Jonathan Harris, the commissioner of the Department of Consumer Protection, is preparing to leave his post in state government. Harris has been sniffing around Hartford for a job as a lawyer while he prepares to launch a bid for, incredibly, governor of Connecticut, Daily Ructions can report.

Harris, a Democrat, served as mayor of West Hartford before he was elected to the state Senate. He gave up his seat in the legislature to run for secretary of the state in 2010. He failed to win his party’s nomination at its state convention. Harris served briefly in the perpetual battlefield that is State Treasurer Denise Nappier’s office before becoming executive directive of the state Democratic party organization. He served in that full-time position during Governor Dannel P. Malloy’s 2014 re-eelection campaign. The party is paying more than $300,000 the State Elections Enforcement Commission to keep secret campaign emails sent among Harris, Malloy and Malloy insiders. Malloy appointed Harris to head the consumer protection shortly after the governor was re-elected.

Harris will join a field that may include Middletown mayor Dan Drew, state Senator Ted Kennedy, and State Comptroller Kevin Lembo. Harris expects to run as a sensible liberal in a field of near-socialists.

Malloy is pondering whether to seek a third term  in the face of public and private polls that show his approval ratings in the low 20s–or worse. Democrats are starting to believe that Malloy would have trouble winning a two candidate contest in a primary for the state’s top job.

Westport Republican Steve Obsitnik is exploring a run for office in Connecticut. He’s put up a website and it includes the tale of the Navy veteran’s career. Obsitnik has enjoyed a successful career in technology, which would allow him to bring a 21st century perspective to an office to be named later.

The Wall Street Journal takes a look at Connecticut’s dismal record of job growth during the Malloy years. The governor’s spokesperson insists he is doing everything he can, which is another way of saying nothing at all The article suggests there is worse to come.

Don’t miss this 60 Minutes story about corporate abuse of H-1B visas and cruel treatment of American workers. In the case of Eversource, which plays an welcome starring role in the segment, it sounds like it was harsh to American workers in favor of cheaper labor from India.

It’s the first story in the program and was heavily promoted during March Madness games.

Eversource, readers will recall, was a vigorous supporter of Dannel P.Malloy’s re-election campaign. As NU, it was the main contributor to a slush fund/PAC for Christopher Murphy.

The Public Safety and Security Committee meets today at noon today to decide whether to risk hundreds of millions of dollars in slot machine revenue by authorizing Connecticut’s first state licensed casino.

Here’s the agenda. Two casino bills provide bookends for the twenty bills the committee will consider today. Both are expected to receive favorable reports–legislative language for moving out of committee to their next stop in the complex process of how a bill becomes law–or doesn’t.

The proposal to authorize the two tribes that operate casinos under the federal Indian Gaming Act is expected to be defeated during this session of the legislature after weeks more of talk, advertisements, warnings, and recriminations.

The Mohegans want competition for new casinos in Massachusetts but not Connecticut. The Connecticut-based tribe is suing the Massachusetts Gaming Commission over its decision to deny the Mohegans a license to build a casino in Revere. That regional license under the 2011 Massachusetts law to legalize and regulate casino gambling went to Wynn Resorts and its Everett proposal. You can check this link to get more information.

The Mohegans Friday won a Supreme Judicial Court decision which remanded the Mohegan claim that it was unfairly treated by the commission in the licensing process. The tribe claims the Massachusetts process was secretive and unfair. The Mohegans and the Mahantucket Pequots are seeking a license to engage in the joint operation of a casino in East Windsor, Connecticut. No other gaming operations were allowed to submit proposals for that far-off-reservation property.

The tribes have raised concerns about the impact of Massachusetts casinos on their southeastern Connecticut operations, particularly one being built by MGM in Springfield.

The Mohegans have not provided estimates on the cost to Connecticut jobs and revenues their Everett proposal would have on their native state.

