In a press release, the Democratic governor announced that he was appointing dozens of education officials, business owners, labor leaders and other experts to the new commission, and he emphasized that all of those members would serve the state as “unpaid volunteers.”

But documents reviewed this week by the Connecticut Mirror show that former U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, who also served as the state’s education commissioner from 2019 to early 2021 and was named by Lamont to chair the commission, will be paid up to a quarter of a million dollars as a consultant for the new commission.

The records show that Lamont’s Office of Workforce Strategy entered into a contract that will pay Cardona Solutions LLC, a consulting firm created by the former education secretary, $250,000 to “facilitate” the commission’s work, analyze the state’s current career pathways and produce a report that the commission would send to the governor and General Assembly.

For context, the contract is worth more money than Cardona earned in a year serving as Lamont’s education commissioner.

State officials confirmed on Friday that the state did not solicit bids from other consulting companies prior to drafting the contract for Cardona’s business.

Connecticut law generally requires state officials to put contracts, especially larger ones such as Cardona’s, out to bid so multiple businesses can compete for the work and the state can get the best deal for taxpayers.

But Kelli-Marie Vallieres, who leads the state Office of Workforce Strategy, said her office chose to waive those procurement rules in Cardona’s case because they were in a time crunch and because Cardona was uniquely qualified for the job.

“OWS sole sourced a contract with Cardona Solutions due to the immediate need for a contractor to lead the scope of work with recommendations due to the Office of the Governor by November, the unique qualifications of Dr. Cardona’s experience, and his credibility to lead this important Commission,” Vallieres wrote in an email to CT Mirror.

Cardona did not respond to emails sent to his consulting business Thursday and Friday.

House Minority Leader Vincent Candelora, R-Branford, said the Lamont administration’s explanation that they didn’t have time to seek bids from other companies is “a cop out.”

“It’s just a way of masking the fact that this is a political patronage job,” Candelora said.

Meanwhile, Cathryn Vaulman, a spokesperson for Lamont, said the contract “reflects work Mr. Cardona is doing beyond the role and expectations of a commission chair.”

Candelora acknowledged that Cardona does have some unique experience, given his previous roles but said he is not the only person who is capable of drafting a workforce development plan for the state.

“Now there is going to be a cloud of nepotism that hangs over this selection process given that a no-bid contract was given to someone who has held political office and has been a Lamont insider,” Candelora added.

The fact that Cardona’s consulting firm was expected to perform work for a commission that he leads also raised ethical concerns. In June, OWS sought an informal opinion from state ethics officials to determine if the arrangement violated Connecticut’s conflict of interest statutes.

“OWS requested advice from the staff of the Office of State Ethics to ensure (Cardona’s) role as chair would not be a procurement conflict,” Vallieres wrote.

Over the course of several weeks, records show, an attorney from the Office of State Ethics questioned the staff at the Office of Workforce Strategy about Cardona’s role on the commission and how the state’s contract with his company came to be.

In emails among the officials, OWS staff acknowledged that Vallieres met with Cardona to discuss the consulting contract before Lamont signed the executive order on April 2 creating the new commission.

“The Chief Workforce Officer and Dr. Cardona first discussed entering into a (personal service agreement) on or around March 30, 2026,” they wrote.

The OWS staff also answered a variety of questions about how Cardona, as a paid consultant, would interact with and perform work for a state commission that he leads.

Initially, state officials said the contract with Cardona Solutions was created to pay “for the work that Dr. Cardona will be doing as chair of the Commission,” a distinction that could have classified him as a public official, subject to state ethics rules.

In a subsequent email, OWS staff backtracked from that statement, however, telling the ethics office that the contract was meant to “help the Commission accomplish its purpose.”

Lindsey Leung, the ethics liason at OWS, said Cardona would not review his consulting firm’s work or approve payments to his business. And she noted that the commission does not have any funding of its own, meaning Cardona would not make any spending decisions as the chair of the commission.

“OWS would oversee Dr. Cardona’ s work to ensure he is meeting his deliverables,” she said.

In the end, attorneys at the Office of State Ethics determined that the business arrangement “does not appear” to violate Connecticut’s conflict of interest statutes, primarily because the people who serve on advisory boards are not considered public officials and are exempt from the state ethics code.

“One way or the other, Dr. Cardona does not appear to be, as CPC chair, ‘generally’ subject to the code,” Brian Dowd, the general counsel for the Office of State Ethics wrote in the informal opinion.

