Connecticut electric ratepayers can look forward to a rate reduction. Eversource tells Daily Ructions the utility will seek to pass savings it will realize from the recent federal tax cut to its Connecticut customers. The New England distribution giant is doing the same in Massachusetts.

Here’s a statement from Eversource spokesperson Tricia Modifica:

State Representative Mike D’Agostino (D-Hamden) has formed a committee to explore statewide office. He is expected to concentration on a run for attorney general.

D’Agostino has been a leading advocate in the House for the ruinous labor agreements that will hinder the next governor in shaping a plan for the state’s economic recovery. D’Agostino’s work in corporate litigation may be grist for his left wing opponents if he joins the contest for the Democratic nomination for attorney general.

MEDIA ALERT

Treasurer Nappier To Hold Press Conference

 WHO:             State Treasurer Denise L. Nappier

WHAT:           Treasurer Nappier will hold a press conference on her 2018 election plans.

WHEN:           Wednesday, January 3, 2018 at 11:30 a.m.

WHERE:         Conference Room, 7^th Floor, State Treasurer’s Office, 55 Elm Street, Hartford, CT

State Treasurer Denise Nappier will confirm expectations today and announce her tenure will not seek a sixth term. The Hartford Democrat has been gracious in receiving news from various aspiring successors that they wanted to explore a candidacy for the office Nappier has held since the end of the last century.

Nappier did it the hard way in 1998. She scored an upset win at the Democratic state convention over a Newington Democrat, beat him in a primary, and then defeated corrupt incumbent Republican Paul Silvester that November. Silvester and others around him later went to jail for their misuse of their public trust.

Expect Republican Erin Stewart, the third-term mayor of New Britain, to form an exploratory committee for statewide office, including the big prize, treasurer. Stewart has been making the rounds of party leaders and veterans to seek advice on what to do.

This will be a busy week of candidates making some or all of their intentions known.

Former state Senator Jay Jackson, who served as legal counsel to Governor Ella Grasso and Governor Bill O’Neill, died this weekend. After leaving government, Jackson practiced law and lobbied. He was a gentleman in all he did.

Jackson was a strong contender in one of the most memorable political conventions in modern Connecticut state political history. The West Hartford Democrat came close to winning the crowded contest for U.S. Representative from the First District. He won the 1970 party endorsement at the two-day long convention as it struggled to nominate a successor to outgoing Representative Emilio Q. Daddario. Jackson was defeated in the primary that followed by Bill Cotter, a party official and controversial insurance commissioner.

Jackson lived in Madison at the time of his death.

The troubles keep coming from Connecticut’s lottery administrators. The annual New Year’s Super Draw is the latest cause of embarrassment for the agency which is seeking a new leader.

The lottery appears to have excluded tens of thousands of tickets from the drawing.

Hold on to your tickets. There will be another drawing–and many questions.

UPDATE: corrected drawing will be later this week.

Greenwich Republican Harry Arora is seeking the Republican nomination the U.S. House of Representatives from Connecticut’s 4th CD. Arora will face five-term incumbent Jim Himes, who has become a staple on CNN discussing what he’s been up to as a member of the House’s intelligence committee.

Arora was born in India and graduated from Delhi University in 1991 with a degree in engineering. He received an MBA from the University of Texas at Austin four years later. Arora expects to receive an MPA (not a certificate program like one Republican is always banging on about) at Harvard’s Kennedy School next year. Arora is a co-founder and partner in Northlander Advisors, an infirm specializing in European energy. Perhaps he has some ideas on how to reduce Connecticut’s debilitating energy costs, among the highest in the nation.

Arora’s campaign provided two stirring quotes from his announcement. Arora sounds like he is willing to oppose the ugliest instincts of the loathsome demagogue who serves in the White House.

“I am running for the United States Congress to protect our freedoms, to improve the lives of the most vulnerable in our society and ensure that we remain a land of equal opportunity for every American.”

While you have been celebrating the birth of Jesus and preparing to welcome a new year, some politicos have been plotting their way forward. At least two took flight to a warm climate to decide if either will seek the state’s highest office. Others are preparing polls to help them assess their chances. They need not bother testing the traditional right track/wrong track question. A private poll, Daily Ructions can report, found that the wrong track response was higher than observers have ever seen.

Watch for an announcement early in the year from longtime State Treasurer Denise Nappier. Should she decide not to seek a sixth term, take a moment to recall what her 1998 victory saved us from when she defeated felonious Republican incumbent Paul Silvester. It ended the festival of corruption that Silvester–who had served in the office under egregious Republican Christopher Burnham–immersed himself in.

Expect an announcement from Democrat Susan Bysiewicz that she will run for governor. It will be the third time the Middletown Democrat has sought that office. The former secretary of the state has been making calls seeking campaign staffers.

If you are a Democrat holding an event, send an invitation to Ned Lamont, the other wealthy scion who is expected to get into the race for governor. After a long absence, Lamont has been showing up at all sorts of Democratic gatherings.

Mike Mandell, the pungent state Democratic party official and former Malloy staffer, will be leaving his post as executive director as the new year begins. Announcement expected to follow.

Mandell was in charge of Hillary Clinton’s campaign in Connecticut. He was one of the many casualties of her surprise defeat by a loathsome demagogue. The result left many party functionaries and leaders stranded in place.

This won’t quell discontent. There’s growing interest among the men hoping to move the levers of state Democratic nominating machinery in 2018 in backing a challenger to Secretary of the State Denise Merrill. The two-term incumbent’s prospects of an easy route to renomination will not be improved by the call to a special session of the legislature she issued this week. The essential document sets the date for December 29, 2107. The transposition confirms impressions that Merrill is not as engaged in the job as a younger, hungrier candidate.