Salt Lake City is a funny ol’ place to launch a campaign for a Connecticut seat in the U.S. Senate but these are not ordinary times.

Levy told supporters this week that she has been overwhelmed by the number of well wishers urging her to consider a bid against Democrat Richard Blumenthal.

The Greenwich Republican is an enthusiastic Trump supporter. Who won the 2020 election may be the trickiest question Republican Senate candidates face. Former House Republican leader Themis Klarides and Fairfield Republican Peter Lumaj have entered the race. The party nominating convention is in May, a primary could follow in September if any challenger to the endorsed candidate qualifies.

Published February 1, 2022.

From: WestportElectricCar Club <westportevclub@gmail.com>

Date: January 30, 2022 at 1:33:00 PM EST

To: WestportElectricCar Club <westportevclub@gmail.com>

Subject: Political Fund Raiser to Support Direct Sales

Dear Member:

We have been asked to support a Democratic State Senate Victory Fund. We have been told that given that direct sales fell one vote short in the Senate last year, this will provide leverage for leadership to move fence-sitters into our column. [Emphasis added.]

We have never done something like this before and generally think of ourselves as pro-EV, pro-environmentalism, but partisan, not so much. However, there were zero Republican votes last year, which is kind of shocking for a party that purports to have a free-market ideology. So we’re supporting this and ask that you help out to the extent you can.

There is a fund-raising event being held in Westport on Sunday, Feb. 6th at 1:00 PM. It is fine to contribute online without going to the event as Westport is not convenient for everyone. This kind of event legally has to be held before the start of the legislative session, which is Feb. 9th.

The details are in the flyer below. For those who can attend, it will be good to see you. The suggested contribution is $250. The legal maximum is $2,000. Contributions in any amount are greatly appreciated. The URL in the flyer is not linkable but the website is live. You will be asked to fill out a disclosure form. I have asked for, and received, assurances that emails or phone numbers will not be used for ANYTHING. No spam here.

The Tesla club is supporting us and there is a fair amount of overlap between our organizations. If you receive two solicitations, it doesn’t matter which one you respond to. Rivian and Lucid are also helping us reach out to their reservation-holders. Of course, you don’t need to own a Tesla, Rivian, or Lucid to support this measure which will accelerate EV adoption.

Senators Haskell and Duff will be present.

We hope everyone came through the storm safely. Thank you for your consideration.

The mask has fallen away. Candidates will take million in public financing for their campaigns this year but it is only an expensive supplement. The Westport Electric Car Club reveals how it works in a January 30th fundraising solicitation posted above. The boldness of the approach recalls the Roll Your Own scandal of a decade ago.

The February 6th event at the United Feed and Commercial Workers Union building is intended to use money to influence votes to enact an exception to the state’s automobile dealer franchise act. There is nothing subtle in the message. “We have been told” that raising money for the Senate Democratic campaign committee will move votes.

The solicitation may attract the attention of Attorney General William Tong for cramming so many falsehoods into one fundraising message. The Tesla bill did not lose by one vote in the Senate last year. A vote was never held.

The transportation committee did vote on the bill. It passed 25-10. Some Republicans were among the 25, some Democrats among the 10.

It is for others to inquire who told the Westport Electric Car Club that money “will provide leverage to move fence-sitters into our column”? This is a raw attempt at buying votes, chilling in its conviction that members of the Senate Democratic caucus are for sale.

Senator Will Haskell (D-Westport) is a special guest at the event. He’s the author of a recently published book, 100,000 Bosses, on his experience in politics as a 22 year old. It did not take Haskell, who is not seeking a third term, long to become a practitioner of the seamy side of politics. His sequel could be called First $100,000 Bosses.

Published February 1, 2022.

Josh Geballe, Commissioner of the Department of Administrative Services (DAS) and the state’s Chief Operating Officer, is leaving state government, Daily Ructions can reveal. An announcement is expected Tuesday.

Geballe was tapped by Lamont to lead DAS and its diverse portfolio of state government functions at the start of the administration. Lamont charged Geballe with modernizing state technology. At the end of Lamont’s first difficult year he added to Geballe’s portfolio by making the Guilford Democrat his COO.

