Ben Proto cruised to an easy first ballot win Tuesday night in the long contest to become chair of the state’s shrinking Republican Party. Proto won 55 votes, Jim Campbell 18.5 and Gary Byron 15.5. After a round of treachery—the switches—Proto increased his total to 69.5 as Campbell’s support fled to Proto.

Proto’s first task will be to provide meaningful support in this summer’s sudden special state Senate election.

State Senator Alex Kasser (D-Greenwich) has resigned. The second term Democrat cites “personal circumstances and ongoing divorce litigation” as the reasons for her shock announcement.

Kasser has commented often in public about her marriage to and divorce from finance executive Seth Bergstein.

Kasser posted a statement Tuesday morning on Medium explaining her decision. She explains that living in Greenwich has become an ordeal and that she no longer has contact with the three children. Kasser earlier complained in a court filing that the location of the $5,200 a month apartment she was renting near a Greenwich station was noisy and had caused one of her children not to want to visit Kasser there.

Kasser announced in a 2019 speech delivered early in her first term that she was going to take on privilege and the patriarchy. A slew of declarations followed, including that she was seeking a dissolution of her marriage and changing her last name. After that she started to find attorneys for family law who would take up this case. And then She got help of the lawyers from a reputed law firm like Jensen Family law firm. You can learn more from Jensen Family Law about divorce and the legalities related to that. Bergstein countered in a court filing with the help of lawyers from Worcester O’Connor Family Law that the couple’s children learned about the announcements when they were made public.

Kasser’s resignation is effective immediately, triggering a special election this summer. Special elections do not allow party primaries.

Ned Lamont loyalist Rob Blanchard is leaving the governor’s office for a new life in New York. The heart will not be denied. The Bucks County native and Syracuse graduate has been the Greenwich aristocrat’s faithful companion since joining his 2018 campaign.

Blanchard served on Middletown’s Democratic town council and did an eventful turn as chair of its fractious town committee. He will be applying his skill in the dark arts of communications on the big stage.

The 33 year old also spent time working with Ted Kennedy while he considered a 2018 run for governor.

Blanchard outlasted a considerable number of original hires in Lamont’s office, a place that is more difficult to work in than it appears from the outside.

Luke Bronin’s chief of staff, Vasishth Srivastava is leaving his city hall perch. Srivastava joined Bronin’s team in 2017 and has thrived in what can be a harsh work environment. He began as a policy researcher and enjoyed a steady rise.

Srivastava is being replaced by Hartford resident David Steuber, a senior program manager at CTNext/Connecticut innovations.

Jennifer Cusato, the Floridian running for Republican state party chair has received the public support of 11 legislators. The ten state representatives and one state senator–listed below–told party committee members in a June 17th message:

On the battlefield of political power and political ideas, Republicans in Connecticut are losing seats at the table and we are ceding ground in the culture wars to deleterious effect. What kind of Connecticut are we leaving for our children and our grandchildren? Seriously.

Let’s get real. It’s worse than business-as-usual in Connecticut. The Republican Party is at the vanguard to push back…or are we? We should be. We HAVE to be.

Jennifer is a poliical professional with a background spanning more than fifteen years that includes work in the battleground states of Florida, North Carolina, Virginia, Georgia, and Connecticut. She has won federal (U.S. Senate in North Carolina), state-wide (judicial seat in North Carolina), and legislative (state senate and state rep in Virginia and Connecticut.

[Note: Connecticut has not been a battleground state for decades.]

As for that living-in-Florida wrinkle:

We have heard detractors say, “Wee, she doesn’t live in CT.” We ask you, if you were competing for a top job in Chicago, would you move to Chicago before you got the job? Facts: Jen has family in CT. She stays at her brother’s house when she’s flown in for events during this campaign. She has vowed to move to Vernon to work on the campaign to unseat [Democratic state Representative Michael] Winkler. Has anyone other candidate made as clear a threat to a Democrat-held seat? She will face challenges boldly and head-on.

The ten representatives are members of the House Conservative Caucus. State Representative Anne Dauphinais’s support is particularly meaningful because she is a member of the party’s state committee and will be casting a votes at Tuesday’s meeting.

Here are the 11 signatories to the endorsement:

• Sen. Henri Martin 31 
• State Rep. Anne Dauphinais 44
• State Rep. Mike France 42 
• State Rep. Craig Fishbein 90
• State Rep. Rick Hayes 51 
• State Rep. Tami Zawistowski 61
• State Rep. David Wilson 66 
• State Rep. Kimberly Fiorello 149
• State Rep. John Fusco 81 
• State Rep. Mark Anderson 62
• State Rep. Doug Dubitsky 47

Cusato faces competition from Gary Byron, Jim Campbell and Ben Proto.

Gary Byron won the endorsement of 15 Republican members of the House of Representatives Tuesday in his bid to lead the state party committee. Byron served in the House from Newington for two terms, from 2015-2019. Byron segued from the legislature to the morning spot on WDRC-AM.

The Republican legislators issued a joint statement, calling Byron “a trusted colleague, hard-working, clear-thinking and reliable.” The hailed his “energy and experience.” Byron has called his communications skills his “secret sauce” in politics.

Republican party committee members will vote Tuesday on a new leader. Jim Campbell, Jennifer Cusato, and Ben Proto are also seeking the job. Proto appears to be the frontrunner, though is considerably short of a first ballot win. Party committee contests are difficult to gauge because the small universe of voters often have a shifting notion of commitment.

The 15 Byron House supporters are Mitch Bolinsky, Bill Buckbee, Devin Carney, Jay Case, Tom, Delnicki, Charlie Ferraro, Carol Hall, Stephen Harding, David Labriola, Tom O’Dea, Cara Pavalock-D’Amato, William A, Petit, Jr., David Rutigliano, Kurt Vail, and David Yaccarino

An announcement from the White House. Judge Omar Williams, currently sitting on the Superior Court, is highly regarded by lawyers and his colleagues on the bench. This is good news for justice.

The legislature’s 837-page budget implementer bill does not include a $3 million a year consolation prize for East Windsor. State Senator Cathy Osten (D-Sprague) had proposed the annual payment as compensation. The money was intended to compensate East Windsor for the Lamont administration’s successful effort to halt plans to build a slot facility in East Windsor.

The box of slots was a joint undertaking of the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribes to divert Connecticut gamblers from the MGM casino in Springfield, Massachusetts.

Osten expressed the hope that the annual payment would be made to East Windsor until the parcel of land on which the Tribal Winds casino was to be build is sold.

In a one-sentence May 21t letter, Commissioner James Rovella of the Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection demoted Lieutenant Colonel John S. Eckersley from his position in the top command of the Connecticut State Police. Eckersley returned to his previous rank as a captain.

The shakeup in the highest ranks of the force was unaccompanied by a public announcement. Eckersley and two others were promoted in a 2019 ceremony that was announced to the public. Eckersley’s devotion to duty was highlighted in a Courant story last August when the he came to the aid of a distressed woman running on I-95 in Old Lyme.

Eckersley was included in a 2020 union vote of no confidence in the leadership of Rovella and Governor Ned Lamont. Eckersley is known for enforcing codes of appearance and conduct that sometimes slip among the troops.

Democratic leaders of the House and Senate have filed a resolution convene a special session of the legislature to allocate billions in federal funds that will flow into Connecticut state government coffers. The special session may convene as soon as 12:01 a.m. Thursday, though it is expected to begin its formal deliberations later in June.

The special session will also provide an opportunity to address what state policymakers will do when the pandemic-related funds run out.