It’s already starting to feel like Malloy’s third term. Luke Bronin is not just the unpopular governor’s protege and the mayor of Hartford. The Greenwich scion is also the chairperson of the Capital City Political Action Committee. The PAC made a $2,000.00 contribution on  October 15th to the Hartford Democratic Town Committee, according to records submitted to the State Elections Enforcement Commission (SEEC). The maximum contribution from a traditional PAC to a town committee is $1,500.00 a year.

Curiously, the contribution makes no appearance on the town committee’s mandatory report due seven days before an election.

Would someone pay her tab and order an Uber? Ma Herbst, mother of disputatious gubernatorial hopeful Tim Herbst, reminds us again where her son gets it. Propriety tells you to turn away, but you can’t help but read the feed.

The foulmouthed crone of Trumbull was pounding her keyboard tonight. The litigious local pol threatens her home town by pledging, “We will always be here.”

The only thing missing is an evening intervention from that other juvenile, David Walker.

Democrat Shaun Wooden will seek his party’s nomination for state treasurer. The former Hartford city council leader has begun putting together a campaign organization as party leaders conclude that incumbent Denise Nappier will not seek a sixth term.

Wooden is a partner at the Hartford office of the Day Pitney law firm. He was an aide to Carrie Saxon Parry when she served as the city’s mayor. Wooden has had some trouble winning his party’s nomination. He ran an adumbrated race for mayor in 2011. In 2014, Wooden squandered every advantage, and he had many of them, in his bid to unseat Democratic stalwart Eric Coleman from his state Senate seat.

Wooden’s candidacy parks some formidable tanks on the lawn of fellow Hartford Democrat Arulampalan. The 32 year old lawyer and lobbyist has also been exploring the race for treasurer.

Time to raise some money for polling, since convictions are no motivation. Maybe repair some fractured relationships with local frenemies.

Decision time approaches for Malloy’s Boy.

Arunan Arulampalam, the 32 year old Hartford lawyer and lobbyist exploring a race for treasurer, is getting a boost from an influential Republican, father-in-law Greg Butler. The wealthy Eversource executive sent an email to a slice of insiders seeking contributions for first-time candidate Arulampalam, a Democrat.

Butler, who is in a relationship with early Trump supporter and House Minority Leader Themis Klarides, may not have intended the names of email recipients to be revealed in the message, but they are posted above to give Daily Ructions readers a glimpse of the permanent government.

Dennis Schain retired from state employment last month.  This month, Schain filed a candidate committee as a Democrat, naturally for a former Jodi Rell spokesman, for the 4th Senate District. The seat is currently held by weary incumbent Democrat Steve Cassano.

Republican hopes of a pick-up in the competitive seat will be lifted by the prospect of facing the 65 year old Schain. Cassano has had a couple of close calls in the district that is dominated by Manchester and Glastonbury.

Matthew Ritter is expected to give the race a pass, though he thanks everyone for their encouragement.

Paul Doyle is taking a look. He would run as a Democrat. It would provide him a graceful way out of a very difficult re-election to the Senate after his dramatic vote for the Republican budget.

Watch for Mattei to the switch from exploring a run for governor and becoming a candidate for attorney general.

This is going to be a brutal contest.

John Shaban will announce today that he is a candidate for the Republican nomination for attorney general. The Redding Republican served three terms in the state House of Representatives. He represented the 135th District before running for Congress against Jim Hines in 2016.

Shaban will have no trouble meeting the 10-year practice rule that proved so lethal to Susan Bysiewicz in 2010. He is a partner at Whitman Breed Abbott & Morgan in Greenwich. He previously practiced at the New York and Stamford firm Kelly Drye & Warren.

State Representative Matthew Ritter (D-Hartford) has also been working the phones today in the aftermath of Attorney General George Jepsen’s dramatic announcement that he will not seek a third term. Ritter, House Majority Leader, would become speaker if incumbent Joe Aresimowicz takes a union promotion instead of seeking re-eletion and Democrats maintain their narrow majority in the lower chamber.

Ritter would have a claim on the large Hartford delegation to the Democratic state convention, though fellow Democrats may be reluctant to load the ticket with capitol city candidates.

State Representative Mike D’Agostino (D-Hamden) has spent the day letting fellow Democrats know he is interested in making a bid for attorney general. D’Agostino was elected to the legislature in 2012 and has been an advocate of the ruinous 2017 SEBAC agreement that will punish Connecticut residents for many years as the state continues to lose jobs and workers.