Hartford city officials reserved a skybox and a mountain of free tickets for themselves in their controversial $60 million taxpayer-financed minor league stadium deal with Boston real estate developers. Read about it in my latest Hartford Courant column. They worked in a special parking deal for themselves, too.

Republican lieutenant governor hopeful Heather Bond Somers, recently parted from struggling gubernatorial candidate Mark Boughton, will submit $80,000 in public campaign finance qualifying contributions to the Citizens Election Fund. Somers enjoyed a boost in support after her strong showing at the Republican state convention last month.

The Somers application for public funding of more than $400,000 for the August 12th primary will likely be acted on by state officials at their June 26th meeting. The Groton Republican faces party endorsed candidate  Penny Bacchiochi and Bridgeport Republican David Walker. Shelton Mayor Mark Lauretti is expected to fall short of his shambolic bid to petition onto the primary ballot and make an alliance with Boughton.

Bristol Bound?

It didn’t take long for a faded political figure to pick over the carcass of romantic Democrat Dave Roche’s aborted bid in the 31st Senate District. The Bristol Democrat abandoned his campaign to put his full measure into saving his fractured marriage.

Enter that calculating chronic candidate from Middletown. That’s right. Susan Bysiewicz. The unsuccessful candidate for governor, attorney general, and United States Senate is trying to wheedle her way into affection of the 31st District vacancy committee, Daily Ructions can report. The former three term secretary of the state is telling some local party leaders she’d been thinking of moving to Bristol anyhow, so why not now? Many Democrats are not delighted at the prospect of the grating narcissist returning to public office.

Bysiewicz famously sued herself in 2010 to remove a shadow over her campaign for attorney general. There were doubts that Bysiewicz had the experience the law requires of an attorney general. She lost when the state’s highest court ruled against her on the eve of the state Democratic nominating convention. Bysieqicz was the subject of a devastating deposition in that case, which revealed she did little each day as secretary of state. Bysiewicz waged an unsuccessful primary battle against Christopher Murphy in the 2012 race for the United States Senate.

Incumbent Republican state Senator Jason Welch is not seeking a third term in the district that includes Bristol, Harwinton, Plymouth, Plainville and Thomaston. Republicans have nominated Bristol Republican Henri Martin.

Hartford city government’s misbegotten contract to build a require taxpayers to build a $60 million stadium for Boston real estate developers includes a provision giving tickets to city employees, but nothing for city families and their children. The proposed agreement, negotiated in secret, provides for “City Employee Night” twice during each season. Hartford’s grabby leaders will receive up to 250 tickets per event.

Many city employees do not live in Hartford and will not be burdened with the cost of paying for the stadium. They will, however, have a chance to receive free tickets. Residents who live in the city but don’t work for it are not provided a similar privilege in the deal. Their obligation is to pay the $60 million in debt the city will assume to finance the bauble by the highways.

The head of the city council, Shawn Wooden, supports the proposal and faces Democratic primary voters on August 12th. They may want to ask Wooden why there are no tickets for them. Incumbent state Senator Eric Coleman has expressed his opposition to the expensive deal.

Jennifer Bosworth may no longer be devoting her full energies to the louche doings at taxpayer-financed the Back9Network. The former reporter has a new job at the menswear website Dash Hudson. The news was announced on LinkedIn.

Democratic State Senator Eric Coleman’s announced it has raised “$17,000 in total contributions from more than 500 donors, 365 of which came from residents of Hartford, Windsor, and Bloomfield. These totals are well above the required thresholds of $15,000 raised and 300 in-district donors.”  Coleman faces endorsed candidate Shawn Wooden, leader of Hartford’s city council, in an August 12th primary contest. 

Coleman is expected to submit his contribution information to the state’s Citizen Election Fund before this Wednesday. The commission would vote on his application the following Thursday.

The preening Bosworths have parted. The former Jennifer Lahmers is suing James Bosworth for divorce, according to Connecticut court records. The two were married in Carmel, California on July 2, 2011. Divorce is a very challenging task. But it gets extremely complicated when you have a child. In such cases, consult attorneys for child custody who will listen to your concerns and will find positive solutions that are best for you and your child. Also, visiting child after adoption should be done only after authentication from your lawyers.

They have maintained a high public profile in Hartford since launching the Back9Network a struggling louche online and cable venture much favored by the Malloy administration. Taxpayers have poured more than $5 million into the startup that has attracted much criticism for its misogynist underscoring. The company raised eyebrows when it hired a former postman, the spouse of Malloy’s chief of staff, after receiving millions in taxpayer funds.

Jennifer Bosworth was a frequent face of the operation. She is seeking temporary alimony as the case proceeds. The Bosworths seemed so happy together when they appeared on WFSB’s Face the State last year.

Who can explain the ways of the heart? A song by the incomparable Beth Leavel may help.

Not all registrars of voters are the same. Some have spent years in the dark side of politics and bear watching. Danbury’s Mary Ann Doran is one of those. She’ll be overseeing the critical count of signatures on the petitions Republican lieutenant governor hopeful Mark Lauretti’s campaign submitted in running mate Mark Boughton’s hometown. Read about Doran here. Mercy, what a history.

The Danbury signatures take center stage as the Boughton-Lauretti ticket has been buffeted by a damaging number of rejected signatures. Waterbury, Brookfield, and Shelton (Lauretti’s hometown) have identified large numbers of invalid signatures for a campaign that left itself little room for error in the count. If the rejected signatures continue at this pace, even Boughton favorite Doran will be helpless to save her benefactor.

Without Lauretti’s fundraising talent, Boughton will have have little chance of raising the $250,000 in small contributions he needs to qualify for public financing and mount a competitive campaign for the August 12th Republican primary.

Spare a few moments to hear Franklin Roosevelt on the day of the battle and Ronald Reagan 40 years later. FDR wrote the prayer you hear him say as he announces to the nation that the liberation of France is underway.Let our hearts be stout.

A timeless inspiration.

Republican gubernatorial hopeful Tom Foley has applied for a public financing grant to fund his August primary campaign. If the former ambassador to Ireland win that contest against John McKinney and Mark Boughton, Foley will receive an additional $6.5 million grant for the fall cage fight with incumbent Democrat Dannel P. Malloy. Foley easily won the Republican endorsement for governor at the party’s May convention. McKinney and Boughton have not yet submitted applications for public funding.

Foley’s application for public funds should be on the state election commission agenda at its June 12th meeting.

In 2010, Foley was a persistent and active critic of the state’s generous program of funding campaigns with taxpayer funds. Foley narrowly lost that race to Malloy.