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Robert Kennedy led the tributes to President Kennedy at the 1964 Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City. The evening was scheduled for a night after delegates nominated Lyndon Johnson. Johnson feared RFK’s appearance on the podium would cause delegates to nominate the martyred president’s brother if they had not yet picked their nominee. Johnson’s fear of Robert Kennedy would distort the Texan’s administration until Kennedy was assassinated nearly four years later.

Published August 27, 2022.

Republican Mary Fay, the party’s candidate for State Comptroller, issued a terse statement Monday afternoon. The West Hartford town council member has not endorsed Themis Klarides in Tuesday’s U.S. Senate primary.

Fay has not endorsed a candidate in what has become an intense contest between Klarides and Greenwich Republican Leora Levy. She appeared to be gaining ground on party-endorsed Klarides for several weeks. Levy’s sharp turn to the right was magnified when she sprang a rambling, grievance-laden endorsement from Donald Trump on party voters Thursday night. The brief ode to Levy was surrounded by unhinged rants about Blumenthal and Republicans who have won elections.

The Klarides campaign, which has struggled to organize itself and present a substantive message, was not prepared for the Trump intervention. It has turned to social media and paid texts to unleash a torrent of endorsements by Republicans in elected office, including one purporting to be from Faye.

Fay, who is in a race to qualify for public financing of her campaign, understands there is nothing to be gained by inserting herself into the Senate campaign between Klarides and Levy.

Fay faces state Representative Sean Scanlon in November. Scanlon is the executive director of Tweed New Haven Airport, one of the great prizes of the state’s political hackarama. No job posting, no competition, just have the right friends.

Published August 8, 2022.

Themis Klarides’s Senate campaign appears stalled at the worst time—less than a week before the August 9th primary. There are small signs of the failure of party loyalists to engage with the party-endorsed candidate.

One appeared Wednesday on Twitter. Klarides asked supporters to retweet an ”I’m Voting for Themis” graphic. After nearly nine hours, Klarides had 26 retweets. The comments were mostly critical, which is not unusual. A campaign with some troops can be prepared for that.

The eleven-term former state representative faces Greenwich Republican Leora Levy on Tuesday. Levy has been courting anti-gun control Republicans in her lurch to the right. The Cuban refugee and ”career American” is virulently anti-immigrant.

Fairfield Republican Peter Lumaj is the third candidate on the ballot.

Published August 3, 2022.

The State Election Enforcement Commission has voted to initiate an investigation into Brock Weber’s campaign for secretary of the state. The Republican operative submitted an application for a primary grant to finance his campaign at the beginning of June. The SEEC did not act on the application for more than $400,000 in public funds.

Weber abandoned his campaign two weeks ago with a terse statement that it would no longer be possible to carry on. On July 22nd, the committee announced Weber had withdrawn his application and terminated his candidacy. It voted to begin a rare investigation of for submitting fraudulent contributions in order to receive public funds.

You can see the commission acting in a brief video at the link below:

https://www.facebook.com/ctseec/videos/351479350505462

Updates as events require.

Published July 29, 2022.

Full marks to Mark Lauretti, serving his 16th term as mayor of Shelton. The Republican was joined by Governor Ned Lamont and Ann Huntress Lamont at a local July 4th fireworks display Saturday. Lauretti and Lamont, a Democrat, posed for cheerful photos. That’s state Representative Chris Rosario (D-Bridgeport) between them.

No poisonous nonsense from either Lamont or Lauretti about the other being an enemy bent on destroying the state or the nation. Two politicians who hold public office doing what comes naturally on this holiday. Not long ago their cordial encounter would have been unremarkable. Today it is reassuring.

Lauretti joined Lamont’s Republican opponent, Bob Stefanowski, at a parade Monday—as former gubernatorial hopefuls sometimes do.

Published July 4, 2022.

From 1945. Frank Sinatra was proud of the Special Academy Award this short film won. He kept it in his repertory for decades.

Mahalia Jackson also sang it. And nobody sang like Mahalia Jackson.

Published July 3, 2022.

