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Southbury Republican Cindy Harrison launched her campaign Monday for the open 69th House District seat. Incumbent Arthur O’Neill is retiring after 18 terms.

The district includes Southbury, Bridgewater, Roxbury, and Washington.

Harrison is a CPA with an MBA and has served in Southbury’s municipal government.

Judge Barbara Bellis kept her word. The Superior Court judge presided over a controversy arising from an extended 2017 Bridgeport city council primary. Absentee ballot manipulations caused the Democratic primary for the 133rd Council District to be held three times.

During the extended proceedings, Bellis announced that her ruling would be sent to elections administrators and law enforcement officials. She did and FBI agents have made inquiries about absentee ballot practices in Bridgeport, Daily Ructions has learned.

The absentee ballot investigation appears to have expanded into other areas of Bridgeport politics. The story was first reported Saturday by Only in Bridgeport and included considerable detail. It included a geshrai of pain from first term state Senator Dennis Bradley, who is feeling the business end of a federal investigation. Investigations of Bradley’s campaign finance practices are also pending at the State Elections Enforcement Commission.

The cases continue.

State Representative Kim Rose (D-Milford) will not seek a sixth term in the House. Rose announced Friday that serving the people of “the 118th district has been such a blessing and the honor of a lifetime.”

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.