A historic and ill-judged bill sent from the House sits on the Senate calendar. House Bill 5380 removes two seats on the Judicial Selection Commission from non-lawyers to lawyers. The bill changes the balance of the commission from six lawyers and six members who are not lawyers to eight lawyers and four non-lawyer members.

The commission, created by an amendment to the state’s constitution, has never had a majority of lawyers.

The original proposal changed the number of commission members to eleven members, nine of whom were required to be lawyers. An amendment offered on the floor of the House adjusted that to eight and four.

The bill adds new requirements to the JCS. It must explain in writing why an applicant was rejected and allow the rejected hopeful request a second hearing which shall be held within 30 days. The unhappy applicant shall have the right to be present during the rehearing.

The proposal also adds a requirement that nominees for those dozen seats on the commission must appear before the Judiciary Committee for approval. The Judiciary Committee is often home to aspiring judges.

A disappointed applicant appears to have found a way to transform his or her fury into law.

There are different and better changes to the operation of the Judicial Selection Commission that are not in the bill–but could be. Require legislators to disclose to the state’s ethics agency in a public acknowledgement that they have submitted an application to become a judge. Make the commission agendas public. There would be nothing wrong with making the meetings public.

Published May 8, 2024.

Bridgeport Democrats are speculating that incumbent state Senator Marilyn Moore will not seek a sixth term in the 22nd District. With the district party nominating convention this month, an announcement from Moore is imminent.

Former state Senator William Finch is said to be contemplating a run for Moore’s seat. Finch was elected to the Senate in 2000 and gave up his seat in 2007 to become mayor of Bridgeport. Finch was defeated for re-election as mayor by Joe Ganim in a 2015 Democratic primary upset. He then did a brief and unhappy stint in the administration of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.

Adding to speculation that the seat will be open, Moore’s first quarter campaign finance report disclosed she had raised $100.01 as of March 31st. Moore came within several hundred votes of defeating Ganim in the 2019 Bridgeport Democratic primary for mayor. Based on what the public has sense learned of the Democratic organization’s absentee ballots, the true result is unlikely to be known with confidence. A filing snafu kept Moore from appearing on the Working Families Party line that fall.

Finch will find the district he represented has changed considerably since 2006, the last time he ran for the seat. Nine years is a long time to be out of office in the deadly Bridgeport political arena.

Published May 7, 2024.

There is some confusion in the House of Representatives Monday night as the chamber takes up S.B. 1, a bill intended to protect nurses from dangerous patients. The proposal is a reaction to the 2023 murder of visiting nurse Joyce Grayson.

The bill addresses other health care issues—and one head scratcher for doctors seeking specialty recertification. Section 11 provides an alternative to the demanding tests physicians must pass to maintain their certification in specialty disciplines. Certification may be obtained not only by passing a demanding exam but, under the Senate bill, “through participation in any maintenance of certification program.” This could lower the quality of care provided in Connecticut.

The bill’s lead sponsor is Senator Saud Anwar (D-South Windsor), a physician. Anwar’s own credentials are causing confusion. According to the American Board of Internal Medicine, his certifications in critical care medicine, pulmonary medicine and internal medicine have lapsed. Anwar’s medical practice website, however, describes him as “a Board Certified Physician who specializes in Pulmonary Medicine, Critical Care Medicine and Occupational and Environmental Medicine.” Senate members declined to ask what the effect of the change in the recertification process embedded in the bill would mean for doctors who had allowed their certifications to lapse.

House Republicans have filed amendments to remove the section.

The Senate’s other physician, Woodstock Republican Jeffrey Gordon, has maintained his certifications in hematology and the demanding discipline of oncology.

Published May 6, 2024.

Johnny Angel strikes. The new chief of staff for the dozen Senate Republicans has taken the measure of the caucus and found them all tired out after a few hours of work on Monday. Healey, on behalf of caucus leaders Harding and Cicarella, sent a text Monday afternoon to members and staff to let them know there is a masseuse in the historic Capitol building for the sole purpose of providing massages to members and staff until 5 p.m. today.

The odd perk comes after the legislature took off the last weekend of the regular session. The Senate convened today at 11 a.m. Most working people would likely find it an indulgence to require a massage only a few hours into the first workday of what will be a three-day week.