A Wednesday afternoon switch in the appointment of a replacement to serve the remainder of Secretary of the State Denise Merrill’s third term. Moriah Moriarty will not, as reported below, be succeeding Merrill. Daily Ructions regrets the error. Moriarty’s many well-wishers want to reaffirm their expressions of admiration and goodwill in the aftermath of the sudden change of plans.

Governor Ned Lamont will appoint Moriah Moriarty to replace Denise Merrill, who retires Thursday at noon as secretary of the state, Daily Ructions has learned.

Moriarty is one of five elections officer at the secretary of the state’s office. Her mother, Maureen Moriarty, is a veteran East Hartford Democrat and serves as the director of U.S. Representative John Larson’s district office.

Lamont spoke often in 2022 of adding diversity to state government. His appointment of Moriarty continues the state’s tradition of only white people serving in that constitutional office. Both political parties hold primaries for the nomination for secretary of the state on August 9th. State Representative Stephanie Thomas is the Democratic endorsed candidate. Dominick Rapini is the Republican endorsed candidate.

Paul Kezer, who was elected in 1990 and served for one term, is the only Republican to have won the office in nearly 70 years. Merrill was elected in 2010 and re-elected in 2014 and 2018.

An announcement on the appointment may be made Thursday. Lamont is not expected to adopt Republican state chairman Ben Proto’s suggestion of Len Fasano or John McKinney.

Revised and published June 29, 2022.

Senator Richard Blumenthal gets a reminder of this year of our discontents in a WTNH/The Hill/Emerson College poll released Thursday morning. The two-term Democrat, seeking re-election this fall, leads endorsed Republican challenger Themis Klarides by 10 points, according to the survey of 1,000 registered voters.. The Greenwich Democrat leads Fairfield lawyer Peter Lumaj and Republican National Committee member Leora Levy by 16 points each.

Klarides, Lumaj and Levy will meet in an August 9th primary.

Blumenthal has been in a tight spot before. Republican Linda McMahon closed a polling gap to a few points in her 2010 race against Blumenthal to win the seat being vacated by Christopher Dodd. The trio of Republicans hoping to face Blumenthal will want to stay well-clear of suggesting that the minimum wage needs to be reviewed.

Nearly 70% of Americans believe the nation is on the wrong track, according to the RealClearPolitics average of polls. Blumenthal has been in Connecticut public life for more than 40 years. The 76 year old former state attorney general may be seen as an unlikely source of solutions by a growing number of voters.

The primary campaign provides an opportunity for the Republican competitors to begin unveiling some solutions of their own.

Published May 19, 2022.

This is not how it was to end. State Representative Hilda Santiago started the race for the Democratic nomination for secretary of the state as the early favorite. The popular Meriden Democrat is well-known beyond her district. She had the support of U.S. Senator Christopher Murphy and other party notables.

Santiago fizzled on the campaign trail while her House colleague from Norwalk, Stephanie Thomas, sizzled. At the party’s state convention on May 6th, Santiago was out maneuvered by the surging Thomas and was eliminated at the end of the second ballot.

Few challengers win primaries in Connecticut and there was no sign Santiago was enjoying a post-convention revival. After a week and a half of post-convention consultations and contemplation, Santiago announced late Wednesday that the is over for her. She is sadder but wiser in the ways of state politics among her fellow Democrats.

Published May 18, 2022.

Hartford Democrat Arunan Arulampalam announced Saturday that he will not seek the Democratic nomination for treasurer at May’s state convention. Arulampalam won the support of 42% of the delegates on the second ballot at the 2018 convention that endorsed Shawn Wooden. Arulampalam declined to primary Wooden, who defeated Greenwich Dita Bhargava in that summer’s primary.
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Wooden announced Thursday he will not seek a second term, igniting intense competition for the open seat. A Hartford Democrat has held the office since 1999. Denise Nappier, who defeated felonious Republican incumbent Paul Silvester in 1998, served for five terms.

Arulampalam served in Governor Ned Lamont’s administration as a deputy commission of consumer protection. He became CEO of the Hartford Land Bank in 2021, where he will continue to “feel blessed to be a small part of building [Hartford’s] future.”

Published April 9, 2022.