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The Working Families Party (WFP) candidate endorsement questionnaire provides a preview of the gathering storm in the House and Senate Democratic caucuses.

The long document poses this question:

While we have worked to build progressive power in our legislature, we are often challenged by the Moderate Caucus who have organized against us in our fights for increasing minimum wage, expanding healthcare to undocumented immigrants, expanding paid sick days, and establishing a fair work week. If [re]elected will you pledge to join the moderate caucus?

Yes, pledge not to join the moderate caucus

No

I am unsure–please explain

Here’s an explanation. Some suburban Democrats in competitive districts life to work both sides of the street. They like the votes the WFT endorsement provides but also find some advantage in telling constituents they are aligned with moderate Democrats–like Governor Ned Lamont.

WFP leaders have had enough of the shapeshifting. Diversity of thought is no virtue. The ideological battle among the Democrats, who enjoy overwhelming control of the House and the Senate, will become more open and pointed next year.

Published September 11, 2024.

The Independent Party has endorsed a Democrat in the 36th Senate District for the first time. Democrat Nick Simmons defeated incumbent Republican Ryan Fazio for the party’s nomination in the district that includes Greenwich, New Canaan and part of Stamford.

The Independent Party endorsed Republican incumbent Scott Frantz in the party’s 2018 annus horribilus. Republicans lost five of their 18 seats, including the 36th for the first time since the Great Depression year of 1930. The Independent Party line delivered 643 votes for Frantz.

Democrat Alex Kasser (formerly Bergstein) was re-elected in 2020, defeating Republican Ryan Fazio. Kasser resigned the seat in June 2021, triggering a summer special election. Fazio defeated Democrat Alexis Gevanter by 458 votes. Petitioning candidate John Blankley, a Greenwich Democrat, received 408 votes.

In 2022, the 36th was home to the closest upper chamber contest. Fazio won a full term by defeating Democrat Trevor Crow by 89 votes out of 42,845 cast. The Independent Party made no endorsement. Fazio withstood a Democratic wave as Governor Ned Lamont won 4,369 votes more than Republican Bob Stefanowski. It was an all-Greenwich ticket at the top of the Democratic line with Lamont, Senator Richard Blumenthal and U.S. Representative Jim Himes. Democrats won the three Greenwich state House seats.

Control of the Independent Party has been seriously contested as a result of the decisive role it played in the 2010 gubernatorial election when Chester Republican Thomas Marsh won more than 17,000 votes as the party’s nominee. That was far more than Democrat Dan Malloy’s 6,000 vote margin over Greenwich Republican Tom Foley.

Fazio will be battling more headwinds this year. The Greenwich Republican organization has been in a constant state of ideological war, including bitter primaries earlier this year for seats on the local town committee. The Stamford Republican organization continues to decline as a local force.

In addition to completing a questionnaire, candidates seeking the Independent endorsement were required to sign the pledge below:

I, __________, strongly support free and fair elections and the rule of law, and reject the actions on January 6th, 2021 that attempted to prevent the peaceful transfer of power for the first time in the history of the United States. I accept the results of all elections past and future, as certified by
election officials.
Furthermore, by seeking the endorsement of the Independent Party, I will actively cosponsor and support legislation advancing the responses I have given to the questions asked by the Independent Party of Connecticut in selecting candidates for endorsement.

That pledge, a reflection of our perilous politics, ought not to have been difficult for any candidate. It may cause some aggrieved Republicans problems with their local activists.

In some districts, including the 36th, candidates seeking the Independent endorsement were required to gather and submit enough signatures to restore the minor party to the ballot line. The Simmons campaign provided more than the 430 necessary, according to Simmons.

Published September 4, 2024.

Retired Old Saybrook police officer Jay Rankin was arrested in Old Saybrook on Tuesday for allegedly driving under the influence, according to the local police department’s website. He is scheduled to appear in Superior Court in Middletown on September 9th.

Eight days later, Rankin will return to Superior Court in Danielson on sexual assault charges stemming from his February arrest. The former Old Saybrook fire department volunteer and chief was arrested last winter by the state Environmental Conservation Police on charges arising out of an alleged sexual assault at a boat launch in Thompson in 2023.

Rankin, according to the New Haven Register, “was charged with third-degree sexual assault, fourth-degree sexual assault, public indecency, second-degree breach of peace and prohibited activities in limited access areas.” His case is under seal, suggesting he has applied for admission to one of the state’s many pretrial diversion programs that would result in a dismissal of all charges after meeting conditions set by a judge.

