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.

Poor Bob Stefanowski. He can’t help it. He’s been busy working the Saudis for $36 million and paying little attention to seismic changes in the American political landscape. The Madison Republican dropped a clanger Thursday when he announced during an interview that he supports a woman’s access to abortion in the first trimester. That is a new stand on abortion rights from Stefanowski 12 days before Election Day and five years since he first began running for governor.

Stefanowski appeared not to have understood the magnitude of his blunder until Friday morning or needed more than 12 hours of head scratching to compose a risible explanation. Try to imagine how many versions of hummima-hummina-hummina he produced until he settled on his preposterous statement.

Stefanowski said he misspoke. He will support no changes in Connecticut’s long-settled abortion law. It is possible that Stefanowski believes that is Connecticut law and he was endorsing it in different language than he has previously used. Or the former payday executive has never been fluent in the law of the reproductive rights in Connecticut.

The second-time Republican nominee for governor made his explanation worse by trying to turn ignorance into a virtue. Stefanowski used the statement to highlight his considerable self-regard by declaring himself virtuous because he admits an “innocent mistake,” unlike, he writes, Governor Ned Lamont. Now Stefanowski would now like to move on, as would anyone who has blown a hole below the waterline of his self-financed $10 million campaign. But Stefanowski could not leave it at that.

Robert of Arabia used the conclusion of his statement to repudiate the tone he struck a few paragraphs before. Stefanowski blames Democrat Lamont for the attention paid to the former loan shark’s confusion on the state of reproductive law. Stefanowski says the abortion fiasco is a diversion from Lamont’s support the police accountability bill that the Republican has been highlighting in the frantic final days of the campaign. Just don’t ask him to explain it.

Published October 28, 2022.

CONECT is an organization comprised of “churches, synagogues, mosques, temples, and civic organizations from New Haven and Fairfield Counties – representing more than 30,000 people from different races, faith backgrounds, and living in both cities and suburbs – that have joined together to take action on social and economic justice issues of common concern.” It held a candidate forum in Bridgeport Sunday afternoon.

CONECT had one requirement for attendance in person: please wear a mask.

It’s not a lot to ask.

Published October 24, 2022.

Governor Ned Lamont is putting the favors he’s done and contacts he made in office to use for his re-election campaign. Ned for CT, the governor’s self-financed campaign committee, paid Grossman Solutions, LLC, $345,965.85 on September 12th for general campaign consulting.

At the end of July, state Democrats notified party organizations that “Grossman Solutions is seeking a team to support the voter outreach and Canvass in support of Democratic Governor Ned Lamont in Connecticut in Fairfield, New Haven and Hartford counties. The campaign will reach residents through paid full-time canvassing and will expand to include additional canvassers for GOTV. The campaign will start immediately and will last through November 2022. Pay is competitive, and benefits include a health insurance stipend.”

Last year, according to Grossman Solutions’s website, “…CT DPH hired Grossman Solutions to design and execute Get Vaccinated CT, a data-driven, door-to-door campaign that informs residents in vulnerable communities about the vaccine, debunks common misconceptions, and helps people get their shot.”

According to the SEEC online record of campaign disbursements, Grossman Solutions has been a minor player in Democratic state campaigns. The pandemic has indeed changed everything. Excluding advertising, Grossman Solutions has received one of the largest single payments from the Lamont re-election campaign. Lamont’s September 30th campaign finance report discloses the governor had spent more than $14 million on his fourth bid for statewide office and had $110,000 in cash on hand. Another hefty infusion of cash for the final five weeks of the campaign is likely to appear in the final report before November 8th and the post-election report.

Published October 24, 2022.

State Senator Cathy Osten plays a tough brand of politics. The Sprague Democrat reminds voters of that in a sledgehammer campaign mailer festooned with purple and yellow flowers on its lower border. She declares, “I only serve one flag: ours.”

It’s an odd point to raise unless Osten wants to emphasize a contrast with her opponent, Pietro “Rocky” Camadella. The Norwich Republican tells his stirring American tale on his campaign website. He was born in Naples, Italy and served in the Italian Navy, reaching the rank of sergeant.

