The Hartford Cannabis Company is aggrieved. It is suing three state agencies. The company applied for a marijuana cultivation license under the social equity provisions of the 2021 legislation passed in a special session of the legislature. The first 16 provisional license holders were announced earlier this month. They will now undergo background checks. Hartford Cannabis was not among the approved applicants.

The social equity provisions are intended to address the disproportionate impact of illegal drugs on certain areas of the state. Hartford Cannabis claims it was unfairly denied a license because the Social Equity Council (SEC), which issued the licenses, denied the company’s application because it provided “no evidence that the [Social Equity Applicants] influence at least 65% of daily affairs” of the company.

Hartford Cannabis claims in its complaint against the Department of Consumer Protection, Department of Economic and Community Development, and SEC filed in Hartford Superior Court that the rules for completing and reviewing applications were changed after the period for submitting applications began. The rules, the plaintiff alleges, provided no opportunity for applicants to amend their applications after rules changes.

After two arrests for drunk driving in less than three weeks, Naugatuck Probate Judge Peter Mariano was caught driving on May 30, 2021, while his license was under suspension. Mariano admitted he should not be driving with his license under suspension. Mariano complained to long-suffering Naugatuck police officer Michael Gigliotti that he was recently turned away from a rehab facility because he was drunk.

In the back of a police cruiser–again–Mariano reminded Gigliotti that he knows the local chief of police and the deputy chief. Gigliotti concluded Mariano was sober–and the five-term Republican once more tried to use local connections to avoid the consequences of his crime.

In the link below, a family member arrived on the scene and explained to Gigliotti that they have been dealing with Mariano’s drinking for “years and years.” Only recently, the family member noted, was he arrested for the first time.

Mariano is the Democratic nominee for Judge of Probate and is the challenger in the August 9th Republican primary. If Mariano wins the Republican primary he will be unopposed for re-election in November in the probate district that includes Beacon Falls, Middlebury, Naugatuck and Prospect. Mariano spent only four days in jail for his four convictions.

Mariano remains on probation. It is the rare judge who is both on the bench and on probation at the same time.

Published July 26, 2022.

Wealthy Greenwich Republican Leora Levy inhabits a dark and dreary world. The Republican National Committee member makes the risible claim in her most recent ad that she is an outsider in the world of politics. The U.S. Senate hopeful tears some bark off party-endorsed rival Themis Klarides by accusing her of acknowledging systemic racism exists and supporting the use of mail-in ballots during the global pandemic.

Levy’s menacing voiceover artist’s script claims that mail-in ballots made it easier for Democrats to cheat. If the retired commodities trader is aware of cheating in Connecticut in the 2020 election, she failed to provide any evidence of voter fraud in Connecticut. In light of Donald Trump’s ongoing scheming to overturn the results of his 7 million vote loss to Joe Biden, why is Levy sure it’s only Democrats who cheat?

Levy, according to her most recent campaign finance report, has loaned $800,000 to her campaign. She has raised far less than that in individual contributions, despite years of fundraising for the establishment Republicans she now holds in contempt. Levy has earned one unusual claim in this bitter contest. She’s won more endorsements from U.S. senators than from Connecticut state senators.

The latest broadside from Levy repeats the accusation that Klarides is not “one of us.” How is it that Levy designates someone she has been with in the tiny world of Connecticut Republican politics is suddenly an alien, not “one of us”? The tactic can be seen as vulgar, the word Levy used to describe Trump in 2016. The transformation is complete. Levy is the refugee from tyranny who despises others yearning for the life she enjoys.

Published July 20, 2022.

Attorney General William Tong has settled the second part of claims arising out of Eversource’s marketing of gas services in South Windsor. The utility will pay $1.8 million to resolve the action, $1.6 million of the payment will go to Operation Fuel to provide assistance to low-income ratepayers.

I’m not usually part of a story I report. I wrote a column last year about Eversource marketing its natural gas services in the neighborhood where I live. The company repeatedly told residents through mailings and visits that if we did not connect to the newly installed gas lines in the street the town’s repaving program would preclude anyone from connecting for several years.

The town, Eversource said, was planning to repave the street soon. Once the repaving was completed, the town would prohibit cuts in the pavement to connect to gas even if one’s oil furnace failed. The town, however, has no plans to repave the street in the foreseeable future.

