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From March 1969, a time of deep national divisions, which Dean Martin appears to acknowledge in his introduction.

Major Garrett introduces two of the 912 Bicentennial Minutes that appeared on CBS each night to mark the 200th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.

Published July 1, 2026.

Harvard class reunions can exercise a pull to puffery for some. Rhode Island gubernatorial hopeful Helena Foulkes could not resist it this spring when she wrote a brief autobiography of her life today for her 40th class reunion.

The Democrat told classmates, “After a career in business and building a family with Bill [her husband], I’m now engaged in my third act–running as a Democrat for governor of Rhode Island.” True enough. Nowhere does she mention that she was the head of CVS Pharmacy when the company was assisting Purdue Pharma wreck millions of lives by flooding parts of the nation with opioids.

The opioid empress continues, and this is the oddest part, “I ran for the same office in 2022: while I won on Election Day, I lost by three thousand votes.” Foulkes did not win on Election Day. She was not on the ballot on Election Day. Foulkes lost the closely contested three-way September Democratic primary to Governor Dan McKee. Foulkes won 30% of the vote to McKee’s 32.8%. Two-term Secretary of State Nellie Gorbea came in third with 26.2%.

Foulkes is the granddaughter of one U.S. senator and the niece of another. She knows the language of polities, but strikes a dark Trumpian note by claiming she “won on Election Day” but somehow lost, implying a dark hand at work to deny Harvard’s Helen her rightful win.

Foulkes continued her story with an update for classmates. “So I’m either crazy or committed but I’m back. Losing really stinks as you throw your soul into the race, but I really feel I can make a difference for the people of Rhode Island.”

Foulkes is the frontrunner in a primary rematch with McKee, the nation’s most unpopular governor. She remains vulnerable to revelations of her knowledge of the lethal poison of OxyContin and CVS Pharmacy’s role in spreading it while she led the company. Foulkes’s uncle, former U.S. Senator Christopher Dodd, was the leading defender of opioid manufacturer Purdue Pharma when law enforcement officials sought to sound the alarm on growing opioid abuse.

A Bibb campaign ad could upend the Foulkes campaign. Connecticut readers will remember Mike Fedele’s late 2010 primary campaign surge when he received public funding and saturated the airwaves with the devastating tale of frontrunner Tom Foley’s takeover of a South Carolina mill in the 1980s. Viewers knew the locals were telling their powerful truth. Fedele nearly tipped over Foley on the night of the primary. The victims and survivors of the opioid crisis have stories to tell. Helena Foulkes will not be pleased to hear them.

Here’s The Bibb commercial:

Published June 26, 2026.

State Representative Josh Elliott is on track to receive more than $3 million in public funds for his August 11th Democratic primary challenge to Governor Ned Lamont. The popular Lamont may have matched the value of that chunk of change by bringing back 2022 campaign manager Daniel Morrocco less than six weeks before early voting begins on August 3rd.

Lamont, who in 2006 scored the state’s most astonishing primary win when he defeated incumbent U.S. Senator Joseph Lieberman in a contest that attracted worldwide media attention. The Greenwich Democrat would not like to be on the other side of an eye popping primary result.

Lamont is on the air with ads touting his accomplishments and pledging to keep his sleeves rolled up. The two-term governor is running a “He’s done a lot. He’ll do more.” campaign.

Published June 25, 2026.

Middlebury continues to remind us of the power of zoning to drive a town mad.

A proposal to build a warehouse/distribution center has caused Middlebury political and community leaders to take chunks out of each other at regular intervals.

Three years ago, State Representative William Pizzuto was able to insert a provision in the state budget bill that was tailored to halt the warehouse proposal. Pizzuto, who lives several hundred feet from the property at issue, chose to deliver his blow to the project in a piece of legislation, the budget, that was taken up in the final few days of the session and was not going to be amended once Republican Pizzuto’s yanking local zoning authority from Middlebury.

Much litigation and retribution followed. Development opponent Jennifer Mahr was elected to the Board of Selectman as a petitioning candidate in 2023. Two years later, Mahr won the first selectman’s job by 306 votes, again as a petitioning candidate, over Republican Vincent F. Cipriano, Jr., by 244 votes. Democrat Michael J. McCormack ran a distant third.

Mahr’s election as first selectman left her board seat vacant. A special election followed on June 23rd. Republican Brian Shaban’s appointment to the board was followed by a petition for a special election. On Tuesday, voters delivered their verdict. Shaban defeated Democrat Charles “Casey” Larkin, IV 1411 votes to 1167 on a 37% turnout.

Shaban and Mahr have clashed. He said Tuesday that he hopes to end some of the divisions that have marked the town’s politics for more than three years.

Extensive litigation over the development proposal on the former Timex property is resolved, Middlebury is likely to continue to see its politics roiled. The next test will come when Pizzuto, a wily opponent of local control of zoning, faces a Republican primary for his renomination.

Sarah Karwan, currently serving as Counsel to the Commissioner at Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection (DESPP), is expected to be named Governor Ned Lamont’s legal counsel this week. She will succeed Natalie Braswell, who Lamont recently appointed the Interim Chancellor of the troubled Connecticut State Colleges and Universities (CSCU) public higher education system.

Karwan is a former federal prosecutor. She rose to Chief of the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s Criminal Division in the District of Connecticut office. She joined DESPP in 2023. In a profile of Commissioner Ronnell Higgins, CT Public described Karwan is a former federal prosecutor. She rose to Chief of the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s Criminal Division in the District of Connecticut office. She joined DESPP in 2023. In a profile of Commissioner Ronnell A. Higgins, CT Public described Karwan’s role as assisting “the State Police with professional standards, internal affairs and relations with prosecutors. Karwan has had three eventful years in that job.

