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Wolcott Democrat Jahana Hayes is in the field with a poll. The Fifth District Democrat is asking registered Democrats their view on her, opponent Mary Glassman, Ned Lamont, Joe Ganim, and Dan Malloy, Daily Ructions has learned. The survey, conducted by 20/20 Insight, also asks voters if they support ICE. Hayes also wants to know if voters support a Medicare buy-in option for healthcare. There are also mentions of Hayes’s stirring biography.

Hayes is also polling retiring U.S. Representative Elizabeth Esty’s favorables/unfavorable. Esty announced in spring she would not seek re-election to a fourth term after revelations she had ignored a violent sexual harassment and misconduct scandal in her office. She’s not made an endorsement in the race but her supporters remain miffed that Glassman began making calls about a run during the Esty crisis, before the reeling Democrat abandoned her doomed quest to cling to office.

Watch for Hayes to get a boost before the August 14th primary from A New Promise, an independent expenditure committee formed by affluent admirers.

Thaddeus Gray, the endorsed Republican for treasurer picks up an intriguing endorsement Tuesday morning. Former state Representative Michael Molgano, who represented Stamford in the House of Representatives from 2011 to 2015, has endorsed Gray.

Gray faces a challenge from state Senator Art Linares (R-Westbrook) in the August 14th primary. Linares is married to state Representative Caroline Simmons, a Democrat who defeated Molgano in 2014, not long after moving to Stamford.

In his endorsement, Molgano highlights Gray’s long experience in finance and suggests Republican primary voters not give the nomination as a reward for political service.

Republicans in Stamford cast more primary votes than almost any other of the state’s 169 towns. In 2014, it provided Heather Somers with a nearly 400 vote margin over her nearest competitor, by far Somers’ biggest local win outside of her hometown of Groton. She defeated her nearest competitor in the three-way race by 669 votes out of 78,000 in the low turnout primary.

The August 14th contest will be the fifth statewide Republican primary in the past 30 years.

Candidates often enjoy a boxing analogy. Those don’t look like they are Joe Ganim’s gloves. Nevertheless, there he is, getting ready to spar. Just like another elected official who scandal forced from office.

It could not have been Republican Steve Obsitnik’s goal, but he’s released a second ad that is worse than his terrible first one. It is hard to understand what has gone wrong with his promising campaign for governor.

This is a vivid argument for scrapping public financing of campaigns. No one who’d had to raise the money himself would have developed, recorded and released this ad.

They do like their tired horses. Democratic U.S. Representatives John Larson and Rosa DeLauro raised money for perennial candidate Mary Glassman’s 5th Congressional District campaign. U.S. Representative Joe Courtney and professor lobbyist Christopher Dodd (D-Roundstone) were also in attendance, Daily Ructions understands.

Glassman, who has run unsuccessfully for governor and lieutenant governor, faces dynamic Democrat and 2016 national teacher of the year Jahana Hayes in the August 14th primary.

Hayes is supported by U.S. Senator Christopher Murphy. The all-Democratic Connecticut congressional delegation is said to harbor some resentments against Murphy from his fast rise from House to Senate. Larson has been in the House since 1998, DeLauro since 1990. Both have endured many unhappy years in the minority.

Hayes, who grew up in a Waterbury housing project, would be the first black Democrat to serve in Congress from Connecticut. Republican Gary Franks was the first black elected to the House from the state. He served from 1991 to 1997. Glassman is white and from the tony Simsbury.

Hayes has faced and overcome obstacles a lot more formidable than the exclusive instincts of the DC branch of Connecticut’s Democratic insider’s club. Diversity is not its calling card.

U.S. Representative John Larson has endorsed veteran Democratic state Representative Tony Guerrera in the 9th SD August 14th primary. Guerrera, the party-endorsed candidate, faces challenger and House colleague Matthew Lesser, who also considered a bid for secretary of the state this year against incumbent Denise Merrill.

Guerrera, of Rocky Hill, has also received the joint endorsement of the last three Democrats to hold the five-town seat, Richard Balducci, Billy Ciotto and incumbent Paul Doyle. Doyle is not seeking re-election in order to run for attorney general. He’s also on the August 14th primary ballot.

Lesser, Daily Ructions understands, is looking for a big dog fish Democratic endorsement to counter Guerrera’s juggernaut of support from popular party figures. No volunteers so far.

Someone’s being invited inside the box. Some big gets for David Stemerman. Keep an eye on who attends. And it’s free–or at least there’s no charge to get in.

In a July 17th tweet, Democratic lieutenant governor hopeful Eva Bermudez Zimmerman claims she “was writing stimulus package legislation on Capital [sic] Hill” among her other achievements in politics. The $800 billion stimulus was passed in February 2009, not long after President Barack Obama took office. Zimmerman was an intern in then-U.S. Representative Charles Rangel’s office at the time.

In a profile in The Hill as part of its 2009 “50 Most Beautiful People,” Zimmerman’s duties in Rangel’s office were described more modestly. “Bermudez has hosted bilingual meetings, written briefs and memos in Spanish and spoken on air for Spanish news stations like Telemundo on behalf of the congressman. When asked about her experience as an intern on Capitol Hill, she said, ‘It’s amazing; it’s a very busy office.'”  No mention of writing stimulus legislation.

Zimmerman faces endorsed Democrat and Ned Lamont running mate Susan Bysiewicz in the August 14th primary. This is Zimmerman’s first bid for statewide office. It’s Bysiewicz’s ninth.

He couldn’t beat David Martin in a Democratic primary for mayor of Stamford, so William Tong’s claim he’ll beat Donald Trump is unlikely to convince anyone. Nevertheless, here’s the Democratic attorney general candidate’s first ad that you, taxpayer, are funding. It’s heavy on the hyperbole. Too bad Tong couldn’t rouse himself to this past spring for a judge being pummeled by a barrage of anti-Semiticism.

Doesn’t look like there are any shots at a courthouse in the ad. Tong must not have had a driver on the day the exterior shots were recorded.

Tong faces Paul Doyle and Christopher Mattei in the August 14th Democratic primary.

The Stemerman campaign provides this response to the Stefanowski reaction to today’s attack ad on the former payday lender executive. Are you following this? From Stemerman spokesman Albert Eisenberg:

“The contrast in this race could not be more clear – David has been a registered Republican for over 15 years and has donated tens of thousands of dollars to Republican candidates and conservative organizations over that same period of time.   Bob Stefanowski not only didn’t vote for over 15 years or support our last three Republican Presidential nominees, but he was a registered Democrat who donated to fellow Democrats right up until he decided to run for Governor last year.  That’s called being an opportunist, not a party loyalist.  The facts speak for themselves and Republicans in Connecticut deserve to know them.”  

Here’s a list of some of David Stemerman’s federal campaign contributions to Republicans.

• $15,000 to the Connecticut Republican Party (2014 & 2017)
• $100,000 to Top Republican Super PAC (American Crossroads in 2012)
• $30,000 to the Republican National Committee (2012)
• $10,000 to the National Republican Congressional Committee (2012)
• $5,000 to Mitt Romney (2012)
• $1,000 to John McCain (2008)
• $2,300 to Rudy Giuliani (2007)

Stemerman also contributed to Steve Obsitnik’s 2014 congressional campaign.

State Republicans have had considerable practice weighing a Republican candidate’s contributions to a Democrat. Connecticut Republican Linda McMahon, a prodigious self-funder in 2010 and 2012, was a generous financial supporter of Chicago Democrat Rahm Emanuel, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, and Virginia Democratic U.S. Senator Mark Warner.