Senator Alexandra Kasser (D-Greenwich) has spoken at length about the marriage she is seeking to dissolve in an extended proceeding. Elected in 2018 as Alexandra Bergstein, she announced she had changed her last name to Kasser and took additional swipes at her husband Seth Bergstein. 

The wealthy Democrat declared war on privilege and the patriarchy in 2019. The patriarchy of her party has struck back in the first daily bulletin of the new session, listing Kasser as Bergstein.​

Republican fixture Dick Foley has died. Foley served in the House of Representatives for a decade, beginning in 1982, from the Naugatuck Valley.

He was elected to the job he enjoyed most, chairman of the state’s Republican Party organization, in 1989. Foley came to grief in 1993 when he was indicted on a corruption charge arising out of banking legislation and a $25,000 bribe paid to Foley to influence legislation. He was convicted by a federal jury later that year. His sentence was overturned on appeal, but not before he served time in prison.

Foley returned to politics as a lobbyist and prolific campaign consultant. Foley, who lived in Danbury at the time of his death, mounted a brief campaign for state chairman in 2019.

Andy Slavitt, informal advisor to Governor Ned Lamont, will be launching his United States of Care advocacy group into Connecticut’s health care debate. Slavitt’s organization is seeking a lobbyist to represent it in Connecticut.

“United States of Care is a member of the coalition in Connecticut seeking to pass a public option during the upcoming session.  We are seeking a lobbyist to represent us and work as part of the broader lobbying team. If this is a role you might be interested in, my colleague and I would welcome the opportunity to connect by phone to discuss further,” according to a November 30th email from Joanna Dornfeld, Senior Director of External Affairs and Partnerships. For senior care, people can check out assisted living in West Linn over here!

Slavitt was in frequent contact with Ann Huntress Lamont, Ned Lamont’s wife and chief policy advisor, during the governor’s 2019 attempt to create a state-sponsored health insurance policy. In addition to offering advice, Slavitt wrote an opinion piece supporting a government health insurance policy that appeared in the CTMirror.org.

A former Acting Administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Slavitt is the founder and board chair of United States of Care. Slavitt received no direct compensation from United States of Care. The organization, according to its 2018 tax return, paid Slavitt Group, Inc., $60,443 in rent. Also in 2018, the organization’s first full year of operation, United States of Care received $5,000,000 in contributions.

Grievance-ladened Donald Trump turned his holiday bile hose on Connecticut U.S. Attorney John Durham Saturday morning. Durham also serves as special counsel to investigate the origins of the probe into Trump’s 2016 campaign and its many contacts with Russian assets. The saga, readers may recall, included a cover story about a foray into the plight of Russian orphans.

The aggrieved president unleashed his fury on Durham for not meeting the former Trump University chancellor’s expectation for an October surprise with some indictments to upend the presidential campaign. Now the defeated Republican will settle for something that would allow him to carry on his long geschrei through the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden on January 20th.

We will know Trump’s anger with Durham extends beyond a stream of tweets if he gives a pardon to John Rowland, the twice-convicted former governor of Connecticut. Durham led the team of federal investigators and prosecutors that revealed Rowland’s corruption. Rowland resigned from office in 2004 and took a plea deal several months later. He was sentenced to a year and a day in prison. Rowland was incarcerated a second time after a federal jury convicted him in a 2014 trial on a 2012 federal campaign finance scheme.

Durham’s 2003-2004 team included former federal prosecutor Nora Dannehy. She was working with Durham on the 2016 investigation until she resigned last summer after growing uneasy with the political pressure being applied the probe, according to The Hartford Courant.

UPDATE: A reader points out that Joe Ganim once enjoyed a cordial relationship with Trump. Ganim, now doing a second tour as mayor of Bridgeport after a long prison sentence for corruption at the start of the century, could also use a pardon. Trump and Ganim were allies in the frenetic casino expansion competition of the 1990s. The two enjoyed a reunion during the 2016 Republican primary campaign.

