I’ll be with Dennis House, Denise D’Ascenzo, Joe Ganim, Jodi Latina, Tanya Meck, David Stemerman and more stars than in the heavens tonight on WFSB. Join us on the air and streaming for the latest news on who Connecticut voters elected today.

You cannot trust Bob Stefanowski. The Republican nominee for governor on Monday abandoned the tax cut pledge that has fueled his improbable race for governor since 2017. Today, Stefanowski announced that there will be no tax cuts in the first two years of his administration if he wins Tuesday. The concession to reality is a stunning retreat from the recent Democrat. Since revealing a tax plan Stefanowski paid economist Arthur Laffer to write and explain last year, Stefanowski has offered no caveats that cuts should be delayed. The plan that was unveiled on December 4th refers to immediate tax cuts and a phase out of the income tax over 8 years. Stefanowski’s startling announcement as voters prepare to go to the polls Tuesday will add to the public’s disenchantment with candidates who do not tell the truth.

As Joette Katz comes to the end of eight years of failure leading the Department of Children and Families (DCF), she began the week by offering some thoughts on white privilege to all DCF employees. Katz has presided over the injury and death of minority children since leaving the Supreme Court for DCF in 2011. In such cases, the injured or their family members can contact personal injury experienced attorneys for hire and get the compensation for the injury or loss. With the help of lawyers for car accidents, her time might be better spent, for example, investigating the death of an infant in New Britain earlier this year. If not you, who indeed, Commissioner?

Here are her thoughts on other topics:

State Trooper Larry Morello made the ugly stop of Republican state representative candidate Ernestine Holloway’s volunteers in Middlefield last week. The Meriden Record-Journal first reported the story Wednesday but did not include the identity of the politically active trooper. The Courant also has more.

Morello, the resident state trooper in nearby Durham, has been a busy volunteer for Susan Bysiewicz, a Middletown resident making her ninth bid for statewide office as the Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor. Morello, Daily Ructions can report, has not been discreet about his connection to Bysiewicz.

A van of nine Holloway volunteers was canvassing a Middlefield neighborhood when they were stopped by Morello. He asked them to summon Holloway, who was campaigning in the same neighborhood, to the scene, according to the Record-Journal. A witness has told others that it was a traumatic encounter with the physically imposing Morello.

Bysiewicz in a statement to Daily Ructions wrote through her spokesman, “The reports on this incident are deeply disturbing to me. As the former Secretary of the State, I believe in fair and open elections, and I have zero tolerance for any group or person who would hinder our democratic process. The officer involved in this situation was an occasional volunteer driver for me. As soon as the details were shared with me, we severed ties.”

Taxpayer financed campaigns are helping to finance state Senator Mae Flexer’s job as executive director of Emerge Connecticut, the organization that prepares Democratic women for political activism. Democratic campaigns have paid thousands to Emerge Connecticut for training. This raises the unsettling prospect of candidates who become legislators having underwritten another public official’s private compensation. It has the appearance–and perhaps the reality–of compromising Flexer’s independence. This reminiscent of the unsettling situation that arose when Manchester Democrat Geoff Luxenberg was a member of the General Assembly and an aggressive campaign consultant to many Democratic candidates. It made sensible people uncomfortable.

Flexer did not respond to requests for comment.

A week before Connecticut voters head to the polls, a Quinnipiac University survey finds Democrat Ned Lamont with a narrow lead over Republican Bob Stefanowski. The poll of likely voters has Lamont at 47%, Stefanowski with 43%, and petitioning candidate Oz Griebel with 7%.

U.S. Representative Elizabeth Esty makes a stop in leafy Harwinton on her long farewell tour. The disgraced 5th District Democrat will be the guest of honor at a November 17th reception featuring a clutch of area Democratic leaders.

Esty was forced to drop her bid for a fourth term in the spring when the Hearst papers and the Washington Post dropped a Maundy Thursday bombshell that the wealthy Cheshire Democrat kept abusive chief of staff Tony Baker employed in her Washington office when despite knowing of his appalling treatment of a staff member.

Esty later arranged a soft landing for Baker, helping him obtain a job in the Ohio office of anti-violence group Sandy Hook promise. Baker also received a severance payment from taxpayers without objection from the complicit Esty. What did he have on her?

No word on when 5th District Democrats will honor brave former staffer Anna Kain, the victim. They prefer to toast the enabler As she continues her unsavory quest for self-preservation.

File this under better late than never. Dora Schriro, commissioner of the Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection, will leave her position before the end of the Malloy administration in January. Schriro was a second term appointment by Malloy. Her inclusion in the Democrat’s administration in light of her appalling record overseeing New York’s Rikers Island belied Malloy’s claim to want to reform criminal justice. Schriro was and remains an embarrassment to Connecticut.

The elusive Bob Stefanowski strikes again. The former pawn shop operator has cancelled an appearance on Thursday morning’s Where We Live on Connecticut Public Radio. The program made the announcement on Twitter Wednesday morning.

In its statement, Stefanowski appeared to blame Democratic opponent Ned Lamont for the decision. Lamont was born with money and this seems to irritate the loan shark executive who financed his primary campaign but does cannot match Lamont’s resources in the general election. For someone who offers effusive praise to Donald Trump, this is an odd excuse. But any conjuring will do when a candidate does not want to risk a long form interview with the probing questions that may feature.

Republican Susan Hatfield and Democrat Willam Tong created a debate from another planet Wednesday on WFSB. Host Dennis House and panelist Tim Fisher deserve recognition for not laughing aloud at some of the non sequiturs the candidates produced in response to serious questions. Neither candidate showed a basic grasp of the essentials of the job. The office’s first duty is to represent the State of Connecticut and its many legal affairs.

You can watch it here. It’s 28 minutes, but it does not take that long to get a sense of the encounter.