Calling hours for former Lieutenant Governor Nancy Wyman are on Sunday, August 16, 2026, from 3-6 p.m., at The Lodge Community Chapel, 130 Deerfield Rd., Windsor.

Published August 13, 2026.

Nancy Wyman, a favorite of Connecticut Democrats for decades, died Wednesday morning, The Tolland Democrat served as state representative, state comptroller and lieutenant governor in an unbroken 28-year string of election victories.

Her vibrant presence lifted large and small gatherings for decades. She embodied the joy of politics and knew how to move the levers of government, often without raising alarm or leaving fingerprints. Nancy Wyman, formed productive alliances and bonds with members of both parties. Her high heels became a symbol of her brand, getting things done her legacy.

Details as they become available.

Published August 12, 2026.

‘Representative John Larson continues to struggle with the 21st century content creation. On Saturday his re-election campaign needed three tries to describe accurately deceptively edited comments by Governor Ned Lamont about Larson at an event sponsored by Manchester Democrats.

The City of Village Charm Democrats insisted on including Larson in the primary rally intended to boost the two-term governor. Lamont, with Larson standing nearby, acknowledged the East Hartford Democrat’s long tenure, 28 years, in the House and noted he shows up for work every day, though politely omitted the number of days the House is in session. Larson and his campaign took the courteous Lamont’s words and twisted them into what looked like an endorsement—-where there has been none.

The Lamont campaign became aware of the deceptive editing of their candidate’s comments and sought corrections. Over an hour, a Larson social media post began with a claim that Lamont joined forces with the 78 year old challenger to party-endorsed candidate Luke Bronin to a claim that Lamont supports Larson. Finally, Larson conjured a third post thanking Larson for his kind words. In each post, Larson criticized the role of the rich in politics, a head-scratching note to hit when associating himself with the Greenwich self-funding his fifth statewide campaign.

Larson has made disdain for billionaires a theme of his disjointed campaign while receiving assistance from billionaire George Soros.

Manchester was an appropriate spot for a convoluted late nomination campaign event. Larson made a distasteful deal to deliver the town’s 30 pliable delegates to Jillian Gilchrest, a West Hartford Democrat, at the end of the May nominating convention’s first ballot, to qualify the state representative for the primary ballot in exchange for her support on the second ballot. In exchange, Gilchrest was to deliver enough of her 27 delegates to Larson. She failed and a majority of her delegates supported Bronin and left Gilchrest’s claims as the candidate of rectitude in tatters.

The Manchester Democrats pride themselves on supporting party-endorsed candidates and discouraging challenges. Their support for Larson will make it difficult to extinguish the democratic instincts of some of its members in the future.

Early voting ends today. The primary campaign concludes Tuesday.

Published August 9th.

Democratic state representatives Mary Mushinsky, Robert Godfrey, and Susan Johnson intervened Thursday in the 92nd House District Democratic primary to contest a statement by Eli Sabin that he ran the legislative Progressive Caucus. Sabin made the claim during a debate with incumbent Pat Dillon and Justin Farmer.

Mushinsky, Godfrey, and Johnson issued the earnest statement under the title “Setting the Record Straight: Sabin Did Not Run the Progressive Caucus.” The trio explained that Sabin, a former New Haven Alder who declined to be sworn into office after winning re-election last year, performed administrative tasks for the caucus. They included “maintaining records, organizing meetings, collecting dues, and conducting research at the request of caucus members….”

They continued, “Any claim that Sabin ‘ran’ the Progressive Caucus misrepresents how the caucus operates and minimizes the role of the legislators who made its decisions.”

“Voters deserve honesty about credentials and experience. The distinction between staff support and policymaking authority is not a minor detail; it is central to understanding who was responsible for the caucus’s direction and positions,” the veteran legislators wrote. ” The facts are straightforward: the Progressive Caucus is governed by its legislative members. Eli Sabin was a staff employee who supported their work. Claims suggesting that he ran the caucus are misleading and should be corrected.”

Dillon won the party endorsement in May and has been emphasizing–with the assistance of constituent testimonials–that she has a long record of delivering for her district, which includes portions of New Haven and Hamden. Sabin moved into the district to challenge Dillon. Farmer lives in Hamden.

Early voting began Monday and concludes Sunday. Tuesday, August 11th is Primary Day.

Published August 7, 2026.

What a duo: Josh Elliott and anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Elliott, a Democratic state representative from Hamden, invited Kennedy to a 2019 forum on vaccines at the State Capitol. Also included on the panel were two doctors from the Yale School of Medicine and one from the Yale’s School of Public Health.

