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Non-farm employment grew to 1,592.900 million jobs, an increase of 3,500 over June. The increase was less than half the number of jobs added the month before. May’s initial 7,800 figure was revised upward to 8,100.

The Department of Labor has the details on the “uneven monthly pattern.”

Former state Representative Themis Klarides paid $57,000 for consultants, legal fees, film production and website production in forming a campaign operation for governor. Klarides filed her first finance report Monday. More than half the committee’s expenses, $30,000 went to Battleground Strategies, a Republican consulting firm operated by Jim Barnett, Jim Conway, and Elissa Voccola.

Legal fees were paid to Mutha Cullina LLP and The Garber Group, LLP. The Self-Funded Candidate’s Expenditure Statement also reports paying Sebastian Rougemont $13,000 in consulting fees. Rougement was employed by Donald Trump’s 2020 New Hampshire campaign.

Greenwich Democrat John Blankley made a last-minute bid for delegate support at this evening’s party nominating convention. The 36th Senate District Democrats are expected to nominate Greenwich newcomer Alexis Gevanter in the August 17th special election to replace Democrat Alex Kasser. Kasser resigned last month to concentrate on the divorce she kept in the public spotlight during her two and a half years in the Senate.

On Monday evening, Blankley shared with a dozen Greenwich Democrats an anonymous email detailing a long list of anti-worker business clients represented by the San Francisco law firm Gevanter worked for before moving to Connecticut.

The lengthy message alleges. in part, Gevanter “worked in the Employment and Law practice in a firm, Sheppard Mullin, who during the time of her employment in that division worked on significant litigation to water down or eliminate the rights of labor to organize, and to pay unfairly in the case ‘Scott vs. Chipotle Mexican Grill’.” For employment attorneys, you can click here to know the best ones in town!

The message continues, “Such cases were not unique to her San Francisco firm, as their firm is extraordinarily anti-union https://www.sheppardmullin.com/labor-union-management-relations . Prior to her work at Sheppard Mullin, she work at the Dentons firm, in New York, and represented a firm called Solidifi US in 2014, charged, again, with offenses such as wage theft, retaliation and other offenses. https://www.nlrb.gov/case/03-CA-129330“

Gaventer’s work for large corporate law firms put her firmly on the side of privilege and the patriarchy.

Democrats at tonight’s nominating convention may pay little attention to Blankley’s accusations, but Republicans will be committing them to memory and repeating them at frequent intervals. Taunts may be the theme of the short campaign.

State Representative Harry Arora (R-Greenwich) has released a list of 1,000 supporters of his campaign for the Republican nomination in the 36th Senate District special election. Arora joins Greenwich Republicans Leora Levy and Ryan Fazio in the contest that will be decided Saturday by party delegates.

Arora has made a success of a special election before this one. He was elected to the House of Representatives in 2020 after incumbent Republican Fred Camillo resigned to become first selectman of the tony metropolitan New York enclave. Arora was re-elected to a full term in November.

As the ranking House member on the legislature’s labor committee Arora received considerable praise this year for fighting his corner fighting a tidal wave of proposals intent on sending jobs and opportunity scurrying to other states.

State Representative Minnie Gonzalez (D-Hartford) is seeking a mileage reimbursement payment of $1,785.00 from the Joint Committee of Legislative Management. The request from the 13-term veteran covers 21 years, from January 1997 through December 2018.

A June 30th memorandum from Caroline A. Beitman, a human resources administrator at the legislature, explained that Gonzalez’s request would require special approval. “Legislator and staff travel regulations require submission of requests for mileage allowance no later than 90 days after the completion of the two-year legislative term,” Beitman wrote. “Payment beyond the 90-day period requires the majority approval of the Committee on Legislative Management’s Personnel Policies Subcommittee.”

The subcommittee has made no decision on Gonzalez’s request for 21 years of mileage reimbursements.

The early innings are going well for Bobby Valentine’s Stamford mayoral campaign. There popular baseball personality raised $300,000 in his first two months as an indy candidate for the city’s top job.