Dowd reminded OWS staff, however, that some business deals can still present the appearance of a conflict, even if state law doesn’t strictly prohibit such relationships.

“Before closing, I stress that the Office of State Ethics has no jurisdiction over appearance issues, as they are beyond the code’s scope. We are limited, by statute, from addressing appearances or perceptions of conflict of interest,” Dowd wrote.

Peter Lewandowski, the executive director of the Office of State Ethics, said his staff often issues similar warnings in cases that are likely to face scrutiny from the public.

“We put that in, but that is really for the recipient to consider,” Lewandowski said.

“Let’s put it this way: Not every informal opinion we issue from this office — and we issue many of them — has that language,” he added.

Candelora said that although the contract with Cardona may not constitute a conflict under the state’s ethics law, the business relationship still raises serious concerns about whether state officials can properly vet Cardona’s work.

“There certainly is a conflict over the state’s ability to scrutinize and properly oversee the consultant when they are the chairman of the board,” Candelora said.

Andrew Brown is a reporter for the Connecticut Mirror. Copyright 2026 @ CT Mirror (ctmirror.org).

“ZIP CODE SHOULD NOT DETERMINE A STUDENT’S DESTINY IN CONNECTICUT.”

Speaking outside Warren Harding High School in Bridgeport, Fazio wasted little time before launching into criticism of Gov. Ned Lamont’s record.

“The only way that you can think the status quo is acceptable — that having the second largest Black-white achievement gap in the country is acceptable — is if you subscribe to the soft bigotry of low expectations,” Fazio said.

He then offered two examples of what he called Connecticut’s “success stories”: Capital Prep in Bridgeport (a magnet school) and the Stamford Charter School for Excellence. Both are overwhelmingly nonwhite, neither a traditional neighborhood public school.

“This administration and this state government, rather than saying ‘Thank you’ and ‘How can we expand your success stories statewide,’ have stood in their way and made it more difficult for them to expand seats,” Fazio said, as Capital Prep Head of Schools Steve Perry watched silently from the sidelines.

Under his plan, Fazio said, the state government would move in the opposite direction. No more lotteries and waitlists: Fazio wants all students to get into the school they want, full stop.

“There are hundreds or thousands of students waiting, hoping, praying with their families just to win a lottery to get into a great charter or magnet school,” Fazio said.

Such a change could have profound implications for municipal school districts, given that in Connecticut, a portion of state funding follows students to whatever choice program they enroll in. It’s already a source of tension, particularly in Hartford, where district leaders blame choice programs for drawing badly needed dollars away from city schools.

It was perhaps the biggest policy difference Fazio drew between himself and his opponent. In other respects, his platform was not very different from Lamont’s. He wants schools to embrace the science of reading and ensure every child can read by third grade; Lamont’s administration has also pushed the science of reading for K-3 and only this week announced more funding for literacy interventions in that age range. Fazio wants a bell-to-bell ban on cellphones in schools; so does Lamont.

The difference is that Lamont has been in charge for eight years. Fazio hammered that note on a few occasions, characterizing Lamont’s tenure as one in which education is worse than when the governor started.

Fazio said he also wants to tie state aid to inflation, an idea both Democratic and Republican legislators pursued during the recent legislative session. Lamont drew criticism from educators for not including such an adjustment in his proposed budget at the start of the year, though he ultimately signed a boost of about $180 million into law. Whether school funding will continue to rise with inflation going forward remains unresolved.

The problem is money. By some estimates, Connecticut public schools have lost as much as $800 million after years of missed inflationary adjustments. That’s not an easy gap to close, especially in a state with strict budget caps. Lamont’s solution so far has been to convene a bipartisan commission; its 23 members will examine potential reforms to Connecticut’s funding system and release a final list of recommendations by Jan. 15.

Fazio said he’s open to using some of the recommendations of the Blue Ribbon Commission, depending on what they are. He also didn’t have specifics for how he would make the numbers pencil out.

“It could be tens or hundreds of millions of dollars, which I think is acceptable after seven years of the governor flat-funding” the state’s main education grant, Fazio said. “But there’s not a precise price tag.”

He added that some of his proposed reforms would save money, including mandating relief for schools and streamlining the bureaucracy around state funding.

One thing Fazio didn’t mention: The day before the press conference, ICE agents appeared in Danbury and reportedly arrested parents dropping their kids off at the bus for school. When asked for comment, the senator demurred.

