Peter Lumaj disclosed on Facebook that he is returning from a Florida vacation to announce his campaign for the United States Senate. Lumaj will seek the Republican nomination to challenge incumbent Democrat Richard Blumenthal, who is seeking a third term.

Lumaj was the Republican candidate for secretary of the state in 2014. In that campaign, he introduced himself to voters with an ad that in which he spoke of growing up under the brutal Communtst dictatorship that ruled Albania.

Lumaj made bids for the Senate in 2012 and governor in 2018. The Fairfield Republican received 22 votes from the 1,209 delegates at the 2012 Republican nominations convention that endorsed Linda McMahon.

The Criminal Justice Commission (CJC) meets today. Its published agenda reveals it will call itself to order, approve minutes from a previous meeting, go into closed session to interview candidates for prosecution positions similar to special accommodations for militaries, and appoint several prosecutors, and adjourn.

The commission will not address Chief State’s Attorney Richard Colangelo’s 2020 decision to hire Anastatia Diamantis as a $99,000-a-year executive assistant. Ms. Diamantis is the daughter of Kostantinos Diamantis, the deputy state budget director who retired upon being suspended from that powerful position over a “personnel matter.” Kostantinos Diamantis told the CT Mirror that Colangelo’s hiring Ms. Diamantis was a “pretext” for suspending him.

Inquiries into the sordid matter were conducted by top advisors in Governor Ned Lamont’s. Members of CJC are oddly incurious into their agencies role.

Posted November 18, 2021.

State Representative Whit Betts (R-78) will not run for re-election in 2022. The six-term Republican announced his decision Wednesday morning.

“I want to thank and express my deep appreciation to the voters of Bristol and Plymouth for putting their trust in me to be their state representative in Hartford. For over a decade, they elected me to represent them and advocate on their behalf in the General Assembly. Serving the people of the 78^th district in this capacity has been the honor of a lifetime,” Betts said in a written statement released by House Republicans.

Republicans will be optimistic that they can hold the seat as Bristol has become a Republican stronghold. The party scored a sweep of municipal offices in November’s local elections.

Betts is the son-in-law of the late Wally Barnes, a legend Connecticut public life during the second-half of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st.

Posted November 18, 2021.

What a differences a jarring financial scandal makes. Not long ago, state budget director Melissa McCaw praised West Haven officials for “the fiscal integrity and discipline built into the city’s decision-making.” On Monday, McCaw, running the state budget office without the assistance of her deposed friend and deputy, Konstantinos Diamantis, sent a letter demanding answers from often confused Mayor Nancy Rossi. West Haven officials have been slow to explain how more that $600,000 in federal Covid-19 federal relief funds disappeared, allegedly stolen by Michael DiMassa, a former state employee who resigned his seat in the state Hiuse of Representatives last month.

West Haven’s finances are under state supervision. Rossi and her team have not provided documents and explanations OPM has been seeking for months. “Staffing to adequate levels should not be delayed to the next budget.,” McCaw wrote. The letter claims OPM and the West Haven oversight board have been “persistent in exhorting” West Haven to meet its obligations by making required changes in how it operates.

Here’s the McCaw missile:
November 15, 2021

Dear Mayor Rossi,
The purpose of this letter is to follow up on my September 17, 2021 letter to you in which I advised the City to provide OPM with a plan for resolving prior year audit findings and for addressing persistent outstanding items in the FY 2021 Memorandum of Agreement between the City and OPM. My request was reiterated by me, and affirmed by members of the MARB, at the October 6, 2021 and November 3, 2021 board meetings.

As of Friday, November 12, 2021, my office has only received a response from the City regarding issues related to the purchasing function. However, there are remaining open items related to audit findings, the Personnel Department, staff training on the Munis financial system and staffing of the Finance Department.