Connecticut Public Radio announced Monday a change in its Wednesday morning schedule. The Wheelhouse, Connecticut Public Radio’s midweek news roundtable, has reached an end. Wheelhouse host Lucy Nalpathanchil will continue to own the hour with an addition to her Where We Live franchise with that puts “Connecticut in Context.”

Nalpathanchil will, according to a statement released Monday afternoon, “connect policymakers, journalists and other experts with Where We Live listeners.” The veteran broadcaster, who serves as both host and executive producer of the program, will get plenty of practice separating policymakers from their talking points.

The new program begins January 13th at 9 a.m.

Sir Les Patterson, Australia’s unforgettable cultural attache to the Court of St. James, joined British chat show host Michael Parkinson and his guests for a Christmas show.

Barry Humphries is a genius and still at it.

The headline tells the tale. State Senator Cathy Osten (D-Sprague) and a coalition of southeastern Connecticut legislators will pursue the interests of the state’s tribal casinos over the general public interest in broadening Connecticut residents’ gaming choices.

In a statement Monday, Osten and her regional colleagues will once more pursue giving the Mohegan and Mashantucket Pequot Native American tribes exclusive domain over new games in Connecticut, including sports betting and online gaming. “The gaming and entertainment markets are constantly evolving with new attractions and ways to play, and our state should adapt to that dynamic marketplace with an open mind and leverage the incredible assets we already have in place in Southeastern Connecticut,” Rep. Mike France, a Republican, added to the statement. 

The legislators, however, do not want much innovation. A dynamic marketplace would include competition. If gaming is to be expanded the best way would be to open that marketplace to insure maximum innovation and competition. In addition, Governor Ned Lamont would be prudent to apply some stringent financial standards to those who enter the gaming marketplace.

Republican Mark Boughton, serving his 10th term as mayor of Danbury, will become the commissioner of the Department of Revenue Services, Daily Ructions can report. Governor Ned Lamont, a Democrat, is expected to make the announcement Friday.

Boughton sought the Republican nomination for governor in 2010, 2014 and 2018. In 2010, the former state representative was the party’s nominee for lieutenant governor after defeating primary challenger Lisa Wilson Foley. Boughton abandoned his 2014 bid for governor after struggling to qualify for public financing. He was the party-endorsed candidate in 2018, but came in second in the five-candidate August primary.

Boughton’s durability as mayor of Danbury is unusual among the state’s local chief elected officials. His candor and stoicism as he underwent treatment in 2017 for a non-cancerous brain tumor earned him much admiration and goodwill across the political spectrum.

Lamont has found Boughton to be a reliable counselor as the first-term governor has cast a wide net seeking advice and ideas.

Wally Barnes is unwell. The 94 year old business, civic and political veteran from Bristol is ill. If you pray, say a prayer for him. If you don’t pray, send something out into the ether.

Wally, a classic moderate Republican, ran for Congress against Tom Dodd in 1954–and lost, though party leaders had told him it would be a Republican year. He went on to serve in the state Senate, becoming the minority leader for the 1969-1970 session. In 1970, Wally was the challenger in the first Republican primary for governor. He lost to New Britain Republican Thomas Meskill, who had been elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1966.

Though he would not run for office again, Wally Barnes has filled the fifty years that followed with service to the state and the nation.

Wally has spent much of the pandemic in Washington with his wife, Barbara Franklin. They became Daily Ructions readers last year. They will know by this post and in many other ways that they are on our minds and we are grateful for their long devotion to service and for always being interesting.

UPDATE: Wally Barnes died Thursday. He was 94 years old. Read more here. Chris Healy offers a warm tribute. It is one of Wally Barnes’s remarkable accomplishments that 50 years after his last campaign he continued to forge friendships with new generations political and civic leaders and activists. His interest in others and the world around him never waned.