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Democratic and Working Families Governor Dannel P. Malloy announced today he has accepted an invitation to attend the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Malloy’s office says the cost of his trip will be $4,500, paid for by the secretive University of Connecticut Foundation.  WEF often waives its $27,000 participation fee for public officials.

Malloy was invited on December 21st to the gathering of the rich, the sort of people he snarls about when donning his populist mask. The New York Times’ Andrew Ross Sorkin provided a look at the cost of last year’s $185 million extravaganza.  The official deadline for responding to an invitation was January 4th.  Malloy, Daily Ructions has learned, confirmed his reservation today, so he won’t be included in the participant book.

Commissioner of the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Daniel Esty long ago confirmed his attendance at the Davos gabfest.  The event will provide a Green-to-Gold opportunity for Esty to continue to lend a hand to his wife’s campaign for the Democratic nomination for Congress in the Fifth District.

Updates as we receive them.

Quirky Dixville Notch, New Hampshire, voted at midnight and raised the hopes of former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman that he may end the day as a contender. His two votes put him in a tie for first with front-running former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney.

Ron Paul and Newt Gingrich each snagged a vote in the hamlet. President Barack Obama received the votes of the three locals who voted in the  Democratic primary.

You don’t have to declare yourself an Iowa Republican to cast a vote today. The polls are open at the Drudge caucus for the Republican presidential nomination contest.

Ron Paul is off to an early lead over Mitt Romney. Rick Santorum is running third.  Voting is vigorous–with no lines.

For a British perspective on the doings in Iowa, check out The Telegraph’s live coverage from three reporters.  There are probably not many American newspapers with that many reporters on the scene.

There’s not as much energy in Connecticut today as there was when the week began.  Republican stalwart Ann Moore died yesterday at her Milford home.  She was 57.

Ann joined the Rowland administration in its early, rollicking days.  She brought a vivid personality and a sharp intellect to each job she held.  A lawyer, she joined Updike, Kelly & Spellacy as a lobbyist after leaving government.

When Ann Moore entered a room, you knew it.  The lady had presence.  Fearless people often do. While others averted their gaze as John Rowland’s reputation unraveled with revelations of his corrupt practices, Ann confronted the crisis.  She made a brave bid for seat on the Republican National Committee as a challenge to the decaying administration.

I came to know her better when I began writing a column for The Hartford Courant in 2002. I learned she possessed a keen eye for a trail that would lead to a story.  In a business that often features dubious leads and rumors, Ann knew how to deliver facts, often fascinating ones.

Anyone who knew her will not be surprised to know she waged a fierce fight against cancer.

Newt Gingrich’s campaign revival has the temperature rising in the Republican presidential contest. Candidates, surrogates, commentators, and wealthy benefactors have been slinging accusations at one another in the wide field of contenders. Count on the Wall Street Journal opinion page to provide a stream of thoughtful alternatives to the mud wrestling on the trail in Iowa and New Hampshire.

Columnist Holman Jenkins makes the case today that Mitt Romney is suited for these times. His conclusion: “The consensus for painful reform comes when the status quo hits the wall. It’s a myth that we don’t know what our choices are. That’s the Romney moment. His strong suit has always been to do what everyone else has put off.”

It’s worth reading.

On this date that lives in infamy, Adolf Hitler believed the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor had won the war.  The architect of the attack, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, did not agree. “I fear we have awoken a sleeping giant.”

Former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman is inching up in New Hampshire primary polls, but he’ll need a breakthrough before Christmas if he’s going to move into contention in the crowded January 10th contest. George Will gives Huntsman a gift in his latest column. Will is suspicious of Mitt Romney’s conservative credentials and contemptuous of everything Gingrich, labeling both “too risky.”

Here’s his concise assessment of Huntsman:

Jon Huntsman inexplicably chose to debut as the Republican for people who rather dislike Republicans, but his program is the most conservative. He endorses Paul Ryan’s budget and entitlement reforms. (Gingrich denounced Ryan’s Medicare reform as “right-wing social engineering.”) Huntsman would privatize Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (Gingrich’s benefactor). Huntsman would end double taxation on investment by eliminating taxes on capital gains and dividends. (Romney would eliminate them only for people earning less than $200,000, who currently pay just 9.3 percent of them.) Huntsman’s thorough opposition to corporate welfare includes farm subsidies. (Romney has justified them as national security measures — food security, somehow threatened. Gingrich says opponents of ethanol subsidies are “big-city” people hostile to farmers.) Huntsman considers No Child Left Behind, the semi-nationalization of primary and secondary education, “an unmitigated disaster.” (Romney and Gingrich support it. Gingrich has endorsed a national curriculum.) Between Ron Paul’s isolationism and the faintly variant bellicosities of the other six candidates stands Huntsman’s conservative foreign policy, skeptically nuanced about America’s need or ability to control many distant developments.

James Pethokoukis on the American Enterprise blog:

If elected president, Huntsman says he would like to slash tax rates to their lowest levels since before America entered World War I and eliminate taxes on capital gains and dividends. Powerful supply-side medicine for an anemic economic recovery. Huntsman has embraced Representative Paul Ryan’s transformational, market-oriented debt-reduction plan, calling it “the model I would work from.” He’s also pro-life, a dedicated free trader and—at least as evidenced by his sweeping bank reform plan—an ardent anti-crony capitalist.

Huntsman won an important distinction for economic conservatives a few months ago when the Wall Street Journal tagged his plan for recovery “as impressive as any to date in the GOP Presidential field.”

If Huntsman is to have a moment that lifts him into contention, this is it.

Democratic and Working Families Governor Dannel P. Malloy wings to Los Angeles next week to Occupy The Beverly Wilshire Hotel for a holiday gathering of the Democratic Governors Association. The two-day event opens Monday night with a reception at The Via at Two Rodeo. (We don’t have to tell you Two Rodeo what, do we?).  It’s known for its “European flair” and “Fabulous Fetes.”

Tuesday features a breakfast at the conference headquarters, the ultra-luxurious Beverly Wilshire, a Four Seasons Hotel.  That’s followed by forums on energy, government efficiency and technology from 9 a.m. to noon.  Probably won’t need a very big conference room for any of those.  Lunch at noon and then the afternoon is free. That leaves time for the chief executives and lobbyists to repair to the hotel’s spa, treatment rooms and swimming pool (“Attendants are always nearby to offer a cooling Evian spritz, chilled water or a shot-glass smoothie”) to think big thoughts about pressing public policy issues.

The governors–9 are confirmed as attending–and party donors will reconvene as the evening begins at The Studios at Paramount for a holiday reception, the final event of the DGA’s annual meeting.

Rooms for the DGA rate of $325 per night are sold-out. Rates on remaining rooms run from $480 to $1655 a night early next week.

Senators on the legislature’s reapportionment committee reached a deal late Tuesday on the composition of the state’s 36 Senate districts, Daily Ructions can report.  The parties went to the brink and then worked out the details that were in dispute in a few districts.  The committee will ask the court to extend its deadline–which is today–in order to complete its work on the state’s five congressional districts.

Democratic and Republican leaders of the state House of Representatives have agreed on a redistricting plan for the 151-seat lower chamber of the legislature, Daily Ructions can report.  With a Wednesday approaching, there’s still no deal on a plan for the state Senate and the state’s 5 congressional districts. Leaders met Monday to try to reach an agreement.