Category — Post

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.

Embattled Democratic incumbent U.S. Representative John Larson was in a state of hyperbole recently over an independent expenditure from a Connecticut-based committee on behalf of party-endorsed candidate Luke Bronin.

Larson and Bronin have gone a few rounds over each other’s campaign contributions. Larson seemed to think he’d landed a punch by criticizing Bronin’s relationship with Connecticut Democratic mega-donor Stephen Mandel. Buckshot is the preferred weapon on the struggling Larson campaign.

Since the 2016 campaign cycle through the first quarter of this year, Larson has raised $9.962 million in campaign contributions. More than $6.6 million of that haul was in special interest contributions. That”s 66%

There is a certain unexpected symmetry to Larson campaign spending. Tens of thousands each cycle to Peppercorn’s Grill–one event a few years ago cost more than $26,000 for “political meals”–and what looks like a peppercorn rent for campaign office space at Goodwin University for $550 a month. Larson’s taxpayer financed office space is also at Goodwin University.

Larson insists the 1st Congressional District is not for sale. Here’s a random sample of some of the special interests that have donated to the 14-term Democrat in recent years with no expectation of intruding on the Congressman’s time or attention:

A Pleasant Peninsula

WaMart Inc. PAC for Responsible Government

The Home Depot Inc PAC

Charter Communications PAC

CVS Health PAC

Bank of America PAC

T-Mobile U.S. Inc PAC

American Soybean Association PAC

Blue Cross Blue Shield PAC

Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP Partners PAC

Greenberg Traurig PAC

Avangrid PAC

United Health Group PAC

Federation of American Hospitals PAC

Google PAC

AIPAC

Ambulatory Surgery Center Associations PAC

And on and on and on it goes for $6.6 million with only one seriously contested race–this one.

With Bronin’s astonishing party convention victory on May 11th, Larson has unexpectedly become the challenger for the nomination. The East Hartford Democrat–frequently alluding to his early life in a public housing project in the 1950s–continues to have some trouble capturing the worn Mayberry Village tough shibboleth that has peppered so many speeches.

The primary in the 27-town district is August 11th. Democratic voters will witness an intense, historic struggle in the next two months during the first Connecticut House primary that includes an incumbent.

Published June 11, 2026.

Glastonbury Democrat in with a strong show of support for his bid for the Democratic nomination for the 31st House District by submitting 600 signatures on the town council member’s primary petitions.

DiLizia’s campaign said in a Tuesday morning statement that supporters collected twice as many as the Army veteran needs to qualify for the August 11th primary against party-endorsed candidate Moise Carelus. DiLizia is a late entry into the campaign, jumping into it after Carelus defeated incumbent Jill Barry at a party caucus last month. Barry, after a period of reflection, decided not to collect signatures for a primary.

“Over the last week, we’ve knocked thousands of doors, and I’ve personally had conversations with Democrats from every corner of the district. People want Democratic leadership that listens, shows up, and gets things don,” DiLizia said in his statement. “They’re concerned about rising costs, protecting our schools, and defending Connecticut against Donald Trump’s MAGA agenda. That’s the work I’ve done as a councilor, and that’s the work I’m committed to continuing as your State Representative.”

The six hundred signatures DiLizia and his supporters collected is five times the number of people who attended the May caucus that upended Barry’s re-election campaign for a sixth term.

Published June 10, 2026.

Republicans from around the state swarmed the six towns of the 50th House District for four days and collected more than 100 more signatures from registered party members on behalf of Pomfret businessman Anthony Emilio.

The signature drive was organized as Republican leaders became aware of the violent rhetoric their endorsed candidate, Jadon MacCormack, aimed at LGBT people online and in what has become a notorious radio interview last week.

Emilio stepped forward and petitions began to circulate Friday. By Monday, there were more than 350 signatures, exceeding the 238 required to qualify for an August 11th primary.

The deadline to submit primary petitions under Connecticut’s restrictive ballot laws is Tuesday at 4 p.m.

The 50th House District includes Ashford, Brooklyn, Eastford, Hampton, Mansfield, Pomfret, and Woodstock. It has been represented by Democrat Pat Boyd since 2016. He is seeking a sixth term this year.

Published June 9, 2026.