Senate Republicans may find themselves Candy Pruitted–made to look like laughingstocks.

Spending of funds under the new Healey/Harding leadership team was already making some members uncomfortable. A masseuse will add to their concern about careless and damaging optics.

Someone may want to get an informal opinion from the state’s ethics agency on gifts of services. This is not the sort of use of public funds (or campaign funds) that goes down well in the three most competitive Republican seats. And Senator Cicarella is already getting a lot of money for health services to keep him limber.

Senate Republicans may want to disregard Healey’s advice, “Please don’t be shy.” The seat a little reticence saves may be your own.

Published May 6, 2024.

Not everyone in state Democratic politics wants to wait in line. Travis Tanuis, currently leader of the fractious Young Democrats of Connecticut, announced this weekend that he will challenge incumbent John Olsen for the seat reserved for a Connecticut man on the Democratic National Committee.

The contest will take place at this weekend’s Democratic state convention at the Mohegan Sun casino The convention was expected to be a tranquil affair as delegates nominate U.S. Senator Christopher Murphy for a third term. The election of two DNC members follows.

Olsen has spent much of his adult life as an unofficial or official Democratic force, first as head of the state AFL-CIO and later taking a demotion to the DNC.

Tanuis may try to inject Israel’s fight against terror into the contest.

No one will be surprised if a woman challenges party veteran Marti Carlson for the seat on the DNC reserved for a woman. This year marks Carlson’s 30th anniversary in frontline party politics. The Guilford Democrat helmed John Larson’s 1994 primary for the Democratic nomination for governor.

Published May 6, 2024.

Members of the boards of the State Education Resource Center, the state lottery, the Connecticut Port Authority and the Connecticut Airport Authority receive a substantial gift in the legislature’s budget implementer bill released today.

The board members and directors of the agencies will benefit by an addition to state statutes, each of which states in sections 133-136 of the bill, some variation of this:

A director who is not otherwise eligible to
participate in the group hospitalization and medical and surgical
insurance plan established pursuant to subsection (a) of section 5-259
may elect to participate in such plan. Each director who elects such
coverage shall pay the same percentage of the premium as paid by a
state employee for the form of coverage elected under such plan. The
authority shall reimburse the appropriate state agency for the remainder
of the premium and any other costs incurred due to the director’s
participation.

This valuable benefit will make it more difficult to dislodge members of the boards when change becomes essential.

Published May 6, 2024.

Governor Ned Lamont will announce in a year whether he will seek a third four-year term in 2026. The Greenwich Democrat disclosed his political schedule in an interview with CT Mirror’s John Dankosky.

Lamont told Dankosky he is 70 and about to become a grandfather for the first time, events that cause one to reflect. He loves the job but hates campaigning. He contrasted himself with other state politicians, who, he said, love to campaign.

If Lamont decides in a year to run for re-election he has done others a favor by preventing them from wasting a year pushing at the starting gate. If the popular governor decides eight years are enough those bumptious hopefuls will have a year before their party’s nominating convention.

The entire interview is worth watching for a sustained look at Lamont’s optimism with some dashes of his mewling about the state’s Freedom of Information Act.

Published May 2, 2024.

The House of Representatives will spend part of the day considering a comprehensive bill on environmental policies. It is Green Bill Day in the House. The Senate Democrats do not have the spirit. Their lunches, one wag with a camera records, were encased in plastic and, worse, styrofoam.

Styrofoam, aka polystyrene, “is slow to degrade, and if disposed of improperly, the foam can leach chemicals into the environment harming water sources,” according to the Children’s Environmental Health Network. “Polystyrene manufacturing is an enormous creator of hazardous waste. Furthermore, polystyrene manufacturing greatly contributes to global warming.”

Legislators who a few months ago were (and will again) considering making it difficult for working people to purchase a vehicle with an internal combustion engine might want to think more locally–beginning with caucus meals.

Published May 1, 2024.

Matt Corey is rested and ready to run again. Corey has been the Republican nominee for the House in the First Congressional District, United States Senate and state Senate in the 4th district. The Manchester Republican scored his biggest win in the 2018 primary for the U.S. Senate, carrying every town in his contest against Dominic Rapini.