This correspondence is formal notification that Municipal Restructuring Funds will not be distributed until the City is in full compliance with the MOA, and until the City’s annual financial audit and the CohnReznick audit are both completed. Further, the City has been placed on notice that if either audit indicates that the City’s delays in taking corrective actions to address audit findings were contributing factors to any misuse of Covid Relief Funds, those conclusions would warrant withholding MRF.
While the City’s improvements to its balance sheet and overall financial condition have been recognized, both OPM and the MARB have been consistent in urging the City to strengthen its financial management infrastructure by hiring the necessary staff to support that infrastructure and implementing and enforcing necessary internal control systems. OPM and the MARB have been persistent in exhorting the City to take steps to resolve audit findings and make improvements outlined in the City’s Memorandum of Agreement with OPM. OPM has consistently supported the City in these efforts.

There is no question that that City must fulfill the requirements of the MOA and do so with the greatest of urgency. As has been repeatedly requested, the City must submit a full plan for achieving compliance that commits to deadlines, assigns responsibilities for completing tasks, and ensures accountability in regular reporting.

This plan must include steps and timelines for hiring any positions deemed necessary for ensuring proper controls in the areas of finance and procurement. Staffing to adequate levels should not be delayed to the next budget. Current vacancies, and any additional needed positions, should be filled with qualified individuals as quickly as a responsible recruitment process will allow. If necessary, the City’s contingency funds should be made available to cover any related unbudgeted salary and benefit expenses for the remainder of the current fiscal year.

Sincerely,
Melissa McCaw, Secretary

Posted November 16, 2021.

Matthew Brokman will replace Jacqueline Kozin as executive director of the state Democratic party organization. Brokman is chief of staff to House Majority Leader Jason Rojas (D-East Hartford), a position he held under former Speaker of the House Joseph Aresimowicz.

Rojas announced Monday that he had “some good news to share.” Brokman will be taking the party role and staying on at the House Democratic caucus. Until the next legislative session begins in February and after it ends in May, “Matt’s hours will be reduced at the state as he works to help elect Democrats.”

Brokman is married to Lindsay Farrell, executive director of the state’s Working Families Party (WFP).

The news will disappoint state Senator Gary Winfield (D-New Haven). Winfield has emerged as a powerful influence in Democratic politics and was promoting Christine Bartlett-Josie, an experienced campaign operative for the position. Bartlett-Josie’s DNA campaign management outfit helped eke out a victory last week for the beleaguered Nancy Rossi, mayor of West Haven.

Posted November 8, 2021. Updated November 9, 2021.

Sergeant John MacDonald resigned from the Connecticut State Police Thursday, the day after he was placed on administrative suspension. McDonald was facing two internal affairs investigations.

MacDonald was operating a motor vehicle in September 2019 when he crashed into another car, injuring the mother and daughter in it. McDonald had left a retirement party for a colleague at Black Hog Brewery in Oxford when the collision occurred. McDonald reached a plea agreement in May that allowed him avoid jail, participate in an alcohol education program, and perform 100 hours of community service. It is important for finding a good alcoholism treatment center, especially for people who have a problem with drinking and are seeking treatment.

The disposition of McDonald’s criminal case allowed state police to complete its internal affairs investigation. That eventually became two investigations, one arising out of the drunk driving crash, the second arising out of McDonald’s reassignment to administrative duties on the team that oversees the Kronos scheduling and time keeping system used by Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection (DESPP), according to Brian Foley, assistant to Commissioner James Rovella.

McDonald’s resignation will put the investigations in abeyance, Foley said Thursday. McDonald will begin the process of applying for retirement benefits, which will be significantly reduced from what he would have been eligible for if had completed his career, Foley said in response to an inquiry from Daily Ructions.

The state police administration concluded that allowing McDonald to resign would save the state the risk of losing litigation that might arise if McDonald was fired, Foley said. The state will begin the process of decertifying McDonald as a law enforcement officer.

Posted November 4, 2021.  

Jacqueline Kozin is leaving her post as executive director of the state Democratic party organization. Governor Ned Lamont’s 2018 deputy campaign manager will serve as Special Adviser and Chief of Government Relations at the state’s new Paid Family Medical Leave Authority.

