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Beleaguered state Senator Dennis Bradley is facing a federal criminal trial in May for campaign finance violations. Bradley’s troubles have not dissuaded the Bridgeport Democrat from seeking a third term. He’s holding his first fundraising event Wednesday at Vazzy’s.

An investigation of Bradley’s 2018 campaign finance practices by the State Elections Enforcement Commission (SEEC) revealed myriad violations of state laws governing Connecticut’s generous public financing program. Bradley’s troubles are rooted in a 2018 campaign kickoff event that was allegedly disguised as a law firm appreciation party for clients. The expenses for that event were not reported in mandatory campaign finance reports.

Lessons have not been learned. Bradley’s invitation to Wednesday’s campaign event appears to have been sent from his law firm. The rising-star-to-shooting-star phenomenon is ineligible to participate in campaign public financing because of his previous violations. The maximum contribution to Bradley’s campaign is $1,000.

Bradley is precluded from soliciting lobbyists for contributions while the legislature is in session. Lobbyists are barred from contributing while the legislature is in session.

Published April 19, 2022.

Governor Ned Lamont spoke often and at length in the immediate aftermath of the 2020 murder of George Floyd about diversity among law enforcement and judges. On June 1st of that year, Lamont joined WNPR’s Lucy Nalpathanchil on “Where We Live” and discussed what he was doing to make Connecticut a more just place.

After a weekend of protests across the nation, Lamont told Nalpathanchil that he is was “totally at one with the people who are standing up…the progress is so slow.” The first term governor said he’d told members of the state legislature’s Black and Puerto Rican Caucus, “I need your help when recruiting not just teachers but judges…we have a long way to go.”

The Greenwich Democrat has done nothing to ease or shorten the journey to the State Supreme Court for Black lawyers and judges. The fourth generation aristocrat Wednesday appointed another white appellate judge to the high court. It is Lamont’s second appointment to the court in more than three years in office and his second elevation of a white judge.

Lamont chose Judge Joan Alexander to replace his first appointment to the Supreme Court, Christine Keller. Both are white. Alexander appears to have been a late prospect. She attended a secret session of the Judicial Selection Commission (JSC) at 11 a.m. on April 1st for a 30-minute “[I]nterview for elevation to the Supreme Court,” according to the commission’s agenda, which is also hidden from public view.

Many hopefuls will spend painful years on the list of candidates approved for the state’s highest court. Judge Alexander was on it for 12 days before Lamont appointed her today. This has the look of a nomination rigged by privileged insiders. Alexander is a respected judge but members of the Supreme Court need not be plucked from the lower ranks of the state’s judiciary. Two of the seven members now serving were not judges before Governor Dannel P. Malloy bestowed the honor on them.

Judge Alexander now claims what some observers of the process have dubbed the Mommy Seat, in honor of Speaker of the House Matthew Ritter helping his mom, Justice Keller, win her seat in 2020. Judge Alexander will be eligible to serve for 11 years. Lamont will have done nothing to transform his aspirations into action on the Supreme Court.

In February, President Biden nominated then-Judge Ketjani Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court. She became the first Black female justice last week. Lamont wrote of her nomination, “I applaud President Biden’s choice and commend his commitment to ensuring that our nation’s highest court better reflects the nation itself.”

In case the governor is confused, he should know that the qualifications to serve on the Supreme Court are not the same as those to become a member of the lily white Round Hill Club that Lamont belonged to for so many years before quitting to jump into state politics in 2006.

Published April 14, 2022.

New Haven Democrat Erick Russell is calling supporters and others today to tell them he’s running for the Democratic nomination for treasurer. Russell has just over three weeks to organize a campaign that wins the support of at least 15% of the delegates, allowing the state party vice chair to claim a spot on the August primary ballot.

Russell, a bond lawyer at Pullman & Comley, will join announced candidate Dita Bhargava in the race. Bhargava was defeated in the 2018 primary by outgoing State Treasurer Shawn Wooden. His sudden announcement last week that he would not seek a second term unleashed the frenetic competition for the job.

Russell’s fellow New Haven Democrat Karen DuBois-Walton is also expected to enter the race. She made an unsuccessful bid for mayor of New Haven in 2021, ending her candidacy as the nominating convention began. Governor Ned Lamont appointed DuBois-Walton to chair the State Board of Education in February.

