The Vinci Group, target of much grumbling among politicos, has a new hire. It’s Chris Pitts. He is the Quiet Corner Democrat who’s been associated with that ugly New York political scandal involving “ziti” and other bad things.

Pitts was the factotum for defendant Peter Galbraith Kelly, Jr, whose trial may begin later this year. The volume of documents collected by federal prosecutors has required the defendants to spend more time examining evidence than their lawyers expected. Don’t be surprised if Pitts (also known as Chris Pitts LLC) takes a turn as a witness at the trial, should the defendants not enter into plea bargains.

Kelly, who co-signed a lease on a Chevrolet Cavalier for Pitts, extended his former factotum congratulations on joining the Manchester fundraisers.

Read more about the fascinating case here. 

The first home for the star crossed Hartford Goats approaches. The minor league baseball team will debut at Dunkin’ Donuts Park on the 13th of April, a year later than the controversial stadium proposal anticipated.

The arrival of the Yard Goats, supporters of the expensive proposal in a city hinting at bankruptcy promised, was to bring a golden age to Hartford’s restaurants and hotels, especially hotels. The stadium would be responsible for nearly 24,000 hotel stays a year in Hartford. Embarrassed boosters, and there ought to be plenty of those, may want to revise that number downward. Visiting teams are reported to be making camp not at a Hartford hotel but at the Holiday Inn Express on the Berlin Turnpike in Newington, the only hotel with a link on the official team website.

Yard Goats spokesman Jeff Dooley explains:

“The Yard Goats are partnering with Radisson, Homewood Suites and Hilton in downtown Hartford for team employees, consultants, league officials, players, players’ families and fans.  Due to availability limitations during the week, combined with the maximum rate and standards set by the Eastern League, downtown hotels are unable to accommodate our visiting clubs.”

“For decades, government has focused mostly on helping those at the very top, and people in the middle are being left behind. That has to change,” Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Dan Drew declared in a pointed criticism of incumbent Democrat Dannel P. Malloy. Drew included the aggressive attack on Malloy in the Middletown mayor’s announcement that he raised $105,627 from 1,030 donors in his campaign’s first fundraising quarter.

Drew is looking for a lane in the crowded leftwing of his party.

Malloy has not announced if he will seek a third term. Private polling shows the unpopular Democrat with a strongly approve rating in the single digits not far from the margin of error. Malloy’s strongly unfavorable number is many times higher than that, continuing to cause anxiety among Democrats who do not want to be saddled with the surly governor at the top of their ticket next year.

Thirteen term Shelton mayor Mark Lauretti is running for governor. Lauretti filed a campaign committee with the State Elections Enforcement Commission today.

This is Lauretti’s second run at the state’s top office. He was a candidate for the Republican nomination in 2014. Lauretti joined forces with rival Mark Boughton and switched to the contest for lieutenant in the summer of 2014. Lauretti, who’s had an eventful tenure in local office and is familiar to federal law enforcement authorities, was not able to gather the signatures required to petition onto the statewide party primary ballot. The Boughton-Lauretti marriage was short-lived and showed neither to be an effective campaign leader despite years in politics.

The Walking Dead is not the theme most candidates  would build a fundraiser around, but Danbury’s Mark Boughton does enjoy showcasing a taste for popular culture. The two-time candidate for governor and three-time candidate for statewide office is exploring a third run for governor. He gathered supporters this weekend to watch the season 7 finale of the popular show built around zombies.

Boughton began running for governor a year before the popular AMC series debuted in 2010.

Excitable aspiring Hartford insider Tim Herbst, the Trumbull first selectman who won a narrow re-election in 2015, is well-pleased with his fundraising take in the first quarter of the year. Herbst is exploring a race for statewide office. Herbst’s Facebook enthusiasm for his quarterly take did not includes a hint of how much he raised. His mom joined him on Facebook to let him know how proud of him and his team she is. Whatever the number, who can ask for more than that?

Expect cagey candidates to start revealing fundraising numbers as a part of their early strategy in the crowded field of gubernatorial hopefuls. Readers will want to remember that candidates maintaining the pretense of exploring a candidacy for governor are permitted to accept a maximum contribution of $375 per donor. Only $100 of that amount counts in reaching the magic $250,000 in small contributions required to received public financing for governor. That $250,000 mark has frustrated many candidates who have had trouble finding 2,500 supporters willing to pony up $100 each.

How can we say goodbye if you refuse to go away? Perennial candidate and former secretary of the state Susan Byciewicz will form a broad exploratory committee for statewide and legislative offices, Daily Ructions has learned.

You may remember Bysiewicz but have lost track of the chronic candidates remarkable history of campaigns. She briefly hovered around the 2006 contest for the Democratic nomination for governor. In 2010 she started running for governor and switched to the race for attorney general when incumbent Richard Blumenthal ran for the U.S. Senate when unpopular incumbent Christopher Dodd abandoned his bid for a sixth term. Bysiewicz suffered a spectacular defeat when the state’s highest court ruled she did not meet the statutory qualifications for attorney general.

In 2012, Christopher Murphy, who was serving his third term in the U.S. House of Representatives, trounced Bysiewicz in the Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate seat that had been held for four terms by Joseph Lieberman. Two years later, Bysiewicz considered moving to Bristol to challenge Republican Henri Martin in the 31st Senatorial District.

Bysiewicz was active in Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign as a fundraiser, though she was not given a delegate spot to the Democratic National Convention.

Monday is the first business day of the second campaign financing reporting quarter of the year. Expect the brisk pace candidates filing committees to continue.

The House Democrats have an opening. It’s a long job description, as you can see from clipping the above photo, and includes “excellent state benefits”. It sounds like they are hiring someone who will be up to their elbows in the sort of activities associated with political campaigns.

Budget crisis? What budget crisis?

State Senator Ted Kennedy loathes hunting. The Branford millionaire is a likely candidate for the Democratic nomination for governor. His statements and legislative record will begin to be scrutinized. Hunters will take note of Kennedy’s March 13th declaration at  the legislature’s environment committee. While debating a bill to allow the state’s environmental protection agency to develop a plan to thin the state’s growing bear population, Kennedy let lose with his opinion on hunting in general.

“I don’t like hunting, I think it’s barbaric, I understand that other people do and I respect that but in the last couple of weeks I’ve changed my mind on this bill after speaking to wildlife biologists from DEEP and really learning more about the public safety issues that bears actually pose in our state we have rapidly increasingly population of bear.”

Harvesting other people’s private organs, however, is ok with Kennedy.  He proposed intrusive legislation that would make every Connecticut resident an organ donor (though it’s not a donation if it’s mandatory) unless they opt out of the program. The legislation appears to be dead for this session of the legislature, devoid of vital organs to snatch for some other bill.