A March 9th email from Ryan Drajewicz, Governor Ned Lamont’s chief of staff, indicates he reported to Ann Lamont while copying the governor on the message to Mrs. Lamont. The plan called for the creation of an “aggressive and offensive strategy” for Ann Lamont to review by the end of the day on March 11th.

The initial plan included a request from Drajewicz to Ann Lamont to put him “toe to toe with a Republican next week.” Drajewicz may not have realized that Connecticut’s radical transparency means the partisan divide of the legislature is public information. His fellow Democrats enjoy decisive control of each chamber. Those are the elected officials the Lamonts needed to persuade to support them.

Drajewicz hoped for a week of push back and “grabbing ‘one-liners’ which are easily understood and replayed.” That week of magical thinking continues to prove elusive.

State Representative Raghib Allie-Brennan (D-Bethel) will be bringing his  brand of “energetic and thoughtful leadership” to U.S. Representative Jahana Hayes’s office. The first term 2nd district Democrat will work in Hayes’s district office, moving Allie-Brennan a step closer to realizing his own objective.

Full marks to Hayes for showing enough confidence to hire someone with an eye on the job she holds.

This will be the first most readers have heard of Ohio Governor Mike DeWine’s plan to hike his state’s gas tax. It seems to have caught Governor Ned Lamont’s attention as he pondered how to seize the initiative after an uneven launch of his new administration.

Capping legislators’ health benefits was unlikely to win friends in the Democratic legislature.

Ryan Drajewicz, Governor Ned Lamont’s chief of staff, tries to explain to Ann Lamont why integrity means abandoning a key campaign pledge three months after her husband was elected governor. This may be a twisted derivation of the “radical candor” philosophy practiced at the Bridgewater hedge fund where Drajewicz worked as an administrator before joining Lamont.

Ann Lamont responds with a realistic assessment of the price her husband will pay.

Not every Ann Lamont email is in my column this week. The Greenwich venture capitalist has been surprised at the organized opposition to Governor Ned Lamont’s comprehensive toll proposals. Greenwich activist and Lamont neighbor Hilary Gunn caught Mrs. Lamont’s attention.

Ann Lamont asks friend Lisa Stuart if she knows “this crazy girl Hillary Gunn who is on the RTM..stalking Ned with anti-toll signs…part of what he signed up for but a little weird to have it be a GCDS girl who lives on our street be a stalker!”

Stuart promises to “do some sleuthing.”

Oh for the days of 2006 when dissent was patriotism and a fella could be hailed for spending $20 million to challenge a U.S. senator who supported the war in Iraq and free trade.

Year-end changes in the Capitol village. Governor Ned Lamont’s legislative liaison, popular former state legislator Chris Soto, will take up a post at the education department.

Susan Bysiewicz aide Jimmy Tickey will depart the lieutenant governor’s office to become district director for U.S. Representative Jim Himes. With the Fairfield County Democrat at the center of the House’s impeachment inquiry, it should be a time like no other to work for him.

Connecticut Democrats have announced that Chris Pitts “has joined our team as Interim Data Director.” Pitts, who federal law enforcement authorities identified as a conduit, a mule, a stooge in a bribery scandal that shook New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s administration and brought the 2018 conviction of the Democrat’s top aide, Joseph Percoco.

Connecticut Democrat Peter Galbraith Kelly, Jr., was also snagged in the scandal. Kelly made $300,000 in payments to Percoco’s wife through Pitts for sham energy education work in exchange for Kelly getting access to her influential husband, once referred to as Mario Cuomo’s third son. Pitts, a Canterbury Democrat, was named at Kelly’s trial.

State Democrats will be keeping Pitts on the payroll after they find a permanent data chief. He’ll be doing “some organizing in the second congressional district for the 2020 election cycle.”

Dear Ructions,

There’s not much room for a Connecticut Democrat to rise since the 2018 election cemented some new leaders into place. What does an ambitious Democrat do to get ahead or get away?

Sign me, 

Looking for a ladder

Dear Ladder,

You are right that the most promising opportunities were seized and won last year. Plenty of 2018 Democrats who failed to appear on that autumn ballot are searching for places to go. Not everyone can apply to become a judge. 

Go north. Find a presidential candidate you like and volunteer to help in New Hampshire. Hold signs, knock on doors, make phone calls, and attend events. Become conversant in your candidate’s stands and you may be able to serve as a surrogate at some small gatherings around the state that loves its primary marathon. You could thrust yourself onto the state with nothing but stages for the next two months. You may catch the eye of a campaign professional who will move on to another state on primary night. 

Even a losing campaign can be a path to something bigger. Supporters and staffers from losing campaigns migrate to the winners as the scope of the campaign grows. It helps to be conversant in a couple of issues. Experts get special attention. Faux experts do too. Just ask the loquacious George Papadopoulos. You don’t want to be like him. 

Don’t forget what may happen back in your own backyard. There may be volunteers here you can mobilize to spend time in southern New Hampshire, which is not far, or make calls to voters from here. Now and then the Connecticut’s primary gets some attention. In 2020, it’s part of the April 28th Acela primary of six states in the northeast corridor: Connecticut, Rhode Island, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New York. If the nomination has not been decided by then, April 28th could be decisive. National campaigns always appreciate someone who knows the local landscape, especially state election laws. 

While you are helping your candidate, make some friends on the other campaigns. Your paths will cross again before this is done. One of them may be your lifeline to something new. 

Governor Ned Lamont and legislative leaders are meeting at this hour behind the iron gates of the Governor’s Residence. Lamont is taking a holiday week run at convincing the leaders of the four legislative caucuses to support a plan–any plan–that puts tolls on several state highways.

Lamont has proposed several plans that have met with tepid responses from Democratic and Republican leaders.

Dear Ructions,

Thanksgiving. Crowded family dinner. A of couple of voluble relatives with nothing but opinions about him. You know who I mean. How do we resist the provocations that are certain to grow through the afternoon and evening. Last year’s touch football game became a tournament of rage.

Fixin’ for a fight

Dear Fixin’,

Expand the pool of guests. Some college students are unable to spend Thanksgiving with family due to distance or athletics team commitments. Ask your hosts if you might bring a couple of them. Their presence may serve as a silent enforcer of courtesy. Make sure the students are on your football team, a caution against older players’ boozy delusions of prowess. 

Divert. At the first opportunity, which sounds like it will come early, announce the most important vote facing America is the one on The Voice. Everyone ought to agree an injustice will occur if the magnificent Katie Kadan does not win. There are certain to be other fans of the Chicago wonder at the family gathering. Make sure everyone is registered to vote for The Voice. That should kill some time and lead to other topics that have nothing to do with our fraught politics. 

Katie Kadan’s sensational turns may be causing me to overestimating the power of talent to unite for a few hours. You may be powerless to stop family members (I hope they are in-laws) from hailing, minimizing or excusing their hero’s embrace of dictators and nutty conspiracy theories. Ask them if they were in peril who they would rather have on their side: Jim Jordan, Devan Nunes and Elise Stefanik or Fiona Hill, Bill Taylor and Alexander Vindman? 

Leave early. Thanksgiving continues to be shortened by encroaching retail hours. Best Buy must be offering something you absolutely must have for on of your relatives at a never-before-low-price that is only available to the first 50 customers. Whisper that you are getting that television that includes Alexa for a niece or nephew everyone holds in great affection. 

Bargains will soothe the sharpest partisan divides. You will be free to go without incident.

If you are impaled on the horns of a dilemma and want to risk receiving advice, send a message to kfr@dailyructions.com. Identities will be protected. Messages may be edited.