Like may Italian immigrants and the descendants of millions of Italians who came to the United States in the 20th century, Camardella holds dual citizenship. He speaks English with an Italian accent.

Italy is our ally. It belongs to NATO. Immigrants have brought the riches of its culture to the United States and introduced generations of Americans to its beauty. On appropriate occasions, plenty of Americans have saluted the Italian flag.

Ella Rosa Giovianna Oliva Grasso (née Tambussi) was the daughter of Italian immigrants who settled in Windsor Locks. Take a moment to ponder what the nation’s first female governor elected in her own right would think of Osten’s ugly sentiments.

This is Trump level xenophobia dressed up as patriotism. What a low opinion Osten must have of the people of Columbia, Franklin, Hebron, Lebanon, Ledyard, Lisbon, Marlborough, Montville, Norwich and Sprague to think they share her base instincts that there are no standards in the pursuit of re-election.

Here is a video antidote to Osten’s ugly use of public funds to stir anti-Italian sentiments. Dean Martin (born Dino Paul Crocetti)with Caterina Valente (born in France to Italian parents and living in Paris today at 91) singing Antonio Carlos Jobim’s One Note Samba. A beautiful mosaic that Cathy Osten want to poison with their pursuit of office.

Published October 21, 2022.

West Hartford Republican Mary Fay took to Facebook last month to express her displeasure that the Connecticut Log Cabin Republicans have not endorsed her bid for comptroller. The organization has endorsed Republicans running for the state legislature and Congress, according to its website.

Fay, a member of West Hartford’s town council, commented on a Log Cabin Republicans post boosting the September 20th annual state Republican Prescott Bush Dinner in Stamford. The attraction of the event was Senator Joni Ernst, an Iowa Republican. Ernst acknowledged Fay from the podium from that night. Fay seems to have thought that would prompt the gay Republican group to act.

Describing herself as “the only Republican LGBTQ candidate ever about to break history,” Fay added some hashtags to the post. #wheresmyendorsement expresses her disappointment. #rainbowsuitemeansnothing is more of a mystery. Fay’s post has been deleted from her account.

Fay faces Democrat Sean Scanlon on the ballot for comptroller. Scanlon is a state representative and executive director of Tweed New Haven Airport. Fay has a background in finance, including a stint as the Connecticut Retirement Security Authority’s executive director. That position came to an abrupt end when the Lamont administration declined to fund the agency.

Published October 21, 2022.

Peter Mariano, the Naugatuck Democrat seeking a fifth term as probate judge, has seen his troubles grow this week. On Tuesday, the Bar Disciplinary Counsel filed an amended presentment accused Mariano of failing to report four May criminal convictions to the Statewide Grievance Committee.

Mariano was arrested four times in 2021, three times for driving under the influence and twice for driving with a suspended license. On May 9th of this year, Mariano entered guilty pleas to two counts of driving under the influence of alcohol and two counts of reckless endangerment. The pleas, according to the amended presentment, “qualify as [Mariano] being found guilty of a serious crime” under the state Practice Book.

During his arrests, Mariano repeatedly raised with Naugatuck police officers his friendships with the chief and deputy chief of their department.

Mariano, who surrendered his license to practice law early in 2021, was obligated to report the convictions to the grievance committee that oversees lawyers admitted to practice in Connecticut. “An attorney’s failure to send timely written notice of his or her finding of guilt required by this section shall constitute misconduct. . . .,” according to the rules governing lawyers’ conduct.

The charges are another setback for Mariano. He has been claiming during his campaign that his license to practice law would be restored before the November 8th election. Mariano lost an August 9th Republican primary to endorsed candidate Rosa Rebimbas. The district is comprised of Beacon Falls, Middlebury, Naugatuck and Prospect. Democratic delegates in the four towns nominated Mariano as their candidate after he was released from jail in May. The longtime Republican switched his party registration after losing the primary to Rebimbas and became a Democrat.

Governor Ned Lamont, Mariano’s fellow Democrat, has said he should not be seeking re-election.

