Sophie Tucker was Hartford’s gift to the world for much of the 20th century. A star on several continents, Tucker restrained her bawdy joy on this 1951 appearance on Ed Sullivan’s popular Sunday night variety show. The columnist may have been her biggest fan.

Here she offers some advice on a good life and a few bars of White Christmas.

The Last of the Red-Hot Momma’s returned to Hartford for the last time in February 1966 and is at rest in the Emanuel Synagogue Cemetery in Wethersfield.

Published December 15, 2022.

The prospect of a police K9 drug detection dog discovering cocaine in a Middletown city hall office caused Mayor Benjamin Florsheim to text aides on October 20th that the political implications ”were an important thing to think about” hours before Castle the dog began his tour.

Florsheim texted he ”would not be boxed in politically” if the police dog found illegal drugs in city hall. Middletown resident Anita Ford Saunders tested that belief when she addressed Florsheim at the December 5th meeting of the city’s Common Council. Saunders confronted Florsheim with the disparate treatment of two top administration employees, one white and the other Black. Saunders spoke about the discovery of cocaine residue on a department head’s desk. That employee, who is white, remains in his position. Florsheim fired his chief of staff, Alice Diaz, who is Puerto Rican, after she was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol after work hours in Rocky Hill in October.

The steady-voiced Saunders roiled Middletown government and next year’s municipal election with her statement, which included a quote from Florsheim on the way forward on civil rights in Middletown. “So let us come to know and recognize our own power as a city, to dismantle the systems and power structures whose time is gone, and to continue building the beloved community we all believe in,” Florsheim declared not long ago. Ford Saunders accused the mayor of falling short of his aspirations.

Florsheim responded to Saunders last week, writing that while he believed her to be “genuine in her concerns” about the fair treatment of employees, he is ”certain that she has received information that is intentionally and misleading that, if true, would certainly be cause for alarm.” It was not the driving under the influence charge that caused him to fire Diaz, the mayor wrote, it was that she ”made statements and gave answers to questions to me regarding her arrest that caused me to lose faith in her ability to serve as my Chief of Staff.”

As to the discovery of cocaine in a city hall office, Florsheim told Ford Saunders he is constrained by employment rules from commenting in detail but assures her he “has looked into the matter thoroughly and am confident in how the City has addressed the issue.”

The police investigation at city hall on October 20th is described in a November 11th police report reviewed by police chief Erik Costa. The report states that the department’s drug detection dog pointed an officer to a substance on and in the desk of finance director Carl Erlacher that tested positive for cocaine. No action was taken by the police. Erlacher remains on the job.

Erlacher told Daily Ructions Monday, “I am not going to dispute the police report because I was not present. I did everything [the administration] asked me to do, including drug tests. They were all negative.” Erlacher pointed out that offices in the city hall are often unlocked late into the evening as cleaning crew go through them.

Diaz was arrested on October 28th by Rocky Hill police. Police characterized Diaz as ”uncooperative” during her arrest, which was recorded on police body cameras. The Marine veteran apologized for her behavior in a November 10th statement. “I want to take this opportunity to apologize to the Rocky Hill Police Department,” Diaz wrote, according to the Middletown Press, ”and the people of Middletown for my behavior during the arrest and booking process. The behavior reported that day is not an indication of who I am as a person and the values that I hold. Upon reflection, I have begun to seek resources to further help me address this issue.” 

Florsheim’s demand that Diaz quit as his chief of staff included a harsh choice for his friend and former colleague in Senator Chris Murphy’s office. If she resigned he would not object to her receiving unemployment benefits from the State of Connecticut. But if Diaz defied Florsheim’s request he would fire her and contest her application for unemployment benefits.

Florsheim wrote in a November 15th text to Diaz:

Alice,

As I stated last night over text, I am asking for your resignation in light of your recent arrest, your attempt to avoid arrest by using the power of your position.
If you choose to resign, I offer the following: (1) you will remain on the City payroll through December 1; (2) at that time, you will be paid out for any accrued time at your disposal; (3) you can either get paid out for your pension contributions or they can be rolled over to another retirement account; (4) you will stay on the City’s health insurance until December 31, 2022; (5) you will have access to the City’s EAP program through December 31, 2022; and (5) the City will not contest any unemployment filing. In exchange for the above, you will sign a settlement agreement and release of all claims and liabilities against the City.

If you choose not to resign, then I will have no option but to terminate your employment immediately as an at-will employee for the reasons I already stated above. If I do so, you will be paid out for any accrued time and will have the option of being paid out for your pension contributions or they can be rolled over to another retirement account. If you choose this option, then your health insurance will terminate at the end of November as is our practice and we will contest any unemployment claim.

You have until noon tomorrow, November 16, 2022, to make your decision.

Diaz declined to resign. Florsheim fired her.

Florsheim’s treatment of Diaz may be overshadowed by his handling of the police discovery of cocaine in the office a city official.