When two of the panel members declined to appear with Kennedy, Elliott canceled the event—and criticized the doctors. He was careful not to complain about Kennedy. Instead, Elliott said, according to The Hartford Courant, “Medical professionals began trying to kill the forum because they felt we would be legitimizing debunked claims from someone who has demonstrated the inability to sift through truth from fiction. I am concerned with the perspective the medical community has taken –that it is better not to have the conversations publicly.”

What a load of nonsense Elliott offered. Kennedy was not incapable to “sift through the truth from fiction.” He has chosen to align himself with fiction. That was clear in 2019 when Elliott invited him to Hartford.

When the doctors announced as panelists chose not to be splattered by Kennedy’s conspiracy-laden claims, Elliott blamed the doctors–who Kennedy wrote “came with heavy vaccine industry pedigrees.”

Since becoming the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services last year, Kennedy has cancelled $500 million in mRNA research grants and 380 clinical trials. These are destructive acts aimed at undermining the advance of scientific knowledge in the service of preventing and curing diseases. There was no “sifting.” It was wholesale destruction by a powerful public official Elliott indulged for the sake of some attention when serious people knew better. 

Published July 31, 2026

Working Families Party (WFP) leaders are not satisfied with their own closely held political party. They want to control the Democratic Party, too.

WFP is spending $45,000 to defeat State Senator Douglas McCrory and Windsor Board of Education President Ayana Taylor, the two Black candidates in the three person Democratic primary. WFP supports State Representative Maryam Khan, also of Windsor.

One WFP text message reads, ” Hi —-, Sen. Doug McCrory is under state & federal investigation for corruption and directing state dollars to his girlfriend. Read more: https://workingfamparty.org/r7s0nq 

Will you vote for Maryam Khan by Aug 11? Paid for by WFEE. This message was made independent of any candidate/political party. Additional information about WFEE may be found on the CT SEEC website. Text stop to unsubscribe or SKIP to end this conversation.”

Don’t expect WFP to provide a fuller view of the race by highlighting Khan pronouncements like this one from 2016:

Khan won the party endorsement at the 2nd State Senate nominating convention on the third ballot, after it became clear that the delegates had reached an impasse and were not going to give the endorsement to McCrory. Hartford Democrats were concerned that if Khan did not receive the convention endorsement she would seek re-election to her House seat.

Published August 1, 2026.

Enfield Democrat Tom Tyler has won his primary election appeal before the State Supreme Court today. After hearing arguments this morning, the state’s highest court ruled that while Tyler was given primary petitions to circulate four days earlier than the law permits, the Enfield Registrar of Voters relied on inaccurate advice from the Office of the Secretary of the State.

The case was sent to the Superior Court to set a primary date. Tyler is seeking to challenge incumbent Democrat John Santanella in the 58th House District, which is entirely in Enfield. Santanella is serving his first term in the House and is also a member of the Enfield Town Council. Tyler had served as Enfield’s town attorney under the previous Republican administration and was replaced when Democrats won control of the council in a thumping victory last November.

Absent the challenge to Tyler’s primary petitions, the primary would have been held on August 11th–along with the Democratic primary for governor. The court is likely to set a date to allow a proper campaign and that would be a stand alone primary later in August or early September.

Published July 30, 2026.

If you have not, you will want to read the tributes and summaries of John Droney’s consequential life that ended Sunday. Find them here, here, and here. 

His record of heaving candidates with uncertain prospects across the finish line first spawned a syndrome among political leaders and operatives that will endure as one of John’s legacies: Droney envy. A couple of generations of politicos wanted to be like him. Shrewd, strategic, bitingly funny, and at ease with it all. A brawler with brains. They will likely strain in vain. He lived the wisdom of Judy Garland, who advised, “Always be a first class version of yourself and not a second rate version of someone else.” 

He was a glorious original. 

I got to know him not long after I started writing a column for the Sunday edition of The Hartford Courant when, in 2003, the Rowland scandals began to come to light. I wrote about them as they unfurled in ghastly detail, and John was often asked to comment. We compared what we knew from time to time.

Our enduring bond formed in 2005 when the Sunday magazine section of the paper published an edition  on dogs. I wrote a piece about my recently adopted rescued English setter, Jack. The plucky fella had been shot in Idaho, found at a pound, and moved among four English setter rescue volunteers. having surgery and undergoing rehab. My home was the seventh place he lived in a year. 

Still recovering from surgery, Jack’s story of pluck, resilience, and—for a dog—personality captivated the brawler with heart. John was devoted to his labs but if dogs could run for office, he might have made Jack Connecticut’s governor. 

We talked and saw each other often and every conversation included an inquiry on life with Jack for the seven years he was here. 

The Droney touch lifted many campaigns to victory. The one he talked about with the most enthusiasm and satisfaction was Francisco Borges’s 1986 come-from-behind bid for state treasurer. John saw the elements of a star in the Hartford Democrat and Travelers lobbyist. 

