A nutty screed appeared in Killingworth mailboxes today. It provides a reminder that we are fighting two viruses, one is respiratory, the other launches a ferocious assault on reason.

The campaign for the next chairman of Connecticut’s Republican state party organization has begun. Milford Republican Christopher Lancia launched in an email to the party’s state central committee members. Lancia managed Margaret Streicker’s campaign in the Third Congressional District. Incumbent Democrat Rosa DeLauro defeated Streicker by 68,000 votes, according to unofficial returns.

Lancia is seeking to replace party chairman J.R. Romano, who announced before the election that he would not run for re-election. The election takes place in June.

Lancia wrote:

Hi, I wanted to reach out to everyone On the committee and introduce myself before I make a public announcement. 

I am 49 years old I am the father of 3 children I was born and raised in Bridgeport now reside in Milford I am on the RTC in Milford and was Margaret Stickers, [sic] campaign manager. I have been trying to call each one of you introducing myself and answering questions for each one of you. I will be sending out another e-mail soon explaining what I want to focus on and how I would like to take the party to victory in a PowerPoint presentation.

I will be laying out a path for everyone to be involved in as one team with one vision. Please feel free to call me with any questions. This has to be an all hands on deck.

Streicker self-financed her bid against DeLauro, who was running for a 16th term from the New Haven-area district. DeLauro won by nearly 20% but Streicker mounted the first challenge that caught the popular DeLauro’s attention and caused her to pay attention to a Republican opponent for the first time in more than two decades.

Expect others to join the race to lead state Republicans.

U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) injected a dose of reality to the complex art of jockeying for a cabinet position in the formation of the Biden administration. The Greenwich Democrat told Politico, “There’s so much talent outside the Senate…This is going to be a really, really challenging two years because President Biden is going to need strong leadership in the Congress. … And I think he’ll prefer to have people he trusts be here.”

Connecticut’s junior senator, Democrat Chris Murphy, disagrees. He says in the same story, “I understand that one or two vacancies can make a difference, but if President-elect Biden thinks there’s someone in the Senate who is going to serve him well and is the clear best choice then he should choose that person…I would hope that Vice President Biden would look to members of Congress to fill out some key slots.”

Murphy was mentioned in Politico stories before last week’s election as a prospect to lead the State Department.

Democrats defeated two Republican Senate incumbents, considerably fewer than expected, last week. They picked up the seat held by Alabama incumbent Democrat Doug Jones. Two Georgia seats held by Republicans will be decided in a January 5th runoff. Democrats will need to win both those to reach 50 seats.

Senate special elections can be unpredictable. Jones scored an upset win in the contest to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of Jeff Sessions to become Donald Trumps tormented attorney general. In 2010, Massachusetts Republican Scott Brown won a stunning victory in a winter contest to fill the vacancy created by the death of Senator Edward M. Kennedy.

State Senator Kevin Kelly has been elected leader of the dozen members of the Senate Republican caucus. Kelly beat back a challenge by Canton Republican Kevin Witkos in what had become an intense, personal fight in among the Republican survivors of another disappointing year.

Kelly will need to make swift and extensive changes in the upper reaches of the Senate Republicans’ management team if they party is to have any chance at increasing its numbers in 2022–and making itself felt in the Senate before that.

State Representative Robyn Porter (D-New Haven) has been telling supporters that she is ending her bid to become the House Majority Leader. House Democrats will meet Thursday afternoon to elect new leaders.

Porter was competing with East Hartford Democrat Jason Rojas in the contest to succeed Representative Matthew Ritter, who will be elected Speaker of the House at the same meeting that will see Rojas win with the unanimous support of the 98 member caucus.

State Senator George Logan issued a statement Thursday morning:

“I just called Mr. Cabrera to congratulate him on the election win. I have certainly enjoyed the whole experience. It’s been great in terms of working with a group of such wonderful legislators, staff and especially everyone in our community to help improve the lives of folks living in the 17th SD and to fix Connecticut. For now, I will continue my community service work at the local level. Thank you for all your time and support. Be well.”

Logan, a Republican, was seeking a third term against Hamden Democrat Jorge Cabrera in a rematch of their close 2018 contest.

We will elect more than a president Tuesday. Connecticut elects five members of Congress, 36 state senators, and 151 state representatives. Duby McDowell and I will join the WFSB news team, and will have results and reactions from a constellation of political pros.

If you have not already, download the WFSB app to your devices and start watching at 8 p.m.

During the last two days of the 1960 presidential campaign, John F. Kennedy made five stops in Connecticut: Waterbury, Wallingford, New Haven, Bridgeport, and Hartford.

JFK was astonished when he arrived in Waterbury in the middle of the chilly night to see 30,000 supporters gathered on the green.

He stopped in Hartford on Monday.

The Capital Community College’s faculty and staff senate will take up a resolution Wednesday calling for a 25% cut in the generous salaries of central office bureaucrats. The resolution reflects the growing disquiet that the System Office is inflicting sacrifices on others that it will not impose on itself.

