{news} Waterford Times article about Nancy Burton

[David Bedell]

(This appeared in the Waterford Times and maybe other Shoreline Publishing 
papers, such as the Lyme Times.)

http://www.shorepublishing.com/archive/re.aspx?re=4e8755a3-6560-4ef0-ab97-8625365c1937

Millstone Foe to Run for Attorney General

By Julie Wernau
Published on 4/20/2006

Waterford - Nancy Burton, founder of the Connecticut Coalition Against 
Millstone, is expected to be tapped as the Green Party's candidate for 
attorney general.

The party will make nominations official at its convention this Saturday in 
New Haven.

Burton, a resident of Redding, was disbarred in 2001 by Bridgeport Superior 
Court Judge A. William Mottolese for five years. Burton's countersuit 
against Mottolese in 2003, claiming bias, was thrown out. According to the 
secretary of state's office, the only requirement to hold public office is 
that the candidate be a registered voter.

“I will eventually be completely vindicated,” said Burton, who has not yet 
applied to be reinstated and claims that for personal reasons she was unable 
to meet a deadline to formally respond to Mottolese's allegations of 
pervasive misconduct and representing clients without consent.

Burton, who ran for state representative in 2001 [sic--actually 2004], said 
she is mostly interested in using her candidacy as a way to further her 
campaign to eradicate the Millstone nuclear power plant. She said she will 
not advertise or accept campaign contributions in her run for office.

“I'm very candid to say that I don't consider the likelihood of my election 
to be remotely possible,” she said.

So far, no other candidates have come forward to oppose Attorney General 
Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat, but major party conventions are not until 
next month.

“We don't have a candidate as yet,” said John Cattelan, executive director 
of the Connecticut Republican Party. “We're obviously actively recruiting 
and are confident that we will have a candidate.”

Recently, Blumenthal spoke at a Connecticut Coalition Against Millstone 
rally in Waterford. The watchdog group came out in support of Millstone 
whistleblower Sham Mehta, who lost his job after he raised concerns to a 
supervisor that a security system around the perimeter of the plant was 
routinely disabled on windy days because of thousands of false alarms.

“(Blumenthal) advocated for just exactly what we are advocating for,” Burton 
said, “which is safety and security.”

Burton said her work with the grassroots CCAM is a full-time job. In recent 
months, the group brought “Katie the Goat” to the state capitol with 
concerns about elevated radiation levels in the milk of local goats, which 
the group claims are directly related to Millstone. They plan to counter a 
Department of Environmental Protection report that came out last month and 
found the radiation levels were not harmful.

Since bringing the goat to the capitol, Burton said, the group has had the 
opportunity to meet personally with Blumenthal on three occasions and, so 
far, has been pleased with the response.

She has asked Blumenthal to join CCAM in a motion to the Connecticut Siting 
Council – which approved a nuclear waste storage facility at Millstone 
against CCAM's wishes – asking that the council reneges on its decision in 
light of new security concerns raised by Mehta.

“My campaign is not going to be an adversarial campaign at all,” Burton 
said.

As with her campaign against an otherwise unopposed Republican incumbent in 
2001 [2004], Burton said she strongly believes that no candidate should run 
unopposed.

“There are third parties because when there are two parties, there tends to 
be one party,” she said.

The Connecticut Green Party will hold is state convention April 22 at the 
AFLCIO Greater New Haven Labor Hall at 267 Chapel St. in New Haven. Social 
hour begins at 11 a.m. and the convention begins at noon. The event is free 
and open to the public. For more information, visit www.ctgreens.org.