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As Governor Ned Lamont moves closer to launching his campaign for a third term, the Greenwich Democrat is expected to name Francesca Capodilupo to run Lamont ’26. Capodilupo has been closely associated with U.S. Representative Jim Himes and Danbury Mayor Roberto Alves, who also serves as chair of the state’s Democratic party committee.

Capodilupo was Alves’s communications and government affairs advisor until leaving last December to become chief philanthropy officer of Darien-based non-profit Person to Person, an organization started in 1968 by Reverend Robert Nelson Back, who attended seminary with and was inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King. Capodilupo, according to Person to Person’s website, “holds a degree in Political Science from Emmanuel College and a Masters in Elections and Campaign Management from Fordham University.”

Lamont is expected to begin his re-election campaign shortly after next week’s sleepy municipal elections. This will be his fourth run for governor. Eight years after losing the Democratic primary for governor in 2010, Lamont defeated Republican Bob Stefanowski in 2018 and 2022.

The former cable television entrepreneur begins the race as one of the nation’s most popular governors after eight years of restoring the state’s parlous finances. Lamont has financed his four previous statewide campaigns himself.

State Representative Josh Elliott is challenging Lamont from his far left for the Democratic nomination.

Republicans Erin Stewart and Ryan Fazio are competing for the Republican nomination.

Published October 28, 2025.

Governor Ned Lamont will name four new members to the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) today, Daily Ructions has learned. The move comes after a tumultuous ten months at the powerful agency. It will be the first time PURA has had a full complement of members since the legislature increased the number of commissioners from three to five in 2019.

The new members, as of Monday morning, are expected to be Jan Beecher, Holly Cheeseman, Everett Smith, and Tom Wiehl. David Arconti, a former legislator and utility lobbyist, will remain a commissioner. Republican Michael Caron will not.

Wiehl, an attorney in the Office of Consumer Counsel, will serve as chair of the agency that has struggled to find balance between a reliable supply of energy at affordable rates. He replaces Marissa Gillett.

Beecher brings decades of experience in energy policy in academia and government, primarily in Michigan. She will bring experience in water regulation, often overlooked, to PURA at a critical moment.

Cheeseman served as a member of the House of Representatives until January. She enjoys a reputation for diligence and practicality in making policy.

Smith, of Greenwich, will arrive at PURA with long experience in energy and infrastructure finance, an area that has often seemed to baffle PURA members. Smith may be the first utility commissioner whose father founded a gas company and a water company.

Published October 20, 2025.

State Representative Jillian Gilchrest raised only $54,000 in her first 36 days as a candidate for the Democratic nomination for Congress from the 1st Congressional District. The West Hartford Democrat is seeking to unseat 14-term incumbent John B. Larson in the safe Democratic district.

Luke Bronin, former mayor of Hartford, raised nearly $1.18 million since announcing his candidacy a month before Gilchrest. Bronin’s fundraising haul on his first day as a candidate was an eye-catching $500,000. Larson, who had nearly $300,000 in the bank when Bronin announced his candidacy, raised an additional $800,000 in the third fundraising quarter of the year.

Larson is an old hand at raising money from special interests, the source of most of his campaign funds over nearly three decades of campaigning every two years. Bronin impressed politicos and others when as a first-time candidate he collected $1 million for his 2015 race for mayor of Hartford. Gilchrest’s fundraising has been considerably more limited because she relied on the state’s generous public financing program for her West Hartford legislative races. It’s not easy to convert $100 contributors into $3,500 ones. The social worker contributes $4,696 to her campaign coffers. Gilchrest is expected to bring some grassroots organizing prowess to the race, but that requires some money.

Hartford Board of Education member Ruth Fortune and Southington Town Council member Jack Perry are also seeking to unseat Larson. Fortune has raised $41,353 since becoming the first candidate to launch a challenge to Larson. Perry made a $500,000 loan to his campaign and raised $28,810 in his first six weeks as a candidate.

Local parties will choose delegates to the district’s May nominating convention early next spring. An August primary is expected to follow. It will be the first one an incumbent member of the House of Representatives has faced in more than 50 years of primaries in Connecticut.

Acranom Masonry was removed from the Department of Administrative Services (DAS) after a newspaper column prompted an inquiry by Senate Republicans. The newspaper column appeared in The Hartford Courant on August 23rd and revealed that despite Acranom remained on the state’s list of approved contracts more than a year after its principals, Salvatore Monarca and John Duffy, entered guilty pleas to charges bribing Kostantinos Diamantis, the head of the state’s school construction finance program.

Acranom (Monarca spelled backwards) was awarded a contract by the Department of Transportation to perform work on Rocky Hill project. The column pointing out that the guilty pleas by Monarca and Duffy required DAS to remove the company from its list of approved contractors. DAS disagreed because the two defendants in the bribery scandal were no longer principals. Senate Republicans raised concerns in a letter questioning the DAS interpretation of the statute regarding bad actors and state contractors. The letter from Senate Republicans caused DAS to reconsider its position. It has removed Acranom.

The crimes to which Monarca and Duffy were convicted were committed during some of the time the school construction program was part of DAS.

Published October 8, 2025.

More than 1,000 early supporters gave State Senator Ryan Fazio’s campaign for the Republican nomination for governor a boost by contributing $157,000 in small contributions since the third-term legislator announced his candidacy in August. The hefty total breaks all speed records in collecting contributions to a campaign for governor under the state’s generous public financing program, according to the Fazio campaign.

The Fazio campaign announced the impressive fundraising haul Tuesday morning. The total puts Fazio less than $100,000 from the $250,000 a candidate for governor has needed to qualify for millions in public funds for primary and general election campaigns. The Citizens Election Program qualifying amount may change In January but is not expected to increase substantially.