Hours before the dog was to begin his tour of city offices, Florsheim and city attorney Brig Smith exchanged texts on what would happen if the police found drugs in Erlacher’s office. ”To the extent that you are thinking of bringing in dogs tonight, you need to consider that this could be front-page-of-the- press kind of stuff. Especially if a positive hit requires or results in an arrest,” Smith told the first-term Democrat. ”Are you boxed in if you don’t proceed with an arrest or termination? Not legally, but politically. Something to consider when deciding between before and after.”

“I appreciate that consideration but I don’t feel like we will be boxed in politically. It is an important thing to think about though,” Florsheim responded.

Saunders’s brief appearance a week ago put on the public record what some members of the council had been muttering about among themselves for weeks. As the details make their way into the public light, council members may find their voices and seek full disclosure from Florsheim.

Published December 12, 2022.

Update: Anita Ford Saunders was referred to as Ford Saunders in the original version of this post. It has been corrected to Saunders. She is the incoming president of the Middlesex County NAACP and will take office later this week. She was speaking on December 5th as a concerned citizen.

Democrat Luke Bronin is telling supporters Tuesday morning that he will not seek a third term in 2023. He is expected to make a public announcement at midday.

Bronin won the party organization endorsement in his first bid for the city’s top job in 2015. He defeated incumbent Pedro Segarra in the primary that summer of growing anxiety over a rise in crime in the capital city.

Bronin made a mark in the 2015 as a prodigious fundraiser, spending a staggering $170 per vote in his closer-than-expected win over Segarra.

The former counsel to Dannel P. Malloy easily won a second term four years ago, defeating disgraced former mayor Eddie Perez and then-state Representative Brandon McGee in a Democratic primary. In between his two primary and general election wins for mayor, Bronin made a brief bid for governor in 2018.

Leaving the mayor’s post of his won accord after two full terms will leave Bronin with political options for future campaigns.

Eric Coleman, a former state representative and state senator, and a Superior Court judge for a few more hours, is expected to announce his candidacy for mayor on Wednesday.

Published November 29, 2022.

You can pay to attend a campaign fundraising event to meet Senate Democrats. You could volunteer for a Democrat running for the state Senate. Those would provide access to Democratic members of the Senate. You still may not approach them where they conduct the people’s business: the third floor of the State Capitol.

The people continue to be banned from proximity to the legislature’s upper chamber, long after the nation has the Covid-19 virus is under control through the application of advanced science as expanded in free nations. The Democrats running the state Senate refuse to follow the science and restore the public’s right to petition its government in person.

The public’s exclusion from the Capitol’s third floor cannot be due to Covid. Look at that photograph above of Senate Democratic leaders Martin Looney and Robert Duff campaigning in a crowded room only a month ago. Duff even donned a t-shirt proclaiming himself “Unapologetically Pro-Democracy” for the Danbury event. Disappointing if that vital declaration was reduced to an electioneering prop. So it can’t be Covid.

Published November 28, 2022.

After nearly four years of acrimony former state Senator Alexandra Kasser and Seth Bergstein have ended their 27-year marriage with a settlement as their trial was beginning. The extended proceedings caused Kasser to abandon public office and Bergstein to be passed over for promotion.

The agreement, dated November 15th, required Bergstein, a Morgan Stanley executive, to “transfer the amount of sight million ($8,000,000) dollars” to Kasser by wire within three (3) days of the execution of their settlement agreement, according to court documents. Bergstein also agreed to release all claims to a Jackson Pollock painting that was the subject of a federal lawsuit commenced by Kasser’s brother, Matthew Mockary. Bergstein did get to keep Kasser’s jewelry in a safe deposit box at a local bank and a safe at their marital home, which Bergstein is also keeping.

Kasser agreed to resign as trustee of trusts established by her family for the couple’s three adult children. The children were often mentioned in the long proceedings of the case.

Kasser (elected in 2018 as Alexandra Bergstein) made much of her marriage and new life with a legislative staffer early in her first term as a state legislator. Kasser set out her stall with a TEDx talk at Wesleyan University, declaring her intention to wage war on privilege and the patrimony. She filed an action seeking a dissolution of marriage on December 28, 2018.

The divorce became the central event of Kasser’s tenure. She announced on May 28, 2019 on Instagram that she had found happiness in a same-sex relationship with Nichola Samporano. Kasser also disclosed she had long been unhappy in her marriage to Bergstein. Kasser’s public comments about her life generally and the details of her marriage and pending divorce gained considerable attention through her own acts, though she blamed Bergstein for raising the profile of the long dispute. Kasser was particularly unhappy with Bergstein’s inclusion of Samporano in some court pleadings. Kasser was re-elected in 2020 and resigned less than six months into her second term, citing the demands of her divorce and the pain of now living in Greenwich caused her.

Before resigning, Kasser convinced legislators to add coercive control by one spouse over another to the definition of domestic abuse. In 2020 remarks on the Senate floor, Kasser included a reference to her marriage when discussing the police murder of George Floyd. “I know what it’s like to live with domination and control,” Kasser declared in setting forth her support for a police reform bill. “I know what it’s like to live with someone who has taken an oath to defend and protect, but when no one is looking, actually degrades and insults.”