Published October 20, 2022.

Two Enfield Democratic town council members look more foolish today than they do on an October 8th video showing them taking Republican signs from a busy street.

Matthew Despard and Nick Hopkins appear on the video when they arrived after hours at the parking lot of The Jug Shop. They proceeded to remove Republican campaign signs from the grassy divider between the parking lot and the street. They took signs for Carol Hall, Despard’s opponent in the 59th House District, and dropped them off anonymously at the home of the local Republican town committee chairman Kelly Hemmeler.

The Journal Inquirer’s Susan Danseyar reports the story, including a brouhaha at Monday’s town council meeting. The Democrats removed the signs because the operator of The Jug Shop told them they had been put there without his permission. The property owner, however, had given permission to for Hall to place her signs on his property.

A simple rule of politics is that candidates should stay clear of an opponent’s signs. The purveyor of spirits at The Jug Shop thought the Hall signs should not have been on his landlord’s property. He could have removed them himself. No help from fevered partisan was required.

This story that would attract a flurry of attention in October in most Connecticut towns. Enfield, however, has long featured a fractious and intense political culture. The story will live for the next 20 days in the Enfield politics hothouse–and maybe for longer.

Despard and Hopkins did a foolish thing. Voters in Enfield who learn of it will reach their own conclusions. The immediate consequence–and danger–for Despard is that a campaign sign outrage captured on video risks energizing Hall’s team and embarrassing Despard’s.

House Democrats provided a diversion from the sign controversy with a text message to voters on Hall’s voting record on abortion. Mark Pazniokas has the story in the CT Mirror. He points out that 13 House and Senate Black and Puerto Rican Caucus members also opposed the abortion bill highlighted in the Democrats’ text sent to 59th House District voters. The text message, which no other Republican reports having landed in their district, may not have the effect House Democrats intended.

Published October 19, 2022.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob Stefanowski admitted Tuesday he is performing work in Saudi Arabia. The original Daily Ructions post revealing the former payday lender executive’s lucrative business connections to Saudi Arabia was published on Monday, September 26th. Meeting with the press the next day after an early afternoon debate on NBC Connecticut, Stefanowski called the Daily Ructions scoop “not accurate.” Stefanowski dismissed the scoop as “a late night blog.” When asked what had been inaccurate about the story, the candidate refused to say.

When asked on September 26th if he had requested a release from the non-disclosure agreement Stefanowski claimed to have with his clients, he responded, “Why would I do that?” A short recitation of the reasons voters might want to know if he was working in the Desert Kingdom brought a scornful non sequitur about North Korea, China and a trip to the moon.

The Hearst papers report two weeks after the original story that Stefanowski has been doing and continues to conduct business with the regime. Confronted with documents confirming his connection, the self-financing candidate buckled. If there was a non-disclosure agreement it was quickly terminated to allow the cornered candidate to speak publicly about his eye-popping deal.

Robert of Arabia now acknowledges that the income paid to his LOLO limited liability company is from Saudi Arabia. Stefanowski is a consultant on the Saudi sovereign fund-financed construction of NEOM, a “smart city” that has been notable for its delays and brutal development practices.

Middle East Eye reported on October 7th, “A Saudi court sentenced three members of the Howeitat, a tribe forcibly ejected to make way for the $500 bn Neom megacity, to death earlier this month for resisting displacement, a UK-based rights group has reported.” Nice friends Saudi Bob is making for the $36.8 million he reported was paid to Lolo between 2019 and 2021.

Stefanowski continues to fade in polls measuring his support in his rematch with incumbent Democrat Ned Lamont. The Republican has badly soiled himself with his clumsy attempt to conceal from Connecticut voters the source of his newfound fortune. Stefanowski may realize he probably mistook for friends people he told about his remarkable desert deal. His claims about the requirements of his non-disclosure agreement may have exceeded his own adherence to its provisions. Whatever its terms, the agreement’s primary purpose was to provide a thick veil of secrecy over facts that Stefanowski knew would cause a segment of Connecticut voters to recoil.

Published October 12, 2022.