The truncated convention campaign will be a test of each candidate’s reach and organizing skill.

Republicans last elected a state treasurer in 1994.

Published on April 13, 2022.

Proof that raising $1 million will earn a Senate candidate attention from her rivals came in an email from a Klarides supporter in the Hartford area. The state party committee member wants Klarides and Lumaj supporters to confront Greenwich Republican Leora Levy with a choice: Senate candidacy or her seat on the RNC, but not both.

The April 12th email, from Brian Werstler to 15 Republican activists in the state’s 8th Senate District, urges recipients to ask Levy to choose.

SD8 Team – 
I wanted to flag for you an issue in the US Senate race. Although I know this group is split between Peter and Themis, I think we can be united behind the idea that the party should work together for a common good and not put one person ahead of the will of the body. Given that, I’d ask you and your town committees, when approached by Leora Levy or her team to ask these two questions: As RNC Committeewoman for our state party, will you abide the will of the convention and back the party nominee, if it’s Peter or Themis? If not, and if you insist on running a primary, will you agree to resign your seat as RNC Committeewoman from Connecticut? 

I personally find it troubling for the person tasked with bringing federal funds into this state on behalf of its endorsed candidates is potentially planning to run a primary against the party-endorsed candidate. She can do one or the other, either is fine, but she has to choose. The conflict of interest and detriment to our party and chances this fall is too great. 

Former House Republican leader Themis Klarides is the front runner to win her party’s endorsement to the nomination to face incumbent Democrat Richard Blumenthal. Klarides, formerly of Derby, faces a primary against Peter Lumaj and Levy. Team Klarides, if the Werstler email is any indication, understands their candidate has a much better chance to claim an August primary win in a head-to-head contest against Lumaj.

A vigorous three-way that includes a generously funded Levy risks an uncertain result. If Klarides and Levy spend their money firing at each other over the airways, some disgusted primary voters may find Lumaj a safe harbor. Levy is the opponent who will have the resources to produce some campaign Kryptonite by airing ads tying Klarides to Eversource and the high cost of electricity in Connecticut.

Party-endorsed candidates, the usual victors in Connecticut primaries, may be at some risk this year. Neither party will have a primary for governor, the office that often boosts turnout in primaries. Low voter participation among aggrieved Republicans could be trouble for establishment candidates.

Republicans meet on May 6th and 7th at the Foxwoods casino. Candidates who decide to petition their way onto the ballot may begin collecting signatures later this month. A candidate for statewide office secures a spot on the primary ballot with the signatures of 2% of registered party members.

Published April 13, 2022.

The State Supreme Court issued a decision Tuesday afternoon in the matter of Judge Alice Bruno. The court reached a unanimous conclusion that it will proceed with an investigation to determine if Bruno should be suspended or removed as a judge of the Superior Court.

The state’s new Inspector General, retired judge Robert Devlin, will have broad authority to investigate Bruno’s conduct.

Bruno left her chambers in Waterbury in November 2019 and has not returned. The high court met a week ago to give Bruno an opportunity to demonstrate why it should not proceed with an investigation of her long absence and the conduct that accompanied it.

Bruno’s absence, first reported last fall, has become the subject of considerable public interest. Bruno claims she sought an accommodation of a supportive courthouse environment and the assistance of a mentor to allow her to return to work. She has been paid more than $$400,000 in salary since leaving her assignment.

Published April 12, 2022.

House Democrats are collecting diapers and wipes Wednesday for, ummmm, photos. Members were reminded to bring diapers, wipes or donations to the Capitol on Wednesday to be photographed with the donations. The collection for Alliance for Bloomfield’s Children “would be a great time to get photos for your mailers/newsletters.”

Or it might be a moment to make a quiet donation to a good cause. For that, go to this site.

Published April 12, 2022.

Greenwich Republican Leora Levy’s U.S. Senate campaign has told Fox News the candidate raised more than $1 million in the two months since she became a candidate. Levy gave Fox News an exclusive on the story.

It is not clear how much of that $1 million comes from Levy herself. The Fox News story refers to Levy “fueling her Republican Senate campaign in Connecticut with over $1 million in fundraising….”

