East Haven Republican Patrick Rowland (no relation to the former Republican governor) is a late entry for the party’s nomination for state comptroller. Rowland, a CPA with a background in tax planning, will face West Hartford Republican May Fay if he proceeds with his quest.

Rowland’s email to Republicans took aim at Democrat Sean Scanlon and his patronage plum job at Tweed-New Haven Airport. He wrote in his announcement, “I can BEAT Sean Scanlon because I have the Tax, Research, Accounting, and Economic Policy background to understand deeply the roles of the office and can debate his flawed record as a legislator and as the Director of the Tweed – specifically, the State’s own INDEPENDENT AUDITORS issued a deficiency report (link below) on the Airport Authority criticizing control and management in areas which he would have similar control at the state level.”

“He also helped break a promise previously negotiated by all the pertinent mayors and legislative representatives much for his own benefit and at great peril to the city, region and the citizens who live near the airport,” Rowland continued, “And as CHAIR of the Finance, Revenue and Bonding – he OWNS the fiscal calamity we are suffering from.”

Scanlon is, for reasons that highlight the sometimes irrational nature of politics, the Democrats’ presumptive nominee for comptroller. The Guilford Democrat continues his long ride on the party’s hackerama.

Rowland said Wednesday afternoon that he will run as a petitioning candidate in the general election if he is unable to win 15% of the delegates at the Republican state convention. He criticized Fay for highlighting on her campaign website her opposition to imposing tolls on Connecticut’s working families.

Rowland will be introducing himself to delegates Friday. Fay may, however, have gotten a snootful of the voluble Rowland when he offered to “collaborate” with the West Hartford town council member if she’d make way for him to snag the party’s nomination.

Published May 4, 2022.

A substitute teacher is putting up some impressive numbers in a rookie bid to defeat a veteran fellow Democrat. Muad Hrezi has raised just shy of $500,000 since announcing his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for Congress in the First Congressional District.

Hrezi, coming at Larson from the far left, has begun circulating petitions to force an August primary. Larson has not faced a primary opponent since the venerable East Hartford Democrat won his first term in 1998.

Hrezi’s pre-convention report reveals he had $165,000 in cash on hand as of the April 19th reporting period closing date. That $165,000 ought to be enough for Hrezi to hire professional signature collectors to oversee the labor intensive process of collecting sufficient signatures to face Larson in August. Larson reports having $841,000 in cash on hand.

For some context on the significance of Hrezi’s early fundraising success, consider that it’s $124,000 more than Republican George Logan has raised in his 5th CD campaign to defeat two-term Democrat Jahana Hayes.

Published May 2, 2022.

Four congressional candidates have begun circulating petitions to secure a spot on the August primary ballot. Candidates who do not receive 15% of the delegates’ votes on any party convention ballot have an alternative route to a primary. They can collect signatures from 2% of the voters enrolled in their party. It’s harder than it sounds, so getting an early start is prudent.

So far, one Democrat and three Republicans have begun the process, according to Secretary of the State Denise Merrill’s office. They are Democrat Muad Hrezi in the First Congressional District and Republicans Mark Hancock in the First Congressional District, Michael Ted Goldstein in the Fourth Congressional District, and Michelle Botelho in the Fifth Congressional District.

Delegates will meet this month to endorse candidates. The parties hold their state nominating conventions this weekend.

Published May 2, 2022.

Extraordinary exemptions from common sense requirements have not been enough to steady the finances of the comptroller’s health insurance Connecticut Partnership Plan. The program requires another bailout to keep its municipal members from a 10.5% increase.

The Connecticut Partnership Plan received a $40 million infusion from the state in December. Without it, the Plan would have inflicted a 14.5% increase on plan members this year. Members were advised to plan for an 8% increase in their budget deliberations. They were recently told that advice had become inoperative. The cost of coverage would be hiked by 10.5%.

