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Dannel P. Malloy and a National Day of Empathy are not two nouns any observant person would connect. Nevertheless, the surly governor’s office is noting that this National Day of Empathy is the time to provide dignity to female inmates incarcerated in Connecticut. Malloy says he wants “fair treatment for incarcerated women.” Here’s an idea. Provide inmates–female and male–with appropriate healthcare.

Malloy makes his announcement three weeks after a female inmate gave birth to her baby in a prison cell. Tell us where the dignity is in that. Read more about that troubling incident and the low level of care provided inmates in this Courant article by Christine Dempsey.

Labor is making its move in the Democratic contest for attorney general. The public employee-dominated movement is promoting Michael “Six Series” D’Agostino in the crowded race. The fast-driving German luxury ragtop driver as champion of working men and women features some challenging optics. The state representative can be seen speeding between home in Hamden, his Hartford law office and the State Capitol in the expensive BMW convertible (starting price: $86,700) with the legislative license plate. Man in a hurry, indeed.

Labor is cool on Stamford legislator William Tong and will not forget former prosecutor Christopher Mattei for dismantling former Speaker the House Christopher Donovan’s 2012 congressional campaign. That investigation nabbed some Donovan staffers and straw donors but failed to indict Donovan. The labor favorite’s campaign never recovered.

Corporate lawyer D’Agostino was a noisy champion of the ruinous deal worked out between Governor Dannel P. Malloy and state labor unions last year. The extension of benefits runs to 2027 and will prove a high hurdle to the next governor’s ability to restore the conditions that begin to allow the state’s economy to flourish.

Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Joe Ganim is citing a Max Reiss February 28th appearance on WNPR’s Wheelhouse in a fundraising appeal. It was a convivial Wednesday morning on Asylum Avenue talking about politics after the WVIT political reporter had finished giving an update on the state of his twins, as I recall.

Max had news of a campaign poll that put Ganim first. Ganim touts it as “very good news.” Your Daily Ructions reporter, also a guest, shared information about a different poll that found Ganim third–running ahead of Greenwich scion and Hartford Democrat Luke Bronin, who is hindered by his emphatic 2015 promise to serve a full term as mayor. Bronin is still exploring a run for governor and is not making friends with meetings with ambitious Democrats that put his elephantine sense of entitlement on display. Descriptions of some of the meetings confirm what Hartford city hall insiders say. Bronin is a bit of a screamer. Where could the former Malloy legal counsel have acquired that habit?

Two weeks after decrying politics in judicial nominations, allies of Chief Justice nominee Andrew McDonald are deploying political campaign tactics to heave the beleaguered nominee across the finish line. Republican senators were the target of automated phone calls alleging a “far-right conservative conspiracy” to derail the nomination of the associate justice and Governor Dannel P. Malloy ally to the court system’s top spot.

Recipients can have the call forwarded to their state senator to express support for McDonald—or in some cases their opposition to his nomination. No mention is made of overwhelming Republican support of McDonald’s nomination to the court in 2013 or the decisions that have eroded his support in the ensuing five years. Republican senators are providing that information.

The calls are funded by True Justice LLC, a lobbying effort organized by Democrat operative John Stafstrom, according to public records. Stafstrom is a McDonald friend and a partner at Pullman & Comley, where McDonald was a partner before becoming Malloy’s legal counsel in 2011. Stamford lawyer Ernest Teitell is also listed as a True Justice contributor. Pullman & Comley has enjoyed a lucrative relationship with state government during the seven years of the Malloy administration. Teitell’s law partner, David Golub, represented state Democrats in their successful attempt to keep secret emails and other documents from Malloy’s 2014 re-election campaign and the murky financial arrangements that assisted it.

The Belnap Street project to champion the McDonald nomination is expected to intensify until the Senate votes later this month. Feminism may continue to take a sabbatical unless victims of McDonald’s bullying while in the legislature and and then the Malloy administration tell their stories.

There is a risk in delaying the McDonald vote. Should one chamber of the legislature reject McDonald’s nomination there may be insufficient time left in this short regular session of the legislature to consider another Malloy nominee. That would leave the position open for the next governor, who could be a Republican, to fill the job.

Arce and the Bronins in happier times.

Arunan Arulampalam will make his 2018 ballot next to slate mate Angel Arce in Tuesday’s Hartford Democratic town committee primary. Town chairman Mark DiBella is also on the slate. Nice company you keep, fellas.

Jenna Carlesso has an update on the curious reluctance of the Arulampalam/Arce/DiBella endorsed slate to distance themselves from the disgraced legislator.

The Courant’s Jon Lender revealed a series of creepy Facebook Messenger texts that the three-term state representative sent to a 16 year old New Britain girl.

Arce was an early and enthusiastic supporter of Luke Bronin’s successful 2015 campaign for mayor.

UPDATE: In an email to Daily Ructions, Arunan Arupalam urges Arce to withdraw.

It’s endorsement season. The herd of candidates seeking high office is large and busy. Each aspirant is eager–sometimes proud, too–to share the unveiling of supporters. Jonathan Harris this week released a list of 59 supporters of his long-shot bid for governor. Here is a link to his news site.  Candidates and campaign staffers, this is how it’s done. It’s organized and logical. It is not burdened with a sea of repetitious quotes in an island of information. It is in your interest to follow this model.

State Senator Ted Kennedy, Jr. (D-Branford) will announce Thursday that he will not seek a third term, Daily Ructions can reveal. Kennedy, who disappointed many Democrats when he declined last year to run for governor, never seemed to enjoy the small stage of the Connecticut legislature. He is expected to continue his good works on behalf of the disabled, a family tradition.

Kennedy’s shoreline district has been held by Democrats since Republican seven-term incumbent and John Rowland ally William Aniskovich was defeated in a 2004 upset by Ed Meyer.

Republicans believe they have a formidable potential candidate in the race for the about-to-be open seat in Madison business woman Marietta Lee.

The fiscal stability commission is expected to vote Thursday on recommendations for the legislature to consider. House and Senate members may regret creating the unusual 15-member body. It’s recommendations, Daily Ructions can reveal, are likely to include expanding and increasing the sale tax, reducing the income tax, repealing the estate tax, increasing the cost of driving with tolls and a higher gas tax.

Expect the commission to avoid taking a serious run at the unfunded liabilities that are squeezing state spending and taxing policies. While there is still time for changes, don’t expect the commission to confront the state’s spending crisis in a meaningful way.

Much of the commission’s time appears to have been spent on averting the simple requirements of the Freedom of Information Act.

James Tracey, a fixture of more than 30 years at the legislature, will be leaving his post as head of the Office of Legislative Management later this year, Daily Ructions can confirm. The executive director has been a guardian of the legislature’s secrets and no friend of the Freedom of Information Act.

His departure this year provides Democrats to select a new executive director before a possible change in partisan control of the legislature next January.

If it was your good fortune to know Dan Caruso, then you knew tireless kindness.