Levy also begins airing her first campaign ad today. The Republican National Committee member faces Themis Klarides and Peter Lumaj in the contest for the party’s nomination to face incumbent Democrat Richard Blumenthal in his bid for a third term.

Published April 12, 2022.

Hedge fund titan and former Connecticut resident David McCormick moved to Pennsylvania last year to seek the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate. As often happens in politics, the May 15th primary campaign has not been going as McCormick expected.

McCormick made his fortune at the Bridgewater, the hedge fund famous for making grownups cry at frequent and pitiless meetings. Bridgewater, readers may recall, wanted Connecticut taxpayers to foot part of the bill for a new waterfront headquarters in Stamford. The fund, based in Westport, negotiated a deal with then-Governor Dannel P. Malloy for $115 million in cash and incentives for the [roject. The unpopular plan was dropped after providing the public with a vivid reminder that Democrats love their rich as much as Republicans do theirs.

McCormick’s rise and fall and rise at Bridgewater was told recently in this Bloomberg article on the combat veteran’s journey to Trump lickspittle, following the path of his wife, Dina Powell.

Donald Trump first endorsed Sean Parnell in the Pennsylvania race. Parnell abandoned his campaign faster than a Russian in a tank under Ukrainian fire after claims of domestic abuse came into public view. McCormick lobbied hard to become Trump’s second first choice, making pilgrimages to the loathsome demagogues’s Palm Beach headquarters.

McCormick and Powell did not hire enough Trump grifters to overcome the influence of the inscrutable Melania Trump and commentator Sean Hannity. The two are all in for Republican frontrunner Dr. Oz, formally known as Mehmet Oz. Trump endorsed him Saturday.

In the aftermath of McCormick’s unsuccessful courtship of Trump, McCormick unloaded on Oz, a creation of Oprah Winfrey, in a series of clips from Oz’s television show. McCormick criticizing Oz over China is especially rich. Bridgewater loves China. Its founder, Ray Dalio, described compared China’s human rights abuses to “a strict parent” last year. The ensuing conflagration caused Dalio, like a strict parent, to accuse critics (anyone who read them) of misunderstanding them. On the contrary, the reaction to Dalio’s admiration for China was an example of widespread radical candor.

Expect to hear much more about China in the next month.

Published on April 11, 2022.

Dita Bhargava began her second bid for state treasurer Monday morning. The Greenwich Democrat is the first to announce her for the vacancy created by incumbent Shawn Wooden’s surprise decision not to seek a second term.

Wooden defeated Bhargava in 2018’s Democratic state convention and the primary that followed. Bhargava dropped out the race for governor that busy year to run for treasurer.

Adam Cloud, Hartford’s treasurer, is expected to give the race a pass. Popular state party vice chair Erick Russell has made no announcement. A decision by Russell to defer to fellow New Haven Democrat Karen DuBois Walton will disappoint many.

Treachery with a smiling face may be at work in Stamford. Some city Democrats who would like see a local state representative advance are urging state Senator Billie Miller to jump into the treasurer’s race. Miller won a special election for the seat in 2019, making the case that the party’s nomination was based on merit, not legacy. Miller is too shrewd to fall for false blandishments.

Former state Representative Reginald Beamon may enter the race. Beamon served 10 terms in the House, leaving in 2007. He represented Waterbury in the House.

Published April 11, 2022.

More than 1,500 donors contributing an average of $395 each added $609,243 to Republican gubernatorial hopeful Bob Stefanowski’s campaign coffers in his first quarter of fundraising. Stefanowski has contributed $10 million to his second bid for governor. That was not included in the campaign’s calculation of the median donation, $50.

The amount raised is a reminder that it is often a challenge for wealthy candidates who put a chunk of their fortune into a campaign to build a broad base of contributors.

Governor Ned Lamont is financing his re-election campaign himself, as he has done in his three previous statewide campaigns in 2006, 2010 and 2018.

Stafanowski is receiving some early assistance from an independent expenditure committee. The Republican Governors Association and the Democratic Governors Association may also enter the fray later in the campaign as each assesses their candidate’s standing with voters in the run-up to election day.

Published April 11, 2022.