The Price of Peace in New Haven. “No Formal Offer Has Been Extended” to Harp.

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.