The House Democrats have an opening. It’s a long job description, as you can see from clipping the above photo, and includes “excellent state benefits”. It sounds like they are hiring someone who will be up to their elbows in the sort of activities associated with political campaigns.

Budget crisis? What budget crisis?

State Senator Ted Kennedy loathes hunting. The Branford millionaire is a likely candidate for the Democratic nomination for governor. His statements and legislative record will begin to be scrutinized. Hunters will take note of Kennedy’s March 13th declaration at  the legislature’s environment committee. While debating a bill to allow the state’s environmental protection agency to develop a plan to thin the state’s growing bear population, Kennedy let lose with his opinion on hunting in general.

“I don’t like hunting, I think it’s barbaric, I understand that other people do and I respect that but in the last couple of weeks I’ve changed my mind on this bill after speaking to wildlife biologists from DEEP and really learning more about the public safety issues that bears actually pose in our state we have rapidly increasingly population of bear.”

Harvesting other people’s private organs, however, is ok with Kennedy.  He proposed intrusive legislation that would make every Connecticut resident an organ donor (though it’s not a donation if it’s mandatory) unless they opt out of the program. The legislation appears to be dead for this session of the legislature, devoid of vital organs to snatch for some other bill.

West Hartford Democrat Bruce Putterman is the new publisher of The Connecticut Mirror. His prolific record of political contributions–all to Democrats–tells the tale.

No mention in the Mirror announcement that Putterman served in local office as  Democrat.

Poor Peter Lumaj. He either is not proofreading his fundraising letters or he is running for governor with little knowledge of the state’s fluid tax laws. Lumaj, a Fairfield Republican and lawyer, tells his fundraising marks that we must, must, must save Connecticut’s $500 property tax credit. We must. “We’ve got a $500 property tax credit on the books, and Governor Malloy is determined to get rid of it. That’s a tax hike on working-class families . It’s wrong, and it’s an OUTRAGE!”

The property tax credit has not been $500 for several years. Last year it was $200, before that it was $300. This year, Malloy has proposed eliminating it to boost state coffers by $105 million.

Lumaj calls Malloy’s reductions in the property tax credit “his worst betrayal.” Those billions in other tax increases cost far more than the reductions in the property tax credits. A candidate exploring a run for governor ought to know that.

Not every state contractor can claim a veteran state senator as its agent for service. The Pita Group of Rocky Hill can. The public relations firm has been much in the news lately, and not in a good way, over millions in communications, advertising and tweeting contracts with suspended state technical schools superintendent Nivea Torres. Pita enjoys the services of state Senator Paul Doyle (D-Wethersfield), according to records filed at the Office of the Secretary of State. Doyle, co-chair of the legislature’s powerful Judiciary Committee, is listed as Pita’s agent for service on its mandatory business filing.

Pita has hired well-known Hartford lawyer John Droney to do the heavy lifting in the Department of Administrative Services (DAS) investigation of Torres.

It’s not Madonna, Beyonce, Prince, Adele or Cher. No, It’s Themis.

Senate Republican President Pro Tempore Len Fasano and House Minority Leader Themis Klarides sent a letter to President Donald J. Trump and Speaker of the House Paul Ryan setting forth their concerns about both the Affordable Care Act and its proposed replacement (whatever that may be at any moment).

There’s little notable about the contents of the letter. It’s the ending that catches the eye (if you read to the end). Fasano scrawls what appears to be a full signature on the left. Klarides, however, appends just “Themis” to a letter on a major issue addressed to the President of the United States and the Speaker of the House of Representatives.

That must have been a memorable conversation between Klarides and Trump last year in Bridgeport.

State Senator Joe Markley (R-Southington) is preparing to launch a 2018 candidate committee for lieutenant governor, Daily Ructions has learned. Markley is serving his fifth term in the state Senate. He was elected for one term in the 1984 Reagan landslide, was defeated in 1986, and reclaimed the seat in 2010.

Markley is among the most conservative members of the legislature. He tested his statewide reach in the 2015 competition for chairman of the Republican state party organization and withdrew after coming in third on the first ballot.

A Markley bid for higher office would put his Senate seat in play. It leans Republican but has elected Democrats, notable U.S. Senator Christopher Murphy in 2002.

The fever is growing worse in East Windsor. First Selectman Robert Maynard, a Republican, has blocked former U.S. Representative Robert Steele, a vocal opponent of casino gaming, from speaking at the local senior center. The request for Steele to speak was made by anti-casino activist John Dunn, of Windsor.

Maynard confirmed his refusal to allow Steele to speak in an email Thursday morning, He wrote, “I did talk to John Dunn yesterday.  I told him I would not approve a program for Mr. Steele at the Senior Center.  As our conversation progressed, it became apparent he had his own agenda and did not care about our seniors or East Windsor.”

On Wednesday, Dunn described a call with Maynard in an email to fellow casino opponents:

All, I received a call back from Robert Maynard this morning. He will not allow Bob Steele to speak there, based upon the information in his book “The Curse:…..”  and anti-casino presentation. The reason he gave is that this presentation / talk could upset the Seniors attending.

He gave an example that last year there was a speaker where a 99 yr. old woman attended, she died soon afterwards just before reaching her 100th birthday.

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.