“Eversource misled homeowners to get them to switch to natural gas. These high-pressure tactics are unacceptable coming from any business, much less a regulated utility. Eversource has already paid a $1.8 million civil penalty imposed by the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA), and now they will pay an additional $1.8 million to settle these serious consumer protection allegations,” said Attorney General Tong in a statement Tuesday.

Eversource’s settlement with PURA included a $1.8 million payment to Operation Fuel.

Published July 19, 2022.

Republican Senate hopeful Peter Lumaj Tuesday morning urged rival Leora Levy to participate in a ceasefire while party-endorsed candidate Themis Klarides mourns the death of her mother and participates in the rituals that accompany it.

Lumaj and Levy are battling for the support of rightwing primary voters in their August 9th contest against Klarides. Levy, who was once a donor to Democrat Richard Blumenthal, has launched a series of attacks claiming Klarides is a “Democrat in disguise.”

The three candidates’ most recent campaign finance reports reveal each had only several hundred thousand dollars on hand for the final push to the primary. Levy has loaned $800,000 to her campaign and paid herself back $250,000.

Published July 19, 2022.

What a difference four years can make. U.S. Representative Jahana Hayes will deliver a prized endorsement of Eric Wellman, the party-endorsed candidate in the Democratic primary in Simsbury for the 16th House District.

Wellman has enjoyed considerable success among Simsbury voters, winning two terms as First Selectman and his current one on the Board of Selectman. Wellman easily won his party’s endorsement in May for the seat being vacated by incumbent Democrat John Hampton.

After a string of defeats by state Senator Kevin Witkos (R-Canton), Democrat Melissa Osborne is challenging Wellman for the House nomination in the August 9th primary. It is a campaign notable for the incongruous. Osborne and other local Democrats condemned Hampton in the spring for opposing reproductive health and protection legislation enacted by the legislature. Osborne has nevertheless highlighted her endorsement by the retiring Democrat.

Hayes won two stunning victories in 2018. She won a landslide victory over Simsbury Democrat Mary Glassman in their primary contest for the 5th CD nomination. Simsbury was one of the few towns Hayes did not carry in the primary. Hayes went on to an easy win over the Republican nominee that November. Daily Ructions readers may recall that incumbent Democrat Elizabeth Esty abandoned her bid for a fourth term as revelations of Esty ignoring abuse her chief of staff was accused of inflicting on a subordinate.

An endorsement from the popular Hayes will be a further boost to Wellman, who is likely to benefit from his spot on the top line of the ballot alongside other party endorsed candidates, Stephanie Thomas and Erick Russell.

Published July 18, 2022.

Republican Brock Weber abandoned his long campaign for Secretary of the State last week, the Connecticut Post reports. Weber submitted an application for $484,125.00 in public funds on June 3rd for his August 9th primary bid against party-endorsed candidate Dominic Rapini and state Representative Terrie Wood.

Weber reported raising $89,825.33 in his most recent campaign finance report, filed by campaign treasurer Joseph Kilduff. He needed $86,600 in qualified small contributions to receive the grant from the Citizens Election Program. Weber’s application had not been acted on by the State Elections Enforcement Commission when he withdrew from the race.

Published July 18, 2022.

April 28th last year brought the Naugatuck police department’s fifth encounter with Judge of Probate Peter Mariano for either “a welfare check, and/or alcohol issue,” according to a police report from that day. More would follow.

Mariano, who is seeking a sixth four-yer term in November, had a woman removed from his home earlier in the year. According to an officer who responded, the judge “picked up some broad from New York” and needed the police to get her out of his house.

The chief clerk in Mariano’s court called the police on April 28th after an alarming conversation with the judge. “Here we are again,” the Naugatuck officer tells Jennifer Finlay. In the video above, Finlay explains the dire situation she has tried to manage and contain.

Jennifer Finlay and Andrew Finlay are listed with Mariano as members of Hillside Real Estate, LLC. The business was formed in 2020, according to records filed at the Office of the Secretary of the State.

When Mariano arrived home on April 28th, Naugatuck officers were waiting at the bottom of his driveway. Before agreeing to exit his car, Mariano told the police officers on the scene that he is the probate judge. Mariano failed the two-part field sobriety test and refused the blood alcohol breath test when he was taken to the police station. He told the officer, according to the police report, “I’m scared at how high it’s going to be.”

Mariano, a Republican, is challenging party-endorsed candidate Rosa Rebimbas in an August 9th primary in the district’s four towns, Beacon Falls, Middlebury, Naugatuck, and Prospect. Democrats in the district nominated Mariano as their candidate after he served four days in jail in May.

