Jeff Desmarais is running as a Democrat in one of the state’s handful of reliably Republican state Senate districts, the 32nd. It takes some brass to run a race like that and take the fight to the incumbent. Desmarais is meeting the moment.

The Watertown Democrat is reminding that Republican Eric Berthel voted for the 2017 Millstone deal that left ratepayers howling this summer. Berthel is the Q-Anon-supporting legislator who saw some virtues in the loony conspiratorial minded shadowy organization that is fixated on nonexistent Satan-worshippers who drink blood and control the media–while running child sex rings.
Bethel, Bethlehem, Bridgewater, Brookfield, Middlebury, Oxford, Roxbury, Seymour, Southbury, Washington, Watertown and Woodbury, that is your state senator.

QAnon came into public view in 2017–the same year Berthel voted for the Millstone deal. What must his fellow conspirator hunters think of that?

Desmarais texted supporters, in part, today:

A growing number of Independents are supporting Jeff Desmarais for State Senate. Our current senator, Eric Berthel, has become a career politician who is only in it for himself: regularly voting against us just to get his name in the paper.

Berthel voted against the largest tax cut in state history, and for the 2017 Millstone-Eversource deal that’s responsible for the recent spikes in our electric bill. 

Jeff Desmarais believes in cutting taxes and holding big corporations accountable to lower costs for our families.

A text message is not a policy seminar but Desmarais’ ought to prompt voters to seek fuller explanations–a debate, even–on the critical issue of the supply and price of electricity in Connecticut.

Berthel, not known for his interest in the details of legislation, was on the wrong side of the Senate Republican internal coup earlier this year.

Published September 27, 2024.

Supporters of Governor Ned Lamont, including former staff members, are expressing consternation that the two-term Democrat is considering Natalie Wagner as his new deputy chief of staff. Wagner, currently serving in the Department of Administrative Services as the $164,000 a year Director of Strategic Operations and Partnerships. That curious title is bureaucratic language for Executive Assistant, one of the great prizes of state government. It is outside the merit system and is often bestowed without competition upon the connected.

Wagner, Daily Ructions readers may recall, was Lamont’s deputy budget director for two months at the start of his first term. She left that position when astonishingly ugly text messages between Wagner and a former member of the state’s highest court, came to light within the Lamont administration. They were later published on this site. That former Supreme Court justice, Joette Katz, had spent eight years as the haughty head of the Department of Children and Families (DCF). Wagner was a budget office liaison to DCF.

In 2017, Wagner and Katz exchanged text messages that were stored on a state issued mobile phone Katz turned in at the end of her tenure at DCF. The messages revealed their animus for Perry Rowthorn while he served as Chief Deputy Attorney General under George Jepsen. The highly regarded Rowthorn, as well as Jepsen, refused to support Katz’s misbegotten plan to take critical DCF budget authority away from the legislature. Abuse followed. Katz called Rowthorn a “fucking ass hole [sic]”and a “weasel.” Wagner appeared to agree and added another name to the weasel category.

The same issue, the handling of the Juan F. consent decree, had several months before caused Wagner and Katz to turn their venomous keyboards on state Representative Toni Walker and then-state Senator Len Fassano. The two serious legislators joined in bipartisan opposition to Katz’s Jaun F. gambit. Wagner and Katz speculated that Walker and Fassano were engaged in a sexual affair. For Katz and Wagner diversity of opinion was a transgression that required a malicious response.

The Daily Ructions posts revealing the texts are below. It bears repeating that the comments about Walker revealed anti-feminist tropes by Wagner and Katz. Wagner texted Katz after one public meeting at which Walker and Fasano appeared, writing, “And I think Toni’s remarks were some kind of code about where they should meet up for an afternoon delight.”

Six years in high office can change a person, but one is usually completely formed at 70 years old. The ugliness that Katz and Wagner trafficked in properly offended Ned Lamont in 2019. People who have worked for the success he enjoys in his sixth year in office are alarmed that Lamont may have lowered his standards for those who he chooses to serve at the heart of his administration.

Published September 27, 2024.

Erin Stewart disclosed her political ambitions to WTNH’s Dennis House. She will not seek a seventh two-year term as mayor of New Britain and is moving closer to a second bid for governor.

Stewart performed the rare feat of maintaining her popularity in Democratic New Britain in six elections, sometimes carrying the rest of the Republican ticket into office with her. Stewart made her formal announcement that should would not seek re-election in 2025 in a video posted on social media.

