Lamont Order Preempts Municipal Authority as State of Emergency Continues.

Governor Ned Lamont clipped the wings of municipal leaders Friday. The governor’s Executive Order 7H prohibits municipal chief executives from issuing orders that conflicts with any order issued by Lamont.

The sweeping limitation serves sharp notice to Hartford’s mayor, Luke Bronin, that there is room for only one Greenwich Democrat to set policy in this urgent hour and it is the governor, not the attention-seeking mayor whose 2018 campaign for the Democratic nomination for governor fell flat. The tone of a Bronin-initiated call with other mayors early this week caused alarm among some participants and was quickly shared with Lamont’s office. The governor’s rebuke today reminds the relentlessly ambitious that pandemic is not a campaign planning event for a 2022 campaign.