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A coup of the most unexpected sort. Veteran state labor negotiator Linda Yelmini will be putting decades of knowledge to work for the Senate Republicans during the crucial legislative session that begins on January 4th. Yelmini was shoved out of state service shortly after Malloy was narrowly re-elected to a second term in 2014. Yelmini received a $325,000.00 settlement as a result of her action against the Malloy administration for its ugly manipulations.

Yelmini, who knows where plenty of bodies are buried, and her legal team found some embarrassing emails between budget chief Ben Barnes and former Malloy chief of staff Mark Ojakian. “Was it awful? Will she go quietly?” Ojakian, who learned nothing about these sorts of communications during the 2014 campaign that is the subject of a federal criminal investigation, asked Barnes in fraught text messages. The $325,000 paid Yelmini is the same amount Connecticut Democrats paid to keep 2014 campaign emails from Ojakian, Malloy and others from the state’s erratic election commission.

“When facing challenging economic times and exploding budget deficits, Connecticut leaders need to consult with people who understand specific parts of the state budget inside and out. Linda Yelmini is one of those people,” said Senate Republican Leader Len Fasano (R-North Haven), who has a contentious history with Yelmini, in a written statement. “Ms. Yelmini knows more about Connecticut’s state employee contracts than most people in state government.  As OPM’s former labor relations chief, she was responsible for negotiating contracts and retirement agreements and bringing multiple parties together. I believe her expertise and 28 years of experience will be a benefit to the taxpayers of Connecticut as Republican lawmakers look to identify ways to get state spending under control without placing further burdens on Connecticut families and with the goal of avoiding further state employee layoffs.  She will continue to serve as a neutral arbitrator on a number of arbitration panels which demonstrates both her knowledge of labor relations matters and fair-mindedness.”

Yelmini will work as a part-time hourly employee during the legislative session that is expected to devote considerable attention to labor contracts and the state’s generous employee benefits.

Insurance agency and lobbying group Connecticut Business & Industry Association (CBIA) has elected a New York resident as chairman of it board of directors. John Ciulla, of affluent Larchmont, in Westchester County, is CBIA’s new board chair.

Ciulla is the president of Webster Financial Corporation and Webster Bank. “I’m honored to work with CBIA and had this group of directors in creating a better business climate in Connecticut,” Ciulla said in a statement on the organization’s website. You’ll know there’s been progress on reaching that goal  job when Ciulla moves to the state he’s working to improve.

The late national treasure  Joan Rivers made Larchmont famous with tales of her friend Heidi Abromowitz.

State Republicans will devote some of their December meeting Tuesday to considering a resolution calling on 14 moderate Democrats to break ranks and block union factotum Joe Aresimowicz from becoming Speaker of the House in January. The lengthy resolution shines a light on the Berlin Democrat’s union ties and the urgent need to address state labor policies.

No word on how Aresimowicz close ally Themis Klarides, the House Republican leader, would stick with her party on a contested vote involving her Berlin chum.

This looks like the sort of event the candidate/steak merchant hollered against in his campaign.

If you harbor any doubts that the 2018 race for governor will be full of swings and roundabouts, throw them away. Norwalk’s Scott Merrell, the Rowayton Cowboy, is running for the Republican nomination for governor. Merrell filed his campaign committee registration last week.

You may have missed it. Merrell was a candidate in 2010. That was also the year he was arrested for trespassing in the aftermath of a foreclosure action.

With approval ratings hovering just above Francois Hollande’s, Democrat Dannel P. Malloy would need to devote his full efforts to seeking a third term as Connecticut’s governor. He will not. Instead, Malloy will serve a second term as head of the Democratic Governors Association. That will allow the luxury-loving governor to spend a lot of his time away from home and putting the squeeze on special interest donors for other Democrats in the first year of the busy 2017-2018 cycle. Two states, New Jersey and Virginia, elect governors in 2017.

Ambitious Democrats who hope to succeed Malloy, and there are many of them, will be relieved that he’ll not be in the state to serve as a reminder of Democratic failures.

The Buffalo to Stamford to Hartford Bharara-Daly Highway got a boost this week when Preet Bharara, corruption busting U.S. Attorney in New York, announced he accepted Donald Trump’s invitation to stay at his powerful post. Bharara has been  prosecuting two cases of corruption in New York with implications for Connecticut. Louis Ciminelli, a Buffalo construction mogul, pleaded not guilty in an alleged state-funded solar factory construction scheme. It is part of Governor Andrew Cuomo’s controversial Buffalo Billion economic development plan.

Ciminelli became a generous donor to the Connecticut Democratic party’s federal fund at the time his team was named the developer of the Stamford Transportation Center in 2013. Ciminelli and family members continued to make hefty contributions to the party federal fund during Democratic Governor Dannel P. Malloy’s re-election campaign. Ciminelli, records show, had not been a state party contributor before the 2013.

Connecticut’s U.S attorney, Deidre Daly, is leading an investigation of state Democratic party federal fund spending on Malloy’s 2014 campaign. No word on whether she will continue in office after January 20th.

The information age can be a burden for public officials. Testimony of former Connecticut Department of Banking official Bruce Adams at a November 15th Freedom of Information Commission was right royal train wreck. Adams published a long series of social media posts critical of Payday Lenders and Native American sovereignty issues that intersected at the department.

The hearing did not go well for Adams and the department. His social media posts on the matter disappeared around the time of an FOI request seeking all documents. Did they disappear before the request or after? That is the operative question. Adams’ memory was clouded by the birth of a baby and his short family leave. He recalls standing at home in his underwear, exhausted, and holding his baby in his arms when he received an unwelcome work call. Other than that, Adams’ memory seemed vague. The hearing, significant in the constant battle to protect access to public documents, continues in January, when it could get considerably more interesting.

Adams now serves as counsel to Lieutenant Governor Nancy Wyman, which is a more partisan an less taxing job for the confused official.

CT-N has the extended testimony here. 

Twentieth century singing phenomenon and French resistance heroine Josephine Baker famously had two loves, her own and Paris. Danbury’s Mark Boughton will do Baker one better with his own, Danbury and the governorship. Boughton, who announced he’s formed an exploratory committee for his third bid for the Republican nomination for governor will also seek a ninth term as Danbury’s mayor in 2017.

The News Times quotes Boughton declaring, “Danbury will always come first. Danbury is my first love.” Danbury’s Democrats have fallen on hard times and will continue to have troubles mounting credible municipal campaigns as long as Gene Eriquez continues to serve as head of the local Democratic party. Eriquez, a former mayor of Danbury, was arrested in the spring for assaulting his wife. The violent attack included Eriquez pushing and punching his wife in the face, as well as preventing her for calling police for help.