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A week before Connecticut voters head to the polls, a Quinnipiac University survey finds Democrat Ned Lamont with a narrow lead over Republican Bob Stefanowski. The poll of likely voters has Lamont at 47%, Stefanowski with 43%, and petitioning candidate Oz Griebel with 7%.

U.S. Representative Elizabeth Esty makes a stop in leafy Harwinton on her long farewell tour. The disgraced 5th District Democrat will be the guest of honor at a November 17th reception featuring a clutch of area Democratic leaders.

Esty was forced to drop her bid for a fourth term in the spring when the Hearst papers and the Washington Post dropped a Maundy Thursday bombshell that the wealthy Cheshire Democrat kept abusive chief of staff Tony Baker employed in her Washington office when despite knowing of his appalling treatment of a staff member.

Esty later arranged a soft landing for Baker, helping him obtain a job in the Ohio office of anti-violence group Sandy Hook promise. Baker also received a severance payment from taxpayers without objection from the complicit Esty. What did he have on her?

No word on when 5th District Democrats will honor brave former staffer Anna Kain, the victim. They prefer to toast the enabler As she continues her unsavory quest for self-preservation.

File this under better late than never. Dora Schriro, commissioner of the Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection, will leave her position before the end of the Malloy administration in January. Schriro was a second term appointment by Malloy. Her inclusion in the Democrat’s administration in light of her appalling record overseeing New York’s Rikers Island belied Malloy’s claim to want to reform criminal justice. Schriro was and remains an embarrassment to Connecticut.

The elusive Bob Stefanowski strikes again. The former pawn shop operator has cancelled an appearance on Thursday morning’s Where We Live on Connecticut Public Radio. The program made the announcement on Twitter Wednesday morning.

In its statement, Stefanowski appeared to blame Democratic opponent Ned Lamont for the decision. Lamont was born with money and this seems to irritate the loan shark executive who financed his primary campaign but does cannot match Lamont’s resources in the general election. For someone who offers effusive praise to Donald Trump, this is an odd excuse. But any conjuring will do when a candidate does not want to risk a long form interview with the probing questions that may feature.

Republican Susan Hatfield and Democrat Willam Tong created a debate from another planet Wednesday on WFSB. Host Dennis House and panelist Tim Fisher deserve recognition for not laughing aloud at some of the non sequiturs the candidates produced in response to serious questions. Neither candidate showed a basic grasp of the essentials of the job. The office’s first duty is to represent the State of Connecticut and its many legal affairs.

You can watch it here. It’s 28 minutes, but it does not take that long to get a sense of the encounter.

They probably will not ask about Saudi Arabia. Connecticut and Rhode Island Republicans will gather at the White House Thursday. They’ll hear from Trump administration officials, including Connecticut Republicans Linda McMahon and Justin Clark. McMahon was the 2010 and 2012 Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate. She was also a generous contributor to the 2016 Trump catastrophe for the nation as well as a contributor to the controversial Trump Foundation.

Clark works in the Trump White House. He managed Tom Foley’s 2010 and 2014 races for governor against remarkably unpopular Democratic Governor Dannel P. Malloy. Clark was a member of the team that assisted professional Republican and Clinton Conspiracy theorist Brett Kavanaugh in his nomination to the Supreme Court. Imagine the war stories that come out of that tale. Literary agents can look forward to several more busy years.

Another unsettling moment from Republican gubernatorial nominee Bob Stefanowski. On Sunday’s Face the State, host Dennis House asked Stefanowski during a segment that appeared aimed at eliciting some specifics from Stefanowski on his budget plans what he would do with DCF. That’s the Department of Children and Families. House mentions that it deals with the state’s most vulnerable residents. Stefanowski goes into the story–which he has done before–of what it cost his father to provide care for his mother when she suffered from dementia. It is a  compelling circumstance that has been visited upon far too many. It has nothing to do with DCF and its mission to address the abuse and neglect of children. It appears Stefanowski either has no idea what DCF is or has given no thought to that agency in crisis. In either event, it is disturbing to think he’s made it this far in the long race without forming any thoughts on leading a department that has featured decades of troubles.

You can see the exchange about a minute and a half into this  eight minute clip.

Scandal kept U.S. Representative Elizabeth Esty off the November ballot. She will leave office in January after three terms. Nevertheless, the Cheshire Democrat is holding on to a hefty campaign exchequer—and spending some of it. Campaign finance laws are curious creations. Esty, whose personal fortune helped propel her into office in 2012, gets to keep spending funds donated for her re-election even if there is no re-election campaign.

Esty abandoned her 2018 campaign when Holy Week exposes revealed she had condoned violence in her congressional office. She failed to fire chief of staff Tony Baker for weeks after learning  he had terrorized another staff member, courageous Anna Kain. Esty eventually arranged a soft landing for Baker with severance and a recommendation for Baker to join the Ohio branch of Sandy Hook Promise, an anti-violence group born of the 2012 Newtown school killings. What Baker had on Esty that allowed him to negotiate the deal remains a mystery.

Esty hopes you have forgotten the details of the scandal that brought her down. If not, she’s using campaign funds to whitewash her remarkable abandonment of normal human instincts. Esty’s campaign is spending donor funds on online ads associating her with the fight against gun violence. It looks like a cynical ploy by the haughty Democrat as the sun sets on a career in office that benefited more from happenstance than substance. The ad, posted above, is notable most for a photo of Esty dominating the purchased space. While Esty fades, watch to see if the usual campaign finance reformers raise objections on Esty’s cynical use of donations.

Wednesday began with the Quinnipiac University Poll reporting petitioning candidate Nelson “Oz” Griebel enjoying a surge to 11% in his long shot bid for governor. Later in the day, Griebel reported only $38,959.33 in cash on hand September 30th. Griebel has raised just under $400,000–much of that cash infusions from the candidate.

A poll surprise can be a powerful spur to fundraising–but only if a campaign can contact likely donors, which is hard to do outside the confines of the two parties. Griebel is familiar to many influential members of Connecticut’s business community. The next week will reveal if they decide to fund his campaign in any meaningful way.

Vanishing Bob Stefanowski remains a mystery to many Connecticut leaders. The Republican nominee for governor missed forums on healthcare, non-profits, and children this week. These are groups that have been ill-treated for eight years by Democratic and Working Families Party incumbent Dannel P. Malloy. Declining to meet with them–especially after one group rescheduled to accommodate Stefanowski–is no way to make friends.

The Madison Republican better not blowoff this weekend’s meeting with African-American faith leaders.

Albertus Magnus search committee, you could saved Connecticut a lot of trouble if you’d just hired when he applied for that big job.