“Listen, I think we want orderliness and safety and rule of law. I don’t know exactly what happened, so I’ll wait until I hear the facts to truly understand what it did and comment accordingly,” Fazio said.

In their response to Fazio’s press conference, Rep. Jennifer Leeper, D-Fairfield, was not so circumspect.

“It is an intentionally cruel move on the first day of school, when children are supposed to be celebrating,” Leeper said.

She expressed fears that the Trump administration’s aggressive policies would have a lasting impact.

“How in the world are they ever going to trust the government to engage with them, to educate their child, when they don’t even feel safe?” Leeper asked.

Rep. Marcus Brown, D-Bridgeport, said he believes Fazio’s plan will only hurt families in his city.

“I’m extremely offended that in front of our public school high school in the east end of Bridgeport, Sen. Fazio stood here and advocated for charter schools for almost 30 minutes. That’s not what Bridgeport families deserve,” Marcus said.

Theo Peck-Suzuki is a reporter for the Connecticut Mirror. Copyright 2026 @CT Mirror (CTMirror.org).

Both candidates in the Democratic primary — state Rep. John Santanella and longtime Enfield attorney Thomas Tyler — say that the town should not have to spend more than $40,000 for another primary. The town is paying for two primaries this year: one that already occurred for the governor’s race on Aug. 11 and then another on Tuesday that was ordered by the Connecticut Supreme Court as a result of the errors by the Secretary of the State’s office.

Santanella formally asked for the state to reimburse Enfield for its expenses, but the request was rejected because the legislature would need to get involved to provide more funding, said Gabe Rosenberg, the general counsel and chief of staff for Secretary of the State Stephanie Thomas.

“There are two hurdles that make it difficult to honor your request to bear the cost of the special primary election on September 1, 2026,” Rosenberg wrote in a letter to Santanella. “There is no current legal mechanism in place for our office to share funds with a municipality for this purpose; the legislature would have to act in order to create such a mechanism. Moreover, as you are probably aware, we are operating with the absolute minimum resources necessary to perform our statutorily-mandated responsibilities with respect to election administration in the state of Connecticut.”

But John B. Kennelly, a longtime Hartford elections lawyer who represented Santanella and incumbent Rep. Julio Concepcion of Hartford in similar primary cases, says the state holds the power to cover the expenses without any action by the legislature.

Citing state law, Kennelly told The Courant that Thomas “has truly extensive discretionary powers and within that authority lies the ability to reimburse or subsidize Enfield’s upcoming special primary.”

Enfield’s primary is the only one being held Tuesday because other primaries were already held on Aug. 11. Since the Enfield case was delayed in court and Tyler had been taken off the ballot, officials pushed the new date to Sept. 1.

Separately from the costs to the town, Tyler says he has spent more than $13,000 in legal fees for the Superior Court trial due to errors by state officials, plus even more for the Supreme Court appeal that has not been billed to him yet. When noting that the state will not pick up the costs for Enfield, Tyler asked, “Who pays for me?”

As a self-funding candidate, Tyler says he has spent more than $70,000 on his campaign, adding that many candidates would not be able to afford the costs.

“If it wasn’t me self-funding, who else can do this?” he asked.

While Tyler blamed Santanella for filing the lawsuit that started the case, Kennelly said that Santanella personally paid for his legal fees “out of pocket” and thus did not need to report them on his campaign finance forms.

The case went to trial after Santanella filed a civil lawsuit against Tyler and a series of officials that included the Enfield town clerk, the registrar of voters, state elections enforcement commission, and the Secretary of the State’s office. Santanella won the initial court case and Tyler was knocked off the August ballot for collecting signatures too early to get on the ballot.

But the Supreme Court ordered Tyler back on the ballot after multiple officials blamed mistakes by the Secretary of the State’s office, which has since issued an apology.

“As communicated to legislative leadership, our office has acknowledged two human errors that affected this petitioning cycle: incorrect language on the petition form and an election calendar that did not clearly distinguish the petition date for single-town legislative districts,” Thomas said. “We have already corrected the form, revised the calendar, and strengthened our internal review, tracking, and training procedures.”

Age in Democratic politics

After decades as a controversial behind-the-scenes power broker, Tyler has finally decided to run for public office.

