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Five and a half million dollars is a lot of money for an eight acre parcel of vacant land that sold for $500,000 three years ago. Jon Lender has the story and there seems to be no convincing explanation for the price the State of Connecticut paid for the land in Orange–other than some hefty political donations to state Democrats.

All she had to do was unsubscribe. Instead, UConn instructional designer Betsy Guala responded to a routine campaign email from state Representative Melissa Ziobron–who is seeking a promotion to the state Senate–with a vulgar message featuring the ugliest profanity. The September 12th message is posted above.

Guala is “an Instructional Designer/eLearning Developer at the University of Connecticut, in The Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL),” according to her online profile. She was paid $64,128.13 in FY 2017 and received an additional $32,423.33 in benefits. She appears not to be tolerant of divergent points of view in her quest for excellence. Basic civility must be covered in some other branch of the state’s premier public university. Guala claims on her resume to possess “excellent communication skills and experience working within a global community.” The Portland Democrat may be overstating her communications skills.

Ziobron has served three terms in the House and is the Republican nominee in the 33rd Senate District, the seat currently held by Republican Art Linares, who did not seek re-election.

Self-funding Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob Stefanowski is running low on dough. His campaign reports that on August 31st, two weeks after his primary win in a field of five candidates, the payday loan and pawn shop executive had $153,000 on hand with $39,000 in unpaid bills.

Stefanowski has been busy working the phones for contributions and fundraising event sponsors. Follow-up has been a challenge for the lightly staffed campaign. Stefanowski ran his primary race as an outsider dismissive of the party organization. Some of those sentiments may be causing reliable Republican givers to concentrate their efforts on winning the legislature.

The campaign continues to carry a $2,250,000 loan to the candidate.

The Stefanowski campaign appears to understand the damage the finance report may do. It was filed at 11:58 p.m. Thursday, two hours before the deadline to submit it.

Democrat Ned Lamont, who has spent tens of millions of his fortunes on two previous campaigns, had $396,000 in the bank. The Greenwich millionaire is expected to continue fueling his campaign for governor.

Petitioning gubernatorial candidate Oz Griebel has lost his campaign manger to a larceny in the first degree charge. Kyle Lyddy, who was defeated in 2016 by Eva Bermudez Zimmerman for the 2016 Democratic nomination for state representative from the 106th district, was arrested Monday for allegedly taking $500,000 from his Norwalk employer. The complaint was made to Norwalk police on August 1st and claimed Lyddy had misappropriated funds for two years.

Of Griebel’s campaign, Lyddy told the Washington Post in an article dated August 31st, “If there’s a time to do this, this is the time in Connecticut to make this happen.” That task will now fall to Chris Cooper, who will serve temporarily as campaign manager. He’l be assisted by Chris DuPont, who recently worked on his father’s unsuccessful campaign for Congress as a Republican in the 5th CD. Cooper and DuPont are veterans of various Mark Greenberg campaigns.

Griebel has been polling in low single digits. Fundraising has not been robust.

The Connecticut Citizens Defense League (CCDL) no longer rates Bob Stefanowski “shady, amateur or both.” That was last month in the the run-up to the Republican primary for governor when CCDL endorsed fourth place finisher Tim Herbst. The gun rights organization has endorsed the blank slate that is Stefanowski, a Democrat as recently as 2017, for the fall contest.

During the summer campaign, CCDL’s leader claimed Stefanowski used deceptive tactics to persuade gun rights supporters that he was the right choice in the crowded August 14th primary competition. Who would think a pawn shop executive and payday lender would do such a thing? All is forgiven but likely not forgotten.

Cranky fourth-place primary finisher Tim Herbst will essay the role of Ned Lamont in gubernatorial debate rehearsals with Republican Bob Stefanowski. Herbst has been eager for the world to know he’s been cast as Lamont.  The volatile Herbst is an odd choice to play Lamont, whose public demeanor is notably calmer than the litigious Herbst.

Herbst may be in a unique position to offer some insights into Lamont’s debating style. The former Trumbull first selectman enjoys a friendship with Bridgeport’s Joe Ganim, who spent months on the campaign trail appearing with Lamont in their lopsided contest for the Democratic nomination for governor. How to score some attention in the rehearsal room? Practice this, “Hey Bob, what’s DMHAS?”

Who has been cast to play Stefanowski in a Lamont rehearsal. Wags, the late Ted Cassidy is not available.

Republican gubernatorial nominee Bob Stefanowski has spent the week blundering into two serious own-goals. He announced he does not support the minimum wage at all. The bidding war on raising the minimum wage has long been a minefield for Republicans. Stefanowski threw himself onto it and left himself no way out by declaring he’s against any minimum wage at all. Let the market decide. This has not been a popular stand in Connecticut at least 80 years. It’s unlikely to change now at the urging of a pawn shop operator and payday loan executive.

Worse, Stefanowski gave the back of his hand to tens of thousands of Connecticut homeowners when he said he does not think the state has a role to play in addressing the natural catastrophe of crumbling foundations. Stefanowski is going to have a tough time defending this. The wealthy Madison Republican enjoys touting his experience as an executive with GE in the first decade of the 21st century. GE, you may recall, wedged itself into $139 billion in government assistance during the financial crisis that peaked in 2008. Stefanowski appears to have no qualms about that government largesse to financial titans who created the mess that would have destroyed them without huge infusions from the public purse. Middle class homeowners with cracked and crumbling foundations? Let them eat cake–but let them pay for it themselves.

It was an an executive with GE that Stefanowski made a generous contribution to Democratic former U.S. Senator Christopher J. Dodd’s presidential candidate. Dodd was the head of the Senate Banking Committee at the time Pay-for-Play Bob gave his support to the left-wing veteran Connecticut Democrat.

One wonders if Stefanowski would feel the same about government’s role in a disaster if a hurricane brought devastation to tony Madison and its neighboring towns.

Ned Lamont gathered Democratic victors and vanquished a few days after the wealthy retired businessman won his party’s nomination for governor in a thumping victory. The event signaled Democrats that leaders from all strains of the party are united behind the ticket primary voters chose on August 14th. There’s nothing unusual about a post-primary unity event. What’s odd is that the Republicans have yet to hold one in the aftermath of Bob Stefanowski’s win in a crowded field of five rivals. The Madison Republican and Chris Dodd supporter won 30% of the vote. He needs the losing candidates to engage in a robust demonstration of support. It’s yet to happen.

Stefanowski, who has a pronounced preference for dialing for advice, has been busy on the phone with all sorts of people.  There’s been no congenial event of the faithful who supported other candidates in the contest for governor. Town committee chairs leaders are having the devil’s own time getting the campaign’s attention. Those that do reach Stefanowski campaign aides have noticed a distinct tone of dismissive triumphalism in their conversations. The sort of treatment a troubled customer might get in a pawn shop or payday lender. Some activists are beginning to conclude that their time will be better spent assisting legislative candidate, where the best chance of meaningful victories reside.