A puny 636 vote win in his 2022 re-election campaign marked state Senator Tony Hwang as a tempting 2024 target for Democrats in the 28th District. Hwang, seeking his 5th term last year, defeated district newcomer Timothy Gavin by just over 1% of the vote. Hwang’s close call continued a trend of once Republican suburbs across the nation becoming reliably Democratic.
Fairfield County, once the powerhouse region of Republican fundraising and victories, has witnessed a clear-out of Republican officeholders. Hwang, whose hometown of Fairfield was the scene of a November 5th Republican drubbing, could be next.
Democrat Rob Blanchard can read augurs as well as anyone. The former Middletown council member won a seat on Fairfield’s Representative Town Meeting this month and is being urged to take on Hwang next year, Daily Ructions has learned. Blanchard, 35, has a Democratic pedigree that ought to allow him to draw on resources not available to other first-time legislative candidates. He was a top aide to former state Senator Ted Kennedy when he considered a 2018 run for governor. Blanchard served as a close advisor to Governor Ned Lamont in his 2018 campaign and during his first term as governor. He now serves as Comptroller Sean Scanlon’s chief of staff and Assistant Comptroller.
Hwang’s 2022 opponent, Gavin, had lived in the district, which includes Fairfield, Bethel, Easton and Newtown, for just six months when he nearly tipped over the incumbent. A presidential election year–such as 2024–will likely see a surge in Democrats who did not vote in 2022 casting ballots. They are not ticket splitters.
Blanchard would bring a skill to the race that Hwang has not confronted before. The Philadelphia native and Syracuse University graduate is a skilled practitioner of the takedown without fingerprints.
November 28, 2023Comments Off on Blanchard mulls race to unseat Hwang in 28th Senate District. Incumbent Republican presents tempting target after Fairfield Democrats sweep local elections.
A big day for Plan Bs in state government. The Lamont-Bysiewicz administration, after a holiday weekend of lobbying, appeared to recognize Monday that it did not have eight votes on the legislature’s Regulations Review Committee to adopt comprehensive Electric Vehicle regulations proposed by the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP).
After days of scrambling and sweet-talking committee members, Monday did not bring a breakthrough in committee support. The administration is expected to withdraw the regulations and pass on a vote that would have brought a high-profile defeat of the administration by a legislature his party controls.
Prudence has scored a win over pointless defiance. The public retreat will serve notice on Governor Ned Lamont that DEEP Commissioner Katie Dykes may have become more of a burden than an asset in steering environmental and energy policy through the General Assembly and into law.
November 27, 2023Comments Off on EV regulations expected to be withdrawn as intense maneuvering fails to move votes for Lamont administration’s EV regulations on eve of committee meeting.
The state legislature’s bipartisan Regulations Review Committee will meet Tuesday to discuss and vote on controversial regulations that set the state on a path to banning the sale of gasoline powered vehicles by 2035. Interested parties in support and opposition to the rules predict the new rules will bring a catastrophe whether they are adopted, rejected or deferred. The phase-in of the mandatory switch to electric vehicles would begin in 2026.
The rhetoric continued to add to climate change during the holiday weekend. Veteran state Representative Bob Godfrey (D-Danbury), a member of the committee, told recipients of a message he sent that the Koch brothers are behind Republican opposition to the regulations. Republicans deny the allegation.
The Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) sent the proposed regulations to the committee with an ominous threat to committee members. “In addition to the public health impacts of Connecticut’s continued noncompliance with federal health-based air quality standards,” the memo states, “continued failure to meet these standards complete DEEP to impose ever more stringent and costly emission reduction requirements on stationary source owners and operators.” This could also become a disruptive policy for state businesses.
The committee has seven Republicans and seven Democrats. The co-chairs are House Democrat Lucy Dathan and Senate Republican John Kissel. If the committee rejects the proposed regulations they will go before the General Assembly in the next regular session, which begins in February. Some legislators may be reluctant to vote on a measure that begins to squeeze the sale of gas powered vehicles in two years.
The push was on Sunday afternoon to boost attendance at Lieutenant Governor Susan Bysiewicz’s November 29th PAC event. The Bysiewicz invitation includes a list of Democrats who will join the three-time gubernatorial hopeful Wednesday to raise money for her Power of Women PAC at a Glastonbury winery.
The PAC had $46,000 on hand as of October 29th, according to its most recent campaign finance report. The committee has raised $124,000 since it was formed earlier this year. Bysiewicz was once an advocate of limiting the influence of special interests through the proliferation of political action committees. The Middletown Democrat was also critical of Governor Ned Lamont’s lavish self-financing of his 2018 campaign for governor—until she abandoned her bid to become Lamont’s running mate.
For something different, read and sign up for a free subscription to the current edition of Now You Know—The Cultural Lives of Others, a Substack newsletter. This week’s guest is powerful New Haven Democrat Vincent Mauro. He is not a co-sponsor of the Bysiewicz event.
November 26, 2023Comments Off on Luxenberg returns after DUI arrest for Wednesday Bysiewicz PAC event—at a winery.
The popular BBC television program That Was The Week That Was scrapped its programming for Saturday, November 23, 1963, and created a tribute to John F. Kennedy. The most memorable part of it was this song, The Summer of His Years, Herb Kretzmer wrote the lyrics, and David Lee composed the lyrics. The remarkable Millicent Martin–who lives in today in Los Angeles–learned the song and performed it that Saturday night.
Mahalia Jackson and Connie Francis were among the American singers who recorded versions of “The Summer of His Years.” No version was met with a universal welcome. How to mourn and pay tribute to our martyred president in popular culture was a challenge.