As he turns 80 later this year, Tyler is taking the opposite route from many senior citizens who quit their jobs and head to Florida to relax in their later years. Instead, he is running for the state House of Representatives and is locked in a bitter Democratic primary in his hometown against Santanella, the 59-year-old incumbent.

Age has become a major issue in campaigns in Connecticut and across the nation. U.S. Rep. John B. Larson lost a recent primary at age 78 in which he face three opponents who were decades younger before losing to 47-year-old Luke Bronin in a four-way primary.

Democrats have been wary of age since President Joe Biden stumbled verbally in a debate against Republican Donald J. Trump and eventually dropped out of the 2024 race that Trump won. In a similar vein, both Bronin and Larson’s other two challengers, state Rep. Jillian Gilchrest and Hartford school board member Ruth Fortune, all said that U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal should not seek reelection because he will be 82 years old for the 2028 election. Blumenthal, who maintains a blistering pace of appearances from Greenwich to New London, says he is focused on his job and will talk about the campaign more when it approaches.

At his age, Tyler says he now has “the experience and the time” to devote to the legislature — and he is deeply passionate about his top issue: He wants to stop the raw sewage that he says flows from Massachusetts down the Connecticut River to Enfield whenever there is heavy rain.

“A lot of my friends retire and go to Florida,” Tyler told The Courant in a recent interview. “But I like to help people. I see a huge need with the sewer. … It’s up to the people [to decide in the primary]. If not, I’ll find something else to do.”

After Tyler said earlier that Santanella had not done enough on the sewage issue, Santanella responded that he has been in the legislature for only 1 1/2 years when compared to 34 years for Republican Sen. John Kissel and 10 years for Republican state Rep. Carol Hall.

“How can anyone say the issue is my issue when I have been there the shortest amount of time?” Santanella asked.

Both Republicans and Democrats note Tyler’s long history in town and have said through the years that Tyler was the most influential private citizen in Enfield. They say he has been a behind-the-scenes power broker who plays hardball and keeps battling his opponents until he wins.

Even his supporters say Tyler has made his share of political enemies among both Republicans and liberal Democrats. The late former Mayor Frank Mancuso once said that Tyler has been good for the Democrats but added that some residents perceive Tyler as a “power-hungry Frankenstein.”

Now, Tyler is being blasted by Santanella’s campaign as a “MAGA extremist.”

Santanella told The Courant that Tyler had been appointed by Republicans as the town attorney when they controlled the town council, and Tyler also contributed the maximum amount to the Enfield Republican Town Committee.

Rejecting the MAGA characterization, Tyler says he has been a Democrat for the past 50 years.

“I’m a JFK Democrat — ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country,” Tyler said. “I always considered myself middle-right.”

Public records show that Tyler made campaign contributions to high-profile Democrats at various stages of their careers, including U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, lieutenant governors Nancy Wyman and Susan Bysiewicz, and U.S. Rep. John B. Larson. He also contributed to U.S. Rep. Barbara Kennelly, who is now retired, in 1997. She had previously served as the secretary of the state as the state’s chief elections official.

But every four years, the party suddenly takes on an outsized role by having a separate ballot line in the governor’s race and other key contests. That often sets off a scramble by candidates who want to be cross-endorsed by the Independent Party so that their name will appear on two lines of the ballot.

This year, the party has endorsed a mixed bag of candidates who lack the same ideological positions.

That includes Republican Sen. Ryan Fazio for governor and former Republican state Rep. Fred Wilms of Norwalk for state treasurer alongside two incumbent Democrats, Secretary of the State Stephanie Thomas and state comptroller Sean Scanlon. In addition, the party has endorsed longtime radio host Lee Elci for the state Senate in the 20th District in southeastern Connecticut and outspoken parents rights advocate Gwen Samuel in the 9th Senate District in the Rocky Hill-Cromwell area.

“It’s not very ideologically based at all,” said former Republican Stewart “Chip” Beckett, who now serves as the party chairman. “Our idea is we would like solutions to problems that work for everybody — not just partisan talking points. We want to be the voice in the middle that tries to represent the average person, rather than the two extremes. So that’s our real mission.”

Overall, the party has endorsed about 80 candidates in the upcoming elections, with mostly cross-endorsements with the Democratic and Republican parties.

“We would very much like to represent the unaffiliated and disaffected,” said Beckett, a longtime Glastonbury resident.

