In This Issue:
From Paddi's Desk
CT Agency Corner
Municipal Roundup
From Inside The Golden Dome
This Day in CT History
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The beginning of this week was all about local elections. As you’ll read in our election update article there were a number of Republican flips across the state as well as some noteworthy city victories that created quite the stir. Rather than get into the weeds on the results, I thought I’d take a different spin on politics!
Seems as if there’s a lot happening in the middle of both parties in Connecticut and across the country. This week a different Connecticut legislative PAC has emerged called the CT BLUE DOGS. It’s a revival of the former gang of moderate Democrats that were once led by Former Governor Bill O’Neill, along with former State Representatives Rich Mulready, Rich Balducci, Jim McCavanaugh and Steve Dargan. Over the past several years the group has popped up here and there, but has not been highly engaged until a specific ‘alarming” legislative initiative pops up during session. It appears that a group of long-standing House members and some new House members have organized and are holding their first fundraising event next week.
What does this mean? The event is hosted by no less than 12 Democrats and will feature Speaker Matt Ritter and House Majority Leader Jason Rojas. I’m betting there will be a crowd of not only the lobbying crop but regular grassroots Democrats searching for the middle of the road party. The progressive caucus has been very vocal and engaged over the past 10 years and has significant legislative victories under their belt. Over these past several sessions, the Black and Puerto Rican Caucus (still using this as their official name) came to life based on national events and gained some major success this past session. Couple that with the power of the unions, it’s no surprise to those of us who observe the shifting of power among the non-party caucuses that moderates believe now’s the time to emerge with a strong unified voice.
Coming one year before the next gubernatorial election, it will be interesting to see how this stacks up with the shifting of local elections to the Republicans over issues like juvenile crime, school oversight and an economy not yet ignited after suffering setbacks related to the last 20 months of the COVID-19 crush. Yesterday, Governor Ned Lamont announced an initiative of several state agencies to help bring some stability back to local schools as related to a student's direct exposure to a positive tested individual. Previously, unvaccinated students who came in contact with a positive individual were required to quarantine, even if they were not testing positive or showing any symptoms. Now, the Governor has left that decision to local school boards. Many approved of the Governor’s actions, and Republicans had to admit it was a step in the right direction. But, they did point out that it is not enough given the flattened infection rates as well as hospital admissions.
While the nation saw similar impacts and experienced several major shifts in power to the Republican candidates, it will be interesting to see if Connecticut leaders will moderate their 2022 initiatives in spending, taxing and social issues to stave off a turbulent election come November 2022.
It’s being rumored that we’ll see several Republican candidates announce their intentions for the Governor’s race before the first of the year. It’s also highly likely that the Governor will announce his intentions sometime around the holidays. Let the party begin!
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Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes
The Office of the Governor Ned Lamont has seen some big leadership changes among the staff recently and we wanted to report some of the big departures that have taken place over the last two weeks:
Jonathan Harris and Mary Glassman– The Governor has now lost two Senior Advisors (one last month and one this week) to new opportunities ahead in their career. Jonathan Harris, who also served as the Governor’s Director of Legislative Affairs, is leaving the office this week to take a new role created with the state’s largest utility Eversource. Jonathan had been working on behalf of Governor Lamont since the beginning of his term for both the Office of Policy and Management and for the Governor internally as one of the primary members of his cabinet.
Mary Glassman announced last month that she would be taking on a new role with the State Department of Education (SDE). Glassman will be using her long and successful track record at the Capitol Region Education Council to the administration’s advantage to help fill the Director of Innovation and Partnerships role vacated by Chris Soto who left to work for US Department of Education Secretary Miguel Cardona.
Mohit Agrawal – Mohit recently announced that we would be leaving his position as Deputy Policy Director for the Governor to become a PhD candidate in Economics at Yale University. Mohit was integrally involved in the Governor’s efforts to legalize cannabis in Connecticut in addition to a number of Insurance and Environmental policy efforts led by the Department of Insurance and Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.
These roles that are now vacant will need to be filled either internally or through a new face being introduced to the office. While there are some new roles that can be taken on as expanded responsibility, I think it’s safe to say on the Legislative Affairs side that we expect an additional high-profile hire to be made by the office in the next month or two.
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Takeaways From This Year's Municipal Elections
This year's election cycle has concluded, and some key lessons were learned in different municipalities across the state.