Judy Garland was in the midst of her one-season television show on CBS. Garland had been a friend and active supporter of JFK. She wanted to devote an episode of her hourlong show to patriotic songs to her fallen friend. CBS executives, a tough lot even for television, vetoed the idea, insisting the nation would soon forget about the assassination. The determined Garland inserted her own tribute into the conclusion of an episode–omitting it from written running order that was submitted to the network suits. Her instincts did not fail her.
Read and subscribe to Now You Know–The Cultural Lives of Others. It’s free. This week’s guest is political polymath Vincent Mauro–chief of staff at the Senate Democrats caucus (until December 15th) and chairman of the New Haven Democratic organization.
November 22, 2023Comments Off on In the Summer of His Years. A British Tribute to JFK 60 Years Ago.
Leaders of the Connecticut Public Defender Attorneys Union, represented by AFSCME Local 381, are disappointed by our Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Mr. Daryl McGraw’s, degradation of women through a public Facebook post.
We do not condone demeaning actions or communications towards any marginalized groups. It is unacceptable for anyone, and especially someone with Mr. McGraw’s title, to say things that perpetuate any of these victimizations.
The union supports a DEI program. We understand that the Division of Public Defender Services must work to eradicate such behavior within our own agency. However, we cannot accept the head of the DEI program, the person who is supposed to guide us through this process, engaging in such behavior himself.
We demand his immediate resignation.
Leaders of the Connecticut Public Defender Attorneys Union called for the resignation of Daryl McGraw, the Division of Public Defender Services Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, for a misogynist post he put on his Facebook page. Union leaders condemned the post’s “degradation of women.”
Daily Ructions broke the story Wednesday morning. Before noon, McGraw sent a response by email to agency colleagues. It ignited a storm of replies. McGraw wrote, in part, “I became aware that the post, initially shared on my personal page, had an unintended impact within our division, leading to some people being upset. I deeply regret any discomfort this may have caused, especially to those who felt affected.”
Public defenders and others in the agency wondered what impact other than alarm and dismay McGraw thought his post would have on others who saw it.
McGraw’s graphic on his post declared that “Grown women want to…get bent over the balconies,” holding out the prospect of stepping up one’s game. The controversy adds to the tumult that has racked the agency this year under the leadership of Chief Public Defender TaShun Bowden Lewis.
Read and subscribe to Now You Know–The Cultural Lives of Others. This week’s guest is popular WVIT meteorologist Ryan Hanrahan. Learn what he does with his brains.
November 15, 2023Comments Off on Public Defenders union calls for resignation of DEI director over “degradation of women” Facebook post.
The turmoil in the Division of Public Defender Services continued Tuesday when employees discovered a misogynist post on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Director Daryl McGraw’s Facebook page. The post featured a photograph of McGraw announcing “exciting news.” and introducing Paper Chase Academy.
The post tells “former street hustlers” to “discover the secrets to becoming an LLC or 501c3. The $146,000 a year director advises readers that “Grown women want to travel, eat well. and get bent over the balconies.” Women–and men– in the agency were both disgusted and alarmed at the post on Tuesday. Bending women over balconies is not a measure of success in life the more than 400 lawyers and support staff expect the DEI director to promote on his Facebook page.
Read and subscribe to Now You Know–The Cultural Lives of Others. This week’s guest is popular WVIT meteorologist Ryan Hanrahan. Learn what he does with his brains.
November 15, 2023Comments Off on Public Defender DEI Director “Grown women…want to get bent over balconies” FB post raises alarm in agency.
More troubles at the Connecticut lottery. The agency announced on it website Monday that it could process no more winning tickets. The announcement remained on its website early Tuesday morning.
A critical element of the sale of lottery tickets is that winners—who beat formidable odds—will be able to redeem their tickets at will. Lottery administrators appear to have lost the plot on this. Earlier this year the lottery’s new point-of-sale machines were unable to accurately scan tickets.
A $2 million winning PowerBall ticket was sold in Connecticut several weeks ago. Paying out a rare big prize may have upended daily life at the lottery’s new Wallingford headquarters.
Beloved former Republican National Committeewoman Pat Longo has died at 86. The generous Wilton resident spent nearly 40 years encouraging young people to get involved in politics and then provided help as they navigated campaign shoals.
Pat was a loyalist but challenged the established party order when the moment called her. As corruption deluged the Rowland administration in 2003 into 2004, state Republican party committee members met to elect two national committee members, a man and a woman. The incumbent woman representing Connecticut, Jo McKenzie, was a Rowland confidant and a minor player in the scandals that were consuming his administration.
Pat Longo allowed her name to be placed in nomination against McKenzie, who had held the seat for 14 years. John Rowland, the New Haven Register reported, stood in the back of the room while the committee met. McKenzie defeated Longo, 46.5 to 31.5. These were people with no history of bucking party leadership, especially the first Republican elected governor in 24 years. Pat Longo had, but allowing her name to go forward, stiffened many spines.
Two months later, Rowland would resign. A few days before Christmas he would plead guilty to federal corruption charges.
After the deluge, Pat Longo succeeded McKenzie and serve on the RNC for ten years.
Not every RNC duo from each state works in harmony. Pat Longo and John Frey were more than colleagues. He was a loyal and essential friend to Pat in her final years, a reminder that politics can create bonds that transcend elections.
Published November 7, 2023.
November 7, 2023Comments Off on Pat Longo (1937-2023). Former Republican National Committeewoman loved politics and her nation. Her 2004 display of courage set her apart.