On the national level, various groups have sought to capture voters who are in the middle of the political spectrum at a time of intense partisanship. In the past, that was done by former U.S. Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman as co-chairman of “No Labels,” a group that sought to solve problems through bipartisanship without regard to political affiliation.

Lieberman helped run an all-day “Problem Solver Convention” in New Hampshire during the 2016 cycle that brought some of the biggest names in the presidential race to the stage, including Republican front-runner Donald Trump, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, and U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.

In Connecticut, the Independent Party avoids extreme candidates both on the right and the left.

“Jadon out in the 50th would be an example,” Beckett said, referring to outspoken conservative Republican Jadon E. MacCormack, a 23-year-old political novice who recently lost a primary for the state legislature by 78% to 22% after making anti-gay comments and vowing to “Make America Straight Again.”

On the left, the Independent Party would reject extreme candidates who want to “destroy the fiscal guardrails, shut down the police locally, and raise taxes on everybody that’s not on welfare,” Beckett said.

The party rejected the endorsements of four incumbent state legislators from both sides of the aisle who had sought the party’s support but had been involved in various controversies. Those were Rep. Aundre Bumgardner of Groton, Raghib Allie Brennan of Bethel, Cara Pavalock-D’Amato of Bristol, and Nick Menapace of East Lyme.

Concerning the legislature, the party’s endorsements this year were about 60% for Republicans and about 40% for Democrats.

“We’re concerned about a veto-proof majority in the House and Senate,” he said.

Currently, Democrats control the state House of Representatives by 102-49 and the Senate by 25-11.

This year, the biggest endorsement went to Fazio, who described the party as “an important institution in our state that understands the need for checks and balances in our state Capitol,” in Hartford. Fazio is currently trailing in the polls to Gov. Ned Lamont, a Democrat who is seeking a third term.

“Connecticut needs an independent voice who will put people and policy ahead of party and politics,” Fazio said. “We cannot keep on the same path as the last eight years with hyper-partisanship, high taxes, high electric bills, and an unaccountable government. As governor, I will work with anyone and everyone to deliver positive change, make our state more affordable, and build a brighter future for all of Connecticut.”

History

Compared to more than 875,000 Democrats and more than 522,000 Republicans, the Independent Party is relatively small at 32,284 members, based on the latest statistics. The largest single group in Connecticut is unaffiliated with more than 1 million registered voters out of nearly 2.5 million voters statewide.

While Republicans and Democrats dominate the political landscape, Connecticut currently has 13 different political parties — including some with a handful of members.

The Independent Party is sometimes confused with others on the Secretary of the State’s official list that includes different spellings for various parties. That includes two members under Independence and one member under Independance. The Libertarian Party, by contrast, has more than 3,000 members, with the Green Party at fewer than 1,500, and the Working Families Party at 365 members, according to the official state numbers.

The Independent Party has been a player in various races for governor as candidates have sought the endorsement through the years.

In 2018, Republican Bob Stefanowski of Madison won more than 25,000 votes on the Independent Party line — an important total in a race that he lost by about 44,000 votes. He lost that year to Lamont, who won 17,861 votes on the Working Families Party line in 2018 before winning the endorsement again in 2022 from the union-backed party that supports liberal causes.

In September 2022, Stefanowski suffered a blow to his campaign when he lost a high-profile lawsuit that ensured that Independent Party candidate Rob Hotaling would be on the ballot.

Looking ahead, Beckett wants to grow the party in a fractured American political landscape.

“We want to be a legitimate third party,” Beckett said.

Elci accepted the Republican nomination on Aug. 9. If he wants to keep his weekday gig from 6 to 10 a.m. on WJJF, an FM radio station branded as Fox News 94.9, Marx said the choice is obvious: Take him off the air, or give her four hours to share a world view that is anathema to Fox News listeners.

“I have the gift of gab. I’ve had the gift since I was 1. I love to talk,” said Marx, a nurse and union leader who flipped an open Republican seat four years ago in the 20th Senate District that covers eight communities. “Who knows? I just might find my new calling.”

Elci said at midday Monday he expected to resolve his campaign’s uncertain status by day’s end Monday. But nothing was resolved, other than Elci knowing he would not be back behind the microphone Tuesday.

“I got lawyers talking to lawyers. They’re just trying to work it out so I can stay on the air,” Elci said.

Marx’s campaign’s formal demand for equal time was first reported by The Day of New London. The station’s initial response was to take Elci off the air Monday while lawyers considered the ramifications. It was a rare day off for Elci, who’s been on 94.9 for 16 years.