The use of public relations firms by each spouse was disputed and litigated to the end of the court proceedings. Kasser accused Bergstein of planting stories in the press to amplify her relationship with Samporano. Bergstein claimed in a November 14th memorandum that Kasser had been attempting to sabotage his career by making accusations against him in court documents. Bergstein’s memorandum highlights Kasser’s 2020 announcement, published in the Connecticut Post, that she had “shed the name of the person that I was unhappily married to for over 20 years, and I am dissociating with that person.” He made no public comment on the announcement but told the Court, Kasser “did not tell her children that she was changing her name. Her children were devastated by this announcement and even more devastated and confused by the plaintiff’s claim that she was unhappily married to their father for over 20 years.”

Bergstein also claimed Kasser “made numerous public appearances, speeches, social media posts and other public statements in which she criticized and defamed” him. Public hostilities escalated when Democratic consultant Lanny Davis joined Team Kasser. According to Bergstein’s memorandum of two weeks ago, Kasser’s lawyer filed a pleading on June 2, 2021, that included emails between the parties about their daughters health. “Following the filing of this pleading, the [Bergstein’s] attorney was contacted by a reporter at CNBC, Dan Mangan, for a statement. Mr. Mangan reported to the [Bergstein’s] attorney that this pleading, along with several others, had been fed to him by Mr. Lanny Davis on behalf of [Kasser].”

Bergstein required Davis to be deposed in the matter. Bergstein’s lawyer claimed Davis was unprepared and uncooperative in answering questions under oath.

The stakes in the divorce were vividly displayed in a 2021 proposed public relations contract between Bergstein and Sard Verbinnen & Company. Under its terms, Bergstein would pay the firm up to $195,000 to anticipate and respond “to Alex’s attacks in the media” and “shape the narrative in the media without any fingerprints” through the trial.

In preparation for the trial, each party submitted long lists of evidence they intended to introduce. Bergstein’s 18 pages of exhibits included a letter Kasser wrote to each of the couple’s children. Kasser had to sought to bar testimony from the children and other evidence related to them from being introduced at the trial.

The self-proclaimed champion of “Truth, Justice and Democracy” through her own commitment to those fundamental tenets into doubt as the trail was beginning. She moved the Court to ban media coverage of an open courtroom. In her November 14th memorandum, Kasser objected (in bold and underlined) “to any media coverage of this trial and to the inclusion of any press related issues at trial.” Only from the high peak of privilege would a litigant in the Constitution State make such an anti-democratic request.

Some financial documents in the matter are sealed. Nevertheless, Kasser appears to have kept her real estate in the Principality of Monaco, allowing her to take her crusade against privilege and the patriarchy to a second continent–as long as that flat on Rue Garibaldi is not near a train station.

Published November 28, 2022.

WTIC was a regional powerhouse in 1963. Its morning host, Bob Steele, reigned over a show that enjoyed the largest market penetration of any top radio market in the nation–which Hartford was 59 years ago.

This recording of that day of tragedy tells the story of how events in Dallas for the first hour reached most Americans who were not at home with the television on. They learned of it sporadically on their local radio station.

Published November 22, 2021.

Chief of Staff Paul Mounds will leave the Lamont administration as it prepares to begin a second term. He will be replaced by Jonathan Dach, a Lamont stalwart who has served as senior policy adviser and deputy chief of staff.

Lamont’s staff was informed of the change this afternoon.

Published November 14, 2022.

When Nancy Sinatra bailed on a special sponsored by Plymouth, Petula Clark, who turns 90 on Tuesday, stepped in and headlined her first American television special in 1968. Clark co-wrote ”On the Path of Glory” and sang it with her sole guest star, Harry Belafonte.

Clark putting her hand on Belafonte’s left arm during their performance caused an uproar with Plymouth executives. Clark, her husband and director Steven Binder had the previous takes of the number erased so only this one was available for broadcast.

Binder tells the tale of what became an international story below in an interview with Archive of American Television. It’s 9 minutes and 50 seconds, a brush stroke of life 54 years years ago.

Published November 13, 2022.

A reliable Daily Ructions source reports receiving an unusual robocall Friday night. It claimed to be from Ed Rollins, the 1984 Ronald Reagan campaign manager who has been dining out on that victory for 38 years.

Rollins, no one will be surprised to read, was looking for some of the green stuff that folds. The pitch? He has not lost his touch. Rollins tells the mark the only way to keep MAGA alive is to support Florida Governor Ron DeSantis with a contribution.

DeSantis won a landslide re-election victory Tuesday. Growing talk of a 2024 presidential bid has inflamed the angry grievances of Donald Trump and inspired fundraising for money that will likely land nowhere near Trump or DeSantis.

Published November 12, 2022.

The phenomenon known as Petula Clark turns 90 years old on Tuesday. Daily Ructions will celebrate with videos of some of her most memorable performances. She is the rare female British international singing sensation, notably at ease with big orchestrations driving the melody.

She was an Ed Sullivan favorite. You see why here. According the the Sullivan show website, she performed ”I Know a Place” live and without rehearsing—shortly after her flight arrived in New York for her first appearance in the Sunday night powerhouse show.

Published November 11, 2022.