Look at the CT Mirror’s piece on the narrow confirmation of Justice Richard Palmer for a startling example of advocacy dressed up as reporting. Palmer squeaked through the Senate Wednesday for a fourth term on the state’s high court on a 19-16 vote, with two Republicans voting with 17 Democrats to save the controversial justice’s nomination.

One telling sentence in the piece includes a reference to Palmer’s ugly footnote 69 accusation in the 2015 Richard Lapointe decision that Justice Carmen Espinoza had brought “dishonor” on the court. Mirror reporter Mark Pazniokas wrote, “Sen. Len Fasano, R-North Haven, the Senate GOP leader, said his vote against Palmer was meant as a rebuke of what he saw as the unseemly criticisms of each other by Palmer and Justice Carmen Espinosa in an exchange intitiated by Espinosa in the death penalty [sic] case.” (Emphasis added.) No one produced the original Palmer footnote, not the one that appeared in the final opinion. The original Palmer footnote would have shed light on his unseemly attack on Espinoza and might have undermined his bid to end his career telling the citizens of Connecticut what are our standards of decency for next four years. It was not released to the public.

The Mirror piece also contends that Republicans were “second-guessing” court opinions. That sounds like a haughty pejorative, suggesting that judicial renominations do not entitle the legislature to review the body of a nominee’s work.  Imagine the reaction if John Kissel and Craig Miner, the two Republican senators who joined with 17 Democrats to heave Palmer across the finish line, had not used International Women’s Day to ignore Palmer’s startling attack on Espinoza.

Note: Palmer is a member of the board of directors of the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving, a CT Mirror sponsor.

 

Every couple of years a Chatterbox comes from behind. Today’s Chatterbox win reminds us that electing more Republicans to the legislature may produce no important changes. There is only one party in the Capitol Village.

Joe Polletta was the Working Families, Independent and Democratic parties 2014 nominee for state Representative opposing Eric Berthel in the 68th District. Polletta, who lost by a wide margin in 2014, wants another shot at the seat in this spring’s special election. Berthel has resigned from the district that encompasses Watertown and a slice of Woodbury after winning a February 28th special election to the 32nd Senate District.

Polletta, a Susan Bysiewicz booster, has recycled his 2014 Facebook campaign page and will join other candidates in meeting the delegates to the convention to nominate a candidate for the vacancy. Governor Dannel P. Malloy will soon set a date for the special election. There are no primaries in these anti-democratic and expensive contests. Limiting the nominating process to a handful of insiders can give rise to petitioning candidates who are popular among the party faithful but are not sufficiently chummy with the delegates from the last convention to win the nomination.

Delegates will hold an informal meeting tonight with Polletta and two Republican hopefuls. They are UConn student Adam Kruegler and Republican town council leader Tom Winn. Kruegler fits a Watertown tradition of nominating young Republicans for the 68th District seat in preparation for a career in lobbying. 

Delegates and other Republicans may want to take a look at the Connecticut Working Families website to see what Polletta supports. He was their candidate only 28 months ago. Polletta became a Republican in late 2015.

Truth is taking a bludgeoning as unpopular Governor Dannel P. Malloy considers a bid for a third term. Malloy has been insisting that GE has more employees in Connecticut than when he was elected in 2010. The Courant has the numbers and they cast Malloy’s relationship with the truth in a dark light. GE had 6,275 employees in Connecticut in 2010. The corporate giant now employs 3,200 people in Connecticut. That’s a decline of 3,075. State Representative John Frey (R-Ridgefield), who has knowledgeable sources at GE, tells The Courant that 3,200 is not GE’s Connecticut employment floor. Expect more reductions this year.

The is not the first time Malloy and his administration have had trouble with an honest count of Connecticut jobs. They spent 2015 vastly overstating job creation in Connecticut.  Last March, Malloy’s administration issued a humiliating report revealing the year of errors.

If emphatically misstating easily verified job numbers is the re-election plan Malloy and his trio of close advisors have devised to help him get re-nominated and then re-elected, Democratic delegates and primary voters should brace themselves for a brutal competition against anyone who challenges the two-term Democratic incumbent for a third term.