The Mask Slips: Mattei at DGA Lobbyist Festival.

What’s all this highfalutin’ talk about not taking lobbyist dough? Exploring Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Chris Mattei mounted his very high horse and declared he would take no contributions from lobbyist. The former prosecutor appears to have left out the word “direct” in his pledge.

The first-time candidate attended today’s Democratic Governors Association lobbyist festival in Greenwich–sparking many eyerolls and much tittering among members of the permanent government participating in another Dannel P. Malloy shakedown. The dough that the DGA will be spending in Connecticut’s 2018 race for governor will come from lobbyists and the interests that employ them. It’s meaningless to eschew piddling $100 contributions to qualify for state taxpayer campaign financing if you are working the same crowd to write enormous checks to the DGA to spend on you.

Mattei may want to dial back on those lectures to Bridgeport’s Joe Ganim on the difference between clean and dirty, right and wrong.

Mark this day: The poseur stumbled in a Greenwich hotel, surrounded by smirking, chatty lobbyists.