That didn’t take long. Robert Clark was nominated to the Superior Court in April and confirmed by the legislature not long after that. The Durham resident will resign from the bench to serve as Governor-elect Ned Lamont’s legal counsel. Clark was a highly-regarded counsel to outgoing Attorney General George Jepsen, who serves as co-chair of Lamont’s transition team.

Clark earned a reputation as the AG’s office as a lawyer who could translate complex issues into manageable explanations for other government officials. Clark was state government’s expert on the intricacies of the tribal gaming issues, which will come in handy in the legislative session that begins on January 9th.

Former gang member and Joe Lieberman loyalist Eddie Perez will attempt to seize the crown he was charged corrupting his office. The former mayor and shakedown artist is expected to challenge first term mayor Luke Bronin.

Perez will seek to become mayor of the city he is suing for hundreds of thousands in defense fees, though he was convicted of public corruption.

Perez and Bronin are said to have had a tense encounter about the challenge today.

Bronin won a narrow primary victory over incumbent Democrat Pedro Segarra in their 2015 face-off. Bronin struggled in this year’s Democratic nomination contest for governor. The Greenwich native abandoned his bid before the state convention.

Dan Drew concludes a difficult run by announcing he will not seek a fourth term as mayor of bustling Middletown. If all had gone according to plan, Drew would have been devoting the end of the year to preparing for his new administration as governor. Drew was the first Democrat into the 2016 race for the state’s top office. He was ready to challenge unpopular Democratic incumbent Dannel P. Malloy. Malloy, however, abandoned the doomed notion of a third term during Holy Week in 2017. That opened the field to many other Democratic contenders.

Drew became embroiled in a series of campaign finance snafus–first reported on Daily Ructions–that made fundraising more difficult. He erred in hiring campaign consultant Geoff Luxenburg as his chief of staff in Middletown. Lines became blurred and resentments built in the hothouse that is Middletown’s city hall.

In January, an insurgent slate of candidates for the Middletown Democratic Town Committee delivered a humiliating defeat to Drew’s incumbent slate by a 118-41 margin. The silent coup was so successful that Susan Bysiewicz tried to associate herself with it after it ended in victory.

Since then, it has been difficult to see a way forward for Drew in the tumultuous Middletown political culture.

The permanent financial wrecking ball that is Ben Barnes refuses to go away. The departing Malloy budget director and tax increase whisperer is headed to the Connecticut State Colleges and Universities system as its chief financial officer.

A federal grand jury is hearing testimony on absentee ballot fraud in Hartford, Daily Ructions can report. The investigation has included teams of federal agents recently hitting the streets of the state’s capital city to interview local Democrats.

The investigation arises out of events alleged to have occurred in elections that took place before this month’s gubernatorial contest and may involve a course of conduct during more than one campaign. Absentee ballot fraud almost never involves one person acting alone. According to a lawyer, working as a defense attorney, it is a crime that lends itself to conspiracies, giving investigators a host of players to interview and squeeze.

The role of veteran state Representative Minnie Gonzalez (D-Hartford) in gathering absentee ballots has been included in investigators’ questions. Gonzalez, whose online official biography notes that she has endured many adversities, faced a primary challenge this past summer for the Democratic nomination for a 12th term in the House. She defeated newcomer Gannon Long 1118-487. Gonzalez won the absentee ballots 271-34, according to a Courant report. Gonzalez was fined by the State Elections Enforcement Commission for violations of absentee ballot laws in a 2006 incident.

Gonzalez was an important ally to her colleague Attorney General-elect William Tong in his fight for the Democratic nomination this year at both the state party convention and in the August primary.

Those who fall under the gaze of investigators will want to be mindful that it is a crime to give false statement to an FBI agent.

State Senator George Logan has prevailed in the recount for the 17th State Senate District. The Naugatuck Valley Republican has won a second term by an unofficial 85 votes. Logan has defeated Democrat Jorge Cabrera.

Attorney General-elect William Tong may want to take a look at the state’s statutes before authorizing his transition team to send an ominous memo to AG lawyers. Tong and his transition team told lawyers that they will entertain candidates for, among other positions, department heads. Those positions, however, are in the classified service. Employees may only be removed by layoffs for lack of work– not likely, mate, when you are looking for replacements–or for cause. It would be unsettling if Tong is conniving to use cause before he’s taken office.

Tong and his team may want to look at Connecticut General Statutes Section 5-240. The smartest man in any room’s initial foray into labor law has left nerves jangling in the AG’s office.

Memo to Tong: Connecticut General Statutes are the codified laws of our sovereign state. No one is above them.

UPDATE: Wednesday was a busy day for lawyers at the attorney general’s office. Attorney General-elect William Tong’s menacing transition memo prompted lawyers in the office to have a look at Bysiewicz v. DiNardo. Others searched online court records to see how busy a litigator Tong has been. Unanimous conclusion: Not very. Wags did note that one of Tong’s few appearances was to quash a subpoena directed at another lawyer in his firm–who now heads the transition team.

Tong appears to struggle to understand the essentials of labor relations law other than as campaign rhetoric. Threatening the jobs of members while they are in an arbitration could be seen as an unfair labor practice. One suspects the mayor of Gotham did not trouble himself with such things at Phillips Academy Andover, Brown and the University of Chicago.

NancyonNorwalk.com is a jewel among local news sites. Nancy Chapman is tireless in reporting news in Norwalk. Because the Senate Majority Leader, Bob Duff, is a Norwalk Democrat, news from those precincts can be of interest to a wide audience.

Take NancyonNorwalk’s October 11th post on Duff’s eyebrow-raising campaign spending. His re-election campaign paid SoNo Group to manage his campaign. SoNo Group is run by Nancy Pugh. She lives at Duff’s home and appears to be his tenant. It is the sort of arrangement that makes people skeptical about the motives of our political leaders. It’s not as direct as using a political committee to pay rent to yourself, as state Representative Minnie Gonzalez used to do, but it does prompt concerns of manipulating Connecticut’s generous public campaign financing system to reap a personal benefit beyond having the taxpayers bear the burden of a political campaign.

Well that was unusual. Daily Ructions called the phone number listed on 17th State Senate District Democrat Jorge Cabrera’s website–(203) 525-0487–and left a message. A campaign person returned the call, handed the phone over to someone with the campaign. The question was simple: Was Jorge Cabrera also known as George Cabrera of Fairhaven, Massachusetts? George Cabrera lived in Fairhaven at the turn of the 21st century, That George Cabrera was fined $750 in one of the many absentee ballot fraud scandals that has plagued Bridgeport, according to a 2011 CT Post story.

The Democratic candidate locked in a seesawing contest with incumbent Republican George Logan is originally from Bridgeport.

The campaign declined to provide any information and hung up on Daily Ructions. Others may wish to inquire.

State Senator George Logan, the Republican in the 17th District has taken the lead as ballots continue to be counted in his close race for a second term. Logan had been declared the loser but on Thursday an error in reporting the count was found that put him in the lead.

Updates as they occur.