It started with a post-election declaration on Twitter by Whitney Mooney. She was the campaign manager for Democrat Rebecca Hyland, who lost her bid to oust incumbent Republican state Representative Craig Fishbein in the 90th House District (Middlefield and part of Wallingford).

Mooney deleted the tweet, but not before Fishbein (a white Republican man) expressed his dismay at the vulgar race and gender based assault. Mooney responded that she did not mention Fishbein when she posted her complaint, though he’d beaten her candidate the night before by a 10-point margin.

Fishbein retweeted a racist meme in 2020. An uproar ensued. Fishbein apologized and as a member of the Wallingford Town Council, voted to censure himself. Two years later, the Wallingford Republican is more sensitive about racially charged social media post than he was when his nearly took him out of office. His sensibilities have changed but his response to Mooney’s ugly tweet suggest Fishbein may want to learn a little about mixing one’s hashtags.

Published November 11, 2022.

A note of confusion reigns in the reporting of results from the New York Times reporting. It shows Harwinton as the only town with no results reported. In Harwinton, Republican George Logan, according to unofficial results, won 918 more votes than Democrat Jahana Hayes, 1965 to 1047.

The Logan campaign believes it holds a narrow lead.

The Secretary of the State results page has Logan ahead by 2,934 votes with four districts not yet reported. Those four may be three in Avon and Norkfolk’s one voting district. Hayes won Avon by 1187 votes (including absentee ballots) and Norfolk by 213 (also including absentee ballots).

A candidate is automatically entitled to a recount if the Secretary of the State certifies a result with a margin of victory of .5% or less.

This is going to be a heck of a ride. Connecticut has not had a recount in a U.S. House race since 2006 when Joe Courtney unseated Republican Rob Simmons.

Published November 9, 2022.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob Stefanowski conceded to incumbent Democrat Ned Lamont Wednesday morning. Stefanowski fell 140,000 votes behind Lamont in unofficial returns. Stefanowski’s concession claimed “the outcome was not in our control.”

“We may not have won, but we changed the course of Connecticut by advocating for the people,” Stefanowski wrote. How losing by three times more than four years before changed the state’s course will require the fullness of time to confirm.

Stefanowski returns to Madison, where Lamont defeated him by 16% of the voter, after spending $12 million his second campaign. His following among Republican activists may be considerably diminished as they contemplate the wreckage.

Published November 9, 2022.

This is not how veteran Manchester Democrat Steve Cassano had hoped to leave public office. He prospered under an increasingly harsh Democratic organization in Manchester. Cassano failed to prepare to thwart its pitiless will when it decided to discard him.

Cassano had the support of too few Democratic delegates at the 4th Senate District nominating convention in May to qualify for a primary against the organization’s new favorite, MD Rahman. After five decades in local politics, Cassano decided not to pursue a place on the ballot by collecting signatures for a primary or a place on the ballot.

Democrats and Republicans are engaged in a battle over the wisdom of Steve Cassano on the way forward. Rahman, after considerable delay, has snagged Cassano’s endorsement. Republicans are reminding voters of a spontaneous utterance about Rahman from Cassano.

Rahman, according to state campaign finance records, has put $300,000 of his own money into his campaign. His Cassano endorsement will likely reach more voters than the Cassano assessment Republican Jacqueline Crespan’s campaign is highlighting, ”He’s not ready for it…You don’t start in the senate.”

Rahman’s lavish self-financing puts him in the upper reaches of tier of Senate candidates who have poured their wealth into a campaign. It is likely to become a theme for others should the home health care business owner and real estate developer win on Tuesday.

Published November 5, 2022.

Diversity of thought and the exercise of free speech rights are under siege in the tony shoreline town. More proof of the assault on traditional rights came in an overheated Facebook post by Jennifer Baldwin, an independent member of the town’s board of education.

Baldwin took offense at a candidate placing a door hanger on her door. Baldwin’s Facebook post expresses alarm that a candidate would knock on the door of a home with his opponent’s sign on the lawn. Most candidates know that a lawn sign does not mean everyone in a household is committed to the candidate displayed on the lawn. It is possible, even in 2022, for most people to live in a household with people who do not cast identical ballots.

Richard DiNardo is the candidate who is the target of Baldwin’s scorn and suspicion. His response–also on Facebook–expressed bafflement at Baldwin’s fury in his own bemused Facebook post. He’s the Republican nominee in the 98th House District and faces Democrat Moira Rader on Tuesday for the open seat. Rader, who serves on the board of education with Baldwin, won the Democratic primary for the nomination in the House District, which includes Guilford and part of Branford.

Baldwin is the Independent party nominee for state treasurer. In addition, she is an assistant public defender in New London. She strikes some discordant notes in her Facebook screed for a public defender. Calling the police because a candidate knocked on your door? Most public defenders would roll their eyes in contempt at such nonsense. Baldwin is confused as to “what intimidation looks like.” By any reasonable standard, it does not look like a candidate leaving a piece of campaign literature on a door. Instead, it looks like a Facebook post in which the writer announces she will be contacting “the police to issue a no trespassing order.”

