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A federal grand jury is hearing testimony on absentee ballot fraud in Hartford, Daily Ructions can report. The investigation has included teams of federal agents recently hitting the streets of the state’s capital city to interview local Democrats.

The investigation arises out of events alleged to have occurred in elections that took place before this month’s gubernatorial contest and may involve a course of conduct during more than one campaign. Absentee ballot fraud almost never involves one person acting alone. According to a lawyer, working as a defense attorney, it is a crime that lends itself to conspiracies, giving investigators a host of players to interview and squeeze.

The role of veteran state Representative Minnie Gonzalez (D-Hartford) in gathering absentee ballots has been included in investigators’ questions. Gonzalez, whose online official biography notes that she has endured many adversities, faced a primary challenge this past summer for the Democratic nomination for a 12th term in the House. She defeated newcomer Gannon Long 1118-487. Gonzalez won the absentee ballots 271-34, according to a Courant report. Gonzalez was fined by the State Elections Enforcement Commission for violations of absentee ballot laws in a 2006 incident.

Gonzalez was an important ally to her colleague Attorney General-elect William Tong in his fight for the Democratic nomination this year at both the state party convention and in the August primary.

Those who fall under the gaze of investigators will want to be mindful that it is a crime to give false statement to an FBI agent.

State Senator George Logan has prevailed in the recount for the 17th State Senate District. The Naugatuck Valley Republican has won a second term by an unofficial 85 votes. Logan has defeated Democrat Jorge Cabrera.

Attorney General-elect William Tong may want to take a look at the state’s statutes before authorizing his transition team to send an ominous memo to AG lawyers. Tong and his transition team told lawyers that they will entertain candidates for, among other positions, department heads. Those positions, however, are in the classified service. Employees may only be removed by layoffs for lack of work– not likely, mate, when you are looking for replacements–or for cause. It would be unsettling if Tong is conniving to use cause before he’s taken office.

Tong and his team may want to look at Connecticut General Statutes Section 5-240. The smartest man in any room’s initial foray into labor law has left nerves jangling in the AG’s office.

Memo to Tong: Connecticut General Statutes are the codified laws of our sovereign state. No one is above them.

UPDATE: Wednesday was a busy day for lawyers at the attorney general’s office. Attorney General-elect William Tong’s menacing transition memo prompted lawyers in the office to have a look at Bysiewicz v. DiNardo. Others searched online court records to see how busy a litigator Tong has been. Unanimous conclusion: Not very. Wags did note that one of Tong’s few appearances was to quash a subpoena directed at another lawyer in his firm–who now heads the transition team.

Tong appears to struggle to understand the essentials of labor relations law other than as campaign rhetoric. Threatening the jobs of members while they are in an arbitration could be seen as an unfair labor practice. One suspects the mayor of Gotham did not trouble himself with such things at Phillips Academy Andover, Brown and the University of Chicago.

NancyonNorwalk.com is a jewel among local news sites. Nancy Chapman is tireless in reporting news in Norwalk. Because the Senate Majority Leader, Bob Duff, is a Norwalk Democrat, news from those precincts can be of interest to a wide audience.

Take NancyonNorwalk’s October 11th post on Duff’s eyebrow-raising campaign spending. His re-election campaign paid SoNo Group to manage his campaign. SoNo Group is run by Nancy Pugh. She lives at Duff’s home and appears to be his tenant. It is the sort of arrangement that makes people skeptical about the motives of our political leaders. It’s not as direct as using a political committee to pay rent to yourself, as state Representative Minnie Gonzalez used to do, but it does prompt concerns of manipulating Connecticut’s generous public campaign financing system to reap a personal benefit beyond having the taxpayers bear the burden of a political campaign.

Well that was unusual. Daily Ructions called the phone number listed on 17th State Senate District Democrat Jorge Cabrera’s website–(203) 525-0487–and left a message. A campaign person returned the call, handed the phone over to someone with the campaign. The question was simple: Was Jorge Cabrera also known as George Cabrera of Fairhaven, Massachusetts? George Cabrera lived in Fairhaven at the turn of the 21st century, That George Cabrera was fined $750 in one of the many absentee ballot fraud scandals that has plagued Bridgeport, according to a 2011 CT Post story.

The Democratic candidate locked in a seesawing contest with incumbent Republican George Logan is originally from Bridgeport.

The campaign declined to provide any information and hung up on Daily Ructions. Others may wish to inquire.

I’ll be with Dennis House, Denise D’Ascenzo, Joe Ganim, Jodi Latina, Tanya Meck, David Stemerman and more stars than in the heavens tonight on WFSB. Join us on the air and streaming for the latest news on who Connecticut voters elected today.

You cannot trust Bob Stefanowski. The Republican nominee for governor on Monday abandoned the tax cut pledge that has fueled his improbable race for governor since 2017. Today, Stefanowski announced that there will be no tax cuts in the first two years of his administration if he wins Tuesday. The concession to reality is a stunning retreat from the recent Democrat. Since revealing a tax plan Stefanowski paid economist Arthur Laffer to write and explain last year, Stefanowski has offered no caveats that cuts should be delayed. The plan that was unveiled on December 4th refers to immediate tax cuts and a phase out of the income tax over 8 years. Stefanowski’s startling announcement as voters prepare to go to the polls Tuesday will add to the public’s disenchantment with candidates who do not tell the truth.

As Joette Katz comes to the end of eight years of failure leading the Department of Children and Families (DCF), she began the week by offering some thoughts on white privilege to all DCF employees. Katz has presided over the injury and death of minority children since leaving the Supreme Court for DCF in 2011. In such cases, the injured or their family members can contact personal injury experienced attorneys for hire and get the compensation for the injury or loss. With the help of lawyers for car accidents, her time might be better spent, for example, investigating the death of an infant in New Britain earlier this year. If not you, who indeed, Commissioner?

Here are her thoughts on other topics:

State Trooper Larry Morello made the ugly stop of Republican state representative candidate Ernestine Holloway’s volunteers in Middlefield last week. The Meriden Record-Journal first reported the story Wednesday but did not include the identity of the politically active trooper. The Courant also has more.

Morello, the resident state trooper in nearby Durham, has been a busy volunteer for Susan Bysiewicz, a Middletown resident making her ninth bid for statewide office as the Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor. Morello, Daily Ructions can report, has not been discreet about his connection to Bysiewicz.

A van of nine Holloway volunteers was canvassing a Middlefield neighborhood when they were stopped by Morello. He asked them to summon Holloway, who was campaigning in the same neighborhood, to the scene, according to the Record-Journal. A witness has told others that it was a traumatic encounter with the physically imposing Morello.

Bysiewicz in a statement to Daily Ructions wrote through her spokesman, “The reports on this incident are deeply disturbing to me. As the former Secretary of the State, I believe in fair and open elections, and I have zero tolerance for any group or person who would hinder our democratic process. The officer involved in this situation was an occasional volunteer driver for me. As soon as the details were shared with me, we severed ties.”

Taxpayer financed campaigns are helping to finance state Senator Mae Flexer’s job as executive director of Emerge Connecticut, the organization that prepares Democratic women for political activism. Democratic campaigns have paid thousands to Emerge Connecticut for training. This raises the unsettling prospect of candidates who become legislators having underwritten another public official’s private compensation. It has the appearance–and perhaps the reality–of compromising Flexer’s independence. This reminiscent of the unsettling situation that arose when Manchester Democrat Geoff Luxenberg was a member of the General Assembly and an aggressive campaign consultant to many Democratic candidates. It made sensible people uncomfortable.

Flexer did not respond to requests for comment.