For Auld Lang Syne: 2011 At a Glance

"Auld lang syne" roughly translates as "time gone by" (thank you Robbie Burns!). Soon 2011 will be time gone by and speaking personally, good riddance (thank you Will Shakespeare!). 

2011 could be remembered as the year of extreme weather. Tropical Storm Irene, a very wet spring and a surprise October snow storm contributed to our region having the wettest year on record (since recording began in 1895), according to weather.com. It was also one of the warmest years on record. New York City hit 104 degrees on July 22, the hottest day since July 21, 1977. The long, hot summer followed a horrendous winter (at least for non-skiers). According to accuweather.com, "Last winter went down in history as one of New York City's worst with two monster blizzards that virtually brought the city to a standstill and made a nightmare out of air travel. In total, 62 inches of snow fell in the Big Apple last winter, making it the third snowiest on record." The National Weather Service says, "This past year’s weather extremes are consistent with what climate experts are projecting for the long-term. Warming temperatures provide more energy and water in the atmosphere and consequently trigger more intense droughts, heavier rainfall and stronger storms." Climate change anyone? 

In Congress, 2011 was a year of gridlock, brinksmanship and manufactured financial crises. The new Republican majority in the House of Representatives made everyone pretend that short-term deficits were the problem, as high unemployment and the lingering recession were pushed to the side by hyper-partisan maneuvers. As Paul Krugman wrote in a column in the N.Y. Times titled "Keynes Was Right," "The bottom line is that 2011 was a year in which our political elite obsessed over short-term deficits that aren’t actually a problem and, in the process, made the real problem — a depressed economy and mass unemployment — worse."  http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/30/opinion/keynes-was-right.html 

The interminable Republican presidential debates in 2011 exposed the volatility of the Republican primary voters as Mitt Romney held steady at 25% with the other 75% spread among the non-Romney candidates as favorites rose and fell in the polls. 2012 is a presidential election year where the economy and two widely divergent economic philosophies should be center stage, if the media and the campaigns do their jobs (a big "if" where the media norm is "horse race" coverage, who is ahead of whom in the polls, in the debates etc., except for Fox News where the norm is "Murdoch-speak"). 

In local politics, 2011 was unusual given the heated school board campaign and the Republican Town Committee's decision to field four school board candidates for two slots. The outcome was a more congenial board with a Democratic Chair, Leslie Moriarty. The other big race was for Tax Collector with the incumbent Tod Ladonia defeating Bill Grad in a hard fought re-match with lingering bad blood (still not talking to me Tod?). Peter Tesei was re-elected to a third term by a healthy margin over John Blankley. Turnout once again was key to the municipal elections as the numbers favored the Republican candidates in an election where only 38% of registered voters showed up to the polls.

Next year we will vote for President, a U.S. senator, a Congressman and all the seats in the State Assembly. The State Assembly incumbents should have no reason to worry. Once again Greenwich was gerrymandered to protect Republicans, as if they needed the help in a town that has not elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1930 (the late Nancy Barton's great uncle) and to the House since 1912.

Jim Himes' re-election hopes are tied up in the redistricting fight moved to the Connecticut Supreme Court, but they improved markedly when Republicans apparently gave up efforts to move Bridgeport out of the Fourth District.

2012 promises to be a banner year (or not).

Happy New Year to all!