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Mark Lauretti is enjoying his 17th consecutive term as mayor of Shelton. He knows Shelton and Shelton knows him. So when his smiling face appeared in a photograph included in a mailer to voters from Democrat Mike Duncan for the April 22nd special election for the House of Representatives seat vacated by Jason Perillo after he advanced to the State Senate in a February special election, Republicans waited for Lauretti to claim the upbeat picture was used without his permission. They will continue to wait.

Duncan sounds like the type of reassuring sensible Democrat his party hopes will lead them out of the wilderness in other parts of the country. The former college varsity football player emphasizes our freedom to prosper in the oversized postcard. Duncan, a marketing professional, “serves as a Commissioner for the Water Pollution Control Authority (WPCA) for the City of Shelton, CT, working to ensure responsible infrastructure development, environmental stewardship, and efficient municipal services,” according to his campaign website.

Republicans chose Perillo’s candidate, school board chair and veteran book banner Amy Romano, as their nominee. Lauretti favored Win Oppel for the nomination.

Lauretti and Duncan enjoy a cordial relationship in the fraught and fractured politics of Shelton, likely an advantage to the genial Duncan in a low turnout special election.

Published on April 11, 2025.

Erin Stewart told members of the Republican State Central Committee Thursday night, “We are going to get endorsed by President Trump,” according to a recording obtained by Daily Ructions. The announcement came two-thirds through the New Britain mayor’s 14 minute speech. Stewart immediately struck a defensive note after announcing the Trump endorsement “is going to be great.” She added she will not “allow the left into thinking, believing that is a bad thing for us. That that is going to lead to us not being able to be successful.”

The Republican frontrunner, Stewart is exploring a candidacy for the party’s nomination for governor. It’s been a big month for the six-term mayor, though not one of uninterrupted high points. She announced earlier this week that she has raised $130,000 in her first fundraising report. That puts Stewart more than a third of the way to the $350,000 she will need to qualify for the state’s public campaign financing bonanza.

In pursuit of that Trump endorsement, Stewart defended and hailed the Republican president’s calamitous and incoherent mess of tariff increases. She will struggle to explain how supporting inflationary tariffs advances her to-be-formulated plan to reduce the cost of living in Connecticut, a state that imports parts and exports complex finished products.

Stewart highlighted her trip to the White House this week to witness and add her endorsement to Trump’s executive order making it easier to mine and burn coal, a head-scratcher of a plan in a state that spent decades getting rid of coal to make the air cleaner. Any feint toward “clean coal” will quickly crumble in a rendezvous with reality. Stewart’s trip to the White House this week was not without a disappointment. She told the party committee that she had spent Valentine’s Day in 2018 at the White House with Trump, bringing along her Make America Great Again hat with her for the president to sign. She left Washington five years ago without her hat and hoped to retrieve it this week with a signature, but Trump “didn’t give a shit.”

“Winning is everything,” Stewart said Thursday as she set out her stall for 2026. “You do what you have to do to win.” She witnessed in the summer of 2022 the power of Trump endorsement to upend a Republican primary race. With a late Trump endorsement, Greenwich Republican Leora Levy surged ahead of party endorsed U.S. Senate candidate Themis Klarides. Levy coasted to a 10 point win over Klarides, the former House Republican leader, a few days after Trump endorsed Levy by phone at a local party event.

Stewart allies have spent an unusual amount of time trying to push longtime veteran Trump supporters Matthew Corey and Peter Lumaj out of the early going in the Republican competition for governor.

“Our state is stagnant because stagnant because our leaders are stagnant,” Stewart said, pairing the claim the belief that Governor Ned Lamont’s popularity is declining. The incumbent Democrat has yet to announce if he will seek another third term. He would be a heavy favorite for re-election against a Republican who tries to explain why she supports Trump’s tariffs on our allies but not on the murderous Putin regime. Sorting through issues, aspirations and records are what proper campaigns do, and that is a good thing.

Posted April 11, 2025.

Arizona’s Family News (3TV and CBS 5 News) report that Avelo Airlines has entered into an agreement with the Department of Homeland Security to begin providing deportation flights to assist the Trump administration’s often chaotic and lawless mass deportation program.

Connecticut officials enacted a two-year aviation fuel tax moratorium in a deal with Avelo to expand its operations at Bradley and Tweed airports. The tax holiday ends on June 30th, six weeks after Avelo begins running deportation flights from Arizona.

Top Connecticut officials, particularly Governor Ned Lamont and Speaker of the House Matthew Ritter, have been eager to accommodate Avelo’s expansion to Bradley, including with flights to and from Jamaica.