Published August 29, 2024.

The state House Democratic Campaign Committee (HDCC) tried to exploit flooding from Sunday’s historic storm for political gain. Candace from the HDCC sent a text with a photograph of a flooded road, claiming “Southbury’s infrastructure needs an upgrade but our town’s current leadership seems to think ‘if it ain’t broke don’t fix it’ is good public policy.”

Republican Jason Buchsbaum is a member of the town’s Board of Selectman. He was on the ticket that inflicted a stinging defeat on Democrat Ed Edelson in 2015 as he sought a third term as first selectman. Buchsbaum and Edelson will face each other in the open 69th House District seat in the November.

Candace was not finished. She also complained that state government has spent millions on “our major cities, it’s time they did it for us too!” Candace may not realize that the House Democrats have enjoyed control of the House for 37 years. That’s plenty of time to have addressed the infrastructure needs of affluent communities like Southbury, though planning for a 1,000 year storm was never going to be high on anyone’s list of infrastructure projects.

With two people dead and the cost of the flooding still being assessed, House Democrats might want to take a break from campaigning in the disaster areas for a few days. Adding to Southbury’s slim inventory of affordable housing is likely to get more attention and funding.

Edelson’s four years leading the town probably included little planning for a 1,000 year storm.

Residents of Southbury and other towns may have wondered in their misery and fear where U.S. Representative Jahana Hayes has been since Sunday. She stepped up in front of the cameras on Tuesday night and showed them. She was in Chicago at the Democratic National Convention. Hayes, seeking a fourth term in November, cast the Connecticut delegation’s votes, 73 for Kamala Harris and 1 present. An exuberant Hayes announced the votes “for the first female president of the United States of America, Kamala Harris.”

As July began, Hayes took a distinctly negative view of a Harris campaign for president. She did not agree with those of us who were certain the vice president would meet the moment. “Rep. Jahana Hayes (D-Conn.) stood up before her colleagues during an all-caucus meeting to argue that putting the vice president atop the ticket” the Washington Post reported, “at this point in the election cycle would be setting Harris up for failure, according to two people familiar with the discussion.”

Hayes did issue a weather advisory Sunday as she headed for Chicago.

Published August 21, 2024.

State Senator Tony Hwang is feeling the heat. The Fairfield Republican won re-election to the 28th Senate District two years ago by 636 votes, the closest of his five campaigns for the seat. In 2022, Hwang faced Democrat Timothy Gavin, a newcomer to politics.

This year is different. Hwang faces Rob Blanchard, a member of Fairfield’s Representative Town Meeting and veteran of several statewide campaigns. Hwang’s frayed nerves are showing, and they are not attractive. And it’s only August.

The four towns that comprise the district, Bethel, Easton, Fairfield and Newtown, are communities crammed with voters of all party registrations or none who have long cared about the environment. Whether it’s protecting Long Island Sound, improving the quality of air and water, preserving wetlands and open space, or addressing climate change, the voters in 28th Senate District pay attention to the state of their world, near and far.

It came as a surprise that Tony Hwang declined the endorsement of the Sierra Club, which describes itself as “the nation’s largest and most effective grassroots environmental movement.” The Sierra Club is proud of its 130-year history of preserving land and protecting the environment. Its endorsement adds a credential that crosses party lines. Tony Hwang rejected it in a petty act dressed up as campaign strategy that he probably hoped would remain known to only a few insiders.

The Sierra Club’s political arm has rules about endorsements. If two candidates merit the organization’s endorsement, it will ask both candidates to agree to a dual endorsement. If one refuses, no endorsement is made. Tony Hwang vetoed the clubs desire to endorse him and Blanchard. If only he could not have it, Hwang wants no one to get it, regardless of each candidate’s merits. Hwang would rather the voters know less about the candidates’ stands on the environment than that he share the endorsement with Blanchard.

Let me declare an interest. I met Rob Blanchard seven or eight years ago when he was working on a campaign. We are friends. That disclosure may not help him among some politicos but Daily Ructions readers enjoy learning about politics as practiced behind the curtain. This is a campaign story of extreme pettiness that should be told, no matter who the candidates are.

Having been a candidate for the state House and Senate long ago (4-2), I am still surprised when an experienced politician is not smart enough to, as an admiring mobster once advised comedian Joan Rivers, “run your own race. Don’t look left, don’t look right. Stay in your lane.”