“I don’t even take vacations,” Elci said. “You know, my dog died, I took a few days off. My mother died, I took a few days off. You know, my dad died, I worked that day.”

Elci clarified that was a nod to his father’s work ethic, not a disregard for his passing.

“That was, you know, me paying tribute to him. I don’t take days off,” Elci said. “I love what I do. And it’s killing me. This is not fun. And I know it’s done on purpose, so that’s adding to my angst, adding to my aggravation.”

The push to make Elci choose between running or radio most assuredly is being done on purpose.

Marx’s campaign manager, Anna Reiter, put WJJF and its ownership on notice in a letter sent by certified mail on Aug. 13, four days after Elci filed a form creating his campaign committee and three days after a GOP vacancy committee notified the secretary of the state he was their new nominee.

Marx said her demand should have been anticipated, based on the Federal Communications Act of 1934, FCC regulations and ample precedent cited by Reiter, including television stations’ reluctance to broadcast “Bedtime for Bonzo” while Ronald Reagan, its co-star, was running for president.

“He has the same disease as Trump does,” Marx said of Elci. “He thinks he is above the law.”

By regulation, the FCC says, “no station licensee is required to permit the use of its facilities by any legally qualified candidate for public office, but if any licensee shall permit any such candidate to use its facilities, it shall afford equal opportunities to all other candidates for that office.”

When Republicans filed papers on Aug. 10 certifying a vacancy committee had chosen him as the new nominee, Elci became a “legally qualified candidate,” opening the door for the equal time claim by Marx.

If the radio station opted for equal time, the FCC regulations say, “Such licensee shall have no power of censorship over the material broadcast by any such candidate.” In other words, Marx would have no limits.

Marx said she never has been on The Lee Elci Show. She calls the content “hateful,” “misogynistic” and a bit tiresome, least to her ears. She says a running joke about Elci’s desire to end Marxism in the General Assembly has gone stale.

“I have a hard time listening to that show,” Marx said.

Marx was elected in 2022 with 52% of the vote and reelected in 2025 with 55%.

Elci, 60, who lives in East Lyme and was an unaffiliated voter until recently, is a former minor-league baseball player who played in 1988 and 1989 in the St. Louis Cardinals’ farm system as a catcher, outfielder and first baseman. He batted and threw from the right.

He said Monday he concluded after an initial talk with his station’s management that he could run and stay on the air as long as he did not talk about his candidacy or Marx. He believes the station can accommodate the equal-time requirement, but he faces another potential hurdle:

His remaining on the air could be considered an in-kind contribution by the radio station to his campaign, a potential violation of state election law for a candidate who intends to participate in the state’s public financing program. Elci said the station lawyers were seeking clarification from elections enforcement officials.

“Big picture is I wouldn’t want to put my station in jeopardy,” he said.

Elci said he needed less than a week to raise more than the $20,100 in small-dollar contributions necessary to qualify for public financing under the Citizens’ Election Program.

“So I think that’s why Marx is reacting the way she’s reacting, by being so overtly aggressive,” he said.

The nomination became open when Ronald J.  LaBonte of Salem, the Republican nominee, withdrew. Elci said he had thought about running for about six years.

“Honestly, I felt like I just wanted to do more and try to be more of a solution than what I was or am. And when this situation presented itself, I’m like, OK, and I talked to the ownership, and at the time, they were OK, and we moved forward,” Elci said. “You know, it’s going to be a tough year as it is to win.”

Then why run? He already has a significant outlet for expressing his views.

“I wanted to be an advocate for a lot of different things, and I felt like I kind of stalled out on the outside, so I wanted to jump in,” Elci said. “And that’s really it. I don’t have any other aspirations. I don’t have anything except just trying to do the right thing.”

Elci said the last few days have been an unwelcome education about the mechanics of running for office.

“I’ll be honest with you. I don’t know much about any of this,” Elci said. “Even though we talk about it all the time, I’m getting a whole different perspective on all this.”

Elci said the uncertainty — and being taken off the air for even a day — was misery. But he saw one upside, one his audience will hear about when he returns.

“No matter what happens,” he said, “I got a whole bunch of stuff to talk about.”

Mark Pazniokas is a reporter for the Connecticut Mirror. Copyright 2026 @ CT Mirror (CTmirror.org).

