Maybe this is how it’s done in Maryland. Former Congressman Christopher Shays’ Senate campaign made a false accusation that rival Linda McMahon bribed Bridgeport Republican Town Committee Chairman John Slater with tickets to Wrestlemania in Miami this spring. The Shays campaign took photos from Slater’s Facebook page showing him at the event and handed them over to the Greenwich Time, accusing McMahon supporter Slater of trading his ticket to the ultimate wrestling event for an endorsement of the wrestling mogul making her second bid for the U.S. Senate.

Shays picked on the wrong wrestling fan. Slater provided a copy of his bank statement showing he paid $355 for the primo ticket to the paper, turning the accusation into a serious convention eve embarrassment for Vietnam era conscientious objector Shays. The McMahon campaign is escalating the Shays fiasco with a statement from Slater that you can listen to here.

There may be some cultural dissonance at work. The Shays people probably do not understand the popularity of professional wrestling. Millions for a swank home on the Chesapeake Bay, yes. They get that. Hundreds for a ticket to a professional wrestling who-ha? It’s simply not done by our people, Muffy. And Slater has gone to the annual wrestling festival more than once! Golly, who are these Republicans and how did they come to live in the Fourth Congressional District, the the 66 year old Shays and his people must wonder. Twenty-one years in Congress can isolate a fella from the cultural diversity of our times, dude.

As of noon, Slater had not received an apology from Parson Shays.

Democrat Dan Roberti strains to strike everyman notes in his long shot bid for his party’s Fifth Congressional District nomination. The Kent Democrat suggests he endured a hard scrabble upbringing with his single mother. The Manhattan public relations flak must think of these themes at home, his family’s palatial Litchfield County spread that’s on the market for $8.9. Roberti was registered to vote at the property when he returned to Connecticut but now lives in another home in Kent. The Roberti manse is owned by Roberti’s Washington lobbyist father, Vincent Roberti.

The 121 acres of property features a main house with gardens modeled on the Frick Museum. You’ll be happy to know that while Roberti worries about student loans, he gets to stare at “stenciled ceilings…inspired by the music room at Dumbarton Oaks.” It includes “a 1900 square foot guest house built to the same standards as the main house.”

One suspects Dan Roberti may not have much recent practical knowledge of the cares and troubles of average folk as he ponders the state of his world “where the Earth meets the Sky.”

Clark, who served as Chairman of the Farmington Town Council until last November, hopes to deliver Farmington’s 14 delegates to Roraback in the crowded race for the Republican nomination that also includes Wilson-Foley, Justin Bernier, and Mark Greenberg. Party faithful hold their nominating convention Friday afternoon.

The race to fill her open seat is expected to be competitive.

Roberti endured some nervous moments as delegate switches put him below the magic 51 votes near the end of the ballot. Some help from Waterbury, where Roberti and his family and friends dropped some serious dough near the end of last year’s heated municipal campaign, put the Kent Democrat above 51 votes as the ballot ended.

Esty, a Cheshire Democrat, has to have been disappointed that months of campaigning yielded only 63 votes. She’ll need to turn her stunning self-regard into momentum soon if she’s to overcome Donovan’s advantage with party activists.

Appearing on a special live edition of WFSB’s “Face the State” Sunday morning, Murphy declared there are “not a lot of big differences between” him and Bysiewicz. The three term congressman echoed some of Bysiewicz’s most potent themes by claiming he has been “fighting to hold Wall Street accountable for what they did to our economy.” He also said he has been fighting to end wars. This is not the best ground for Murphy to wage a battle against Bysiewicz. He is no stranger to shaking down Wall Street dough for his campaigns, something Bysiewicz delights in highlighting. It could prove a potent theme among left-leaning Democratic primary voters if Bysiewicz can raise the money it takes to reach them.

Murphy’s claim to have fought to end wars could provoke more withering assaults from Bysiewicz. He was elected in 2006 on an anti-war platform and the conflict continued for years. Murphy has also supported the closing of Guantanamo Bay detention camp but it is still open nearly six years after he was first elected to Congress. The hoarse Bysiewicz told WFSB host Dennis House Sunday that Murphy “hasn’t passed one bill” during his tenure in Washington. If Bysiewicz can get that message to Democrats–and prove it–she will be in with a chance to upset the conventional wisdom that the primary is merely a formality for Murphy to advance to the general election.

Bysiewicz reminded observers that she abandoned whatever analytical powers she once possessed in her lurch to the left of Murphy. She says she’s “the only candidate with a plan to create a million renewable energy jobs.” After Solyndra and other green energy taxpayer-funded debacles, Bysiewicz ought to stay away from crony capitalism if she’s to maintain her newfound populist persona.

Developments in Danbury suggest there’s more at work than preference for Wilson-Foley over the other four candidates. Wilson-Foley was a generous supporter of Democratic incumbent U.S. Representative Christopher Murphy in his 2008 re-election campaign over Danbury’s most popular Republican, former state Senator David Cappiello. She’s been unable to provide a coherent explanation for that decision. Boughton, who narrowly defeated Wilson-Foley in the 2010 Republican primary for lieutenant governor, has been known to be scathing in private over Wilson-Foley’s political beliefs and intellect in general and specifically what he often characterized as her support of Obamacare during the 2010 contest.

Danbury has the largest delegation to the convention, which is expected to take more than one ballot to select an endorsed candidate as the candidates head for an August primary.

You can hear the program at about the 30 minute mark. Mercifully, you can fast forward to the revealing moments.

Tensions between high ranking figures in the administration and Lembo, who followed Nancy Wyman in the comptroller’s office, arose during the 2011 legislative session. They continued intermittently after the session and exploded into view this week.

The Senate tradition of long tributes to members not seeking re-election puts a considerable dent in the time available to debate bills. Those encomiums will leave little time for moving complicated compromises through the Senate and back to the House. Senators Edith Prague and Andrew Roraback are departing the upper chamber. At least one more incumbent is expected to leave, though not on the wings of an announcement today.

Republicans hope that they can run competitive races in the three open seats.

UPDATE: A spokesman for the House Democrats writes to say that Linda Orange is seeking re-election. That will please Orange’s allies among state troopers.