The results of the 2022 race in the 28th Senate District suggest more voters than ever are on to Tony Hwang and he is uncertain of how to stop the erosion of support.

Instead of trying to block a Sierra Club joint endorsement, Hwang ought to be explaining why he voted for the catastrophic Millstone legislation that last month caused families in the district he serves to have to cope with a skyrocketing electric bill. The ill-judged 2017 bill that passed with Hwang’s support will continue to burden ratepayers for another five years.

Campaigns can provide unexpected revelations about a candidate, even one who has been around as long as Hwang. Voters will want to ask themselves what sort of candidate rejects the endorsement of the Sierra Club but accepts a maximum campaign contribution from a man whose fabricated evidence and false testimony helped send two innocent young men to prison for 25 years in 1985. Dr. Henry Lee’s testimony in the trial of Ralph “Ricky” Birch and Shawn Henning eventually cost the state $25 million in damages to the two wrongly convicted men three years after their convictions were overturned in 2020.

Lee ran the state police’s forensic lab when he testified there were blood stains on a towel found at the New Milford murder scene of victim Everett Carr. Last year, “U.S. District Court Judge Victor Bolden ruled in July that there was no evidence Lee ever conducted any blood tests on the towel…,” Connecticut Public Radio and the AP reported. Lee’s testimony, courts ruled, was crucial in convicting Birch and Henning. That $25 million came from taxpayers to begin to compensate the wrongly convicted defendants for the 35 years they spent in prison. Convicting the innocent is the nightmare of ever free and just society.

Hwang may think he has slain a mighty dragon by killing the Sierra Club’s endorsement, but it’s his self-inflicted wounds that tells the story in the 28th Senate District.

Published August 19, 2024.

The executive board of the Stamford Democratic City Committee began primary day by calling on state Representative Anabel Figueroa (D-Stamford) to resign as a member of the city’s Board of Representatives and the city party committee. The board issued the public declaration after it discovered antisemitic slurs Figueroa made in her primary campaign against Democrat Jonathan Jacobson, the party-endorsed candidate in today’s primary.

Jacobson is Jewish.

In a video posted on Youtube on July 28th, Figueroa, speaking in Spanish, concluded her interview on July 28th by announcing, “The Hispanic vote is going to determine on August 13^th who will win to represent or who will continue to represent you. We cannot permit a person who is of Jewish origin, of Jewish origin, to represent our community. It’s impossible.”

Figueroa won election to the state House of Representatives in a February 2023 special election. Her hateful targeting of a Jew has roiled Stamford Democrats, who think of themselves as modern, progressive stewards of Connecticut’s fastest growing city on Long Island Sound, 40 miles from New York City.

UPDATE: Reached while campaigning this afternoon, Jonathan Jacobson said this is not his first encounter with Figueroa and hate. In 2018, Jacobson, a member of the Board of Representatives, moved to censure a fellow member who had posted anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant sentiments in social media. Figueroa refused to join colleagues condemning hate.

Jacobson, who was called an “Israeli attorney” by a Figueroa supporter, said the Democrat is using antisemitism to “influence the outcome of an election.

On Tuesday afternoon, Figueroa raised the “I have Jewish friends” defense to explain her poisonous comments. She apologized and said, “we need leaders who represent our districts.” There are not enough Latino legislators, she believes. She seemed to attribute her comments to being “a bilingual speaker.” That appears to make her fluent in hatred in two languages.

“We cannot permit a person who is of Jewish origin, of Jewish origin, to represent our community” sounds as disqualifying in Spanish as it does in English.

Published August 13, 2024.

Trumbull Democrats took advantage of the first two days of early voting in the primary for the 22nd Senate District nomination. One candidate in the quartet of hopefuls is from Trumbull, Sujata Gadkar-Wilcox. Her two unsuccessful but spirited campaigns for the House of Representatives have made her a local favorite. The other three, Scott Burns, Bill Finch, and Tyler Mack, are Bridgeport Democrats.

In the first two days of early voting this week, 104 Bridgeport Democrats cast votes. In Trumbull, 124 Democrats voted. The Bridgeport figure includes votes cast in both Senate primaries in the state’s most populous city.

Trumbull’s Democratic organization has gained a reputation as one of the state’s most effective and has lately fought above its weight. It is the home of the party’s state chairwoman, Nancy DiNardo.