Here’s the lengthy resolution:

Whereas, Capital Community College exists for the primary purpose of furthering academic excellence;

Whereas, The CCC Senate is the official representative body of the Faculty and Staff;

Whereas, The Board of Regents has a lengthy history of fiscal mismanagement dating back to at least 2010 as documented in the APA1 Executive Summary, dated 10/1/2020 for fiscal years ending 2016 and 2017, which identified 32 areas requiring improvement and violations that included unspent allocations, budgetary miscalculations, and non-compliance with the 2017 SEBAC Agreement;

Whereas, Nearly all of the universities and colleges voted no confidence in President Ojakian and the Board of Regents last year;

Whereas, The Board of Regents is largely comprised of individuals who have limited to no experience and knowledge regarding institutions of higher education, and who have spent virtually no time on the campuses they are supposed to lead;

Whereas, Taking the COVID-19 pandemic into consideration, each college, university and the System Office submitted a budget for FY 2021 to the Board of Regents, which duly adopted a FY 2021 spending plan for CSCU on June 18, 2020 based upon these budgets;

Whereas, The System Office and the Board of Regents miscalculated revenue in these budgets, in particular, that of the community colleges by grossly overestimating enrollment numbers which resulted in a reported budget shortfall of $69 million;

Whereas, The Board of Regents, at its September 17 and October 15, 2020 meetings, stated that “everything is on the table” and tasked the administration to consider alternatives, including measures that have not been taken in the past and measures that “require extensive analysis, negotiation, and restructuring within the organization” to reduce the budget shortfall;

Whereas, The Board of Regents has stated that “everything is on the table,” in order to justify ‘placing on the table’ the income of the most vulnerable and poorly-compensated employees, including Graduate and University Assistants and part-time faculty;

Whereas, The Board of Regents has stated that “everything is on the table,” in order to justify attempting to ‘place on the table’ the income of thousands of faculty and staff responsible for teaching and providing services to our students and to try to break the Collective Bargaining Agreement;

Whereas, the Board of Regents has stated that “everything is on the table,” but, has failed to ‘place on the table’ reducing the salaries of administrators in the System Office and throughout the system who are the most highly-compensated employees, an action that would not require “extensive analysis, negotiation, and restructuring within the organization;”

Whereas, The Board of Regents has stated that “everything is on the table,” however, has also stated that it will not ‘place on the table’ the exorbitant costs associated with One College and its top-heavy administrative structure, including the additional planned hiring of over $10 million worth of managers;

Whereas, The Board of Regents has stated that “everything is on the table,” and has implemented a hiring freeze and a comprehensive effort to “review and identify savings in areas including staffing, academic programming, shared administrative services and collective bargaining;” yet is proceeding with a search to hire a CSU President, an expensive position with largely figurehead responsibilities, and will not ‘place on the table’ the System Office’s bloated staffing and administrative costs, an action that would not require “extensive analysis, negotiation, and restructuring within the organization;”

Whereas, The Board of Regents has stated that “everything is on the table,” however, has failed to ‘place on the table’ the System Office reserves of $22.42 million that could be utilized to cover revenue shortfalls;

Whereas, The Board of Regents has stated that “everything is on the table,” but has stated that SCSU, CCSU, and ECSU should contribute $1.2 million each from their reserves to make up for WCSU’s shortfall, failing to ‘place on the table’ the System Office reserves of $22.42 million that could cover this shortfall;

Whereas, The described proposals by the Board of Regents are harmful to our students, who comprise the largest population of minority and underserved students in the state;

Whereas, The described proposals by the Board of Regents would result in a reduced number of academic programs and classes and larger class sizes, and would threaten the integrity of our educational institutions; now, therefore, be it

Resolved, That when the Board of Regents states that “everything is on the table,” it truly should consider all alternatives with open-mindedness in order to act in the best interests of the students and the institutions it is charged with protecting and nurturing; and be it further

Resolved, That the Board of Regents cease targeting the most vulnerable and underpaid university and college employees, while failing to take action in reducing the salaries of the most highly-compensated employees in the system; and be it further

Resolved, That the salaries of the highly-compensated, higher-level administrators in the System Office be reduced by 25%, as has been done at many other institutions of higher education in the country in order to deal with COVID-19 budgetary shortfalls; and be it further

Resolved, That the System Office be required to follow any cost-saving measures required of the colleges and universities, including the hiring freeze that would encompass the CSU President position and One College hires; and be it further

Resolved, That reserves from the System Office be utilized to cover revenue shortfalls of the individual universities and colleges and that the Board of 

Regents cease the practice of raiding one university’s reserves to pay off another university’s debt; and be it further

Resolved, That the Board of Regents consider alternatives to the System Office or at the very least, major restructuring of the organization, including measures that have not been taken in the past and measures that require extensive analysis; and be it further

Resolved, That any cost-cutting measures directed towards the colleges and universities not be circumscribed in a top-down manner, but rather demonstrate respect and invite the knowledge and experience of those who understand and work in higher education in our institutions; and be it further

Resolved, That the Board of Regents is called on to be advocates for and supporters of higher education and the CSCU campuses, rather than to act as agents of dismantlement.