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Senate Democratic staffers are off to Sprague to help save embattled First Selectman and state Senator Cathy Osten. Under Osten’s leadership, the southeastern Connecticut community has become one of just three towns to fall under the authority of the Municipal Accountability Review Board.

Local elections provide a more direct form of municipal accountability, which is why Democratic staffers will be parachuting into Sprague.

Incumbent Republican First Selectman Jeff Manville defeated endorsed candidate Jennifer Naylor in their Southbury race. Manville defeated Naylor 1047 to 621.

Justin Elicker has defeated Mayor Toni Harp in her bid for the Democratic nomination for re-election. Elicker has enjoyed strong support and a formidable turnout in his home area. Harp inspired low turnouts in districts where she was favored.

The signatures were collected with dispatch and the merchandise for Row B was ready to go. And then along came Kellin Atherton and petitioned his way onto the ballot for a rare planning and zoning primary. Atherton’s late primary challenge has upended mayoral candidate William Russo’s slate’s position on the crowded Middletown primary ballot.

There is an endorsed slate for mayor and town council. That’s headed by Mary Bartolotta, whose campaign has trouble dealing with the headwinds that are permanent fixtures of the civic religion known as Middletown Democratic politics. Public works director Russo put together an impressive slate for mayor and town council. It did not include a challenger for planning and zoning, thus rendering it incomplete when Atherton emerged.

Because the Russo slate is no longer comprehensive, it will be separated on the ballot. The council candidates will remain on the second line but next to mayoral challenger Ben Florsheim. In Connecticut primaries, challengers are listed alphabetically. Russo will be on the third line, away from his supporters.

Bartolotta faces her own problems. She’s the endorsed candidate, but not all of the endorsed candidates for council support her. There are some Florscheim supporters on her line.

One wonders if the eager Atherton knew what he would wrought by submitting enough signatures to seek a spot on the November ballot for for planning and zoning.

With local alliances spread around the ballot like a box of Skittles, candidates may take some solace in the knowledge that voters in municipal primaries–often low turnout affairs–are often the most engaged voters.

Governor Ned Lamont will provide 3.5% annual raises to a slew of non-union state employees. The raises will be retroactive to July 1st.

Tab: $4 million.

When is the last time the state’s economy grew by 3.5% in a year?

The Lamont administration and the state’s hospitals have reached an agreement on the hospitals’ litigation over the allocation of the provider tax. Keep an eye out for some serious can kicking.

Honoré Daumier on Good Friday.

More confirmation that self-regard rules in the Office of the Attorney General. Tahoe-driving, faux environmentalist William Tong sent a message to all office employees late Monday afternoon to let them know that Thursday will be his 100th day in office. This appears not to have been on office calendars nor on the minds of the state’s busy civil lawyers.

To celebrate his epoch, HRH Tong has engaged in the sort of noblesse oblige that they used to learn at fancy private schools. He invites the office masses to don as a tribute to him on Thursday “any tasteful and appropriate clothing in which you are comfortable.”

One measure of how tone-deaf Tong is on employee relations? Even Richard Blumenthal never issued such a decree during his 20 years in the office.

Some good news for Connecticut and Ned Lamont. Indra Nooyi, co-chair of the Connecticut Economic Resource Center, is Amazon’s newest board member, according to CNBC. That ought out to provide some serious opportunities for Connecticut officials to get to the right people at one of the world’s most dynamic corporations. Connecticut has already provided Amazon a warm welcome in Windsor and Wallingford. Lamont would like the market innovator to do more here now that it’s been chased out of New York.

Nooyi, former head of PepsiCo, lives in Greenwich.

The Ganim administration is scurrying to find out what’s been going on in city government. An FBI inquiry into scrap metal, as reported by the Connecticut Post, has city officials in a state of anxiety. One high level official is making inquiries to experienced investigators for assistance. The city’s current complement of overseers is thought not to be up to the job. This is beginning to feel like a story with many chapters.