Other towns of note include Hamden, where Democrats have two House primaries. As of 8 p.m. Tuesday, 482 Democrats had voted. In the 2nd Senate District, incumbent Democrat Doug McCrory faces two challengers, Shellye Davis and Ayanna Taylor. In Windsor, 119 Democrats had voted, while 145 Bloomfield Democrats cast a ballot. Bloomfield is also the center of a ferocious primary for the House in a district that includes a portion of West Hartford. In Hartford, 30 Democrats had cast early votes in the Senate primary.

The only statewide primary is the Republican one for the party’s U.S. Senate nomination. On Monday and Tuesday, 1861 Republicans had cast an early ballot under. Of those, 20 were from party-endorsed candidate Gerry Smith’s hometown of Beacon Falls, 12 were cast in Manchester, where challenger Matt Corey lives.

Early voting continues through Sunday at a designated location (usually the town hall) in each of the state’s 169 municipalities.

Published August 8, 2024.

CVS hosted an eventful quarterly earnings call Wednesday morning. It announced that Brian Kane, president of CVS-owned Aetna, has left after less than a year heading the health insurance giant.

Aetna has been grappling with significant declines in it critical satisfaction ratings with its Medicare Advantage plans in 2023. Medicare recipients enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans have been seeking and receiving more medical services than expected as costs increase, squeezing profits. for insurers.

Aetna managers have been warning employees to expect layoffs.

Published August 7, 2024.

A dramatic night at the East Hartford Democratic Town Committee. State Representative Jeff Currey announced he has resigned his position on the ballot. He will not seek a sixth term.

Currey told local Democrats—once among the state’s mightiest local organizations—that he has a career opportunity that would require a special election if he took it. Speculation on Currey’s future includes a position in the Lamont administration. This would likely prompt a long series of turf tussles.

Currey was in the news this spring when he proposed an ill-judged change in the state’s school construction finance program that opened a path to corruption by project construction managers.

Published July 25, 2024.

State Senator Paul Cicarella continues to make the wrong kind of news. The second term Republican appears to have fallen out with his benefactor, Cicarella’s popular predecessor, Len Fasano. In a motion in a case centered around Cicarella’s 2022 construction of significant improvements at his North Haven home, including the installation of an in-ground pool, Fasano asked the court to allow him to withdraw from representing Cicarella because their “attorney-client relationship has broken down irretrievable.”

According to a complaint filed in Superior Court last year, Cicarella’s aggrieved neighbor, Andrew Koutroumanis, told Cicarella that his construction project was encroaching on Koutroumanis’ property. Cicarella refused to halt construction when Koutroumanis commissioned and produced at A-2 survey confirming the trespass and encroachment.

Koutroumanis accuses Cicarella of submitting inaccurate, false and misleading information to North Haven building officials. Koutroumanis paints a compelling character portrait of Cicarella as a nightmare neighbor. The Superior Court docket indicates the case has been settled but the settlement is not included. Daily Ructions, however, has learned that the settlement included Cicarella agreeing to pay his neighbor $40,000 and to remove the various encroachments Cicarelli placed on his neighbor’s property. Koutroumanis agreed to consent to a variance Cicarella needs for the addition to his house to remain.

The settlement appears to confirm that despite being asked not to proceed and being shown an A-2 survey that confirmed Cicarella was building an in-ground pool on property he did not own, the Republican nevertheless proceeded.

That was not the end of the matter. Cicarella, who has a taste for litigation, has filed claims against the pool company, surveyor, construction company, business that provide the propane tank and title insurance company. It does seem all of this could have been avoided if Cicarella had listened to his neighbor.

Mr. Koutroumanis alleges that Cicarella submitted false documents to local zoning officials. That is a serious allegation that may interest voters in the five towns that comprise the 34th District. Cicarella ought to come clean and explain how he managed to make his neighbor’s life miserable after being confronted with a survey that turns out to have been correct.

The dispute may not be confined to North Haven. The construction company Cicarella is suing, Donmar Development Corporation, is owned by the DiGioia family, also popular members of the community. Michael DiGioia is a maximum contributor to state Senator Heather Somers’ political action committee, Somers PAC. DiGioia gave Somers $1,000 last October. That contribution came two months after the groundbreaking for Triton Square, a new apartment community in Groton, the heart of Republican Somers’ district. The apartments are being built on the grounds of the former William Seeley School.

Published July 18, 2024.