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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.

Lee Griffin came close to winning the East Hartford Democratic Town Committee’s endorsement at its July nominating meeting. The retired police officer and former board of education and town council member serves as the town’s treasurer. The town committee contest, Griffin says, featured many last-minute switches, leaving him with 45% of the votes cast.

Griffin will need to collect more than 700 valid signatures from local Democrats to challenge the winner of the town committee contest, former Republican town council member and town finance director Michael Walsh, in a September primary. The confident Griffin said Saturday that he and his team are on course to qualify for the primary ballot. It should not take this much time and effort to participate in a primary..

Making it easier to cast a vote has limited effect if candidates are kept off the ballot by the hurdles that serve party organizations.

Posted August 7, 2021

New Haven Board of Alder member Darryl Brackeen has filed a campaign committee to explore a bid for statewide office. The four-term Democrat is considering running for secretary of the state. Three-term incumbent Denise Merrill is not seeking re-election.

Brackeen’s July 13th filing with the State Elections Enforcement Commission indicated he was also weighing a campaign for the General Assembly. He amended it eight days later to limit his exploration to statewide offices, not including treasurer.

Party leaders and activists have been receiving calls from a platoon of Democrats testing their support and that of others interested in running for secretary of the state. Others are waiting for a signal from Kevin Lembo, the state’s third-term comptroller, on his 2022 intentions.

New Haven sends the largest delegations to state Democratic conventions.

Alexis Gevanter did it in 24 hours. Ryan Fazio did it in half that time. One gets the feeling the campaign for the 36th Senate District special election is going to be competitive on every front.

Gavanter, Greenwich Democrat, announced Thursday that she had raised in the 24 hours after winning her party‘s nomination on Tuesday the $12,000 in small contributions needed to qualify for public financing of her campaign. Fazio declared on Twitter Sunday morning that he’d done the same in the 12 hours after he’d defeated Leora Levy, Donald Trumps choice to be ambassador to Chile, in a lopsided 20-9 vote by Republican delegates.

Another Democrat in the three-town district, John Blankley, also had news this weekend. He’s collected more than 1,000 signatures to petition onto the the August 17th ballot. That’s hundreds more than the veteran active Democrat will need to secure a spot on the ballot.

Republican Ryan Fazio won the Republican nomination in 36th Senate District, defeating Republican National Committee member Leora Levy. Fazio, the party’s 2020 nominee, won by a convincing margin in the brief contest since Democrat Alex Kasser resigned to devote her energy to her contentious divorce from Seth Bernstein.

The special election is August 17th.

State Representative Josh Elliott (D-Hamden) has formed an exploratory committee for statewide office. Elliott is has been taking soundings for a run for secretary of state since incumbent Denise Merrill announced she would not seek a fourth term.

A stint as the state’s chief elections officer and keeper of business document would allow the busy leftist at last to supervise employees who make more than the minimum wage.

Elliott will need to get by a host of more popular prospects for the job. The most formidable prospective candidate is state Representative Hilda Santiago (D-Meriden). Elliott would struggle in a race against the highly regarded Santiago, which may be why he included state Representative as one of the offices he is exploring.

State Representative Harry Arora R-Greenwich) ended his brief candidacy for the Republican nomination in the 36th Senate District summer special election. Arora expressed gratitude and disappointment after several days in this unusual arena. He was able to assemble a list of more than 1,000 supporters in a trice. Not many Connecticut Republicans could match that accomplishment.

Convinced he is the strongest candidate with everyone but the 31 delegates who will meet Saturday, Arora warned, “Should we lose this seat, the delegates should be held accountable.”

State law precludes primaries in special elections. Connecticut continues to have restrictive ballot access rules that favor party insiders.

Alexis Gevanter announced Thursday night she had met the requirements to qualify for public financing in her campaign for the 36th Senate District special election. The Greenwich Democrat shared the news on Twitter, two days after winning her party’s nomination in the three-town district.

The state’s generous public financing program has different rules for special elections. A major party candidate for the August 17th contest is required to raise $12,000 with at least 225 contributions from residents of the towns included in the district. Qualifying candidates will receive $77,966.25 in public funds.

Republicans select their candidate Saturday.