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Another hurdle for Republican candidates running for the state legislature. The Independent Party line has been home to Republican hopefuls for a decade–seen by many as a counterweight to the Working Families Party reliable endorsements of Democrats.

The Independent Party played its most pivotal role in the 2010 race for governor when its nominee, Tom Marsh, won 17,000 votes as Republican Tom Foley fell fewer than 7,000 votes short of defeating Democrat Dannel P. Malloy. This week’s endorsement of Democrats and libertarian-minded candidates will add to the woes of Republican hopefuls in a presidential year that is expected to see Joe Biden and Kamala Harris sweep Connecticut in a high-turnout election.

The candidate questionnaire above, which not every candidate received, reveals the the small party’s philosophy has taken a sharp turn to the left.

Republican candidates were confused on the party’s new nominating rules. Many appear not to have participated in the selection process. The party did endorse 17th Senate District Republican incumbent George Logan. Candidates and their campaign teams are baffled that they received no direction from embattled state Republican chairman J.R. Romano and his vice chairman Susan Hatfield. Candidates are turning today to legislative leaders for an explanation and some help.

The Connecticut Bar Association and the Connecticut Bar Foundation have included state Senator Said Anwar (D-South Windsor) in a lecture for lawyers on “Systemic Racism, Voting and American Democracy.” U.S. Representative Jahana Hayes and University of Connecticut School of Law professor Douglas Spencer will join Anwar on the panel Tuesday, August 25th. Former WFSB political reporter Duby McDowell is the moderator.

Anwar used a June 4th virtual vigil marking the death of George Floyd by police violence to attack First Amendment rights of free speech and a free press. “There was a nasty article written about me by somebody at the Journal Inquirer, Chris Powell, who hates when I speak about minorities,” Anwar charged. “And there’s a person who lives in South Windsor, on Main Street, who hates me because of what I look like, and what can I do? He’s a writer. He can write whatever he wants but I cannot change the color of my skin. I cannot change my faith. … We will have to silence the voices which are nasty and hate-based, and they are among us.”

I am the writer in South Windsor who was the target of Anwar’s smear. Truth is the demagogue’s persistent adversary. Anwar’s coarse bid to intimidate me and incite others failed. He inadvertently included one truth in the pernicious nonsense of his June rant: There is a hate-filled voice among us. It is not mine. 

An enduring glory of freedom is our confidence in extending it to those who would deny it to us. The demagogue in his rancid fantasies exercises that freedom in furtherance of his abuse. Malice and intimidation are his companions; imagination and subtlety are not. The demagogue reveals himself as he spews his venom. We cannot claim we did not know.

The fundamental democratic act of voting in frequent and fair elections has no meaning without free speech and a free press. Today’s democracy panel provides a glimpse of the sponsors’ own poverty of commitment to the liberal values that ought to inspire their work. Freedom is doing its vital revelatory work today for 1.5 continuing legal education credits.

Senior United States District Judge Charles S. Haight, Jr., Friday denied a request by the Connecticut State Police Union (CSPU) to enjoin the expansion of the Freedom of Information Act to contract and disciplinary matters.

The legislature included in its July police legislation, Public Act 20-1, prohibitions on secrecy that it narrowly enacted in 2019. CSPU, claiming the new law violates the Contracts Clause of the United States Constitution, sought to block the implementation of the law by asking the court for a temporary restraining order. Judge Haight denied the request and established a briefing schedule and set September 1st for oral arguments on what is now an action for a temporary injunction.

“On the present record, Plaintiff [CSPU] has not demonstrated the requisite likelihood of success on the merits of its Contract Clause claim, and irreparable harm to Police Union members between today and the preliminary hearing if a TRO is not issued at this time.”

Oral arguments will be heard on Tuesday, September 1st.

