Let the games begin. Tensions among House Democrats escalate over Currey hire.
This is not what the top tier of the House Democrats expected. They dismissed rumors that House Majority Leader Jason Rojas would hire fellow East Hartford Democrat and House member Jeff Currey as his chief of staff, replacing the ousted Christy Scott. A lot of people say Speaker Matthew Ritter and his faithful majordomo even have the receipts that Currey would not be getting the plum spot with a handsome salary and little heavy lifting.
It must have been a miscommunication or some texts read out of context that caused the savvy Democrats to think Currey was out of the running–even when in the summer he left the field of battle by giving up his nomination for re-election. There was considerable speculation what awaited the accomplished meddler in party doings. No, some insisted, it would not be to join Rojas.
Currey may be as much symptom of the tensions as cause. Ritter has planted himself as speaker and appears to have no intention of leaving. His roster of committee chairs reveals his clever scheme to keep newer caucus members on side. The child of privilege has overseen his mother snagging a spot on the state’s highest court, the mommy seat. A brother-in-law got a trial court robe. His father, ex-speaker and lobbyist Thomas Ritter, continues on the University of Connecticut Board of Trustees, far beyond his sell-by date. Matthew Ritter trades what he must as both agent and servant of the fourth and most independent branch of government, UConn.
Ritter’s fealty to the bloated UConn bureaucracy costs innocents across the state. Customers of Aquarion Water Company are the most recent to be sacrificed to Ritter’s service to and protection of UConn. Nothing comes free in the Capitol Village.
Ritter, like Mrs. Thatcher days before the fall, pledges to go on and on as speaker. While there is no open revolt, there are the elements of quiet conspiracy taking shape. If Ritter and Rojas remain in place, no women will have occupied the lower chamber’s top jobs for years and years. That does not seem right to many. The Senate has also been without a female in one of its top two jobs since the great Dell Eads was its president pro tem thirty years ago.
Enter a Currey. East Hartford may not be as robust a training ground in the dark arts as, say, New Haven and Bridgeport, but you can learn some ugly business there. Currey knows how to stir a pot while wielding a stiletto.
Ritter may find comments about certain lobbyists’ unfettered access to his office and authority suddenly becomes louder than careful mutters. Full-time caucus employees have plenty of time to chatter and plot and shape the political weather. There may be more storm clouds than the Democrats’ overwhelming majority suggest in December would appear by, oh, April or May.
Who will be Ben Hur? And who will be the broken Messala, who refused to play by the rules?
Published December 13, 2024.