House Democrats are collecting diapers and wipes Wednesday for, ummmm, photos. Members were reminded to bring diapers, wipes or donations to the Capitol on Wednesday to be photographed with the donations. The collection for Alliance for Bloomfield’s Children “would be a great time to get photos for your mailers/newsletters.”

Or it might be a moment to make a quiet donation to a good cause. For that, go to this site.

Published April 12, 2022.

Greenwich Republican Leora Levy’s U.S. Senate campaign has told Fox News the candidate raised more than $1 million in the two months since she became a candidate. Levy gave Fox News an exclusive on the story.

It is not clear how much of that $1 million comes from Levy herself. The Fox News story refers to Levy “fueling her Republican Senate campaign in Connecticut with over $1 million in fundraising….”

Levy also begins airing her first campaign ad today. The Republican National Committee member faces Themis Klarides and Peter Lumaj in the contest for the party’s nomination to face incumbent Democrat Richard Blumenthal in his bid for a third term.

Published April 12, 2022.

Hedge fund titan and former Connecticut resident David McCormick moved to Pennsylvania last year to seek the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate. As often happens in politics, the May 15th primary campaign has not been going as McCormick expected.

McCormick made his fortune at the Bridgewater, the hedge fund famous for making grownups cry at frequent and pitiless meetings. Bridgewater, readers may recall, wanted Connecticut taxpayers to foot part of the bill for a new waterfront headquarters in Stamford. The fund, based in Westport, negotiated a deal with then-Governor Dannel P. Malloy for $115 million in cash and incentives for the [roject. The unpopular plan was dropped after providing the public with a vivid reminder that Democrats love their rich as much as Republicans do theirs.

McCormick’s rise and fall and rise at Bridgewater was told recently in this Bloomberg article on the combat veteran’s journey to Trump lickspittle, following the path of his wife, Dina Powell.

Donald Trump first endorsed Sean Parnell in the Pennsylvania race. Parnell abandoned his campaign faster than a Russian in a tank under Ukrainian fire after claims of domestic abuse came into public view. McCormick lobbied hard to become Trump’s second first choice, making pilgrimages to the loathsome demagogues’s Palm Beach headquarters.

McCormick and Powell did not hire enough Trump grifters to overcome the influence of the inscrutable Melania Trump and commentator Sean Hannity. The two are all in for Republican frontrunner Dr. Oz, formally known as Mehmet Oz. Trump endorsed him Saturday.

In the aftermath of McCormick’s unsuccessful courtship of Trump, McCormick unloaded on Oz, a creation of Oprah Winfrey, in a series of clips from Oz’s television show. McCormick criticizing Oz over China is especially rich. Bridgewater loves China. Its founder, Ray Dalio, described compared China’s human rights abuses to “a strict parent” last year. The ensuing conflagration caused Dalio, like a strict parent, to accuse critics (anyone who read them) of misunderstanding them. On the contrary, the reaction to Dalio’s admiration for China was an example of widespread radical candor.

Expect to hear much more about China in the next month.

Published on April 11, 2022.

Dita Bhargava began her second bid for state treasurer Monday morning. The Greenwich Democrat is the first to announce her for the vacancy created by incumbent Shawn Wooden’s surprise decision not to seek a second term.

Wooden defeated Bhargava in 2018’s Democratic state convention and the primary that followed. Bhargava dropped out the race for governor that busy year to run for treasurer.

Adam Cloud, Hartford’s treasurer, is expected to give the race a pass. Popular state party vice chair Erick Russell has made no announcement. A decision by Russell to defer to fellow New Haven Democrat Karen DuBois Walton will disappoint many.

Treachery with a smiling face may be at work in Stamford. Some city Democrats who would like see a local state representative advance are urging state Senator Billie Miller to jump into the treasurer’s race. Miller won a special election for the seat in 2019, making the case that the party’s nomination was based on merit, not legacy. Miller is too shrewd to fall for false blandishments.

Former state Representative Reginald Beamon may enter the race. Beamon served 10 terms in the House, leaving in 2007. He represented Waterbury in the House.

Published April 11, 2022.

More than 1,500 donors contributing an average of $395 each added $609,243 to Republican gubernatorial hopeful Bob Stefanowski’s campaign coffers in his first quarter of fundraising. Stefanowski has contributed $10 million to his second bid for governor. That was not included in the campaign’s calculation of the median donation, $50.

The amount raised is a reminder that it is often a challenge for wealthy candidates who put a chunk of their fortune into a campaign to build a broad base of contributors.

Governor Ned Lamont is financing his re-election campaign himself, as he has done in his three previous statewide campaigns in 2006, 2010 and 2018.

Stafanowski is receiving some early assistance from an independent expenditure committee. The Republican Governors Association and the Democratic Governors Association may also enter the fray later in the campaign as each assesses their candidate’s standing with voters in the run-up to election day.

Published April 11, 2022.

Hartford Democrat Arunan Arulampalam announced Saturday that he will not seek the Democratic nomination for treasurer at May’s state convention. Arulampalam won the support of 42% of the delegates on the second ballot at the 2018 convention that endorsed Shawn Wooden. Arulampalam declined to primary Wooden, who defeated Greenwich Dita Bhargava in that summer’s primary.
.

Wooden announced Thursday he will not seek a second term, igniting intense competition for the open seat. A Hartford Democrat has held the office since 1999. Denise Nappier, who defeated felonious Republican incumbent Paul Silvester in 1998, served for five terms.

Arulampalam served in Governor Ned Lamont’s administration as a deputy commission of consumer protection. He became CEO of the Hartford Land Bank in 2021, where he will continue to “feel blessed to be a small part of building [Hartford’s] future.”