Newington Democratic Town Committee condemned nine Facebook posts that appeared on Republican state legislative candidate Michael Camillo’s social media account. DTC Vice Chair Rob Rioux condemned the nine posts as “racist, homophobic, xenophobic, and otherwise hateful and inflammatory….” They are also Islamophobic and virulently hostile to immigration. One claims that the polio vaccine gave 90 million people cancer. The quote attributed to U.S. Senator Ted Cruz is fake.

Camillo, who was elected to Newington’s town council last fall, denies the texts are his. Asked by Daily Ructions if he posted or shared the posts, which were provided by Rioux, Camillo replied, “The answer is no but you’re more than welcome to come visit me and have a cup of coffee and I can show you my computer and you can get to meet me you will be pleasantly surprised we went through this the last election.”

Camillo declined to elaborate. He faces incumbent Democrat Gary Turco in November.

Republican former state Representative John Shaban, seeking to return to the state legislature this fall, was arrested October 19th last year and charged with disorderly conduct at his Redding home. Shaban’s longtime girlfriend was charged with the same misdemeanor in the domestic incident.

Shaban was a member of the legislature in 2016 when he declined to seek re-election in order to challenge incumbent Democratic U.S. Representative Jim Himes in Connecticut’s 4th Congressional District. Shaban lost. He sought the Republican nomination for attorney general in 2018 and suffered a landslide defeat by party-endorsed candidate Susan Hatfield.

Asked by Daily Ructions about the October arrest, Shaban said he and his girlfriend arrived at his home at the end of a night out. Shaban believed she had consumed too much alcohol to drive home. The Greenwich lawyer said he took her keys and called for an Uber. His girlfriend, whose name Daily Ructions is not disclosing, called the police. The police arrived, spoke to each adult separately, assessed the situation and charged both with disorderly conduct. Shaban’s girlfriend contacted Daily Ructions Wednesday by text, writing, “[T]he two of us had not really been drinking. John was the designated driver. We had an argument about getting home late that night.”

Both defendants, who have maintained their relationship with each other, were referred to the court’s Office of Family Relations to complete a diversionary program. The matter has remained on the Superior Court docket in Danbury, its disposition delayed to the public health crisis shutdown. Shaban expects both cases will be dismissed later this month.

Shaban will face first term incumbent Democrat Anne Hughes in the race for the 135th House District, which includes Weston, Easton and part of Redding.

Richard Tutunjian is a member of the Republican State Central Committee from the 8th District.

UPDATE. State Senator Kevin Witkos, who represents the 8th Senate District, provided this statement in response to the above-post:

“The Facebook posts shared by an 8th district state central committee member have no place in our public discourse and I condemn them wholeheartedly. I abhor the fact that instead of focusing on policy disagreements and arguing the best way to improve our communities, state, and national, political discourse has descended this low. Whether these posts are created or shared by a state central member, or even our president, they bring us all down and do not reflect the values that so many of us hold dear. I have called upon Rich Tutunjian to step down in his role as a state central member for the 8th district”

You knew it was inevitable.

A statement from First Selectman Jayme Stevenson of Darien:

News from Eastern Connecticut doesn’t often make it’s way to Fairfield County but we are downwind of a political stench emanating from the 2nd Congressional District. I’ve recently confirmed that the CTGOP Chairman and others in GOP leadership were presented with information in April of this year about a horrific domestic violence act…an act that resulted in the arrest of the perpetrator on Monday, August 10 on charges of first-degree unlawful restraint and second degree strangulation. You can read more about the incident in this article.

Paralyzed by the idea of exposing a “favored” Congressional candidate, the CTGOP leaders chose silence and inaction.  Silence and inaction are not options when a victim, traumatized by fear, cries out for help.  

The monster at the center of this story is, unbelievably, in a vote recount with his opponent and will likely win the primary.  Every Connecticut Republican should be as outraged as I am that party leaders let a domestic violence abuser continue his candidacy while his victim watches in shock and dismay.  Stopping domestic abuse is not someone else’s job…it’s our collective responsibility to step up, speak out with the help of lawyers from domestic violence law firm and stop the abuse.

