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Shannon Kula submitted 4,700 petition signatures to local election officials in her bid to claim a spot in the 5th CD Democratic primary. That gives the Farmington Democrat and former DC staffer 2,000 signatures to spare in the harsh review that has been obliterating petition signatures around the state.

If Kula meets the threshold, she’ll join Mary Glassman (soon to be Mary Messina Glassman once more) and dynamic Waterbury teacher Jahana Hayes on the August 14th ballot. The seat became vacant when beleaguered incumbent Elizabeth Esty announced in April she would not seek a fourth term after she was hobbled by revelations of violent and persistent harassment in her Washington office.

Bridgeport Mayor Joseph Ganim is celebrating collecting more than 30,000 signatures on primary petitions. That gives Ganim a 50% fail rate cushion, which should be enough to claim a spot on the August 14th Democratic primary ballot against party endorsed candidate Ned Lamont.

While collecting signatures, the Ganim campaign also registered thousands of new Democrats.

Shelton Mayor Mark Lauretti has not collected the 9,000 signatures required to snag a spot on the August 14th Republican primary for governor. Lauretti competed at the May 12th party convention but did not win 15% of delegate votes on any ballot. He needed 2% of the state’s registered Republicans to sign his petitions.

Rather than burden local registrars, Lauretti will not be submitting the thousands of signatures he has collected.

Lauretti sought the 2014 Republican nomination for governor and also the nomination for lieutenant governor the same year as Mark Boughton’s running mate.

Here’s Lauretti’s statement:

“After a lengthy review of nearly all of the collected petition signatures, the Lauretti campaign has come to the conclusion that it will fall short of the 9,081 valid signatures needed to be included on the August primary ballot.  With more than 80,000 signatures expected to be submitted for verification by other candidates, the Lauretti campaign has decided it is best to not burden locals Registrars and the Secretary of the State with additional work that will not result in Mayor Lauretti getting on the August ballot.  Mayor Lauretti would like to thank all of the people across the state who worked tirelessly over the past few weeks to get him on the ballot, as well as the thousands of people who signed his petitions and believed that he could transform the state of Connecticut as he has the city of Shelton.”

Registrar’s have until June 19th to send results of their petition review to the secretary of the state, who will total them and certify who makes the primary ballot.

Attorney General George Jepsen struck a blow for decency today. The state’s Auditors of Public Accounts asked Jepsen for an opinion on whether they could review a consultants’ report on inmate healthcare in Department of Corrections facilities and at the University of Connecticut hospital.  DOC has refused to let the auditors see the report–likely to be embarrassing to the department. Jepsen issued an opinion Tuesday that the auditors may see the report but its contents remained privileged.

Inmate healthcare at UConn Heath has been inadequate.

Here’s the Jepsen opinion.

What a mess. Former state Representative Vickie Nardello will go to court to secure a spot on the 16th State Senate District Democratic primary ballot against endorsed candidate Dagmara Scalise. Nardello secured enough votes at the party nominating convention to force a primary but submitted incomplete crucial post-convention forms to the secretary of the state’s office. The form forcing a primary did not include the district number. When notified of the omission, a campaign official intent on fixing the error put in the wrong district number–15. Elections officials have treated the errors as fatal to Nardello’s bid to force a primary.

The errors, as readers will not be surprised to learn, caused considerable to-ing and fro-ing between the campaign and election officials. Expect some texts to be submitted as evidence in Nardello’s mandamus action.

Nardello lost her 2012 bid for a 10th term the House and a 2014 comeback attempt, both to popular Prospect Republican Lezlye Zupkus.

Incumbent state Senator Joseph Markley (R-Southington) is the party-endorsed candidate for lieutenant governor. He faces a primary against Erin Stewart and Jayme Stevenson.

Democrat Shannon Kula, recently of Farmington, has collected enough signatures to make the ballot in the August 14th primary for the 5th Congressional District, Daily Ructions has learned. Kula will join Mary Glassman and National Teacher of the Year Jahana Hayes in the competition for the rare Connecticut open seat.

Glassman won the party endorsement at a May convention that continues to be the subject of a party dispute over the unusual switching procedure at the end of the second ballot.

Kula was briefly associated with the University of St. Joseph in West Hartford earlier this year and tested her appeal against popular incumbent 1st CD Democrat John Larson.

Completed petition forms must be submitted to local registrars of voters by the end of the business day Tuesday, June 12th.

Republicans will also have a 5th CD primary between three candidates, Manny Santos, Ruby O’Neill and Rich DuPont. Santos, the former mayor of Meriden, won the party endorsement at its convention last month.

The Courant’s Daniela Altimari has what should be the final chapter of the curious odyssey of Democratic lieutenant governor hopeful Eva Bermudez Zimmerman’s delinquent car tax bill. A call to her campaign on Tuesday and the blogpost below that followed prompted Zimmerman to pay the bill. You’re welcome, Newtown.

Hand Eva Bermudez Zimmerman the Christopher Murphy award for ignoring local car taxes. Like Murphy when he served in the legislature, Zimmerman has let her car tax payment slip.

Zimmerman enjoyed a strong showing at last month’s Democratic state convention, snagging 40% of delegate votes against party warhorse Susan Bysiewicz. The two face off in an August 14th primary.

The Newtown Democrat and union organizer is portraying herself as a 21st century progressive. That’s code for boosting government spending and making people pay more of their fair share. Zimmerman’s fair share in Newtown for her maroon Ford C-max is $450.24–due in January. Failure to pay has allowed the local tax collector to add $40.52 to the tariff.

Zimmerman has not responded to a request for comment made earlier today.

Newtown Democrat Eva Bermudez Zimmerman is busy raising money to qualify for public financing in her nomination contest with endorsed candidate Susan Bysiewicz. Zimmerman has events next week in New Britain and West Hartford. This week, she enjoyed a well-attended and, Daily Ructions understands, enthusiastic reception in Middletown, home to Bysiewicz. That event found the town’s Democratic mayor, Dan Drew, in attendance, as well as many local party activists. The Middletown party committee has seen some ructions of its own this year, but many members seem united in their support for Zimmerman.

The race between Bysiewicz and Zimmerman is becoming the most-watched competition for an under-ticket ballot spot in either party’s August 14th matchups. It may also be the one with the best chance for a rare endorsed candidate upset in a statewide Connecticut primary.

Dame Edna with her Picasso portrait from the Cote d’Azur

Don’t miss a remarkable letter to the editor in The Courant. It’s a haughty response to Jon Lender’s column on UConn’s expenditure of $480,000 on a curious piece of art. The letter from a Mr. Richard Feder of Fort Lee, New Jersey, writes “Dear Rosanne Roseannadanna Carlos Hernandez Chavez lets my award-winning colleague know he’s as ignorant as the rest of us when it comes to Connecticut’s dire finances and the state’s commitment to spending large sums of money on blocks of acrylic to enrich the minds of students.

According to Mr. Chavez, “For starters, art is solely the reason for the chronicling of human history since its inception.” Memo to Herodotus: You really should have been painting pictures instead of writing one of the great works of history.

It just goes to show you, if it’s not one thing it’s another.