The runner stumbles. Lamont risks office fractures if he makes Wagner COS. An affront to New Haven.

Governor Ned Lamont is expected to send his chief of staff, Matthew Brokman, to take over running the Greenwich Democrat’s campaign for a third term. Brokman is expected to renovate the campaign organization as it prepares for a primary challenge from state Representative Josh Elliott, the leftwing Hamden Democrat.

Brokman to the campaign means an opening in Lamont’s office, which will need to keep the governor’s official profile visible in managing the affairs of the state between now and November. Promoting Deputy Chief of Staff Natalie Wagner risks muting in and out of the Governor’s office. Wagner has been a divisive force, raising the grumbling to levels that may soon register on the internal Richter scale.

Outside the second floor office, others have felt the last of Wagner’s poisonous keyboard. No one more than state Representative Toni Walker was the target of ugly text messages between Wagner and then-DCF commissioner Joette Katz. It may have slipped from Lamont’s memory but New Haven does not forget. August would be a choice time for New Haven Democrats to remind Lamont that rewarding sneering disrespect comes with a price tag attached to it.

Wagner’s reputation for cultivating pointless disruptions has spread beyond Lamont’s staff. Others tremble, tremble, tremble at the prospect of Lamont b stumbling into calamity less than a week after Elliott won 25% of the delegate votes at July 16th’s party nominating convention.

Published May 21, 2026.