Avelo’s founder and boss explained the airline’s deal with the government with the maximum use of euphemisms. “Having a portion of our company dedicated to charter flying, without exposure to fluctuating fuel prices or risk from macroeconomic factors, provides us with the stability to grow our core business, which is scheduled passenger travel,” said airline founder and CEO Andrew Levy.

Translation: Those DHS deportation flights with who knows who filling the seats provide us with a steady flow of dough in these uncertain times.

Published April 6, 2025.

Governor Ned Lamont appeared on the popular Meidas Touch Network Thursday for the first time. In a week of dizzying hyperbole, Lamont was a calming presence after a clip featuring Secretary of Commerce Howard (“Let Trump Run the Global economy”) Lutnick. The Greenwich Democrat made a case for the federal government to inform states what its plans are and providing some runway to adjust.

Lamont said his “deal” with the state legislature is “no surprises.” He pointed out that the state is required to have a balanced budget. The governor took a few moments to shine a light on the daycare support program he proposed in his February budget proposal.

“Why are we picking fights with our friends?” he asked of Donald Trump’s ruinous tariff proposals launched at Americans Wednesday afternoon.

Ben Meidas concluded by Lamont will be back on the growing YouTube channel with more than 4 million subscribers.

Published April 4, 2025.

Some prime Democratic voters received text messages Saturday inviting them to participate in a First Congressional District survey for the 2026 election. Respondents were reminded of incumbent Democrat John Larson’s 42 years in elected office—as a shove to get out of the way rather than a tribute to longevity.

The questions included a list of Larson and 10 Hartford area Democrats as possible choices next year. That sprawling questions was followed by a more revealing one: What if there were only three candidates, Larson, Jillian Gilchrest, and Jack Perry? Gilchrest is the West Hartford Democrat serving in the House of Representatives who activists and observers expect to mount a campaign for higher office when an opportunity arises.

Who is Jack Perry and why did he make it into the second round with only Larson and Gilchrest? Perry is a member of Southington’s town council. He is also a small businessman and a member of a prominent member of the entrepreneurial Perry family.

The 2024 election of loathsome demagogue Donald Trump and a quisling-infested Republican congress has caused alarm among sentient Americans. Democrats have grown particularly agitated at their leaders’ inability to thwart Republican unity in the service of damaging the United States and its democratic allies.

Perry, who sold his dumpster and hauling business last year, told Daily Ructions Saturday that he has been contacted by and is talking to Democrats about their shared fury and frustrations. The Southington Democrat said he was not familiar with the survey but sounded like someone itching to make the leap to a higher office. Perry mentioned Larson’s recent medical incident on the floor of the House as one more reason to look upward on the greasy pole of political ambition.

UPDATE: Democratic campaign consultant Cole Haymond has worked on Jack Perry town council campaigns. Some Daily Ructions assumed from this post that Haymond would sign on to a Perry bid for the Democratic nomination for the 1st CD. He will not. Haymond performs work with the state party and contractors who muck about in challenges to Democratic incumbents soon find themselves in the chilly wilderness. Haymond has a hands-off policy on any Perry gambit against Larson.

Published March 29, 2025. Updated March 30, 2025.

The cost of living crisis in Australia is fueled by the nation’s rising energy costs and it is making the incumbent Labour government nervous, the Financial Times reports.

The mood Down Under is similar to the torments visited upon Connecticut electricity ratepayers. One crucial difference is that in Australia the opposition can blame the government. In Connecticut, opposition Republicans are saddled with their fatal support of the 2017 bill that ties the cost of energy produced at Millstone to the more dynamic natural gas market.

Still, a nimble Republican might be able to pin some of the responsibility for the state’s electricity rates to Governor Ned Lamont’s feckless natural gas policies–as long as that Republican did not cast a vote to please the then-House Republican Leader and First Lady of Eversource Themis Klarides. That vote has as long and lethal a half-life as anything in the Waterford double reactor.

Published March 18, 2025.

State Senator John Fonfara (D-Hartford) has missed more than 90% of the roll call votes this session on the Executive and Legislative Nominations Committee. Of the 11 votes on nominations cast by committee members, Fonfara voted in only one. On February 20th, the veteran legislator joined his Democratic colleagues in casting his first vote of the year for Public Utilities Regulatory Agency (PURA) chair Marissa Gillett.

Since the pandemic, the legislature has allowed members to cast committee votes remotely.

Fonfara was part of the deal with Governor Ned Lamont that guaranteed Democrats would fall in line behind the controversial Gillett in exchange for making PURA a quasi-public agency and putting Fonfara into one of its anticipated five (5) member board. Some legislators have become increasingly uncomfortable with the blatant political horse trading for generously compensated jobs on at an agency that ha generated only dismay with its inability to address electricity rates that are among the highest in the nation.