Stewart made a run for the Republican nomination for governor in 2018. It failed to strike a chord with Republican donors and convention delegates. On the eve of the party’s nominating convention she switched to the contest for lieutenant governor snd qualified for the August primary. Stewart managed only a distant second in the three candidate race, running 15% behind Southington Republican Joe Markley, the party-endorsed candidate.

Bob Stefanowski, the Republican nominee for governor in 2018 and 2022, gave serious consideration to selecting Stewart as his running mate two years ago. He chose Fairfield Republican Laura Devlin for the second spot on his losing ticket.

Published September 24, 2024.

Five South Windsor Republicans have for the third time in two days scheduled a special meeting to remove the sixth Republican on the Town Council, Audrey Delnicki, as mayor. It will be a surprise if the five can each find their way to the South Windsor Town Hall at 6 p.m. on Friday.

It’s scheduled for a time that appears intended to limit public attendance and participation. The most recent agenda repeats the quintet’s complaints that Delnicki does not share information with them and has failed to provide leadership. Their inability to be able to complete the task of calling for a special meeting in one simple move suggests it may not be possible to lead them.

Local voters issued a firm rebuke of the six incumbent Democrats when they sought re-election after using a revaluation to enact a punishing tax increase. The victorious Republicans promised voters they would cut taxes. The five unhappy winners, Richard Balboni, Michael Buganski, Carolyn Carey, Toby Lewis, and Deputy Mayor Matthew Siracusa form a majority on the nine-member body. They have the votes to deliver their promise. Siracusa does not need to be mayor for them to lower the town’s mill rate–if they can accomplish the difficult task of addressing spending.

The odious phrase that a fish rots from the head comes to mind. This is the contemporary Republican Party. Perhaps the five can convince Marjorie Taylor Green or Matthew Gaetz to provide greeting for Friday’s meeting.

Voters expect the people they elect to lead their local government to sort out their differences quietly and with regular public displays of competence, not spectacle.

Published September 18, 2024.

It ends with a whimper. The five aggrieved South Windsor Republicans chronicled below have announced their retreat by cancelling Thursday’s meeting to remove and replace Mayor Audrey Delnicki. The way forward is not clear. Whatever it is, it will be marked by tensions.

Update published September 18, 2024.

____________________________________________________________________________________

UPDATE ON BELOW: The five Republicans on the South Windsor Town Council seeking to remove Mayor Audrey Delnicki have revised their agenda and are going forward. The meeting is set for Wednesday, September 19th [sic].

The revised agenda sets forth the causes prompting to make their move to remove Delnicki as mayor, not as a member of the Council. They accuse Delnicki of lack of leadership, withholding information, and lack of transparency. The agenda lists a “vote of no confidence from at least 5 of her fellow counselors.“

The removal of Delnicki, if successful, will be followed by the election of Siracusa as mayor. He is deputy mayor. Carolyn Carey will be elected to take his place.

————————————————————————————————-

Public participation,according to the proposed agenda, is limited to 30 minutes, which seems inadequate for the gravity of the business on the agenda.

A call for a Special Meeting of the South Windsor Town Council on Wednesday at the unusual hour of 5 p.m. to elect a new Mayor and Deputy Mayor appears to have failed.

The meeting’s sole purpose, according to its agenda, was “appointing Matt Siracusa as Mayor and Carolyn Carey as Deputy Mayor. South Windsor has a mayor, Republican Audrey Delnicki. She was elected mayor by the members of the Town Council at its organization meeting the Monday after last November’s municipal election. South Windsor was a rare bright spot for Hartford area Republicans.

All six Republican council candidates were elected on a promise to reduce spending and cut taxes in the aftermath of a hefty revaluation tax increase. Local Democrats, seeking an unprecedented fourth two-year term, claimed only three of the council’s nine seats.

The Republicans in their first budget neither cut spending nor reduced taxes. Taxes increased. They discovered there are not enough motor vehicle released to slice a mill off the tax rate.

There has been some discord among the six Republicans, only two of whom previously served on the council. Five of the six have not been getting along with Delnicki, who has tried to impose some order on newcomers. They have resisted and planned to elect two of their own on Wednesday. The problem is there is not a vacancy in the position of mayor. The town’s charter and council rules make no direct provision for removing a mayor. You cannot have two mayors, a Tuesday memo from Town Attorney Richard D. Carella points out. The removal of any official appointed by the Council “must be accompanied by a statement of cause.”