Corey went on to garner 39% of the vote against incumbent Democrat Chris Murphy. Two years later, Corey won 38% of the vote against Democratic incumbent Steve Cassano in the Manchester-centered 4th Senate District. Corey was the Republican nominee against veteran incumbent John Larson in 2014 and 2014.

Corey will face Jerome Smith of Beacon Falls at the Monday, May 13th party convention in New Britain to endorse a candidate to face Murphy, who is seeking a third term. Smith is the party leadership favorite.

New, anti-democratic rules require candidates to collect delegate signatures in order to have his or her name placed in nomination. Each candidate will need the signatures of one delegate from 25 towns or, in the alternative, 100 delegate signatures .

Published April 30th.

A routine stop in Somers by state police for driving under the influence of alcohol revealed an East Hartford police lieutenant and a retired East Hartford officer schemed to cover up the lieutenant’s operation of his motor vehicle. A police body camera, posted above, recorded the encounter with the lieutenant, the discovery of his cell phone on the ground behind the vehicle, his claim he was having a heart attack and the revelation that he is an East Hartford police officer.

Lieutenant Joseph Ficacelli admitted in Superior Court that in the early hours of January 28th he switched seats with his passenger. The switch was made when it appeared police would stop his vehicle after EMTs saw Ficacelli driving erratically, stopped his vehicle and asked if he was having a medical issue. Ficacelli, according to an April 5th court transcript, “was profane to them and used foul language at them.”

The EMTs followed Ficacelli. They saw him “go around to the back of the vehicle, then down to the ground, but then come around and get [into the passenger side] of the vehicle, and the vehicle proceeded,” State’s Attorney Matthew Gedansky told the court at the April 5th hearing in Superior Court in Rockville. The EMTs stayed “about a quarter of a mile back and watched all of this unfold.”

Police stopped the vehicle a short distance away. EMTs saw a cell phone on the ground behind where Ficacelli stopped and made the switch. It was the East Hartford lieutenant’s phone.

Less than a minute after police learned that Ficacelli had been driving the vehicle, he asked police to call an ambulance because “I feel like I’m having a heart attack.” A few minutes earlier, Robert Provonost, the other passenger/driver, had fallen to the ground when asked to step out of the vehicle by police. He also asked for an ambulance to take him to the hospital.

After an ambulance took Ficacelli from the scene, police discovered a locked box under the driver’s seat. It contained a pistol and Ficacelli’s police badge.

“Tell me what happened,” Judge Kathleen McNamara directed Ficacelli. “I’m interested in this because I’ve never seen such an elaborate attempt to avoid doing a Field Sobriety Test as what you undertook.”

Ficacelli responded that he was diagnosed with a heart condition as a child and there is a history of heart disease in his family. “So, every time I get a chest pain or an anxiety attack, I think the worst,” he said, “I go to a bad place where I think I’m having a heart attack and I’m checking out.” That fear did not preclude Ficacelli from arguing with police about their possession of his cell phone while they waited for the second ambulance to arrive, the video shows.

His symptoms of a heart attack appear to have quickly resolved. When police arrived at the hospital, according to Gedansky, “they heard Mr. Ficacelli yelling and screaming at nurses. Ficacelli is heard yelling that he refuses any EKG to be done on him.” Ficacelli disputed that assertion in court.

Judge McNamara, perplexed that someone who thinks they are having a heart attack would refuse treatment, postponed action on Ficacelli’s application for an alcohol diversionary program that, if successfully completed, would result in a dismissal of all charges and wipe it from his public record. She told Ficacelli, “I am just thoroughly appalled at your behavior. You should be ashamed of yourself.” She added, “You tarnished the badge of whatever department that is…You have a lot of authority but you have more responsibility to the public and to safe driving, and you tarnished that.”

The defendant told the court that East Hartford’s deputy chief is conducting its own investigation into the January 28th incident. Ficacelli continues to be paid and is assigned to what he described as “desk duty.” Ficacelli was East Hartford’s second highest paid employee last year, earning $187,203.

The matter was continued to June 5th.

This was not Ficacelli’s first encounter with police from another jurisdiction. Fox61 reported he questioned a Rocky Hill officer’s stop of him for speeding in 2022.

Published April 25, 2024.