The most alarming Baldwin bit comes at the end where Baldwin reveals a taste for 21st cruelty. “[P]lease shame him.” It is unhinged. Public defenders are often seek prosecutors and judges to act with restraint and mercy in viewing criminal defendants. Baldwin appears unfamiliar with those virtues.

Poor Rob Hotaling.

Published November 4, 2022.

The far left is in full foaming-at-the-mouth stage in Old Saybrook. Extremist declarations on both the left and the right can seem inscrutable to the crowded center. These (posted above) are direct in their poisonous intent.

Old Saybrook Democrat Amy Elliott announced on Facebook that the rise of anti-semitism and “the general vibe of a pre-fascist state” make “voting for Martha and Colin is the only prudent and virtuous choice.” Martha is Martha Marx, a Democrat making her third bid for the state Senate in the 20th District. Colin is Colin Heffernan, Democratic nominee seeking to oust Republican state Representative Devin Carney in the 23rd Assembly District.

Laura Parker Gray, another Old Saybrook Democrat, added some touches that have often attracted fascists: scorn for religious affiliations. “Carney is a conservative Catholic,” she wrote. Carney is not a Catholic but he does know all about anti-semitism. His mother is Jewish. “He also has no women in his life.” Laura Parker Gray is a clumsy but ambitious striver in the wide world of smears. Keep an eye on her. She’ll soon accuse Carney of being related to a thespian–and this time she’ll be right.

The posts have been deleted but their intent lingers. Maybe the political weather that extremists have created is too frightening for candidates in the center–or pretending to occupy some space in the middle ground–to condemn malevolent militants. If more ground is not to be ceded, this would be a telling moment to repudiate them.

Published November 4, 2022.

Republican state Senate candidate Pietro ”Rocky” Camardella responded to Democratic incumbent Cathy Osten’s recent xenophobic campaign mailer with a celebration of America’s beautiful mosaic.

Published November 4, 2022.

Nobody has ever done it in the 5th District like two-term incumbent Jahana Hayes. The Democrat facing some national headwinds is in a tight race with Republican George Logan. Hayes told supporters last weekend that trailing in polls is an advantage, though her tone betrayed a different emotion. ”Listen up, Democrats, you ain’t never been through nothing? The polls have me down right now and that is probably the best news we could have gotten 10 days out….”

Hayes, emphasizing her well-rehearsed life story, declared to volunteers that the district finally has someone who does the job right–her. ”I have worked every day to be the representative I needed someone to be for me for 40 years.” All who came before were wanting. The video is included in a post from enthusiastic Hayes supporter Alfonso Robinson.

Hayes, a former school teacher, did not include an exemption for her initial political patron, Senator Chris Murphy, who represented the 5th for six years, from her condemnation of inadequacy. Lt. Governor Susan Bysiewicz nods and applauds. She would, wouldn’t she? It was Bysiewicz who in her losing 2012 Senate primary campaign against Murphy engaged in ugly low murmurs against Murphy that left deep scars.

Connecticut Democrats, who dominate every level of politics in the state, are unnerved by the rare high-stakes competitive race. The erosion of their traditional fundraising advantage adds to their anxiety and resentment. In her campaign trial, Hayes often be startled to learn that many Democrats do not sufficiently share her alarm at the prospect of 5th CD voters not giving her a third term. Some are perplexed at why Hayes has not buttoned down her district in the last four years after such a promising start. Others are not.

Published November 3, 2022.

The loan shark was in full flower during tonight’s second and final debate in this long race for governor. Republican Bob Stefanowski continued his mewling about the state’s rainy day fund. He wants to pillage it and leave the state without the means to cope with the recession Republicans insist is about to descend upon us. Stefanowski is using loan shark math when he claims Connecticut residents would be better off by letting Payday Bob deplete the rainy day fund.

Robert of Arabia might want to ask his running mate for a tutorial on the historic 2017 bipartisan budget that set a course for repairing the state’s battered finances. State Representative Laura Devlin (R-Fairfield) voted for it.

Stefanowski has a business background in payday lending. He sprang from the grimy world of loan sharking. Savings are kryptonite for the loan shark. Payday lenders offer the loan of last resort. Connecticut’s rainy day fund is the loan shark’s nightmare in technicolor.

The test of Stefanowski’s philosophy of sending government funds to the people came before this campaign started. Robert of Arabia is making millions from the Saudi sovereign fund. One suspects the Madison Republican has not urged his Desert Kingdom overlords to return the hundreds of billions in the authoritarian government’s fund to the people of the nation.

Published November 1, 2022.

Jack Fazzino is a candidate for state representative in a central Connecticut district. He has knocked on many doors, as eager young candidates who want to win do. Fazzino, a Democrat, made a new friend, a Republican, while hitting the pavement. He tells the story best in a piece he wrote for the Record-Journal.

Civilians may not understand the sustained pleasure that comes from months of knocking on doors of voters who are, for the most part, happy to spare a few moments. Fazzino writes a memorable 600 words. It has the advantage of sounding true.

He has a future.

Published November 1, 2022.