The number represents about a third of the Connecticut prison population and individually represents mothers, fathers, brothers, sons who have been accused but not found guilty.

Connecticut Coalition for Pretrial Justice formed to press for reform of the cash bail system in Connecticut, something the group said keeps people behind bars not based on safety concerns but on their ability to pay.

“It’s about organizing the people of this state to demand an end to this two-tiered system of justice, where if you’re rich you can buy your freedom, and if you’re poor you’re punished while you’re supposed to be presumed innocent,” the Rev. Scott Marks of New Haven Rising said.

It’s an issue that disproportionately affects people of color but also one that coalition members say has disproportionate repercussions for the poor.

Marks said the poor, women and people of color are paying the cost of cash bail with more than money.

“A missed shift. … if you miss that shift, you might lose your job and not only the person who’s supposed to show up for work. But if they’ve got a mother who’s got two kids waiting to be dressed to go to school, the other person who’s got to go late to work to try to provide — it is a travesty. Lost a place to live. Children taken into state care because the parents are sitting in jail unconvicted. … Too many folks are being punished not for what they did but for what they don’t have,” Marks said.

Claudine Constant, director of the Beyond Jails Initiative at Vera Institute of Justice, said even one day can be devastating.

“Spending even one day in jail can permanently alter the trajectory of a person’s life, including the collateral consequences of, as Rev. Marks said, job loss or losing custody of their children,” Constant said.

Judicial Branch Court Support Services Division data shows that the length of pretrial incarceration can range from 1 to 160 days but the median stay for those charged only with misdemeanor offenses at the time of DOC admission rose from 20 days in 2018 to 28 days in 2023. A report from the Pretrial Working Group notes that while a large proportion of those incarcerated pretrial are classified as charged with only misdemeanor offenses, the data may mischaracterize that group as additional charges are often filed after DOC admission.

Marks said the absence of those incarcerated pretrial is harming families and communities.

“We know who pays the price. We know in whose neighborhoods these flags would be planted if we placed one at every doorstep of more than 15,000 people who were booked into Connecticut’s prison system pretrial last year,” he said. “You know, I know, we know Black and brown communities in Connecticut are policed more, charged more and detained more.”

Constant said failure to appear charges, often due to the bus being late, a lack of childcare or permission to take the day off from work, are driving Connecticut’s pretrial population.

“The number of people detained on failure to appear charges has doubled since 2019. Half of the people booked on failure to appear as the top charge, the leading charge, have spent more than a month in jail in pretrial detention,” Constant said, referencing DOC data.

“Three in five women booked between 2024 and 2025 had had the most serious charge that was either a misdemeanor, a probation violation or a failure to appear. Studies have shown that almost 80% of women in jails are mothers and most often single mothers,” she said.

“When mothers are incarcerated, their children suffer the consequences.”

Sen. Gary Winfield, a New Haven Democrat, said the cash bail system is not justice.

“No one belongs in jail because they can’t pay. No one belongs in jail because they were a little bit late. No one belongs in jail who is not convicted. I don’t have a lot to say today because this is simple.”

The coalition has been canvassing the state, visiting churches, grocery stores and neighborhoods to talk to residents about the issue and gathering 3,500 signatures to present to lawmakers in hopes of inspiring legislative change. The group notes other states, such as Illinois, New Jersey and New York have either reformed or ended cash bail.

“The question is never is the person dangerous, it is does the person have money? … We are filling out jails with the consequences of poverty – people who just don’t have enough, calling it public safety,” Marks said.

The outspoken conservative Republican candidate from Brooklyn lost Tuesday’s primary for the state legislature after alarming party leaders by making anti-gay comments that generated controversy in the seven-town district in the state’s “Quiet Corner.” Top Republicans recruited a last-minute opponent to run against MacCormack and defeat him.

Now, MacCormack, 23, is doubling down against his party and says he is running for Congress against longtime incumbent Democrat Joe Courtney in 2028.

“I have not backed down and never will,” MacCormack wrote on Facebook. “Connecticut needs the Second Congressional leadership I have already demonstrated. Full sights set on 2028; MacCormack for Congress. … I will reform this party and Make America Straight Again.”

But House Republican leader Vincent Candelora, who led the petition drive to defeat MacCormack, said fellow Republicans will continue to work against him.

“Jadon was somebody that we just wanted to silence,” Candelora told The Courant in an interview Wednesday. “We don’t think he represents the Republican Party.”

