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.

Democrats are on maneuvers. The party is sending foot soldiers to the 5th Congressional District to save two-term incumbent Jahana Hayes’s faltering re-election campaign. The Wolcott Democrat is in her first tough race. She won an easy primary victory in 2018 as the challenger to the party-endorsed candidate, followed by convincing general election wins in 2018 and 2020.

U.S. Senator Chris Murphy was Hayes’s most influential early supporter and is credited with providing her with a ready-made organization in the 2018 nomination brawl, Hayes’s first time as a candidate. Murphy has been alarmed at Hayes’s uneven campaign to see off surging Republican challenger George Logan. A Hayes defeat would not reflect well on her initial sponsor.

Murphy began early in October asking the party’s most effective organizers outside the 5th to abandon local campaigning and send workers to help Hayes navigate Republican headwinds. The request has not gone down well with some Democratic candidates and party leaders. They planned to aid Democrats seize opportunities (or guard against surprises) in other parts of the state. Murphy, meanwhile, has been campaigning for candidates in states other than Connecticut as Hayes struggles.

Democratic campaign pros have seen enough. They no longer view Hayes campaign insiders as credible sources of reality. With nine days before Election Day, campaign professionals from outside Connecticut continue to express alarm at the ill-prepared state of the Hayes campaign.

Logan, in contrast to Hayes, has only known tough races in his three previous campaigns. He ousted a veteran Democratic a state senator in 2016 and eked out a narrow re-election as Republican colleagues were losing easier districts two years later. Logan lost his 2020 bid for a third term. Logan and his team have given realistic assessments of the state of the race to hardened party operatives who can regulate the flow of dough to a campaign. They continue to be impressed by Logan, who has in return embraced 2020 election deniers as the price of admission.

Logan brings further advantages to his campaign. The people working on his campaign like him. No one on the Logan campaign works harder than the candidate.

Published October 30, 2022.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky declared Friday that his nation’s war against genocidal Reassign invaders “will end soon.” Zelensky, wearing a shirt with a motto for the ages, “Fight Like Ukrainians,” made the announcement during a remote appearance at a forum sponsored by the Yale School of Management. Freedom’s staunchest friend was joined (also remotely) by Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) before an audience of 350 students.

Blumenthal and Graham agreed they expect Congress to approve a major aid bill for Ukraine before the end of the year. Blumenthal is urging the Biden administration to double the air defense weapons the United States is providing Ukraine. Graham paid tribute to Blumenthal’s resolute support for Ukraine in its dark hour. “I want the people of Connecticut to know,” Graham said, “no one has been stronger and more consistent in supporting Ukrainians than Senator Blumenthal.”

Graham told the audience and Zelensky, “We cannot forgive or forget” Russia’s war crimes and the genocide it continues to inflict on democratic Ukraine.

Both senators were confident Congress will act to provide more support for Ukraine, which in the ninth month of the Russian invasion has inflicted a series of dramatic defeats on Russian forces. Zelensky attributed some of his army’s success on the flexibility given to its commanders. “Our field commanders are completely free to make their own decisions,” Zelensky explained. Russian commanders are not, and live in fear of orders from above.

The forum included Yale President Peter Salovey, Yale’s Levin Professor of History Timothy Snyder, and the event’s compere Yale School of Management Senior Associate Dean Jeffrey Sonnenfeld.

Published October 28, 2022.