Malloy and Wyman “Special Guests” at Firm Party. Eyebrows Raised.

A governor-elect  and lieutenant governor-elect allow their names to be used on the invitation to a reception sponsored by a political consulting firm congratulating a new member of their administration.  Fair enough. Then they go too far, and this is how cynicism starts.  Roy Occhiogrosso has been a crucial ally of Dan Malloy’s for years.  He deserves and has received congratulations for his role in Malloy’s narrow November victory.  Occhiogrosso is leaving Global Strategy Group to join Malloy’s administration as the head of communications.  It’s Christmas, everyone likes a party at the Firebox restaurant from 5-7 p.m. Monday night to wish him well.

And then they go and spoil it all by overreaching.  The invitation to today’s whoop-de-doo includes welcoming Tanya Meck to Global Strategy Group.  Meck was previously associated with outgoing Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz’s disastrous year.  She worked for Bysiewicz’s campaign for governor and then attorney general until leaving for Northeast Utilities.  She has not been thought of as a Malloy person.  Bysiewicz was running against Malloy for governor until  she made an ill-fated lurch into the race for attorney general in January.

What Malloy and Wyman appear to have lent their names to is a pointed message–a command more than an invitation–to those with an interest in influencing the wide reach of government, telling them that although Occiogrosso is leaving Global Strategy Group it still has a friend in the new governor and lieutenant governor.

Global Strategy Group declares its guiding belief is that “insights are important, but they are not enough.”  Sometimes, they seem to be saying with the invitation to today’s party, a heavy hand needs to be applied as well.  This is the sort of tactic that starts with a bid for advantage and can end, for example, with a $2 million fine paid to settle a claim pursued by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, which is what Global Strategy Group did earlier this year.