that create possibility and the ability to take advantage of the chances that we have been blessed with.  The question that I would like folks to think about is how we can put the kind of team work, the sense of purpose and the accomplishment that is all too episodic and rare in Connecticut's public activities.  What would you do first if elected Govenor?  What would you do last?  So let's go!

On Wednesday, August 24th from 5 to 6 p.m. I will be hosting Connecticut's first-ever, candidate-sponsored online Town Hall Forum.

I will be right here, on my campaign blog, to answer your questions, take comments, and discuss with Connecticut residents the future of our state, my vision for change and why I’m running for Governor.

I encourage you to submit questions ahead of time by emailing me at . I will get to as many questions from previous posts/emails as possible as well as respond to comments and questions submitted during the hour-long forum.

This is an open, un-moderated discussion—I want to hear from you. The only thing I ask is that you keep your comments and questions dignified and treat other participants with respect.

Email your questions to me now:

I invite you, your family and friends to join me in a statewide dialogue about how, working together, we can move Connecticut in a new direction. Please invite your friends, neighbors and co-workers to participate. Together, let’s have a discussion about how we can make Connecticut a better state.

Thanks for visiting the site today! I hope you’ll take a look at one of the campaign video segments we have online for you.

We’ve received a great deal of media attention over the past week for the video, primarily because we are among the only people in the state willing to point to how the policies of the Rell Administration continue to fail Connecticut’s families everyday.

The corruption of our expectations about what we can accomplish over the past decade is one of the most serious problems we have to address. You can watch a related segment of our DVD.

I’m proud of what we have accomplished in New Haven by setting serious goals, working together and never giving up—you can learn more about that here. I’m excited about the incredible potential of our great state, and I invite you again to join me in this campaign and in moving Connecticut forward.

Website Vooweb.com provides the biggest collection of professional Web 2.0 Templates. Web 2.0 Templates - its a website templates which made by world-class designers. Buy our Web 2.0 Templates | A family cooking recipes with hundreds of healthy, whole-food cooking recipes for the home cook. Healthy Food cooking Recipes For Your Entire Family | List of Samui villas and houses for rent on Koh Samui. Koh Samui villas for rent and sale on a private Samui community on the southern tip of the island of Koh Samui in the Gulf of Thailand.

Yesterday many of Connecticut’s elected leaders made a presentation to the Base Closure Committee on behalf of the Groton Sub Base and the potential loss of some 8,500 jobs there.  While we wish and hope for success in that effort, it overshadowed another bit of news.  Also yesterday, Connecticut Exxon Mobile Chemical Company announced that the company would be leaving Stratford in two years – causing the loss of 100 jobs and the town one of it’s top 10 taxpayers.  It continues the pattern of the Rowland-Rell years of misguided economic development initiatives (stadiums and convention centers come to mind), the rearranging of deck chairs (the State subsidizing the movement of Diageo from Stamford to Norwalk and now ING from Hartford to East Hartford) and the lack of focus on competitive clusters that can grow jobs – and hence family income.  It’s more of the same that has contributed to Connecticut being ranked dead last in job growth among the 50 States by the FDIC.

I was speaking to a New Haven Police Officer this morning who was coming off her midnight shift. She was telling me that her son was graduating from 8th Grade this week and that he was headed for high school in the Fall. She went on to tell me that she was going to get her boy to the library today, as he had a summer reading list from his prospective high school and that he was going to get going on it NOW (her emphasis) and that she was going to work the extra time she needed to get him through school.

Two observations. First, what an amazing role parents play in motivating their kids. This single parent mom was making sure that her son had every chance and every opportunity to do well. Does our government do enough to support these parents? We make it harder from them at many turns.

Second, it is so important for our State University and Community College system to be accessible and relevant to the needs of Connecticut’s employers. This young man will leave high school and be competing with young people throughout the world for the jobs of the future. Are we doing everything we can to support him in the competition? We continue to increase his college tuition, pricing kids like him and their parents out of a college education. Once he is at college, does our system provide him with the cutting-edge training he needs to compete with the rest of the world for the jobs of the future? It seems to me that there is no more fundamental thing could State government be doing. It’s one of the main reasons I am running for Governor.