Geballe emerged as the essential force in state government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic when it arrived in Connecticut in early 2020. Geballe, who enjoyed a successful business career before joining state government, was often the administration’s knowledgeable voice in those uncertain weeks.

Capitol insiders will lament Geballe’s departure. He was a source of a reliable information in an administration that many continue to find bewildering in its execution of policy.

Published February 1, 2022.

Former state Representative Themis Klarides will announce her candidacy for the U.S. Senate on Dennis House’s This Week in Connecticut on WTNH. Klarides texted this unedited message to lobbyists, supporters and others Saturday afternoon:

“Hello my friend ! I have made the decision to run for US Senate against Blumenthal . Take a look at Dennis house show tomorrow at 10 am I’m on!”

Sunday’s announcement is most notable for the unsinkable Dennis House extending his reign as the television host to whom candidates disclose their plans.

Here’s Thursday’s Daily Ructions story breaking the news of Klarides’s candidacy.

Klarides had spent $400,000 of her own money ratcheting up a bid for the Republican nomination for governor to little effect. A 2021 gambit to convince rival Bob Stefanowski to make the former House minority leader his running mate failed. Klarides’s connection to Eversource through her marriage to top company executive Greg Butler threatened to doom the ticket.

Klarides will face Democratic incumbent U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal. The 75 year old Greenwich Democrat is seeking his third term. Republicans are hoping angry Connecticut voters will express their discontent with President Joe Biden by defeating traditionally popular Democrats.

Fairfield Republican Peter Lumaj has so far proved immune to Klarides’s cajoling to abandon his bid for the party’s Senate nomination. Greenwich Republican Leora Levy, who cast Connecticut’s “28 spicy votes” for Donald Trump at the party’s 2020 nominating convention, continued to examine her options on Saturday.

Published January 29, 2022.

Join Daniela Altimari, Andrew Brown, Clare Dignan, Jenifer Frank, Kasturi Panajady, and me Monday at 7 p.m. for 90 minutes of tales of stories behind the stories. Leslie Mayes of NBC Connecticut is the moderator, so you know the program will flow and have a polished sound.

Daily Ructions readers love an inside look at the news, which is why they read the site where Connecticut’s news begins. The program is free, but contributions to the sponsor, Connecticut Foundation for Open Government appreciates contributions.

Sign up at ctfog.org for the Zoom link. Maybe one of the participants will provide a diverting moment when a member of the domestic staff slips into the background. It does happen.

Audience members will have an opportunity to submit questions.

This takes the cake. Late Thursday changes in state Republican maneuvering for party nominations. Themis Klarides, chased out of the race for governor, will retreat to challenging U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal. An announcement will come this weekend. The Democrat is seeking his third term. Klarides served as a state representative from Derby for 22 years. She is married to Republican activist Greg Butler, an executive at Eversource, the state’s unpopular electric utility. Expect Blumenthal to revive his interest in Connecticut’s onerous business and consumer power rates.

A Klarides-Blumenthal race may have some uncomfortable moments for the states junior senator, Democrat Chris Murphy. He’s Blumenthal’s loyal Democratic colleague but Murphy and Klarides formed a close friendship when they served together in the state legislature. Both were elected to the House as freshmen in 1998.

Greenwich Republican Leora Levy, who had been contemplating a Senate bid, may run against U.S. Representative Jim Himes. Levy, who was Donald Trump’s nominee to be the U.S. ambassador to Chile, has cultivated national Republican donors as Connecticut’s party committeewoman. Republicans expect Levy, who has a compelling family story of flight from the island prison of Cuba, to provide a chunk of her considerable wealth to fund her campaign against Himes, a former Goldman Sachs investment banker. Levy suffered a stinging defeat last summer when she failed to win the Republican nomination for the Greenwich-centered state senate seat in an August special election. The vacancy occurred when Democrat Alex Kasser abandoned the seat to fight her epically contentious divorce over the marital millions. That trial grows near.