Headlines across the state have been focused on Republicans' victories statewide. Republicans flipped over fifteen mayor/first selectman seats, and won a whole host of seats on local boards of education and town councils. Some posit that Republicans were aided by President Joe Biden's low approval ratings, and see it as a bellwether for the 2022 midterm elections. With New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy barely holding onto a seat he was supposed to win by eight points, Governor Lamont should should take notice, as the clock is ticking towards his own election next year.
In Guilford and Coventry, critical race theory was the hot topic surrounding board of education elections. Republicans in both towns ran hard on their opposition to critical race theory, and their promise to keep it out of schools. Both Republican slates lost their bids for BOE seats decisively. If you look at these races as a referendum on opposition to critical race theory, it is not looking good for Republicans.
In New Britain, superstar mayor Erin Stewart was elected to an unprecedented fifth term as mayor. The rising Republican star defeated Democrat challenger Bobby Sanchez by twenty points. All eyes are on Stewart as the 2022 Gubernatorial Race comes into view. In political circles, many expect her to throw her hat into the ring for the Republican ticket.
Click here to see the rest of CT's municipal election results.
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Special Election Season
Following the November municipal elections, as well as the recent West Haven fraud controversy, there are currently two open seats in the legislature. Special elections will be called shortly to fill these vacant seats.
In the 116th district, the seat was left vacant following the resignation of embattled former State Representative Michael DiMassa, who was arrested late last month on federal fraud charges. The West Haven Democratic Town Council nominated Councilwoman Trenee McGee to run for the seat. McGee just won her second term on West Haven's city council. She is passionate about racial justice, the arts, her faith, and her family. McGee obtained a BFA in acting from Marymount Manhattan College. She is very active in the West Haven community, recently opening an acting studio for local actors, and co-organizing West Haven's first annual Juneteenth celebration in 2021. Republicans will be holding their nomination convention on Saturday. The two Republicans who are expected to run include City Councilman Richard DePalma, and Planning and Zoning Commission Member Steven Mullins. The special election for this seat will be held on December 14th of this year, and the new representative will be sworn in on January 6, 2022.
In the 144th district which covers Stamford, State Representative Caroline Simmons (D) is expected to resign in order to assume her new post as Mayor of Stamford. Since she has not resigned her seat yet, no special election has been scheduled. Stay tuned.
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November 5, 1974: Ella Grasso, America's First Female Governor Elected In Her Own Right
Born to Italian immigrants in 1919, Ella Rosa Giovanna Oliva Tambussi grew up in a blue-collar neighborhood of first- and second-generation Americans in Windsor Locks, Connecticut. Her parents, determined to invest in a better future for their daughter, saved up enough money to send Ella to the prestigious Chaffee School in Windsor. Afterward, she earned both an B.A. and M.A. from Mount Holyoke College, where the all-female, service-oriented college community inspired her to pursue a career of public and political service.
After marrying teacher Thomas Grasso in 1942, Ella Grasso wrote speeches for the Connecticut Democratic Party while raising her two children at home. Several years later, she successfully ran as a state representative from Windsor Locks and began her slow but steady ascendancy toward the state’s highest political office. After serving as Connecticut’s Secretary of the State and then in Congress as a U.S. Representative, Grasso defeated Robert Steele, Jr. in 1974 to become Connecticut’s first woman governor — and the first woman in the United States to win election to governor “in her own right” (i.e., the first woman governor who was not preceded in office by her husband).
Ella Grasso was also Connecticut’s first governor of Italian descent — a trait she later said had a much larger impact on her than her status as a female politician. During her first term as governor, Grasso said, “All my friends in the women’s movement get angry at me for saying this, but I never thought that being a woman gave me any special political problems. It was only when my friends from the foreign press, in New York, kept coming here and writing about me as a woman candidate that I began to think I was doing something unusual.”
Grasso inherited a daunting state deficit upon assuming the governor’s office, which required her to make highly unpopular austerity decisions amidst the stagnant American economy of the 1970s. Her popularity rebounded, however, during the Blizzard of 1978, which crippled the state for days. During the storm, Grasso trudged to the State Armory in Hartford on foot after her car broke down and assumed command of the state’s response team for the next three days — a heroic tale with great political optics that resonated well with the state’s beleaguered voters. She handily won re-election to the governor’s office in 1978, but health issues forced her to resign two years later. In early 1981, only months after she resigned, Ella Grasso died from ovarian cancer. In honor of her pioneering political accomplishments, President Ronald Reagan posthumously awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom. A national glass ceiling shattered, today in Connecticut history.
The original article from the CT Humanities Council can be found here.
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Sullivan & LeShane, Inc.
www.ctlobby.com | (860) 560-0000
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