It won't be long before we start to see announcements about the re-election plans of local legislators, and everyone expects some spirited challenges to emerge in almost every local district in Northwest Connecticut.

The national political climate and victories such as Scott Brown claiming Ted Kennedy's old U.S. Senate seat in liberal Massachusetts have emboldened Republicans from national races right down to the state House.

In a year when even Rep. Roberta Willis (D-Salisbury) faces a Republican challenger who has announced and gotten organized early, expect no one to take re-election for granted. Willis ran unopposed two years ago and trounced the competition four years ago.

That could mean the Connecticut Republican Party putting some significant resources into a challenge to freshman state Rep. Annie Hornish (D-Granby). She upset a longtime conservative Republican incumbent by the narrowest of margins in 2008, and she is one of the House's most liberal members.

Similarly, Rep. Michelle Cook (D-Torrington) is wrapping up her first term after unseating Republican Anne Ruwet in a House district that has been very close every election cycle going back almost a decade.

Cook's views may be out of step with some in the district, but has helped solidify her position with hard work. She is the local legislator you're most likely to see at every public forum, reception and involved in every neighborhood issue in her district.

Democrats' top local target could be freshman state Rep. John Rigby (R-Colebrook), who might not have been elected to the Legislature at all if it weren't for an explosive sex abuse controversy involving former Democratic Rep. George Wilber that broke a few weeks before the election in 2008.

We might see a rematch between Rigby and Norfolk attorney William Riiska, who did pretty well with a write-in campaign two years ago despite not being listed on the ballot.

In a meeting with Winsted Democrats this weekend, former candidate for the 63rd House District William Riiska noted that there may be an issue on getting all town Democrats together to agree on things. Riiska described things in the Democratic Party in general as “like trying to herd cats.”

After his brief and remarkable-but-ultimately-unsuccessful write-in bid for the District 63 state representative seat abruptly vacated by state Rep. George Wilber two weeks before the election, attorney William Riiska quickly and quietly has settled back into his volunteer leadership role in working on legislative issues for the Northwest Connecticut Chamber of Commerce.
And one of the Chamber's first tasks this fall is going to be bringing a large freshman class of first-time Northwest Connecticut legislators up to speed on the issues important to the local business community.
Taking Wilber's seat is Republican newcomer John Rigby.
Upsetting incumbent state Rep. Anne Ruwet (R-65th District) was Democratic newcomer Michelle Cook.
Upsetting longtime incumbent state Rep. Richard Ferrari (R-62nd District) was Democratic newcomer Annie Hornish.
And the Chamber and others locally who have important issues before the Legislature also are trying to get to know Republican Kevin Witkos, who has served several terms in the House, representing Canton, but will now represent a portion of the Torrington area after winning the 8th District seat in the state Senate.

In just 7 days, Norfolk attorney William Riiska convinced thousands of voters to write in his name for state representative in the 63rd District.
But it won't be enough to beat the only candidate whose name appeared on the ballot, political newcomer John Rigby, a Colebrook Republican.
Rigby has beaten Riiska in Winchester, which accounts for about 40 percent of the population of the district, 2,438 to 1,079.
Riiska filed to run as a write-in after incumbent Rep. George Wilber resigned with only two weeks to go before the election in the wake of a sex abuse allegations coverup scandal.

A voter from Canaan just now said that she realized after leaving the polling place, only after her husband asked her about it, that she'd FORGOTTEN to write in William Riiska's name for the District 63 House seat.
She had intended to support him, but the omission could be a strong example of the challenges Riiska faces in winning a last-minute campaign where his name does not even appear on the ballot.
This voter did not fill in the oval next to Republican John Rigby's name, either, but the Riiska thing slipped her mind.
It's one of the reasons Riiska had volunteers dispatched to most of the polling places in his sprawling district today, waving signs as voters entered.

District 63 Republican state representative candidate John Rigby is not the only unopposed candidate on the ballot to face a last-minute write-in campaign.
Michael Lynch, an attorney who lost handily to State Rep. Roberta Willis (D-64th District) four years ago, attended the Torrington Rotary Club meeting today wearing a big "Michael Lynch for State Representative" pin from four years ago and announced to the crowd that he'd cast a ballot for himself today as a write-in candidate against Willis.
Unlike Norfolk attorney William Riiska's serious challenge of Rigby in the wake of Rep. George Wilber's resignation, we can assume that Lynch didn't get certified as an "official" write-in candidate with the Secretary of the State's office.

Congressman Chris Murphy, State Rep. Anne Ruwet and District 63 state representative write-in candidate William Riiska campaign at the polls in Torrington and Winsted Tuesday. (Photos by Mic Nicosia/Register Citizen)

The national Green Party has complained about the write-in box on Connecticut's election ballots today being too small to write in a name legibly.
Their candidate for president, Cynthia McKinney, is not on the ballot. Neither is Libertarian candidate Bob Barr.
We've heard the same complaints today from supporters of William Riiska, who is mounting a serious write-in bid for state representative in House District 63.
CLICK HERE for the story about the Green Party's complaints.