Carella recommends withdrawing the call of Wednesday’s meeting. Sensible advice.

It has not taken long for the revolution to turn on its own. Delnicki stands in the way of the likely next target of the five Republicans, Town Manager Michael Maniscalco. Removing a town manager is a tricky and often expensive business, even if a council has engaged in the task of laying a predicate. That has not been done in South Windsor.

The five unhappy Republicans are unlikely to cease their quest for change. They will have to hurry. Suburban voters are often offended by public displays of intra-party tumult. If the conspirators survive next summer’s nominating caucus, they will face hard going in the November municipals.

Audrey Delnicki is married to State Representative Tom Delnicki. He is seeking his fifth term in the House this year and faces Democrat Steven King, a member of the council.

Published September 17, 2024.

Senator Chris Murphy’s indignation often comes with a side dish. The Democrat seeking a third term sometimes inserts a general condemnation of capitalism when he fulminates. Sometimes he dresses up his tirade as contempt for neoliberalism.

Last week, Murphy used his spot on the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee to criticize Prospect Medical Holdings, owner of Manchester Memorial, Rockville, and Waterbury hospitals. The saga of Prospect operating those three for-profit hospitals has been fraught with difficulties. The proposed sale of them to Yale New Haven has been worse.

Murphy is furious over the large mortgages ($1.12 billion) the company took in 2018 and used a large chunk of the money ($457 million) for dividend and executive compensation.

In the 2018 campaign cycle, when Murphy was seeking his second term, the Prospect Medical Holdings PAC made contributions to four candidates, all senators, one Republican and three Democrats. One of the Democrats was Murphy. He accepted $2,500 from the Prospect Medical Holdings PAC on October 10, 2017, a year after it made its Connecticut acquisitions.

Prospect Medical’s business practices should have surprised no one. It is not capitalism that failed, it is the state’s healthcare regulators. Much of the company’s web of buying, borrowing, selling and leasing real estate can be found on public land records.

Rhode Island hospital regulators took steps to protect the state’s medical system from Prospect Medical engaging in asset stripping. Connecticut’s did not.

In 2017, before the deluge, all that mattered was the PAC contribution.

Published September 17, 2024.

The Working Families Party (WFP) candidate endorsement questionnaire provides a preview of the gathering storm in the House and Senate Democratic caucuses.

The long document poses this question:

While we have worked to build progressive power in our legislature, we are often challenged by the Moderate Caucus who have organized against us in our fights for increasing minimum wage, expanding healthcare to undocumented immigrants, expanding paid sick days, and establishing a fair work week. If [re]elected will you pledge to join the moderate caucus?

Yes, pledge not to join the moderate caucus

No

I am unsure–please explain

Here’s an explanation. Some suburban Democrats in competitive districts life to work both sides of the street. They like the votes the WFT endorsement provides but also find some advantage in telling constituents they are aligned with moderate Democrats–like Governor Ned Lamont.

WFP leaders have had enough of the shapeshifting. Diversity of thought is no virtue. The ideological battle among the Democrats, who enjoy overwhelming control of the House and the Senate, will become more open and pointed next year.

Published September 11, 2024.

The Independent Party has endorsed a Democrat in the 36th Senate District for the first time. Democrat Nick Simmons defeated incumbent Republican Ryan Fazio for the party’s nomination in the district that includes Greenwich, New Canaan and part of Stamford.

The Independent Party endorsed Republican incumbent Scott Frantz in the party’s 2018 annus horribilus. Republicans lost five of their 18 seats, including the 36th for the first time since the Great Depression year of 1930. The Independent Party line delivered 643 votes for Frantz.

Democrat Alex Kasser (formerly Bergstein) was re-elected in 2020, defeating Republican Ryan Fazio. Kasser resigned the seat in June 2021, triggering a summer special election. Fazio defeated Democrat Alexis Gevanter by 458 votes. Petitioning candidate John Blankley, a Greenwich Democrat, received 408 votes.

In 2022, the 36th was home to the closest upper chamber contest. Fazio won a full term by defeating Democrat Trevor Crow by 89 votes out of 42,845 cast. The Independent Party made no endorsement. Fazio withstood a Democratic wave as Governor Ned Lamont won 4,369 votes more than Republican Bob Stefanowski. It was an all-Greenwich ticket at the top of the Democratic line with Lamont, Senator Richard Blumenthal and U.S. Representative Jim Himes. Democrats won the three Greenwich state House seats.

