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President Joseph Biden will visit the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center at the University of Connecticut when he travels to the state Friday. Thomas Dodd represented Connecticut in the United States Senate from 1959-1971. He was defeated for a third term in 1970 as a petitioning candidate, losing to Republican Lowell P. Weicker, Jr.

Thomas Dodd would largely be a faded bad memory for Connecticut but for his son Christopher J. Dodd’s decades-long efforts to polish his father’s reputation. Thomas Dodd, a Democrat, was censured by the Senate in 1967 for diverting for his personal use $116,083 in proceeds from seven testimonial dinners.

Dodd was the first Senator since Joseph McCarthy in 1954 to be censured by his colleagues. Dodd’s troubles began when staff members copied records and gave them to columnist Drew Pearson. When news of Dodd’s larceny became public in Pearson’s widely circulated column, members of the Senate first directed their wrath at the staff members.

Pearson renewed his focus on Dodd and devoted more part or all of 100 of his daily column to the scandal. Some Connecticut newspapers that carried Pearson’s column declined to publish his Dodd saga.

Dodd’s defense was to accuse critics of seeking to damage him because of his unyielding support for American involvement in the war raging in Vietnam. There were nearly 500,000 troops in the besieged Southeast Asia country by 1967 and public opinion had begun to turn against President Lyndon Johnson’s escalation.

Christopher Dodd served in the Senate from 1981 to 2011. He declined to seek a sixth term as his own personal finances in purchasing and financing three homes in the United States and Ireland came into public view.

Dodd said he wanted to teach after announcing he withdrew from the 2010 contest. Instead, he moved quickly into lobbying for the movie business, where he maintained his long friendship with producer Harvey Weinstein, the serial sexual assaulter and generous Dodd contributor. Dodd now lobbies for a Washington firm, trading on his long friendship with Biden.

Friday’s event will require presidential speechwriters to apply several layers of whitewash to Biden’s prepared remarks on behalf of the Dodd he served with and the one who left the Senate two years before the president won his first term from Delaware.

President Bill Clinton was the featured speaker at the 1995 dedication of the Dodd Center. He returned to the center in 2015 to receive the Thomas J. Dodd Prize in International Justice and Human Rights. Clinton received the award 17 years after flying to an airport in Rwanda to insist he knew nothing of the 1994 genocide Tutsi Rawandans by majority Hutus.

You think you will enjoy a long weekend from your labors in municipal government and the FBI appears in your town hall. Agents are, Daily Ructions has learned, at West Haven’s town hall this afternoon on what appears to be a visit without an appointment.

These things usually involve law enforcement officials following a trail scattered with misused public funds–often federal funds. In West Haven, the possibilities are more numerous than in most Connecticut towns.

Updates as events require.

Posted October 8, 2021.

David Eldridge, Shelton Democratic candidate for mayor spent Wednesday running away from his past. He told the Shelton Herald in response to a Daily Ructions story that he has “matured” from his 1992 racist public rant about keeping  “the blacks, the Spanish … (and) the white trash” out of Shelton. Eldridge, a retired Shelton police officer, was a member of the force when he shared his views before the local board of alderman.

Screenshots of Eldridge’s Facebook tell a different story. One Eldridge Facebook comment refers to Black Lives Batter protesters as “pieces of shit.” A 2019 post accuses professional football player and activist Colin Kaepernick of cowardice, calling him a “clown.”

In an interview with Hearst Media’s Brian Gioiele, Eldridge “stated that his goal, as mayor, is to create welcoming place for everyone — young people, seniors, people of all races, ethnicities and nationalities.”

Shelton Democratic Town Committee Dave Gioiele told the Hearst paper, “We all grow and learn as we progress through life,” Gioiello added. “What we say and believe changes over time. He is committed to a diverse community and we support him. He is our candidate and we will continue to work for his election.”

Posted October 7, 2021

As a Shelton police officer in 1992, David Eldridge urged the town’s Board of Alderman to find ways to keep “the blacks, the Spanish and white trash” out of town. Eldridge, now retired from the force, is the Democratic candidate for mayor of Shelton and is scrambling to rewrite his racist rant.

An April 22, 1992, Bridgeport Post article quoting Eldridge has been making its way around Shelton—and other places—causing Eldridge to claim on his campaign’s Facebook page that he was addressing concerns about gang members moving to the Naugatuck Valley town. Eldridge’s screed was ugly and clear. Shelton was reserved for white’s only—and only certain whites. He was fully vested with police powers when he dug into a deep well of bile and spewed it at a public meeting.

Eldridge wrote in his Facebook post that he was sorry and “should have been more sensitive as to how I discussed this matter.” He pledges to embrace diversity. Democratic leaders will strain all credulity to adopt Eldridge’s polishing of his racist plea as an adult with a badge, a gun, and the far reaching powers of a police officer.

It’s never enough. New Haven Democrats control all 30 of seats on the city’s Board of Alders–and are likely to do when voters return to the polls. Only six seats are uncontested this year, two fewer than in 2019. Nevertheless, lobbyists and others with interests in state government have been invited commanded to support a Democratic town committee fundraising event this Wednesday at 11 a.m.

The event will take place at the Neighborhood Cafe. Few legislative employees work at the LOB on Wednesdays, so some may take a rest from their labors at home and enjoy an early $100 lunch with lobbyists.

The New Haven Democrats want it all. Unlike most other Connecticut municipalities, the city is not subject minority representation. There are few registered Republicans. The party has a candidate for mayor, John Carlson. There are two Republicans competing for a board of education seat.

