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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.

Tumult and confusion have taken center stage in the backwater that is Lieutenant Governor Susan Bysiewicz’s office. The Middletown Democrat’s new chief of staff is gone after a tenure of four unhappy days.

Brandon Moore’s brief run with Bysiewicz began with a posed photograph on the Senate dais—the perch from which the three-time candidate for governor presides over the upper chamber. Both Moore and Bysiewicz hailed his arrival on Team Bysiewicz with social media posts.

You will search in vain to find them anywhere but on Daily Ructions. Moore has been disappeared by his own hand and Bysiewicz’s.

Some say Bysiewicz staffers mounted a lightning strike revolt against Moore after a mere four days of his leadership. Others say a family health crisis prompted Moore’s departure. Ask yourself, is Bysiewicz so heedless of common human emotions that she would erase every trace of the fella she hired as her chief of staff as he confronted a family health crisis?

Moore was a key player in Nick Simmons’s bid for the State Senate last year. Bysiewicz appears to have failed in her own bid—-to get Democrats close to Governor Ned Lamont to urge the popular leader to leave office at the end of his second term.

Published September 4, 2025.

State Senator Ryan Fazio will showcase the biggest endorsement of the campaign for the 2026 Republican nomination for governor on Thursday when he snags the endorsement of House Minority Leader Vincent Candelora. The Northford Republican’s endorsement will be accompanied by one from Fazio colleague Stephen Harding, the Senate Republican Leader.

Candelora’s early boost is notable because he has carved out a position as the most effective House minority leader since his mentor and local predecessor, the late Bob Ward, held the job. Candelora has learned through preparation and savvy observation how to influence legislation while leading his outnumbered caucus. Members trust his judgment—a boon for Fazio. This will benefit Fazio as he introduces himself to local activists and potential delegates.

Harding, who has struggled to turn the Senate Republicans into an effective force, will join Candelora Thursday. The Harding endorsement, expected to be followed by most of the other members of the other nine Republican senators, puts the Brookfield Republican’s chief of staff, controversial John Healey in a bind. He is a longtime loyalist of the other leading Republican candidate for governor, Erin Stewart.

Harding, Fazio and a handful of others overthrew former Senate Republican Leader Kevin Kelly in February 2024 after he booted Healey from his perch as chief of staff. Remorse has been their most common emotion. The quiet caucus lost a seat in the 2024 election when Avon Republican and Healey ally Lisa Seminara was defeated for a second term.

Fazio and Candelora made an effective team in blunting the worst instincts of the two Democrats leading the legislature’s controversial energy committee. The endorsement from Candelora will be a big deposit in the Fazio favor bank and a seal of approval that potential delegates to May’s nominating convention will note.

Published September 3, 2025.

State Representative Jillian Gilchrest began her campaign to seize the Democratic nomination for Congress in the First Congressional District from 14-term incumbent John Larson with a rickety wobbly appearance in West Hartford but a top tier campaign hire. Accomplished delegate hunter Jacqueline Kozin is Gilchrest’s campaign manager. Kozin delivered the goods at the 2022 Democratic state convention for Stephanie Thomas, the winner of the party’s endorsement for secretary of the state, against considerable odds.

Kozin has held other party positions and is familiar to many local activists in the district’s 27 towns. The hunt for delegates may not be decisive but it will provide endless opportunities for the candidates to embarrass and wound each other. In Connecticut, the winner of the convention usually goes on to victory in the primary.

Gilchrest aimed her arrows at Republicans and Democrats in Washington. “Unfortunately the Republicans aren’t the only ones to blame for where we are as a country,” she said, according to The Courant’s Don Stacom. “We’ve lived through a generation of politics where (campaign) donors came first and working people came last.” That may be Gilchrest’s opening shot against Larson, whose campaign finance reports groan with special interest donations. Larson’s fundraising will provide plenty more to criticize as he relies on his decades in Washington to provide the money he will need to get back in touch with voters at home. Sonoma Restaurant and Wine Bar may enjoy a strong finish to the year.

Gilchrest’s criticism of DC Democrats may not go down well with Richard Blumenthal, Chris Murphy, Rosa DeLauro, and Joe Courtney, Democrats are enjoying long runs in Washington. On issues, Gilchrest offered no policy criticisms. While the difference in age between Larson and his two challengers are stark, both Gilchrest and Luke Bronin will need to point to more than the different number of wrinkles around their eyes to sustain a long campaign against Larson.

Published August 26, 2025.