A Tuesday morning statement from Valentine’s campaign ballyhoos 500 contributions totaling $125,000 from Stamford residents and $95,000 from contributors living in neighboring towns.

Democratic incumbent David Martin and state Representative Caroline Simmons are expected to compete in a September primary for their party’s nomination. Simmons, like Valentine, is a prolific fundraiser.

George Logan, the former state senator, will decide this month whether to seek the Republican nomination for Congress from the state’s 5th District District.

Logan was elected to the state Senate in 2016, defeating veteran Democratic incumbent Joseph Crisco. The Ansonia Republican eked out a second term in the party’s annus horribilis of 2018. Donald Trump at the top of the Republican ticket proved too much for Logan, and he lost his 2020 bid for a third term.

Popular among Republicans, the energetic Logan has been taking soundings and been encouraged by the response, he told Daily Ructions Friday. He believes he can have the most impact running in the 5th District, where he enjoys many ties and would face two term Democrat Jahana Hayes. Logan currently lives in the 3rd Congressional District.

National Republicans have encouraged Logan to make the race against Hayes. Expect them to make a significant early investment in the environmental manager’s campaign.

The last Republican to win the district was the venerable Nancy Johnson. She served in the House from 1983-2007.

Bob Stefanowski enjoys a wide lead over former state Representative Themis Klarides in the 2022 Republican contest for governor, according to a survey of 300 likely Republican primary voters. The Club for Growth, a conservative campaign fundraising organization, commissioned the poll.

The survey, conducted early in June, found Stefanowski leading Klarides 47-18 in a two candidate contest. The poll found 57% of those asked less likely to support Klarides when told her husband is a top-ranking executive at Eversource, the state’s largest utility. Klarides’s intermittent criticisms of Donald Trump also make primary voters less likely to support her.

Questions about Eversource and Trump pushed Stefanowski to a 48 point advantage over Klarides.

Stefanowski was the 2018 Republican nominee for governor. Klarides served in the state House of Representatives for 22 years, ending her tenure there as the Republican leader.

Fabrizio, Lee & Associates conducted the poll. Read it here.

Let us celebrate the singular Jon Lender’s remarkable career in the service of news–and the disinfectant of sunlight. This week marks his final Government Watch column.

We met at a political convention in Hartford 35 years ago. A few years later as I made my way in politics, I discovered Jon could be trusted with the care and feeding of a tip. The origins of several stories from those salad days remain under seal. They were choice.

A high-ranking official in an administration Jon covered recalls believing she could hear his footsteps approaching her office in the Capitol–her cue to prepare to be cast in a a local version of a “Columbo” episode. She would pose the futile question, “Are you sure you don’t want to go to the office next door?”

Even the state’s auditors would struggle to reach the amount of money Jon saved the people of Connecticut with his stories of misfeasance, malfeasance, and entitlement. Leaving the Courant does not terminate any requests for documents made under the Freedom of Information Act.

A decade ago, a delegation of young leaders from Sri Lanka and Nepal visited Hartford to observe the elements of a free society at work. They were weary after more than a week of meetings. In a stuffy conference room that Friday afternoon, Jon invigorated them with the details of John Rowland’s hot tub at his lake cottage. The triumph of investigative reporting is a universal language before an audience intent on enjoying the benefits of freedom.

Something you may not have discerned reading Jon’s columns: he is a polymath of high and low culture. The range of his knowledge of the essentials and fripperies of the human condition informs his savvy instincts in the pursuit of a story. So we will mark this day with Maria Callas’ final appearance in an operatic production. After nearly four decades as a sentinel for freedom, Jon will have more time to enjoy the music he loves.

An aspiring candidate could save a bundle on consultants by reading Eric Phillips’ autopsy of Andrew Yang’s campaign for mayor of New York. It’s worth the many times the cost of a Daily Beast subscription.

The essential message: No campaign—and Yang’s was excellent—can paper over a candidate who hasn’t done his homework. Celebrity helps, but that you can win shouldn’t be the rationale for it. For a guy who ran a test prep company, Yang didn’t cram enough to make up for his breezy resume.