Legislators and Local leaders locked in three-year contracts with the plan scambled over the weekend to claw another $25 million from taxpayers. Then-State Comptroller Kevin Lembo told legislators last year, “The Connecticut Partnership Plan has an enrollment of nearly 60,000 members and over 140 participating groups. That plan has allowed the municipalities that voluntarily join to protect themselves from skyrocketing costs due to a few catastrophic health events, keep costs predictable and offer the highest-quality care to teachers, first responders and other town and city workers.”

What’s been predictable is that without the reserves required of private health insurance companies, the state treasury will constantly be at risk of looting by the the Connecticut Partnership Plan. Rates charged by private health insurance companies are regulated by the state’s insurance department. Those companies are required to maintain significant reserves to deal with the swings and roundabouts that circumstances can inflict on the most prudent expectations of human behavior.

In February 2021, Lembo told legislators, “The Partnership Plan is now projected to run at an MLR under 100% for the foreseeable future, cementing its reputation as a market-leading option for municipal and non-state government groups.” Fifteen months have battered that declaration.

At the same public hearing, Senator Matt Lesser pointed out in what now looks like a misbegotten attempt to be helpful to Lembo that “in fact you’re directed to reduce risk to taxpayers and to make sure we are protecting the General Fund in the State of Connecticut.” Lembo replied, “That’s correct, Senator.”

A correct statement of the law but not of the plan’s finances. Lesser should have an opportunity to explain what’s gone wrong in the past 14 months.

Approval of an annual increase of 14.5%, 10.5% or 8% sought by a private insurer would draw the fury of consumer groups and the comptroller’s office. The same people who criticize companies that operate in the regulated market will likely remain silent as the comptroller’s plan scrambles to convince legislators to require taxpayers to provide tens of millions more in rescue financing.

Published May 2, 20222.

What a difference a federal criminal investigation makes. In November 2019, then-Office of Policy and Management Secretary Melissa McCaw was in a twist over the grim state of the Connecticut Port Authority. A CT Mirror story by Keith Phaneuf highlighting more embarrassing revelations included in a report from state auditors had caught McCaw’s attention.

McCaw told the agency’s spokesperson, Chris McClure, that she needed the durable Democrat to “take the lead on crafting OPM’s comm plan to highlight our extensive and outstanding work, including timing of release, etc. Currently the administration is silent and all these audit issues and I want to get in front of it and be clear that we’ve taken the lead and we are restoring the financial integrity and related and confidence back into this organization…This progress is not DECD’s. It is OPM.”

McCaw subordinate Jeffrey Beckham replied that he and colleague Robert Dakers would be delivering the budget agency’s testimony at a December 4th legislative hearing on the audit. “Draft it,” McCaw replied, “I might present it depending on workload although I believe I’m scheduled to be out.” McCaw did big foot Beckham and Dakers at the daylong hearing, presenting testimony alongside Paul Mounds, Governor Ned Lamont’s chief of staff, and David Kooris, who was serving as acting chair of the authority as well as deputy commissioner of DECD.

In the aftermath of the port authority scandals, McCaw’s deputy and close friend, Kostantinos Diamantis, was given extraordinary dominion over the State Pier project at the New London port. The decision by Lamont to entrust Diamantis with extensive power baffled observers at the time. Federal criminal investigators appear to be focused on the former Democratic state representative’s role in the creation of a $235 million wind turbine hub.

The emails were included in the Lamont administration’s compliance with a federal subpoena seeking documents related to the probe. Nobody is in the hunt for credit now. McCaw and Diamantis have left OPM. Beckham has succeeded McCaw. Lamont continues to be notably incurious about who knew what at OPM.

The federal criminal investigation, which Lamont said he learned of “in passing” from his corruption-busting legal counsel, continues.

Published April 29, 2022.

Bookish Ructions readers, you are making a difference. You may not have known you have contributed to creating a “literary landscape.” Greater Hartford ranks number two in a ranking of best book cities, the Washington Post’s Book Club reports. Providence tops the list.

Clever Real Estate, The Post’s Ron Charles writes in his newsletter, “analyzed data on libraries, indie bookstores, literacy rates, bookish Google searches and coffee shops to rank the 50 most populous metro areas ‘from the best to the worst cities for book-lovers.'” 

