Harris Prepares to Make Move for 2018.

Jonathan Harris, the commissioner of the Department of Consumer Protection, is preparing to leave his post in state government. Harris has been sniffing around Hartford for a job as a lawyer while he prepares to launch a bid for, incredibly, governor of Connecticut, Daily Ructions can report.

Harris, a Democrat, served as mayor of West Hartford before he was elected to the state Senate. He gave up his seat in the legislature to run for secretary of the state in 2010. He failed to win his party’s nomination at its state convention. Harris served briefly in the perpetual battlefield that is State Treasurer Denise Nappier’s office before becoming executive directive of the state Democratic party organization. He served in that full-time position during Governor Dannel P. Malloy’s 2014 re-eelection campaign. The party is paying more than $300,000 the State Elections Enforcement Commission to keep secret campaign emails sent among Harris, Malloy and Malloy insiders. Malloy appointed Harris to head the consumer protection shortly after the governor was re-elected.

Harris will join a field that may include Middletown mayor Dan Drew, state Senator Ted Kennedy, and State Comptroller Kevin Lembo. Harris expects to run as a sensible liberal in a field of near-socialists.

Malloy is pondering whether to seek a third term  in the face of public and private polls that show his approval ratings in the low 20s–or worse. Democrats are starting to believe that Malloy would have trouble winning a two candidate contest in a primary for the state’s top job.