What’s in a name? Quite a bit, on the ballot. But it isn’t everything.
For those voters in Connecticut’s 63rd legislative district intending to vote for write-in candidate William Riiska, here’s one piece of important advice from Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz’s office: Fill in the bubble.
It doesn’t matter how you spell his name, said Av Harris, spokesman for the secretary of the state’s office. "You can be missing an ‘I,’ you can write in ‘Bill Riiska,’ you can misspell the guy’s name," Harris said. Write-in votes are counted by hand, so there is some discretion on the part of the vote counters.
"We look for the intent of the voters," Harris said. "We assume the intent of the voters will be clear."
But the operative thing here is that little bubble next to the space to write a candidate’s name.
On the ballot in the 63rd district is the Republican candidate, John Rigby’s name (with bubble), George Wilber’s name (also with bubble) blacked out, and a blank space in which to write a candidate whose name has not been printed. But don’t fill in that bubble and the vote will not be counted.
As Harris explained, a machine counts the filled-in bubbles and any ballot acknowledged to be valid vote for a write-in candidate then gets hand-counted. ("No hanging chads," Harris said.)
"If you write in the guy’s name but don’t fill in the bubble then the vote doesn’t count at all," Harris said.

It's the calm before the storm. Doors are getting knocked on across Connecticut and, though many are predicting an Obama win, the question arises: "What if McCain takes it?"
Race riots? If a Broward County, hanging chad-type situation robs Obama of the Oval Office, a la Al Gore in 2000, can we expect another Al — Sharpton — to raise all sorts of a ruckus?
Locally, Ruwet looks like she'll retain her seat, though the major upset could come in the 63rd district.
Bill Riiska. It took guts for him to throw his name into the hat, robbing Rigby of an all-but-certian win. He probably won't, owing to the difficulty of the situation (voters must actually scribble his name into the little box. He's probably having a tough time getting his name known at all). But what if he wins? Write-ins have won before in this state and others, though with only six days to campaign, his chances are slight. It would be the upset of all upsets. Dewey beats Truman? Hah! Riiska beats Rigby would take the cake.

From registercitizen.com today:

CLICK HERE for "Nader sticks to anti-corporate message in final days of campaign."

CLICK HERE for "Gloves come off in 5th District congressional race."

CLICK HERE for "Democrats see chance to widen majority in state legislature."

CLICK HERE for "FROM THE PUBLISHER: What choice do we have in Wilber mess?"

Connecticut Republican Party staff think that The Register Citizen has been too easy on former Democratic state Rep. George Wilber, who resigned after the newspaper broke news about a $100,000 payment he made to settle sex abuse allegations.
They're especially upset that the paper has endorsed Democratic write-in candidate William Riiska.
CLICK HERE to read the post on the party's "Everyday Republican" blog.

CLICK HERE to read The Register Citizen's endorsement of William Riiska for state representative in the 63rd House District.

Bill Riiska, the Norfolk attorney who stepped up as a write-in candidate for House District 63 after the unexpected/abrupt resignation of state Rep. George Wilber, sounds like a guy who has made the transition from wanting to make sure that voters still had a choice on Nov. 4 to a guy who really believes he has a shot at pulling off a huge upset and winning the seat.
Riiska said he's gotten a tremendous response since announcing he would run as a write-in, and in an extremely short period of time, has kicked a full-press campaign into gear.
He said that he has the knowledge and experience to be a strong state legislator for the district, and that he would have run for the seat if Wilber had chosen to step down or retire when people normally make those kinds of decisions (i.e., about 9-12 months ago).
Many people in the district know Riiska through his work as an attorney, serving on local boards such as the Norfolk Planning and Zoning Commission and as the longtime head of the Northwest Connecticut Chamber of Commerce's government relations committee. He is also a Winsted native whose father was mayor and taught in the Region 7 school district.
The question will be, with voter turnout expected to be extremely high due to the presidential election, whether he can win enough votes from people who have no idea who their state rep is or what they do, to overcome the bloc of Republicans who will be supporting Republican newcomer John Rigby, when he's facing the teeny-tiny obstacle of not having his name listed on the ballot.

A judge ruled Tuesday that William Riiska, write-in Democratic candidate for Connecticut's 63rd legislative district, will be allowed on the ballot.

Read full story here.

John Rigby, the Colebrook Republican who appears to have won a seat in the state House of Representatives by default, with the sudden resignation of incumbent Rep. George Wilber over illness and the disclosure of a three-year-old sex abuse settlement, was talking Thursday about returning as much as $7,000 in unused campaign funds to the state ... until he heard that he might, yet, have an opponent Nov. 4.
State Democrats are preparing to file for an injunction that would block a Secretary of the State office ruling that William Riiska, a Norfolk attorney, could not run as a write-in for the seat because he faxed his signed application before the deadline rather than drop it off in person in Hartford.
Rigby qualified for public financing of his campaign (raising $5,000 from 150 different small donors in order to qualify for $25,000 more in campaign money funded by taxpayers). He said Thursday that he would return what hasn't been spent since he no longer has an opponent, but upon hearing about Riiska's progress in becoming an official candidate, he started to doubt his plans.