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This is not how it was to end. State Representative Hilda Santiago started the race for the Democratic nomination for secretary of the state as the early favorite. The popular Meriden Democrat is well-known beyond her district. She had the support of U.S. Senator Christopher Murphy and other party notables.

Santiago fizzled on the campaign trail while her House colleague from Norwalk, Stephanie Thomas, sizzled. At the party’s state convention on May 6th, Santiago was out maneuvered by the surging Thomas and was eliminated at the end of the second ballot.

Few challengers win primaries in Connecticut and there was no sign Santiago was enjoying a post-convention revival. After a week and a half of post-convention consultations and contemplation, Santiago announced late Wednesday that the is over for her. She is sadder but wiser in the ways of state politics among her fellow Democrats.

Published May 18, 2022.

Hartford Democrat Arunan Arulampalam announced Saturday that he will not seek the Democratic nomination for treasurer at May’s state convention. Arulampalam won the support of 42% of the delegates on the second ballot at the 2018 convention that endorsed Shawn Wooden. Arulampalam declined to primary Wooden, who defeated Greenwich Dita Bhargava in that summer’s primary.
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Wooden announced Thursday he will not seek a second term, igniting intense competition for the open seat. A Hartford Democrat has held the office since 1999. Denise Nappier, who defeated felonious Republican incumbent Paul Silvester in 1998, served for five terms.

Arulampalam served in Governor Ned Lamont’s administration as a deputy commission of consumer protection. He became CEO of the Hartford Land Bank in 2021, where he will continue to “feel blessed to be a small part of building [Hartford’s] future.”

Published April 9, 2022.

Daily Ructions readers looking for smart daily summary of events in tyranny’s assault on freedom will want to subscribe to the BBC’s Ukrainecast. You can use this link or download it on the podcast app of your choice.

Ukrainecast helps sort through what we want to believe and what we ought to know as the Ukrainians continue to hold high the torch of freedom in the face of brute force. They are fighting for us.

Published March 4, 2022.

Salt Lake City is a funny ol’ place to launch a campaign for a Connecticut seat in the U.S. Senate but these are not ordinary times.

Levy told supporters this week that she has been overwhelmed by the number of well wishers urging her to consider a bid against Democrat Richard Blumenthal.

The Greenwich Republican is an enthusiastic Trump supporter. Who won the 2020 election may be the trickiest question Republican Senate candidates face. Former House Republican leader Themis Klarides and Fairfield Republican Peter Lumaj have entered the race. The party nominating convention is in May, a primary could follow in September if any challenger to the endorsed candidate qualifies.

Published February 1, 2022.

New Haven Democrat Sarah Locke is the new executive director of the state Democratic party organization. Locke is a co-chair of New Haven’s party committee.

Locke gained important experience in the opera company management aspect of politics. She was Rep. Rosa DeLauro’s 2020 campaign manager. DeLauro faced a wealthy self-financing candidate and did not like it at all. Republican Margaret Streicker’s television ads infuriated DeLauro, who was seeking a 16th term and had not faced a vigorous opponent for decades. DeLauro did not like it. Competition in a democracy is for others. Locke was also an enthusiastic supporter of Democrat Christopher Mattei’s bid for the party’s nomination for attorney general.

Locke appears to have come through the 2020 campaign unscathed. That experience will be helpful preparation for the 2022 campaign. President Joe Biden’s plummeting approval ratings has Democratic candidates even in deep blue Connecticut feeling the vapors coming on. That may be why it took so long to find a new party ED.

There will be many demands on finite party resources. Locke’s job will be to deploy them in the most effective way. She’ll have to say no to candidates more often than she says yes, except for the candidate at the top of the ticket.

For the sake of posterity and entertainment, Locke should keep a journal. It is the only was to remember the rich details of what awaits her.

Published January 21, 2022.

State Senator Kevin Witkos will not seek re-election. The seven-term Canton Republican announced Thursday.

Witkos entered politics with a stunning win in 2002 when he defeated eight-term Democratic state Representative Jessie Stratton in their Avon and Canton district. Stratton was mounting a bid to become speaker of the house when Witkos, a popular Canton police officer, defeated her.

Witkos was the deputy Republican leader during the two years Republicans and Democrats each held 18 seats in the Senate.

Eleanor Roosevelt remains a singular American figure. She battled on for human rights after Franklin D. Roosevelt died in 1945. President Truman appointed her as a representative to the U.N., confirming her place as a citizen of the world.

The mystery guest spot on the popular Sunday night CBS program was usually filled by popular entertainers. This was, as host John Daly observed, a banner day for the show. Acknowledgement of a remarkable What’s My Line mystery guest moment was confirmed when Dorothy Kilgallen and Arlene Francis rose to shake hands as the guest greeted the panelists.

Mrs. Roosevelt would have been dismayed that tyrannical governments dominate the United Nations Human Rights Council today. It would have renewed her determination to spread the blessings of freedom to those denied them.

The Monday and Tuesday shift at the Legislative Office Building will work from home until after Labor Day. The building is closed due to the absence of air-conditioning.

Jim Tamburro, the Office of Legislative Management’s executive director, told employees Sunday, “Due to a problem at the facility in Hartford that provides us with heating and cooling services, the air-conditioning is not working in the LOB (as well as other state builds in the area.” The Capitol has air-conditioning.

Legislative employees work at the building in split schedules. Half are there Mondays and Tuesdays. Everyone works remotely Wednesdays. The other half of the workforce come in on Thursdays and Fridays.

Posted Monday, August 30, 2021.

State Senator Matt Lesser formed an exploratory committee Monday to seek statewide office. The Middletown Democrat has his eye on his party’s nomination for secretary of the state. A bid for comptroller might also become possible if three-term incumbent Kevin Lembo does not seek re-election.

Lesser served in the state House before winning his Senate seat in 2018. That spot opened when popular incumber Paul Doyle ran for attorney general. Lesser’s political life expanded when he quit Wesleyan University, where he’d been active in student politics, to win the first of five two-year terms in the House.

Members of the opera company known as the Senate Democrats are thought to be pleased indeed with Lesser’s bid for higher office.

Republican Ryan Fazio put one on the board for his beleaguered party Tuesday night by recapturing the Greenwich-based 36th Senate seat after two election wins for Democrat Alex Kasser. Fazio defeated Kasser-endorsed corporate lawyer Alexis Gevanter by about 500 votes, according to unofficial results. Fazio received 8888 votes to Gevanter’s 8416. Petitioning candidate John Blankley, a Democrat, received 391.

A strong result for Fazio in Greenwich and a poor turnout in Democratic Stamford were crucial to the Republican’s win.

Gevanter moved to Greenwich three years ago. Fazio is homegrown and graduated from Greenwich High School. Fazio entered the race shortly after Kasser announced she was abandoning her office to concentrate on the contentious divorce action she brought against husband Seth Bergstein shortly after she was elected to her first term in 2018.

Special elections in Connecticut are notably anti-democratic. No primaries are allowed. The party endorsed candidate is the nominee. Stalwart local Democrat John Blankley petitioned onto the special election ballot after being boxed out of his party’s nominating convention. Fazio, the 2020 Republican nominee for the seat, defeated Republican National Committeewoman Leora Levy for the nomination. State Representative Harry Arora dropped out of the contest on the eve of the convention vote.

Fazio joins 12 Republicans in the 36-member upper chamber. The legislature’s next regular session begins in February. The young Republican’s win consigns Kasser’s odd tenure to the annals of political curiosities. Tapping her personal fortune as suburban voters expressed their revulsion for Donald Trump was a combination that Gevanter could not duplicate.