The changes in the Republican fight card should help Bob Stefanowski avoid an expensive battle for the Republican nomination for governor. He will be able to concentrate the $10 million of his fortune on Governor Ned Lamont in their rematch.

Lamont has announced he will fund his re-election campaign, his fourth bid for statewide office. Blumenthal is one of the Senate’s wealthiest members and spent $2 million of his family fortune against wrestling mogul Linda McMahon in their 2010 campaign.

There is a theme well-planted in 21st century top tier Connecticut politics. The price of admission is far beyond most people’s ability to pay.

Posted January 27, 2022.

State Senator Paul Formica will not run for re-election, adding to Republican troubles as they try to add to the paltry 13 seats they hold in the 36-member chamber. Formica is serving his fourth term and rose last year to deputy leader of the Republican caucus.

Formica represents the 20th Senate District, which includes all or parts of eight towns on or near the state’s eastern shoreline. Formica, who lives in East Lyme, was uniquely popular in the district that was long held by Democrats.

Published January 25, 2022.

New Haven Democrat Sarah Locke is the new executive director of the state Democratic party organization. Locke is a co-chair of New Haven’s party committee.

Locke gained important experience in the opera company management aspect of politics. She was Rep. Rosa DeLauro’s 2020 campaign manager. DeLauro faced a wealthy self-financing candidate and did not like it at all. Republican Margaret Streicker’s television ads infuriated DeLauro, who was seeking a 16th term and had not faced a vigorous opponent for decades. DeLauro did not like it. Competition in a democracy is for others. Locke was also an enthusiastic supporter of Democrat Christopher Mattei’s bid for the party’s nomination for attorney general.

Locke appears to have come through the 2020 campaign unscathed. That experience will be helpful preparation for the 2022 campaign. President Joe Biden’s plummeting approval ratings has Democratic candidates even in deep blue Connecticut feeling the vapors coming on. That may be why it took so long to find a new party ED.

There will be many demands on finite party resources. Locke’s job will be to deploy them in the most effective way. She’ll have to say no to candidates more often than she says yes, except for the candidate at the top of the ticket.

For the sake of posterity and entertainment, Locke should keep a journal. It is the only was to remember the rich details of what awaits her.

Published January 21, 2022.

The renovated Bob Stefanowski has more than one message as he begins his second campaign for governor. Stefanowski’s 4-minute video is stuffed with special guest turns.

Dorothea of Morris reveals her electric bill is higher than her rent. Energy bills are likely to loom large in the the race for the Republican nomination if former House Minority Leader Themis Klarides remains in the race. Klarides is married to Eversource executive Greg Butler. The giant utility is widely unpopular across the state.

Tara Carr, elected Brookfield’s first selectman in November by defeating a Democratic incumbent, praises Stefanowski for his virtues as a listener. An army veteran who rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel, Carr served in Afghanistan. If state Republicans are to emerge from the wilderness, they will need leaders like Carr.

The most intriguing appearance is silent. Carolyn Candelora appears in a final shot, behind Stefanowski on the right. She’s the wife of House Minority Leader Vincent Candelora, who served as deputy leader when Klarides was the head of the House Republican caucus.

The ancient promise to eliminate waste, fraud and abuse from state programs will not carry Stefanowski through to November–even with a repeated dollop of a forensic audit. The Madison Republican will need some meaningful specifics is he’s to withstand a sustained and withering assault on the airwaves from incumbent Governor Ned Lamont.

Republican gubernatorial hopeful Bob Stefanowski has begun a $1 million buy, Daily Ructions can report. Ads will start running Monday as Stefanowski moves to establish himself as the frontrunner for his party’s nomination.

The ads will appear on the panoply of modern advertising platforms. The ads will reintroduce Stefanowski to Connecticut voters. The Madison Republican was defeated for governor in 2018 by Democrat Ned Lamont.

Lamont is seeking a second term and will once more self-fund his fourth statewide campaign.

UPDATE: The buy so far:

•   WFSB: $190,050
•   WTNH: $71,050
•   WVIT: $147,000
•   WUVN (Univision): $18,600
•   WRDM (Telemundo): $32,000

Published and updated on January 20,2022.