Published April 9, 2022.

State Treasurer Shawn Wooden’s brief and carefully crafted announcement Thursday that he will not seek a second term has bewildered Democrats sorting the possibilities of a replacement.

The Hartford Democrat ran unsuccessfully for mayor in 2011, but was elected to the City Council that year. Wooden suffered a bruising defeat in a 2014 primary against incumbent state Senator Eric Coleman. Four years later, Wooden won the state party’s endorsement for treasurer and defeated Greenwich Democrat Dita Bhargava in an August primary. Wooden beat Republican Thad Gray in their fall contest.

Wooden’s carefully managed public image received a boost in September when he was picked in September to lead the National Association of State Treasurers. He and his office, which was marked by the frequent hirings and departures of aides, refused to confirm or deny to Jon Lender that actors were hired to portray his children in an ad he fronted for CHET, the state’s college savings plan.

Democratic hopefuls who seek to win the party’s nomination to succeed Wooden four weeks from Saturday face some daunting obstacles. Due to the nature of the business conducted in the treasurer’s office, candidates are restricted in soliciting campaign contributions from people in the financial industry.

The Democratic nomination is a valuable prize. A Republican has not been elected treasurer since 1994–that result set in motion a staggering scandal of influence for sale. Republican Paul Silvester and several top aides were convicted of corruption.

Prospective candidates began making calls shortly after Wooden’s announcement to test their support. The field will take a few days to take shape. Party leaders and delegates may want to refresh their recollection of the Earl O’Garra and Adam Cloud saga before making any commitments.

Published April 7, 2022.

Another painful day at the state Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection (DESPP). The home of a State Police dispatcher was searched Wednesday for child pornography by federal law enforcement agents.

“A civilian employee of the Connecticut State Police was placed on administrative leave Wednesday pending the outcome of an ongoing criminal investigation,” according to a brief statement from Brian Foley, executive assistant to Commissioner James Rovella.

The search comes less than three weeks after eight State Police recruits were fired for cheating on an online exam.

This post corrects an earlier one that reported the employee was arrested.

Published April 6, 2022.

State Representative Laura Devlin will join Republican gubernatorial hopeful Bob Stefanowski as his running mate in November’s election, Daily Ructions can report. The former communications professional is serving her 4th term from the 134th Assembly District, which includes parts of Fairfield and Trumbull. Devlin is a Deputy House Republican Leader.

The pair will make a formal announcement Tuesday. On Monday evening, the running mates appeared at a Fairfield Republican Town Committee for a preview of the news with Devlin’s local supporters.

Devlin, according to her official biography, grew up in the suburbs of Chicago and was one of five children. Devlin’s mother was an elementary school teacher. Her father stormed the beaches of Normandy on D-Day and fought more Nazis in the Battle of the Bulge later in that year when the liberation of Europe began.

Devlin “started working at 15 and largely put herself through college, graduating from the University of Illinois in Champaign/Urbana in four years.” Devlin has lived in Fairfield for more than 20 years. She is married and has two children.

Before winning her House seat in 2014, Devlin served on Fairfield’s Representative Town Meeting. She serves on the Education; Finance, Revenue and Bonding; and Transportation committees.

Republicans meet next month to select their ticket. Stefanowski and Devlin will face little opposition. Devlin’s nomination signals Stefanowski’s hope to regain ground Republicans lost as suburban voters grew increasingly alarmed at the party establishment’s embrace of Donald Trump’s disdain of freedom, embrace of dictators, and unending vituperation for democratic norms.

Stefanowski’s choice of Devlin signals he understands he needs a safe pair of hands who can articulate sound policies without a thick coating of angry grievance.

Published April 4, 2022.

Independent audits conclude that West Haven government is still a mess. The report provided by accounting firm CohnReznick to the Office of Policy and Management (OPM) will raise more questions about the state budget’s office ability to oversee programs under its jurisdiction.

Of the $1.136,085 in Covid Relief Funds (CRF) expenditures submitted by the City administration to CohnReznick for review, only $243,198 met federal government criteria for CRF spending. The audit finds $892,887 was spent outside the rules. Auditors found that West Haven “did not have sufficient controls and safeguards to ensure the proper accounting and reporting of CRF” The implications of the findings extend beyond the CRF opening. “The lack of internal controls, policies and procedures and other weaknesses identified are not restricted to the CRF expenditures, but impact the overall financial operations and management of the City.”

The report examined expenditures beyond those identified in the federal criminal investigation and indictment of former state Representative Michael DiMassa.

The report is an indictment of OPM’s five years of overseeing West Haven’s parlous finances. The City continues to provide inadequate controls over the use of checks. It fails to track properly overtime or compensatory payments for some employees. “in many cases, the reporting is reporting is performed directly by the employee,” auditors found.

West Haven neglects in many instances to obtain financial interest disclosures from entities doing business with it. There are no “formal or written accounting and reporting policies and procedures….”

The report notes that $5,000 paid to state Representative Kara Rochelle for “fire station consulting…does not meet CRF expenditure requirements.” Nor does $46,080 to summer sports camps.

City Council member Robert Bruneau is the principal in four businesses that did business with West Haven. Auditors found payments to those companies “and other members of Mr. Bruneau’s family amounted to approximately $170,000” in both CRF and non-CRF funds.

The report also casts a searing light on Mayor Nancy Rossi’s failure to impose basic controls and procedure on West Haven’s finances. Rossi, who was narrowly re-elected in November, is an accountant by training, though nothing she has done as mayor would confirm that.

The audit does not include funds West Haven received under the American Rescue Plan Act.

Published April 1, 2022.