Boston will be miffed to have placed third. College students reading Instagram and watching Tik Tok must not have been included in the calculation.

Now get back to Proust.

Published April 29, 2022.

U.S. Senate hopeful Leora Levy has used most of the campaign contributions she has received to reduce her $750,000 loan to the campaign. Levy’s pre-nominating convention campaign finance report shows the Greenwich Republican has raised $338,000 in contributions. She’s used $250,000 to reduce her loan to the campaign to $500,000.

Candidates Themis Klarides and Peter Lumaj each have about the same amount of cash on hand. Klarides has $392,000 on April 17th, the end of the reporting period. The former state legislator had an outstanding loan of $40,000 to her campaign. Lumaj, a Fairfield Republican making his fourth bid for statewide office, has provided his campaign with $250,000 and reported $447,000 in the bank 11 days ago. Levy reported $450,000 on hand after the repayment to herself.

The race to be their party’s underdog challenger to Democratic incumbent Richard Blumenthal has reached the pre-convention guerrilla stage. A helpful Daily Ructions reader pointed out that Levy and her husband were contributors to Richard Blumenthal’s 1998 campaign. Expect more of that in the next week—and keep checking Daily Ructions.

Published April 28, 2022.

Top Lamont administration budget adviser and head of school constructions grants Kostantinos Diamantis mixed state and personal affairs in his state email account. The former Democratic legislator’s messages were included in a response to a federal subpoena requesting documents from the state as part of an ongoing corruption investigation. The administration has made thousands of documents provided to in compliance with the subpoena available under the Freedom of Information Act.

One thread of emails that Diamantis forwarded to his state email account details the saga of his successful efforts to obtain a boost in financial aid from a Vermont prep school for the youngest of his five daughters. Diamantis details where his other daughters went to school and tells a Vermont Academy official in a March 11, 2021 message, “At 65 I live a simple lifestyle dedicating my life to all 5 of their education.” The e-mail was sent 3 years after Diamantis added, according to public records, an 18’ x 36’ in-ground pool at his Farmington home. The building permit estimates the cost at $15,000.

A happy ending.

Published April 28, 2022.

Peter Mariano, Naugatuck’s judge of probate nearing the end of his fifth term, will return to Waterbury’s criminal court in May. The Republican’s four criminal files for three 2021 arrests for driving under the influence and two for operating a vehicle under suspension were scheduled to be heard on Monday, after being moved from their May 23rd court date last Friday afternoon.

Mariano is seeking a fifth term as probate judge. He faces state Representative Rosa Rebimbas (R-Naugatuck) at their party’s May 18th nominating convention. Even in this era of political tumult, it would be unusual for a major political party to nominate a candidate in Mariano’s dismaying situation for a judgeship.

Published April 28, 2022.

State Senator Matt Lesser may have made a decision. The Middletown Democrat will make a “special announcement” Thursday at 2 p.m. in Minute Man Park.

Lesser has been running for the Democratic nomination for secretary of the state under the guise of a campaign finance exploratory committee. With the party’s state convention scheduled to endorse candidates for the state ticket on May 7th, Lesser has reached a time for choosing. Run for secretary of the state or run for re-election to the Senate?

An announcement Thursday that he will compete at the state convention allows Democrats in the 9th Senate District to become candidates to face popular Rocky Hill mayor Lisa Marotta. the Republican candidate in the district that includes Cromwell, Middletown, Newington, Rocky Hill and part of Wethersfield. State Representative Gary Turco, a two-term Newington Democrat, is ready to launch his campaign for the Senate. The deference senators impose on others come with a sell-by date attached to election calendars.

Lesser, who bills himself as an “independent voice” on his Senate website, faces fellow Democrats Maritza Bond, and state Representatives Josh Elliott, Hilda Santiago, and Stephanie Thomas for their party’s nomination. New Haven Democrat Darryl Brackeen is no longer in the race.

Published April 27, 2022.