Because Mariano won the Democratic nomination in May, a win in the August 9th Republican primary leave him without an opponent in the November election.

Published July 18, 2022.

Republican nominee for governor Bob Stefanowski is supporting right wing Leora Levy in her primary bid against party-endorsed Senate candidate Themis Klarides Stefanowski and Klarides are known to have a frosty relationship. Stefanowski faced down Klarides and her top political adviser and husband, Greg Butler, in a tense meeting in Madison as the race for governor was beginning. Party insiders have concluded the Stefanowskis and Klarides-Butlers hold each other in low regard.

Stefanowski rejected demands that accompanied negotiations to name Klarides as his running mate. Klarides retreated to the race for the U.S. Senate race. The 22-year former House member won the party convention in May with an underwhelming showing. Republicans Peter Lumaj and Leora Levy easily qualified for an August primary.

Levy, a top pro-choice Mitt Romney supporter a decade ago, has become a virulent Trumpian since annis horribilus 2016. The former steak pitchman nominated Levy to be the United States ambassador to Chile. The Senate slow walked Levy’s nomination to oblivion.

Levy, a Cuban immigrant, has become (or revealed herself as) a strident xenophobe in this campaign. She hailed the Supreme Court’s June decision overturning Roe v. Wade. Stefanowski has worked to assure voters he can be trusted to support Connecticut’s statutes upholding a woman’s right to choose to have an abortion. Stefanowski’s two $2,900 maximum contributions to Levy suggest Stefanowski may not believe mean what he says. Klarides supports abortion rights.

Stefanowski has also donated $4,000 to Lumaj, who is battling Levy for votes from conservatives and Trump supporters who are registered Republicans.

Stefanowski made his contributions to Levy on June 21st. One was designated for Levy’s August 9th primary campaign, the other for the November general election. The donations are gifts to Governor Ned Lamont, Stefanowski’s Democratic opponent, worth far more than $5,800.

Published July 15, 2022.

Republican nominee for governor Bob Stefanowski is the rare Northeast Republican who has turned abortion to his advantage in a campaign ad. The Madison Republican released an ad Friday with a theme that surpasses party loyalties and ideology: that ol’ devil hypocrisy.

Stefanowski’s 40-second ad highlights Democratic Governor Ned Lamont’s invitations to businesses in states banning abortion to move to Connecticut. A stinging payoff follows the surprising setup. It’s last November’s video clip of a petulant Lamont announcing his wife, venture capitalist Ann Huntress Lamont, is in Nashville setting up new businesses because Connecticut is so complicated to do business in. The spontaneous confession by a wounded Lamont that his wife has deemed her husband’s leadership a failure retains its power to perplex the viewer.

Nashville is a city in Tennessee. Tennessee is notable for more than attracting Lamont millions in investments. It’s also one of the states that bans abortions in the aftermath of the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade. It’s a state, Stefanowski’s female narrator announces, “where a new law will prosecute doctors who perform abortions and jail women who get them.” A state, Lamont believes, no one who supports a woman’s right to determine her own reproductive healthcare would want to invest in.

With four months until voters again decide between Stefanowski and Lamont for governor, let us stipulate to a few facts. Neither Stefanowski nor Lamont is a naturally gifted politician. Each is more weathervane than signpost. Both have risen to the top tier of state politics because they are rich and willing to spend their fortunes on their own political ambition. When campaign consultants create a moment that makes one of them appear clever and the other craven, it is worth pausing and examining it.

The Lamonts are undoubtedly spending Friday night at the kitchen table in one of their homes in Manhattan or Greenwich, or on the island in Maine, sifting through their vast portfolio of investments and placing sell orders for stocks, bonds, and other financial instruments they own in companies headquartered in states that restrict or ban abortions. A camera crew will record their transformation of convictions into action, the video suitable for ads of their own. Or they will recreate the scene later with flattering lighting, appropriate makeup, and a script.

Nothing the Greenwich aristocrat does will heal the self-inflicted wound of his November 2021 announcement that Connecticut is such a hard place to do business that his wildly successful capitalist spouse has broken camp and headed to Tennessee to add to their fortune. It remains the great gift that Lamont gave Stefanowski in this dreary rematch. The challenge for Stefanowski is to highlight it in ways that make it seem fresh and revealing. Today he did.

Prepare for a ferocious air assault by Lamont on Stefanowski to change the subject.

Published July 8, 2022.