Dear Ructions,

I need to quell an insurrection. The boss in our office continues to engage in ostentatious displays of wealth. No one among her subordinates enjoys her means—which do not come from her labors at our workplace. Her schedule is repeat with personal pampering appointments while everyone else is at work. She may have lit the fuse by letting people know she was pondering the purchase of a $20,000 handbag while on vacation at a city known as a center for international fashion.

The incident has roiled the ranks who detect a “let them eat cake” aura from our leader. How might a few of us defuse the seething resentment? We do not want anyone to become unemployed for mouthing off about Ms. Antionette’s expensive accoutrements.

Sign me,

Hermesed in America

Dear Hermesed,

The tyranny of the handbag continues. This cannot be what Louis Vuitton and Judith Lieber intended when they created their luxury goods long ago. Still, a moment is upon us and you are right to confront it.

The benefits of capitalism will never be extinguished by those who struggle to advance themselves. The danger comes from the garish clueless. Too bad the boss has no friend outside the office who could—as Her Majesty the Queen does for her prime minister—caution and warn against ill-considered acts.

Your decision not to send a photo of the revealing handbag suggests you may possess the discretion to bring a wary peace. Vulgarity on the march remains a potent force for ill, as each day reminds us. It is not easy to make a telling point to those who believe pricey consumer goods fill their empty core. 

One or two of you must go to New York and have a wander to Canal Street. There you will find replicas of the offending handbag. Scoop up an armful. Distribute them among the budding mutineers. On the rare day when the boss is in residence at work, plan a small celebration around a birthday or leave-taking. Have everyone carry her new handbag. (If it’s a Birkin or Kelly bag, it’s always open.) One of the jolliest among you should point out that someone gave the boss one too! What a sport she is for using it. If she insists on declaring hers is an original, you have done your best and the rebellion will take root.

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.

Bars and restaurants should consider providing this service for customers. The Liquor Control Commission could introduce it to license holders.

It may be an awkward Sunday at the Aqua Turf Club. Democrats will gather to for the 2019 Ella T. Grasso Women’s Leadership Brunch. They’ll honor a Grasso successor, Secretary of the State Denise Merrill.

Bridgeport Democrat Wanda Geter-Pataky is another honoree. There may be some awkward moments. Geter-Pataky has been credited as a leader of the team that provided the disputed absentee ballots that gave Joe Ganim his narrow margin of victory over state Senator Marilyn Moore in the city’s September 10th primary. Merrill has joined in calls for an investigation of the casting of the absentee ballots in the Bridgeport race.

By her own account at this summer’s town committee nominating meeting, Geter-Pataky has become a Ganim ally after supporting his opponent four years ago.

That alliance proved crucial for Ganim on September 10th, according to OnlyInBridgeport.com.

More here on the investigation by the CT Post into dubious ballots.

Secretary of the State Denise Merrill won’t comment on the scandal enveloping her deputy, Scott Bates, the former chairman of the Connecticut Port Authority. The three-term Democrat has found time to consult the contemporary music charts. She’s found inspiration in Lizzo’s popular “Truth Hurts” for a tweet on voter registration.

A Merrill tweet with a burglary theme has been deleted.

The nation’s attorneys general have been in prolonged litigation with opiod manufacturer Purdue Pharma. The attorneys general recently divided largely among partisan lines on whether to proceed with a settlement of claims. Republicans have favored the deal, Democrats have not. The partial agreement prompted the Connecticut-based company to file for bankruptcy as part of a resolution of claims.

Attorneys general of both parties agree that they like Purdue’s political contributions to their partisan associations. The OxyContin manufacturer has made generous donations to the Republican Attorney Generals Association (RAGA) and the Democratic Attorney Generals Association (DAGA) in recent years. Between 2014 and 2018, Purdue contributed $680,000 to RAGA and $210,000 to DAGA, according to the AP.

The contributions have not stopped though the company’s bankruptcy appeared imminent. Purdue Pharma has made contributions to both DAGA and RAGA this year. Daily Ructions has learned the company donated $25,000 to DAGA in 2019. This will require some explaining from the attorneys general.

The money is used by the organizations to support candidates and also to underwrite junkets to gatherings with deluxe accommodations that some of the attorneys general, including Connecticut Attorney General William Tong, appear to enjoy. The most recent DAGA event occurred at Vermont’s Equinox Golf Resort and Spa earlier this month. The group gathered at the Four Seasons in Denver in June. The attorneys general get to live for a few days like the Sacklers, the billionaire family that owns Purdue.