Natalie Wagner has briefly stated in as legal counsel since Braswell left for CSCU.

Braswell’s public service at CSCU is a significant deposit in Lamont’s favor bank. A $400,000 report on public higher education best practices is due this month from former Chancellor Terrence Cheng. In addition, Braswell will need to managed the sexual harassment accusations that caused her predecessor, Dr. John Maduko, to resign in April. CSCU leadership’s handling of the accusations against Maduko is the subject of an independent investigation that will also fall to Braswell to implement.

Published June 14, 2026.

State Representative Jill Barry will seek re-election to the Glastonbury seat she has held since 2018 as an Independent.

Barry lost the Democratic endorsement at a May caucus to Moises Carelus. Barry chose not to seek renomination by challenging Carelus in a primary. Glastonbury council member Anthony DiLizia entered the contest and collected more than twice the signatures he needed to appear on the August primary ballot. The primary was certified Monday by the Secretary of the State.

Barry filed her candidacy papers last Thursday, naming Loretta Chory, of Newtown, as her treasurer. Chory is a favorite pick for treasurer of many Republican campaigns.

Glastonbury Republicans have not endorsed a candidate in the 31st House District. The Independent Party has until September 2nd to endorse candidates. Its nominating process can become unexpectedly contentious.

Chip Beckett, formerly a popular Glastonbury Republican, is the state chair of the Independent Party. He was its 2022 nominee for lieutenant governor.

Published June 24, 2026.

August 11th will bring 18 primaries to the state, 13 for the Democrats, 5 for Republicans.

The marquee race–and the only one for a statewide office–is between Governor Ned Lamont and State Representative Josh Elliott for Democratic nomination for governor. Hartford lawyer Ruth Fortune becomes the fourth Democrat in the historic primary in the 1st Congressional District. She joins party-endorsed candidate Luke Bronin, State Representative Jillian Gilchrest, and 14-term incumbent John Larson.

Fortune got on the ballot the hard way. She collected thousands of certified signatures. Larson and Gilchrest each received enough delegate votes at the May nominating convention to avoid the time-consuming task of collecting signatures from registered Democrats in the 27-town district.

Other Democratic primaries include the 2nd and 13th State Senate Districts. The 2nd includes embattled incumbent Doug McCrory and two Windsor Democrats. There are seven primaries in state House districts.

The Republican primary drawing the most attention is in the 50th House District. Pomfret Republican Anthony Emilio collected enough signatures in the six-town district to challenge endorsed Republican Jalon MacCormack, of Brooklyn. MacCormack is running on a Death to Sodomites platform that emerged after he won the party’s nomination. The winner of the primary will face incumbent Democrat Pat Boyd.

There are two Democratic primaries for Judge of Probate. One pits veteran incumbent Paul Ganim against challenger Mark Bradley, brother of former State Senator Dennis Bradley. The other is for the open seat in the Greater Manchester Probate District.

Published June 22, 2026.

A Connecticut Republican nominee for governor about to pocket $19 million in public funds is allowed to say, “Thank you for thinking of me. No.”

Instead, Ryan Fazio, the luckiest fella in state politics, confirmed he would be joining the Republican Governors Association Spring Policy Summit last week in Nashville. As they might telegraph in some Greenwich drawing rooms, the gathering was Non-U to the hilt.

Fazio, the other Greenwich resident in the race, appeared on an invitation to veteran and prospective RGA donors along with, oy, Representative Andy Biggs, the frontrunner for the Republican nomination for governor of Arizona . Biggs is a loon but not without self-awareness. A determined 2020 election denier, Biggs sought a pardon from Donald Trump in January 2021 for his insider role in the insurrection.

Not needing to travel far to the Nashville conclave of hopefuls was Senator Marsha Blackburn. She’s seeking Tennessee’s Republican nomination for governor in an upcoming primary. Another 2020 election denier, Blackburn is such a Trump toady that most stirring comment she could muster over the Trump scheme for a $1.776 billion slush fund for insurrectionists and other Trump disciples, was that it might merit “a revisit.”

That was more than Representative Byron Donalds would say in defense of common sense. Byrons supports the fund–born of Donald Trump’s $10 billion bogus lawsuit against the government he leads.

Donald Trump, his enforcers, and his erratic policies are wildly unpopular in most states, but in few is he as disliked as he is here. Trump’s unconditional surrender of American interests in his memorandum of understanding with the Islamic Republic of Iran will not gone down well with even those who continue to follow the relentless vulgarian.

Associating with these people on an invitation or in person is no way to win a statewide election in Connecticut. It will fuel suspicions that clever Ryan Fazio may have found a needle that is impossible to thread. Political analyst Ron Brownstein pointed out recently that 89% of voters who disapprove of Donald Trump will not, under most circumstances, vote for a Republican. 

Published June 17, 2026.

Democrat Brandon Moore was arrested in Newtown Saturday night in a single vehicle collision that resulted in the Army veteran facing charges of operating his vehicle under the influence of alcohol, failure to drive in the proper lane, and evading responsibility.

Moore is the former chief of staff to Lieutenant Governor Susan Bysiewicz who was in a closely watched and crowded nominating caucus in the 106th House District. The May 26th event saw 460 Newtown Democrats to choose an endorsed candidate to challenge incumbent Republican Mitch Bolinsky. Moore was narrowly defeated by Michelle Embree Ku, 440-420. Embree Ku was the party’s 2024 nominee to face Bolinsky. Moore declined to pursue the nomination to an August primary.

Moore may not be feeling lucky in the aftermath of his arrest but he was fortunate that no one was injured in the incident that, the Patch reported, included “a utility pole heavily damaged and suspended by utility wires.” Police located the vehicle not far from the scene.

Moore has a June 23rd court date in Danbury to respond to the charges.