Markley's opponent faces charges of impropriety

Over the past couple months I was told a couple times the name of the Democrat running against Joe Markley for Sam Caligiuri's Senate seat, but I kept forgetting it. Now I remember. The Dem is John Barry. I believe he's a former Council Chair of the Southington Town Council.

Anyway, it's kind of unfortunate the way I finally learned his name. According to the National Review's Jack Fowler, Barry gets paid $72,000 per year by the state legislature... and he's campaigning while he's supposed to be at work.

And this has nothing to do with the Markley campaign. This is coming from someone entirely unassociated with Joe. As Mr. Fowler explains:

Now it seems that during normal working hours, from between 9AM to 5PM, when Mr. Barry should be earning his large salary, he is regularly – allegedly – campaigning (door-to-door, and – at a prison!), in violation of state laws. And so Mr. Sean Murphy, an angered citizen, has formally asked state officials to investigate these charges.

Frankly, it wouldn't surprise me. I've heard so many stories about the no-show jobs created in Hartford... look no further than Rep. Mary Fritz' son -- the 1st Selectman in the Town of Clinton -- William Fritz. He was the so-called "Chief Inspector" on the I-84 job. With those storm-drains-to-nowhere, it's obvious that even if he did show up for work... he wasn't doing anything.

And now we hear stories about a $72,000/yr Assistant Clerk in the Legislative Office Building not going to work as a matter of course. This stuff has got to stop. This issue really gets to the heart of the arrogance of elected officials in Hartford. It's not only people like Mary Fritz and Tom Gaffey who seem to believe they can do whatever they want without consequence... it's also the others who fail to take them to task for their arrogance and abuses.

Tim White