Waterbury Democrats, feeling shut out of statewide office, had made an aggressive claim for the open spot on the Democratic ticket. Its candidate was state Representative Maurice Mosley. He was the frontrunner but that did not hinder the formation of Team Borges. 

Borges was smooth, smart, and just stylish enough to make a favorable impression on the Democrats who would be delegates at the state convention. He launched Borges—who had obvious political talent—onto the town committee circuit, gathered enough commitments of support to provide some momentum, and prepared to exploit the unexpected. 

Those events appeared at the conclusion of a critical primary for Waterbury’s delegates to the state convention between Governor Bill O’Neill and challenger Toby Moffett. The former member of Congress had been defeated in his 1982 campaign to unseat Republican U.S. Senator Lowell Weicker and was engaged in an uncomfortable public quest to figure out what to do next. Moffett needed Waterbury’s 49 delegates to reach the 20% threshold to qualify for a primary. More than 12,000 Waterbury Democrats voted in the delegate primary. O’Neill’s slate won by 43 votes. 

Recollections, as Queen Elizabeth II observed of a family dispute, may vary. In Waterbury, some said dodgy absentee ballots denied Moffett a win. Others disputed the charge. What many—especially Democrats observing from other towns—could agree on was that the primary was tawdry enough that it did not seem prudent to put the state’s pension funds in the hands of a Waterbury Democrat—any Waterbury Democrat. 

The Mosley campaign became collateral damage of the bitter delegate primary and collapsed. Frank Borges was the unsoiled alternative. He won the nomination and the election, and went on to a notable career in finance and philanthropy after winning a second term in 1990. It was Frank Borges’s victory and the pride of John Droney’s considerable collection of winning campaigns. 

Readers will have noted from John’s obituary that he was a trusted advisor to Governor O’Neill. He became governor when Ella Grasso resigned due to ill health in December 1980. He was often counted out but won re-election twice, the second time by a landslide. Governor O’Neill’s reputation has grown in the decades since he left office ni 1991. 

Governor O’Neill possessed many virtues as a politician, John and I agreed. One was not obvious to the public but stood out to us. Bill O’Neill never cut the line at a wake. Never. We admired that and believed it revealed the essence of a political leader. So today as we look for ways to honor our illustrious friend, the great and the good can pay silent tribute by standing in line with all the other sad but lucky friends of John Droney. He would have wanted me to tell you. 

Published July 24, 2026.

United States District Court Judge Kari A. Dooley ruled Friday that the Trump administration is not entitled to voter registration records compiled and updated by Secretary of the State Stephanie Thomas’s office. The records, Thomas argued, include confidential information such as drivers license and social security numbers that are protected from release by law.

Julgr Dooley the Motion to Dismiss the actions filed by intervening defendant Common Cause. The 12-page decision is another rebuke to the Trump administration’s relentless crusade to interfere with the Constitution’s grant of authority over elections to the states.

The ruling comes a day after President Donald Trump delivered an ill-judged rambling speech revealing his first administration failed to thwart Chinese attempts to influence the 2020 election, which Trump lost by 7 million votes to Joe Biden.

Published July 17, 2026.

Working Families Party leaders are not satisfied with their firm control over their own party. They want to influence voters in the Democratic primary in the 2nd Senatorial District and are willing to spend 40% of their cash-on-hand to do it.

Working Families for Education Excellence informed the state’s election commission that it will spend $45,000 on the August 11th primary campaign. Half of the money will be spent on digital ads in support of Maryam Khan, the state representative who won that party endorsement in May at a contentious convention. A quarter will oppose incumbent Doug McCrory and a quarter opposing Ayana Taylor, the Windsor Democrat who challenged McCrory two years ago.

WFP’s education PAC received a $100,000 contribution from District 1199 SEIU PAC. WFP and at least one of its allies continues to be infuriated with McCrory’s support for choices for public school students. What WFP’s beef with Taylor is not clear. A $45,000 expenditure in a senate primary is a considerable intervention. The party-dominant district includes parts of Bloomfield, Hartford, and Windsor. Each candidate receives $115,725 in public funds. A $22,500 helping hand is nearly a 20% increase in funds spent. Working Families for Education Excellence is paying SBDigital of Washington, DC to help Khan and strafe McCrory and Taylor, two Black candidates.

West Hartford resident Lindsay Farrell is the treasurer of Working Families for Education Excellence. Activists from tony suburbs do enjoy dipping into urban district contests from a distance. Farrell is married to Governor Ned Lamont chief of staff and primary campaign helmsman.

Early voting begins August 3rd.

Published July 15, 2026.