Erin Stewart, the besieged six-term former mayor of New Britain, requested a $205,000 payout from the city as she prepared to leave office at the end of the year, according to a report released Thursday by Mayor Bobby Sanchez’s administration. The investigation, conducted by the Crumbie Law Firm, found that made the request of the city’s human resources office last summer and was based on Stewart’s own calculations.

Stewart’s intention was to submit her request at the start of Fiscal Year 2026, which was on July 1, 2025, “to provide the finance department with sufficient time to plan for the payout request,” the report states. As mayor, Stewart was not entitled to the money she requested because as an elected official, she was not required to keep track of their time and are permitted to make their own work schedule.

Stewart appears to have calculated that she was always working. Her initial request acknowledged no sick days in her 12-year run as a popular mayor. The city’s human resources director, Linda Guard, who was handed the headache of upholding the city’s compensation rules and managing the rapacious mayor, pointed out to Stewart that she had taken maternity leave for the birth of each of her two children and also for an instance when she underwent surgery.

The request came as Stewart was exploring a race for the Republican nomination for governor. Stewart sought 240 unused vacation days ($92,135.28), 78 unused personal days ($37,739.68), 126 unused holiday ($54,502.56), and 92 sick days ($24,201.73). She also included in her request $900.00 for a longevity payment.

A week after making her initial request, Stewart revised her demand downward in the face of some internal resistance. Her second request included a July 10th payment of $93,008.18 and $57,941.41 to be paid in 20 weekly installments of $2,897.07, beginning on November 12th. Sanchez halted the payments in February–after 10 had been made.

The report notes that Guard was surprised to be summoned to Stewart’s office to sign a document setting forth the payments. It states, “Not only was Ms. Guard surprised at being instructed to execute a letter she knew to be factually inaccurate but she was stunned at being pressured to sign it under circumstances she experienced as coercive.”

Stewart’s actions, the report concludes, “raise concerns that extend well beyond administrative misconduct and and may expose Ms. Stewart, and other individuals involved, to significant civil and criminal liability under both state and federal law.”

Published June 4, 2026.

Attorney General William Tong and Commissioner of Consumer Protection Bryan Cafferelli have begun an investigation into a non-profit organization controlled by former New Britain mayor Erin Stewart.

The announcement of the investigation includes the revelation that the Mayor’s Trophy Charitable Fund was divided into parts, one managed as a donor advised fund under the jurisdiction of the Greater New Britain Community Foundation and a separate checking in at M&T Bank that may have been under Stewart’s control.

Tong and Cafferelli issued subpoenas for records from both the New Britain foundation and M&T Bank, they announced Wednesday afternoon.

The investigation was first called for in a May 12th Daily Ructions post.

Updates as events require.

Published June 3, 2026.

State Senator Jeff Gordon condemned Brooklyn Republican House candidate Jadon MacCormack’s “hateful remarks recently posted on social media…directed at the LGBT community….” The Woodstock Republican wrote, MacCormack’s comments “are reprehensible and have no place in our public discourse.” Gordon added, MacCormack’s language “does not reflect the basic decency Northeastern Connecticut residents exhibit on a daily basis.”

Gordon’s post joined one from Representative Vincent Candelora., the House Minority Leader. Candelora also condemned MacCormack, his party’s candidate in the 50th House District, currently represented by Democrat Pat Boyd. Candelora called MacCormack’s “violent rhetoric” “unhinged” and included a 2025 MacCormack post calling for the lynching of gays.

MacCormack, an Eagle Scout and gospel singer, aimed some thunderbolts at Candelora. He wrote that as a session employee working at the Energy and Technology Committee this year he “gained firsthand insight into who remains loyal to principle and who is willing to play politics at the expense of integrity imply to hold power.” Here endeth the lesson.

Or so one thought. A minister from Woodbury, a town that appears serene on its face, added his own incendiary support to MacCormack. Reverend Jake Dell, a Congregational minister, has some curious notions on politics as a force of redemption. And he is not at all happy with Ion Bank and, wait for it, Quassy Amusement and Water Park. Here is a screenshot of Reverend Dell’s screed:

What a lot of quizzical looks may have been exchanged in a Woodbury church as Parson Dell condemned Ion Bank and an amusement park from the pulpit of that venerable Congregational church, saving souls since 1818.

Published June 3, 2026.