The legislation creating the new agency has yet to be revealed to the public.

Published March 3, 2025.

State Representative Aundre Bumgardner was arrested early Sunday morning for driving under the influence of alcohol and reckless driving. The Groton Democrat was driving home at approximately 2 a.m. when he hit a pothole, causing a flat tire. Bumgardner continued to drive and was observed and stopped by police.

The third term legislator failed a field sobriety test and was taken to Groton town police station. He agreed to a breathalyzer test and was found to have a blood alcohol level of .17, more than twice the .08 legal limit.

Bumgardner, 30, is serving his third term in the House. He was elected as a 20 year old Republican in 2014. He returned to the House in 2022 as a Democrat. He represents the 41st House District, which is comprised of parts of both Groton and Stonington.

Bumgardner expressed is regret in a statement Sunday afternoon:

Last night, I was cited for operating a motor vehicle while under the influence. I take full responsibility for my actions and deeply regret this mistake. I am grateful that no one was harmed and that no accident occurred. I recognize the seriousness of this situation and am committed to taking the necessary steps to ensure it never happens again. To my family, friends, colleagues, and the residents of the 41st District, whom I am honored to serve, I sincerely apologize for my actions and the disappointment I have caused.

Legislators who have been arrested are traditionally suspended from committee assignments. Bumgardner, considered a diligent member of the House, serves on the energy, environment, finance, and transportation committees.

He is scheduled to appear in Superior Court in New London on March 14th.

Published March 2, 2025.

Canada will pay zero tariffs on the electricity New England imports from our northern neighbor. President Donald Trump has often professed his love for tariffs and always denies Americans will pay them. New England consumers of electricity will learn what we have always known: we pay the tariffs.

Electricity does not arrive at a port or stop at a border crossing. The tens of millions of dollars that the Trump tariffs impose on New England ratepayers will have to be collected by an entity. In the long run, a different collection system may be required to perform the task, but at the start ISO-New England, a non-profit organization, believes it may be tagged with the expensive task. It is required to prepare for the tariffs that are scheduled to begin next week.

Here is the ISO-New England statement:

ISO New England intends to file this week with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) a proposed mechanism by which the ISO can, if directed by the federal government, collect customs duties related to electricity imported from Canada and sold into ISO-administered markets. 

We believe this filing is prudent in light of President Donald J. Trump’s executive orders and recent statements. 

ISO New England also believes that the custom duties described by the Trump Administration do not appear to apply to electricity and that, even if they do, ISO New England would not be responsible implementing them. 

However, given the uncertainty surrounding these issues, the ISO deemed it necessary to make this filing to ensure a process is in place in the event the federal government determines the duties apply to electricity and that ISO New England is responsible for playing a role in their collection. 

Failure to have a procedure in place could result in potentially serious adverse consequences for the region’s wholesale markets. 

The ISO’s proposal 

The ISO’s proposal would set up a process by which, in the event any future duty is applied to imported Canadian electricity, importers of that electricity for sale into New England’s energy markets are assessed the cost of such duties. The process would only kick in if a federal agency required ISO New England, via invoice, to pay the duty, and is intended to be temporary, allowing 120 days for the ISO and stakeholders to file a replacement process that is specific to terms and conditions of the imposed import tariff.  

Published February 28, 2025.

Governor Ned Lamont’s nomination of Diana Gomez for the Superior Court was expected to be withdrawn on Wednesday, two days after the public defender appeared before the Judiciary Committee for a confirmation hearing. Gomez was the subject of considerable and detailed criticism of her conduct by other public defenders. Gomez was not included in the roll call vote with the other 12 Superior Court nominees.

State Representative Craig Fishbein (R-Wallingford), the committee’s House ranking member, expressed his dismay at Monday’s hearing. Fishbein, Daily Ructions has learned, examined the transcript of Gomez’s testimony, compared it to the available record, and presented his findings to the committee’s co-chairs.

Members received a letter Tuesday from a public defender, Rosanna Capetta, who had worked with Gomez in Derby. The letter, attached below, shares alleged difficulties she endured working in the same office as Gomez that go beyond typical workplace differences. Capetta emphasized what she calls Gomez’s “vindictive nature,” accusing her of creating a “toxic work environment” that seems to have been known by others.

The Gomez controversy once more raises the issue of what due diligence the Judicial Selection Commission and the governor’s top aides perform before nominating lawyers to the bench, where each day they can irrevocably affect scores of lives.

Published February 26, 2025.