Control of the Independent Party has been seriously contested as a result of the decisive role it played in the 2010 gubernatorial election when Chester Republican Thomas Marsh won more than 17,000 votes as the party’s nominee. That was far more than Democrat Dan Malloy’s 6,000 vote margin over Greenwich Republican Tom Foley.

Fazio will be battling more headwinds this year. The Greenwich Republican organization has been in a constant state of ideological war, including bitter primaries earlier this year for seats on the local town committee. The Stamford Republican organization continues to decline as a local force.

In addition to completing a questionnaire, candidates seeking the Independent endorsement were required to sign the pledge below:

I, __________, strongly support free and fair elections and the rule of law, and reject the actions on January 6th, 2021 that attempted to prevent the peaceful transfer of power for the first time in the history of the United States. I accept the results of all elections past and future, as certified by
election officials.
Furthermore, by seeking the endorsement of the Independent Party, I will actively cosponsor and support legislation advancing the responses I have given to the questions asked by the Independent Party of Connecticut in selecting candidates for endorsement.

That pledge, a reflection of our perilous politics, ought not to have been difficult for any candidate. It may cause some aggrieved Republicans problems with their local activists.

In some districts, including the 36th, candidates seeking the Independent endorsement were required to gather and submit enough signatures to restore the minor party to the ballot line. The Simmons campaign provided more than the 430 necessary, according to Simmons.

Published September 4, 2024.

Retired Old Saybrook police officer Jay Rankin was arrested in Old Saybrook on Tuesday for allegedly driving under the influence, according to the local police department’s website. He is scheduled to appear in Superior Court in Middletown on September 9th.

Eight days later, Rankin will return to Superior Court in Danielson on sexual assault charges stemming from his February arrest. The former Old Saybrook fire department volunteer and chief was arrested last winter by the state Environmental Conservation Police on charges arising out of an alleged sexual assault at a boat launch in Thompson in 2023.

Rankin, according to the New Haven Register, “was charged with third-degree sexual assault, fourth-degree sexual assault, public indecency, second-degree breach of peace and prohibited activities in limited access areas.” His case is under seal, suggesting he has applied for admission to one of the state’s many pretrial diversion programs that would result in a dismissal of all charges after meeting conditions set by a judge.

Published August 29, 2024.

The state House Democratic Campaign Committee (HDCC) tried to exploit flooding from Sunday’s historic storm for political gain. Candace from the HDCC sent a text with a photograph of a flooded road, claiming “Southbury’s infrastructure needs an upgrade but our town’s current leadership seems to think ‘if it ain’t broke don’t fix it’ is good public policy.”

Republican Jason Buchsbaum is a member of the town’s Board of Selectman. He was on the ticket that inflicted a stinging defeat on Democrat Ed Edelson in 2015 as he sought a third term as first selectman. Buchsbaum and Edelson will face each other in the open 69th House District seat in the November.

Candace was not finished. She also complained that state government has spent millions on “our major cities, it’s time they did it for us too!” Candace may not realize that the House Democrats have enjoyed control of the House for 37 years. That’s plenty of time to have addressed the infrastructure needs of affluent communities like Southbury, though planning for a 1,000 year storm was never going to be high on anyone’s list of infrastructure projects.

With two people dead and the cost of the flooding still being assessed, House Democrats might want to take a break from campaigning in the disaster areas for a few days. Adding to Southbury’s slim inventory of affordable housing is likely to get more attention and funding.

Edelson’s four years leading the town probably included little planning for a 1,000 year storm.

Residents of Southbury and other towns may have wondered in their misery and fear where U.S. Representative Jahana Hayes has been since Sunday. She stepped up in front of the cameras on Tuesday night and showed them. She was in Chicago at the Democratic National Convention. Hayes, seeking a fourth term in November, cast the Connecticut delegation’s votes, 73 for Kamala Harris and 1 present. An exuberant Hayes announced the votes “for the first female president of the United States of America, Kamala Harris.”

As July began, Hayes took a distinctly negative view of a Harris campaign for president. She did not agree with those of us who were certain the vice president would meet the moment. “Rep. Jahana Hayes (D-Conn.) stood up before her colleagues during an all-caucus meeting to argue that putting the vice president atop the ticket” the Washington Post reported, “at this point in the election cycle would be setting Harris up for failure, according to two people familiar with the discussion.”

Hayes did issue a weather advisory Sunday as she headed for Chicago.

Published August 21, 2024.