The Louvre erased mentions of the Sacklers, for whom a wing of the famed Paris museum was named, this summer. Purdue’s aggressive marketing of the OxyContin has long been seen as the drug that started the opioid epidemic plaguing the nation. The stigma of opioid manufacturing has not extended to political contributions from the Sackler’s company. In any other realm but politics, a company contributing large sums of money to lawyers suing it would raise urgent ethics issues. Like addicts themselves, the attorney generals would rather have the money and soil their reputations than do without the dough from the Sacklers.

Governor Ned Lamont declined to endorse New Haven Mayor Toni Harp as she struggled in her September 10th Democratic primary contest with challenger Justin Elicker. Tax increases, inadequate schools, a bruising corruption investigation, and Elicker’s energetic campaign combined to inflict a landslide defeat on Harp. It was Harp’s first loss in more than 30 years of running for office.

The stinging defeat has left Harp bitter and searching for a way forward. She’s the Working Families Party candidate for mayor in the November election but her decisive loss has diminished the enthusiasm of her supporters. The Courant’s Daniela Altimari reports today on rumblings that Governor Ned Lamont could offer Harp a face saving way to abandon the race against Elicker. He’ll give her a job in his administration. What’s one more in the hackerama? “No formal offer has been extended,” writes Altimari.

Poor Max Reiss was given the task of uttering a few kind words about Harp. “The governor would welcome someone like Toni with such a distinguished record of public service at both the city and state levels but there has been no job offer,” Reiss told Altimari. “The administration would be lucky to have her.” Not distinguished enough for Lamont to have endorsed Harp in her re-election bid. He sat out the bruising contest.

Lamont knows something of primary losers staying in the contest. The Greenwich millionaire won a 2006 primary victory over then-U.S. Senator Joseph I. Lieberman that made news around the world. Lieberman stayed on the general election ballot as a petitioning candidate and swamped Lamont, who spent more than $12 million of his family fortune on the campaign, by 10% and more than 110,000 votes. That may be one of the topics raised in one of the many conversations between Harp and Lamont that Reiss, who until recently was a political reporter, insists the governor enjoys.

State Senator Marilyn Moore will continue her campaign for mayor of Bridgeport as a write-in candidate in November. Moore surprised incumbent Joseph Ganim by falling only 248 votes shy of tipping over the favorite.

Moore defeated Ganim on the machine count but was walloped in the absentee ballots, a means of voting that is often dominated by the party organization. Moore has raised questions about the absentee ballot procedures since losing to Ganim on September 10th. Local party leaders expected Ganim to win on the machines by 1,000 votes, Daily Ructions has learned, and were astonished at Moore’s strength.

A write-in campaign is a challenge, but it has been done with success before. In 2005, Michael Jarjura lost the Democratic primary for mayor but won re-election by 2,400 hundred votes in a November write-in campaign, defeating Democrat and Republican nominees. Moore is a lot easier to spell than Jarjura.

Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin joins a gaggle of other former and incumbent mayors announcing their support of Pete Buttigieg, mayor of South Bend, Indiana, for the Democratic nomination for president. The collective endorsement appears in USA Today this morning.

Buttigieg, who has been a prodigious fundraiser, continues to be stuck at the bottom of the first tier or top of the second, depending on how one measures these things. He has lately been competing in the “safe pair of hands” lane. Ten of today’s 50 endorsements are from Buttigieg’s fellow Indiana mayors.

Governor Ned Lamont delivered an early endorsement to former Vice President Joe Biden. The state’s congressional delegation, all Democrats, has been waiting and seeing, except for freshman Representative Jahana Hayes. She has endorsed Senator Kamala Harris.

The MGM casino in Springfield, Massachusetts, was not the first-year phenomenon that it had expected to be. First year gaming revenues were $273.8 million, $144 million below projections, according to The Springfield Republican.

According to the newest Rewarded Play app reviews, the MGM numbers provide more evidence that the region may have reached casino saturation. The $2.6 billion Encore Boston Harbor casino by the Wynn organization opened on June 23rd. Its impact on MGM and Connecticut’s two Indian casinos will be measured in the next several months.

The shortfall in the MGM revenues may give pause to prospective financiers of a proposed slot facility in East Windsor.

State legislators may want to slow-walk this requests for proposals. The Office of Legislative Management this summer began the process of creating a Telephone Town Hall service for legislators to speak to constituents without seeing them in person. The deadline for proposals was September 6th.

With the grocery tax about to be imposed on a bewildered state, this ought to be a ripe time for the new telephone conference service. It appears the new expense is in addition to not in lieu of costly mailings that legislators continue to use in the 21st century.

Legislators may want to practice explaining why lettuce in a sealed bag at a grocery store should be taxed like a salad ordered at a restaurant.