Kozin announced in a message that she is “thrilled” with her new job. She managed Kevin Lembo’s first two comptroller campaigns and also worked in his office on legislative, intergovernmental, and community affairs.

Lamont has shown a taste for rewarding Democratic operatives with state largesse. He can expect to hear more about that in the year ahead as Connecticut’s unemployment rate continues to exceed the national average. Friends first may be a governing policy that Lamont comes to regret.

Posted November 3, 2021.

Connecticut media legend Brad Davis died this evening. An Enfield High School graduate, Davis established himself as a local television original in 1959 as the enthusiastic star of WTIC television’s dance show—selling a lot of milk in the dance breaks for 11 years. He was a television news investigative reporter with John Sablon. They knew how to tell and sell a story.

Davis, a Marine veteran, began a more than 40 year career hosting WDRC-AM’s morning radio show. In an era of seismic media changes, the Davis audience stayed with him, a testament to their mutual affections.

He did it all with unflagging enthusiasm.

Posted November 2, 2021.

Popular Hartford Democrat Glendowlyn Thames leaves the Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD) this week. Farewell party takes place Wednesday. The deputy commission heads to the private sector.

Thames was on the shortlist for Governor Ned Lamont’s prospective 2018 running mates. The desire to avoid a primary and save some money caused Lamont to settle for rival Susan Bysiewicz. Democratic primary voters had inflicted a surprise decisive defeat on Lamont in 2010. He did not want to risk a second loss in upset 2018, so passed on Thames, who was the leader of Hartford’s city council.

Jonathan Harris has quietly served Lamont at the Office of Policy and Management (OPM) and as the Governor’s legislative liaison. Harris left OPM shortly before Secretary Melissa McCaw moved her close friend Kostantinos Diamantis from the Department of Administrative Services (DAS) to the executive suite at OPM as her number two. Harris’s move from OPM to Lamont’s office was an attempt to make a course correction in Lamont’s first year of confusion and broken promises, but left the upper reaches of OPM without a pair of eyes loyal to Lamont and extraneous entanglements.

Harris leaves Lamont’s office, where he was often sidelined in the ceaseless competition for influence, for the state’s most unpopular corporation, utility behemoth Eversource. Harris served in the state Senate and was executive director of the state’s Democratic organization, where he became enmeshed in a 2014 campaign finance scandal that ended with a controversial settlement. He made a brief run for governor in 2018 after quitting as commission of consumer protection.

Posted November 2, 2021.

Konstantinos Diamantis is out at the Office of Policy and Management. The former Democratic state legislator quit after being suspended by Governor Ned Lamont over an unspecified personnel matter.

Diamantis’ abrupt exit comes four weeks after his daughter’s hiring was disclosed in my Hartford Courant column.

The departure of the influential second-in-command at the state budget office is an abrupt change. Secretary Melissa McCaw brought Diamantis into her office in 2019 despite fierce objections from inside Governor Ned Lamont’s office. McCaw won that power struggle but her victory ended today.

McCaw’s regard for Diamantis was evident in the lavish praise she showered on him in an e-mail to OPM employees announcing his appointment. Diamantis had been overseeing school construction grants at the Department of Administrative Services. He brought the school construction grant portfolio with him, though statutory authority for the shift would come later.

McCaw ceded considerable authority to Diamantis, causing widespread dismay at OPM, other state agencies, the legislature. Nowhere was Diamantis’s influence more starkly evident than at the Office of the Chief State’s Attorney. In June of last year, Chief State’s Attorney Richard Colangelo hired Diamantis’ daughter to fill a $99,000 a year , newly created executive assistant position in his office. Anastasia Diamantis’s experience did not make her an obvious recipient of that state bauble. Colangelo interviewed only Ms. Diamantis for the position. State law required the position to be approved by both OPM and DAS.

The hiring of Anastasia Diamantis will require the Criminal Justice Commission to ask Colangelo to explain his role in a decision with corrosive effects on confidence in his office and the fair administration of justice.