Blimey, what has happened to the nice love thy neighbor gospel singers? Republican Jadon MacCormack, who highlights on his campaign website his warbling gospel music as one of his chief accomplishments, has let loose with a full blown moral panic fusillade in his campaign for the 50th House District. The nominee of the party of Lincoln has diagnosed the ills of the eight-town district and found them in found them in four letters: LGBT.

In a ferocious declaration of nuttiness, MacCormack pledges to reclaim the soul of Connecticut. Has someone run off with the Constitution State’s soul when the rest of us were not looking? Do we have a collective one that’s made of a little bit of each of ours? What about those who don’t believe in souls? Are they left out of MacCormsck’s Connecticut?

Perhaps some knowledges gathered over the decades can douse those raging fires outrage. The chief cause of domestic misery, “corrupting our families” to MacCormack, across the fruited plain is men, married men. The millions who engage in one or all of the following destructive habit: adultery, substance abuse, and gambling. It has been ever thus before and after the 1969 Stonewall riot.

Mr. MacCormack has used his self-declared “straight month” to remind voters, who are probably not fretting about out Nutmegger soul, who calls the Republican Party home in this Year of Our Lord 2026.

For a palette cleanse enjoy unsurpassable Mahalia Jackson’s guest appearance with her friend Dinah Shore, a Jew from Tennessee. Makes you want to lay down your arms and love your neighbor.

UPDATE: MacCormack “liked” a post calling for the deaths of LGBT people. Connecticut Republicans have a problem. They may wish this was one of the many districts without one of their candidate.

Published June 2, 2026.

More disappointing news on the Erin Stewart front. The Hartford Courant’s Ed Mahony reports that Erin Stewart, the former mayor of New Britain, used money from a city health benefits fund to pay her tuition for the University of New Haven Masters of Public Administration program in 2021 and 2022.

The city reimbursed Stewart $31,564 with money “drawn on an a city account created to make payments in lieu of medical benefits to city employees who choose not to participate in the city’s health insurance coverage.”

Stewart drew others into the unusual arrangement, including the head of the Republican-controlled city council, though he had no authority to authorize the payments.

The payments to Stewart appear to violate the state constitution’s prohibition on changing an elected official’s compensation during his or her term. New Britain’s council sets the pay of the mayor and other elected officials at the start of a term for the following term. That tradition caused Stewart some trouble when the council proposed increasing the mayor’s by 13%, to $99,000 a year. A previous proposal would have raised her salary by 23%. That was withdrawn in the face of public opposition.

Stewart suspended her campaign for the Republican nomination for governor last month, several days after The Courant reported on her prolific use of a city credit card for what appeared to be more than $200,000 in personal purchases.

Published June 2, 2026.

Glastonbury Town Council member Anthony DiLizia sees an opportunity and he is taking it. With incumbent Jill Barry’s surprise defeat at a nominating caucus by Working Families Party favorite Moise Carelus, there’s an opportunity for a new candidate to seek the party’s nomination. DiLizia is serving his first term on the council.

Barry has chosen not to obtain petitions to begin collecting the several hundred signatures needed to secure a place on the primary ballot. Local Democratic regulars do not want their party taken over by Working Families Party activists based on a caucus of about 100 registered Democrats. So DiLizia has stepped forward.

He has begun circulating petitions on Monday, June 1st and has until the end of the day on Tuesday, June 9th to turn in the requisite number to the Glastonbury registrar of voters.

The signature collection process is an opportunity to show some early strength by turning in far more than the 5% required to appear on the August 11th primary ballot. The 31st House District is contained completely within Glastonbury, though it does not include the entire town.

Republicans in the district have not elected one of their own since 2016.

UPDATE: Anthony DiLizia spoke to Daily Ructions Monday evening. He has begun collecting the 286 signatures required to qualify for a primary. It will be a whirlwind week for the 30 year old who served six years in the U.S. Army. He joined upon graduating from high school and shortly after had a top secret clearance as an intelligence analyst.

DiLizia is the executive director of a mental health non-profit and is enrolled in Yale’s executive MBA program.

He attended the May 26th caucus at which Barry was defeated and concluded that a surprise challenge undermines transparency in the political process. More local Democrats should have a choice in the nominating process. A primary will provide that.

DiLizia was a delegate to the First Congressional District nominating convention and cast his vote for Luke Bronin.

Published June 1, 2026. Updated June 2, 2026.