As a woman, mother, grandmother, CEO and compassionate human being, I understand the immediate duty to act when presented with serious allegations.  It is quite literally a matter of life and death for the victim.  Everyone deserves their due process but by turning their back on this young woman, CTGOP leadership turned their back on all women…on my daughters, on my friends and my sisters across Connecticut.

I say NO MORE!  It’s time we dismantle and rebuild the Connecticut Republican Party into an organization that truly values women and is not complicit in putting political interests above the safety of victims.

If you are in an abusive relationship and need help, please call tel:1-888-774-2900 (English) or tel:1-844-831-9200 (Spanish).

Jayme J. Stevenson
Mom, Grandmother, Aunt, Friend

State Senator and retired police sergeant Kevin Witkos (R-Canton) called Sunday for state Republican Party chairman J.R. Romano to resign over his mishandling of accusations of domestic violence against party-endorsed congressional candidate Thomas Gilmer. Romano has said he knew of the accusations before the party’s 2nd District nominations convention in May but declined to disclose what he knew and took no action.

“I am deeply disturbed by reports that state party leadership did anything but immediately report this information to law enforcement. You cannot build barriers to illegal activity and then claim plausible deniability,” Witkos wrote in a statement Sunday. “As a retired police sergeant and someone who has made numerous domestic violence arrests, I can say unequivocally that these situations need to be investigated immediately and that proper notification to law enforcement is essential. It should not be up to anyone else to decide whether the situation should be investigated further.”

Witkos, who serves as Deputy Senate Minority Leader, concluded, “The more I learn about this entire incident the more unsettled and troubled I become. The fact that Chairman Romano knew of these allegations, but took no further action leads me to join calls for his resignation as Chairman of the Connecticut state Republican Party.”

No one should be surprised at Republican state chairman J.R. Romano’s base instincts to ignore allegations that the party-endorsed candidate for Congress from Connecticut’s 2nd District had assaulted a woman. Romano struggles without a simple-minded script to recite.

Susan Hatfield, the state party’s vice chair and a state prosecutor, has managed in one story to reveal herself as Connecticut’s law enforcement official with the least interest in crime. Hatfield, the 2018 Republican candidate for attorney general, transformed a statement to the Courant’s Daniela Altimari into a stark confession.

“When approached by Justin Anderson, he alluded that he had information on Tom Gilmer involving an ex-girlfriend that would hurt him politically,” Hatfield told Altimari since they don’t know anything on understanding no contest please. “I immediately stopped him and unequivocally stated that if anything he was going to tell me was criminal in nature or if he believed that anyone was at risk of harm, he needed to go directly and without delay to the police,’’

“Further, I told him that if he informed me of any criminal wrongdoing or if I believed that anyone may be in harms way that I have a duty and obligation to go to the police myself,’’ Hatfield said. [Emphasis added.] “Consequently, Justin never told me the details, never showed me any evidence that he had, and when I hung up the phone, I was hopeful that Justin would do the right thing. My response to Justin was simple and clear: I urged that the matter be reported to the police.”

Someone obviously was in harm’s way. Hatfield’s explanation is unintentionally clear: she did not want to know. As a candidate for attorney general Hatfield declared on her campaign website, “Throughout her career, she has fought to keep and make Connecticut a safer place and was the first prosecutor to receive a conviction for the completed crime of human trafficking under Connecticut’s criminal statutes.” Hatfield concealed that she has the instincts of Kitty Genovese’s neighbors.

Hatfield’s statement reveals her willful ignorance. She is prosecutor as ostrich. With credible proof of a violent domestic assault known to party officials, Hatfield, a prosecutor, discouraged a person with evidence of a crime from sharing it with her.

It is always chilling to witness normal human instincts strangled by base political calculation. This cannot end here. Hatfield’s confession is in hand. Others must now act on it. Calls for Romano’s resignation are incomplete if they do not include Hatfield quitting. The Division of Criminal Justice Commission, which oversees the state’s prosecutors, cannot avert its gaze.