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Follow the Raffle Tickets at Mauro Stag.

Vincent Mauro Stag

To attract a certain element to the stag party of Senate Majority Leader Martin Looney (D-New Haven) aide Vincent Mauro, Jr., lobbyists are offered a special price on the ducats. Registered lobbyists may attend by paying $9 and appropriate homage to the keeper of the calendar as the nears the frantic final weeks of the legislative session. The discounted price allows lobbyists to attend without running afoul of the state’s $10 limit on lobbyist contributions to public officials such as Mauro.

That $9 may not be all lobbyists spend at the event. The invitations, some of which were distributed to lobbyists by at least one other lobbyist, note that in addition to food and drink, there’ll be raffles. One suspects raffle tickets will be purchased for cash. The record keeping that accompanies stag party raffles is not usually precise or pristine, providing an opportunity for lobbyists, who need good relations with Mauro at this time of year, to raise their friendly participation above the $9 ceiling, Daily Ructions understands. Some feel they’ve received a command to appear and participate more an invitation.

The biggest surprise in the tun-up to the event came Wednesday afternoon when Looney took to the Senate floor to remind all that the event is Friday. There was a time when Looney fashioned himself as a good government reformer. He no longer pretends to don that mantle.