One party loyalist is alarmed at a local ballot that includes candidates who are not Democrats. “We have to make this election count in a big way so a Republican doesn’t get their pinkie in the door,” Ward 25 Democratic co-chair Janis Underwood told party faithful last month, according to the New Haven Independent.

New Haven Democrats won’t need whatever they raise from special interests Wednesday. The money will be spent on keeping the local party organization limber for 2022. Elm City Democrats provide their party with its largest haul of votes in statewide elections. It’s proved crucial since 2010.

However frosty relations remain between Governor Ned Lamont and Senate President Martin Looney (D-New Haven), Democrats understand that in the elections that matter most, the path to winning passes through New Haven. New Haven’s DTC chair is Vincent Mauro, who also serves as Looney’s top aide and enforcer.

Connecticut has one of the nation’s most generous public financing program of political campaigns for state and legislative elections. Money, however, always finds its way. New Haven provides one.

Tuesday night provided a reminder that nothing distracts Republican state party committee members from their party-building duties like the approach of a gubernatorial election. Last night’s meeting took place as members buzzed about the prospect of former state Representative Themis Klarides running for lieutenant governor on a ticket headed by Bob Stefanowski.

Klarides formed a committee for a self-financed bid for governor earlier this year. Stefanowski, the 2018 Republican nominee for governor, is expected to launch a second campaign this fall. A Stefanowski/Klarides ticket would avert an expensive primary, according to insider analysis.

The hothouse speculation fails to address the immovable object likely to doom any ticket with Klarides on it: Eversource. Klarides is married to Greg Butler, the unpopular utility giant’s executive vice president and general counsel. Stefanowski has seen the same Club for Growth poll Daily Ructions shared with readers.

in 2018, Ned and Ann Huntress Lamont decided to save millions in primary spending by offering rival Susan Bysiewicz the second spot on the Democratic ticket. Bysiewicz’s third campaign for governor would have become an expensive annoyance if she qualified for the primary ballot and public financing.

Bysiewicz was known for turning the secretary of the state’s office into her permanent campaign headquarters during three-terms in that office. Her unsuccessful campaigns for governor (2006, 2010, 2018), attorney general (2010), and U.S. Senate (2012) made little impact. Nevertheless, the Lamonts know state Democratic primary voters are susceptible to unforeseen stampedes.

Eversource is in its own category of campaign poison. However much it costs the wealthy Lamonts’ to honor their hazy pledge to donate profits from a state deal with “patient-centered health intelligence company”  Sema4, there’ll be plenty left to convince voters Republicans want to hand the state over to Eversource. When you’ve dipped into your vast fortune of generational wealth to spend $50 million on three campaigns, another $20 million for one more may seem like a trifle. Making Eversource a synonym for the Republican ticket by spring could make the typical Lamont tidal wave of spending unnecessary.

The Klarides/Eversource connection illustrates one more example of contemporary Republican taste for delusions. Some party leaders refuse to contemplate the toll tumultuous weather and Eversource’s record of inadequate responses could inflict on their ticket. Tenth year retrospectives on 2011’s paralyzing October storm will remind them and Stefanowski that memories of Eversource’s epic failure remain vivid.

An alliance with Klarides and Butler, an ambitious veteran of Republican politics, would cause irreparable fractures in the campaign organization Stefanowski has been building.

Posted September 29, 2021.

Ann Huntress Lamont made Survey Monkey’s ballot. The Greenwich Democrat is one of 300 healthcare titans in the running to make the final cut for Modern Healthcare’s 100 Most Influential People in Healthcare.

Lamont wrote in a tweet that she is “humbled to be featured on the shortlist” of 300. Oak HC/FT urged readers to vote for the Lamont administration’s most influential voice. You can vote here.

Lamont provided a public reminder of her sharp skills as an investor earlier this year. She’s the Oak partner helming the investment firm’s stake in Dama Financial, the California company that provides banking services to the growing legal cannabis industry. Governor Ned Lamont signed legislation legalizing the sale of cannabis in Connecticut in June.

Jeffrey Hersh, a lawyer with an office in Greenwich, asserted in a letter to the Stamford City Clerk that Connecticut’s election laws preclude Democratic nominee Caroline Simmons from appearing on the Independent Party line. Hersh cited Connecticut statutes that preclude a candidate nominated by a major or minor party from petitioning onto another place on the ballot. Hersh represents Stamford resident Al Fiore.

Because the Independent Party did not nominate a candidate for mayor of Stamford at the last election–in 2017–it is neither a major nor a minor party in Stamford in this year’s mayoral contest. In order for the Independent Party to nominate a candidate this year, Simmons would have had to circulate petitions. Simmons is the Democratic candidate after winning a thumping primary victory this month, so she cannot petition onto any other ballot position.

Hersh’s arguments provide a reminder that Connecticut’s ballot access laws are an intended impediment to voters having more choices than what party establishments allow. Simmons might have raised this festering issue as a state legislator but it would have caused her to be alienated from legislative leaders.

State Representative Caroline Simmons defeated incumbent David Martin in Stamford’s Democratic primary for mayor. Unofficial returns have Simmons winning more than 60% of the vote.

Simmons won the Stamford DTC endorsement 21 to 19 in July. Martin was seeking his third four-year term. He scored an upset in 2013 when he defeated William Tong in the Democratic primary. He went on to defeat former Republican lieutenant governor Mike Fedele that November. Martin enjoyed an easy re-election in 2017.

Simmons will face petitioning candidate Bobby Valentine, a well-known Stamford figure, in November.