Republican Attorney General candidate Martha Dean announced today that she will not pursue a post-election challenge to Democrat Attorney General-elect George Jepsen's credentials.

"Unfortunately, the Supreme Court informed the public and the Attorney General candidates of the eligibility criteria too late in the election cycle for this issue to be brought to voters' attention properly," Dean said. "Mr. Jepsen, the voters, and I all learned of the Court's interpretation of the statutory eligibility criteria full-meaning just days before the election."

Dean said the passage of time and the legislature will likely give greater clarity to the eligibility criteria.

"At this juncture, I believe the best path forward is to allow the Attorney General-elect to focus on trying to run the Attorney General's office in a way that helps pull Connecticut out of its severe crisis," Dean added. "It was a pleasure running against George. We went head to head on the issues, focusing on substance, and we shared humor along the way. That says a lot about both of us as candidates. I acknowledge his victory and I wish him well."

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT) will conclude his look at the state of the American child Thursday with a hearing of the Subcommittee on Children and Families. Thursday's hearing, is the fourth of the series, and will focus on what the subcommittee has learned over the past year about how children are faring in today's society and the effectiveness of public policy on their lives.

The series, "State of the American Child," launched by Dodd earlier this year, examines all aspects of children's lives: their health from birth to adulthood; their educational experience- in and out of the classroom; and their life at home with their families in their communities. The focus of the hearings is on the inter-connectedness of all these aspects and how they shape and define the lives of our children.

The final hearing boasts a distinguished panel, that will be testifying: Jennifer Garner, Artist Ambassador, Save the Children; David Satcher, M.D., Ph.D., Director, The Satcher Health Leadership Institute and Center of Excellence on Health Disparities, Morehouse School of Medicine; Helen Blank, Director, Leadership and Public Policy, National Women's Law Center; Peter Edelman, Professor of Law, Georgetown Law Center and Faculty Co-Director, Georgetown Center on Poverty, Inequality, and Public Policy; Michael Casserly, Ph.D., Executive Director, Council on Great City Schools.

Senator Dodd began this series on the state of the American child earlier this year with a hearing that looked at the challenges facing our children and families and the tools they need to succeed in today's society. The second hearing, held in Connecticut, examined Connecticut social service, educational and health programs that are providing central services and assistance to children and families in the state. The third hearing, which included senior Obama Administration officials, focused on the impact of federal policies on our children.

Put some color on a map of Connecticut to show which towns Democrat Dan Malloy won (blue) and which towns Republican Tom Foley won, and a few things stand out.

The vast majority of physical geography in Connecticut voted "Republican" in last week's gubernatorial election.

Foley won 126 of Connecticut's towns and cities, and Malloy won 43.

Exclude just three of those communities that Malloy won, and Tom Foley led by a 51 to 47 percent margin.

Those three communities, of course, were the much-talked-about Bridgeport, Hartford and New Haven, where Dan Malloy beat Foley by a combined vote of 56,545 to 9,827.

The map exposes what has played out in the Legislature for years ... the agenda, priorities and needs of Connecticut's big cities are far different than its suburban and rural communities.

Malloy, the former mayor of Stamford, has some reassuring to do, perhaps, that he'll be a governor for the entire state, not just an advocate of the cities.