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Pay no attention to the message on the vaccine appointment telephone line. Connecticut residents 65 and older may make their first appointment for a vaccination now. Call 877-918-2224. The message still says it is for 75+, but that is not correct. Stay on the call. You can make an appointment for as soon as Tuesday.

Governor Ned Lamont is expected to make an announcement Monday afternoon but Daily Ructions readers need not wait. Call now.

Five terms is enough for Marcia Leclerc, East Hartford’s Democratic mayor. Leclerc announced in a Wednesday letter to the Democratic Town Committee that she will not seek another two-year term.

Leclerc was expected to face a difficult path to re-election. She became the author of her own crumbling political fortunes when the Democratic-controlled town council learned last fall that Leclerc had increased her own pension benefits without informing members.

Michael Walsh, who served on the town council as a Republican and later served as a well-regarded town finance director, will seek the Democratic nomination for mayor. Walsh was expected to make the race whatever Leclerc decided, and many party activists were expected to support him.

Eversource executive vice president and general counsel Greg Butler and former state Representative Themis Klarides have offered to match $20,000 in contributions to the state Republican party’s thin coffers. Because Butler is a top executive at a state contractor, he’s restricted from making contributions to the state party’s state fund. Instead, matched contributions will have to be made to the party’s federal fund, which is of limited use in assisting state campaigns.

Klarides, who married Butler last year, is also barred from contributing to the party’s state account, as well as other state campaigns, as the spouse of a state contractor.

Connecticut’s campaign finance laws can be tricky, as shown by the revised tweets from Klarides ballyhooing the match.

The Department of Public Health (DPH) has thrown the state’s judicial branch into confusion over vaccinations of frontline employees, causing some judges, marshals, and detention center employees to cancel appointments.

DPH authorized the judicial branch to upload into the Vaccination Administration Management System (VAMS) names and contact information of its frontline workers. That included judges working in the courtroom, courthouse marshals, and employees at the two detention centers the branch runs. Invitations to make appointments for vaccinations followed. The judicial branch instills the habit of following directions. Appointments were made. Shortly after, DPH executed a reversal and told the branch that due to lack of vaccines workers under 75 years old should not make appointments and those who had should cancel their appointments.

The branch employs few people who are 75 years or older.

Connecticut Republicans’ two national committee members, Leora Levy and John Frey, were blocked from becoming interim chairman and deputy chairman until the 74 members elect leaders for a full term in June. The vacancy occurred when J.R. Romano resigned without warning after announcing in October he would serve the remainder of his term but not seek re-election.

Levy began contacting state central committee members last week to pitch the plan. She and Frey were informed by the party’s national committee lawyers Monday that national party rules prevent committee members from serving as a state party chairman. The interpretation suggests a seed of observing rules has taken root at one of the party’s most Trump-centric organizations.

Assuring party committee members “titles were never the point,” Levy and Grey nevertheless do not want to give up their titles as national committee members to lead the state Republican organization through dire times. Levy was nominated by Donald Trump in 2019 to be the United States ambassador to Chile. The Senate’s failure to confirm Levy and Trump’s defeat by 7 million votes in November doomed the Greenwich Republican’s prospects. Frey declined to seek re-election to the state House of Representative in 2020, two years after a close call.

Ben Proto, a familiar figure in state Republican circles, announced Sunday he has “decided to seek the position of Chairman of the Connecticut Republican State Central Committee.” Proto made the announcement in an email to members of the party committee.

The Stratford Republican worked on Steve Obsitnik’s 2018 race for governor. He was the Connecticut head of Donald Trump’s 2016 race.

“I am the person to get us back in the game of winning,” Proto wrote, “I have the experience, relationships, and drive to draw the line in the sand now – to demonstrate to our candidates, incumbents, donors, volunteers, and voters that Connecticut and our Towns and Cities will be better off with Republicans elected at every level of government.”

Proto is seeking the vacancy created by the resignation of J.R. Romano, who announced in October he would not seek re-election in June. Party rules require an election within 60 days to fill the vacancy. There has been talk among the battered 74 Republican committee members that they should unite behind a temporary leader who would not seek a two-year term in June.

The Department of Public Health has begun its search for a new Director of Communications. The job is posted here. Candidates do not require the ability to intervene in a homicide investigation. DPH leaders may have revised their misbegotten decision to ask recently fired head of communications Av Harris, according to his lawyer, to obtain information from Bridgeport police investigating a December double fatal shooting at a bar.

Applicants should note that recent history suggests the deep roots in the state’s Democratic establishment are a decisive advantage in the competition for this position at the Department of Public Health.

Former Attorney General George Jepsen will be lobbying executive branch officials for Anthem, the health insurance company. Jepsen and law partner Perry Rowthorn registered with the state’s ethics agency Tuesday. They have registered to lobby the Office of State Comptroller, Office of the Attorney General, Department of Public Health, Office of the Governor, Department of Insurance, and Department of Corrections.

Health insurance is among the most regulated businesses in Connecticut.

Jepsen, a popular Democrat, served as attorney general from 2011 to 2019. He declined to seek a third term. Before becoming attorney general, Jepsen was a member of the state House of Representatives for two terms and the state Senate for six. He was the 2002 Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor and later became head of the state party organization.

Anthem is paying Jepsen and Rowthorn $3,000 a month and anticipates their arrangement to last for all of 2021.

Av Harris has plenty of experience in the press, politics and government. He has seen, shared, explained, reported, and participated in a wide range of events. Even he must be astonished at this past year at the state’s Department of Public Health.

As Director of Communications and Government Relations at DPH as 2020 began, Harris was at the center of the state’s initial response to the approaching global health crisis. On April 13th, as the pandemic was days from its peak in Connecticut, Harris resigned, effective May 7th, to begin “a new professional opportunity in my home state of Massachusetts.” Four days later, Harris, “upon further reflection,” rescinded his resignation.

In December, according to Harris lawyer Irene Bassock, her client’s supervisors assigned Harris on an astounding mission. He was asked to obtain information from Bridgeport police officers about the alleged violation of COVID-19 rules at a bar where a December double homicide occurred.

Harris, who was a top adviser to Bridgeport Mayor Joseph Ganim before joining the Lamont administration in 2019, possesses a highly developed instinct for recognizing trouble–for himself and others. Harris averred that asking a state health department spokesperson to intervene in a homicide investigation was unusual and beyond the scope of his authority. Harris attempted to raise his concerns with others in the department. When he was not able to reach them, he contacted a lawyer in Lamont’s office.

For his prudence, Harris says he was fired early this month. Thursday the 14th was his last day. The news came in a curt letter from Deidre Gifford, who is doing double duty as commissioner of public health and the state’s sprawling social services department.

Harris has been embroiled in controversy before. In March 2020, he referred to opponents removing the religious freedom exemption for inoculation of required vaccines as “the American Taliban.” Harris made the comments on Facebook. The group responded by calling for him to step down from his job.

His position would have been safer if the Malloy administration and the legislature had not moved public information officer positions out of the civil service. At-will state employers continue to enjoy whistleblower protections.