Mayor Erin Stewart has been raising funds with an exploratory committee for governor. She has reached the CEP $350,000 threshold in the less commonly used exploratory committee. Not all of Stewart’s contributions will qualify toward the $250,000 needed for a candidate for governor to ring the public funds bell. Still, reaching $350,000 is also an impressive and original achievement. The maximum contribution to an exploratory committee is $350, for a candidate committee for governor it’s $250.

Fazio said in a written statement that he is “humbled by the record-breaking outpouring of grassroots support our campaign has received from across Connecticut.” The Greenwich Republican set out his stall on the issues he will emphasize in a spring convention, summer primary and general election. “People are tired of the sky-high electric rates and taxes, sanctuary policies, and ideological agendas of the state leadership,” he declared,” that have made our great state less safe and unaffordable.”

Published October 7, 2025.

A busy day less than 24 hours before jury selection is to begin in the first of two corruption trials of former state representative and school construction finance official Kostantinos Diamantis. The former deputy budget director added Governor Ned Lamont to his list of witnesses to be called at the trial that begins on Monday, October 6th. Jury selection is scheduled for tomorrow.

Lamont fired Diamantis from his post as deputy budget director in October 2021 when he learned of a federal criminal investigation of Diamantis. Three defendants in the school construction bribery prosecution entered guilty pleas in closed court session the day before Diamantis was indicted in May 2024.

Diamantis claimed he would be prejudiced if jury selection begins Friday on 22 charges because potential jurors may not know the government shutdown does not affect their obligation to appear at the federal courthouse in Bridgeport. Diamantis also claims that proceeding with a trial while many government agencies are closed could give jurors the impression that the corruption prosecution carries an air of urgency, “bolstering,” according to his attorney, Norm Pattis.

Diamantis also asserts a novel theory, “Finally, the government shutdown reflects a passionate disagreement about how federalism should function in the United States, a theme likely to emerge in this case, which involves a federal prosecution of state officials performing state jobs. Mr. Diamantis requests rescheduling the trial to a time when the passions that led to the shutdown of the federal government have had a chance to cool.”

Diamantis faces a second corruption trial early next year. That one is for allegedly soliciting and accepting a bribe in return for short-circuiting a Medicaid audit of a Bristol optometrist. She pleaded guilty in that investigation early this year.

Published October 2, 2025.

The Nutmeg State Poll, a States of Opinion Project, conducted by the University of New
Hampshire Survey Center finds 54% of the 808 survey respondents approve of the job Governor Ned Lamont has been going as he nears the end of his second term. The poll found 36% disapproved and 10% neither approve not disapprove. The result is a 6% improvement from a Nutmeg State Poll conducted in May.

The poll provides a reminder for Lamont that third terms can be a challenge is found in the responses to whether the Greenwich Democrat deserves another four years. 43% said he does and 40% that he does not. There’s no clamoring for a replacement for Lamont. 30% would like Attorney General William Tong to run, 2% more than are plumping for Lieutenant Governor Susan Bysiewicz to mount a fourth campaign for governor.

The only Democrat running for governor, state Representative Josh Elliott, has is under water with 5% approval rating and 12% disapproving.

Lamont was re-elected in a rematch with Republican Bob Stefanowski, defeating the Madison resident by 14% and nearly 160,000 votes.

Lamont is expected to announce his intentions in the autumn.

A question on regional cooperation on vaccines provides a start look at how state Republicans diverge in their view of the world from Democrats and those with no party affiliation.

Published September 29, 2025.

The nation’s most successful Democrat in a red state will be the star attraction at the annual Bailey dinner on November 15th.Governor Andy Beshear will venture forth from Kentucky to tell Connecticut Democrats how he does it. Beshear has served as Kentucky’s attorney general and is enjoying his second term as governor. 

The party’s chief fundraising event will be held at the Connecticut Convention Center 11 days after municipal elections in the state and two crucial gubernatorial elections test the appeal of moderate Democratic nominees for governor in New Jersey and Virginia. If both Mikie Sherrill and Abigail Spanberger defeat their Republican moment, the state Democratic dinner will be Beshear’s chance to point to other winners from the party’s sensible wing. 

The dinner will take place in Hartford, hometown of Luke Bronin, the former mayor and one of four Democrats challenging 14-term incumbent and Tier 1 retired state employee U.S. Representative John Larson. The evening will provide an opportunity for feats of strength from the audience of party loyalists by supporters of Larson, Bronin, state Representative Jillian Gilchrist, Jack Perry, and Ruth Fortune. 

Published September 26, 2025. 

Embattled public utilities regulator Marissa Gillett has resigned. The PURA chair has been surrounded by growing controversy since questions arose early this year about her role in a December opinion piece published in the CT Mirror under the names of two state legislators aligned with Gillett.

Published September 19, 2025.

Unhinged Fairfield Republican Melissa Longo, a member of the tony town’s Representative Town Meeting, presents a smiling face in an appearance on Ryan Fazio’s campaign launch.

Longo’s ugly social media posts were condemned by the Fairfield Republican Town Committee. Her hateful comments came in the aftermath of the assassination of Turning Point USA founder and president Charlie Kirk.

Longo does not always spew hate for those who do not subscribe to her point of view. She appears cheerful in the short video when a clip of her is matched to a pledge by Fazio to cut taxes if he becomes governor. The video and the social media posts are reminder of how difficult it will be for Republicans to appeal to their own party without embracing its ugliest elements.

There are 345,000 more registered Democrats than registered Republicans in Connecticut. It will be difficult for a Republican candidate for governor to persuade a hefty chunk of those Democrats to support him when one of his featured supporters believes they are Godless wretches killing Connecticut.

Published September 12, 2025.