Candelora downplayed MacCormack’s thoughts about running for Congress, where Courtney has held the seat since defeating Republican Rep. Rob Simmons in 2006.

“Look, social media gives everyone a platform to do or say anything,” Candelora said. “I could say that I am going to run to be the King of England. … I think the best thing that people in the state of Connecticut can do is just ignore him. He has a lot of growing up to do. I think it’s somebody that is hard to take seriously. I don’t think a Congressional announcement, two years in advance, is going to give him an edge over anyone else. Get in line. And I think he’s far at the end of the line. Now that individuals know what he’s all about, I think I can say confidently that there is not a convention or a caucus in the state of Connecticut that would endorse him to run for office.”

After losing the primary by about 80% to 20%, MacCormack continued to rip into Anthony J. Emilio of Pomfret, a small business owner who had run previously for the board of selectmen, school board, and board of assessment appeals over the past 15 years.

“As for Troubled Tony, you may have won the battle, but go back to the retirement home you came from,” MacCormack wrote to Emilio on Facebook. “We do not need leaders with one foot already in the grave; men who never wanted to run until someone became ‘controversial,’ and the GOP needed a last-minute handout doesn’t make you a patriot but a pathetic pawn.”

Candelora said Emilio is a highly capable candidate who defeated MacCormack and will run “a very spirited race” against incumbent state Rep. Patrick Boyd, a pro-gun Democrat who co-chairs the House moderate caucus and sometimes breaks with liberals in the 102-member House Democratic caucus. Boyd, an educator, has consistently won elections since 2016 and has friends on both sides of the political aisle.

House Speaker Matt Ritter, a Hartford Democrat, said the views against MacCormack were bipartisan.

“Nobody wanted that guy in the General Assembly. I can tell you that,” Ritter told The Courant in an interview. “When you lose 80 to 20, he’ll never get on the ballot as a Republican.”

Democrats

In other races, several veteran lawmakers lost on Tuesday night and will be departing the legislature.

In New Haven, longtime state Rep. Patricia Dillon was defeated by Eli Sabin, a hard-working graduate of Yale Law School who showed strong support in the 92nd District. He also defeated former Hamden resident Justin M. Farmer in a three-way race. After the retirement of state Rep. Mary Mushinsky of Wallingford, Dillon would have become the longest-serving House member if she was reelected in November. But now both Mushinsky and Dillon will be leaving the General Assembly after 46 and 42 years in Hartford, respectively.

A deputy majority leader, Dillon was known for her knowledge of health care, among other issues, while she served on the budget-writing appropriations committee. She was first elected in 1984 and served under six different governors from both parties, along with multiple House Speakers and majority leaders.

Dillon’s loss surprised both Democrats and Republicans.

“Pat is a friend, and she had a wonderful career,” Ritter told The Courant. “Eli Sabin was a really strong candidate. Primaries are very difficult. Eli just worked really, really hard. So did Pat. Democratic primaries are really hard. They really are.”

In a Democratic district in a heavily Democratic city, Ritter fully expects Sabin to win in November.

“Eli, as I said to him, we’re going to sit down in November, we’re going to go over committee assignments, and we’re going to put him to work,” Ritter said.

In East Hartford, Democrat Angie Parkinson defeated Tyron Harris to capture the party’s nomination in the 10th House District seat that had been held by longtime lawmaker Henry Genga, a well-known official in East Hartford who has consistently won elections to the legislature for the past 20 years and served on the town council before that.

In the Senate, longtime Sen. Doug McCrory of Hartford placed third in his battle for reelection in a three-way race against state Rep. Maryam Khan and Ayana Taylor, who are both Windsor residents. Khan won the Democratic party convention endorsement in the three-town district that also includes Bloomfield, and Khan emerged victorious Tuesday night.

“It was a tough race — three qualified people running,” said Ritter, who served with McCrory in the House. “The hardest part in politics is sometimes it’s very hard to choose how you leave. For a lot of people, their last election doesn’t always go the way they hoped. These things are hard, but we have to move on.”

Both House and Senate Republicans have raised major questions about McCrory, a Hartford Democrat who has been under investigation by the FBI regarding state grants that he lobbied for that were awarded to Greater Hartford nonprofits, including the now-defunct Blue Hills Civic Association. Blue Hills funneled more than $1 million to a nonprofit known as SHEBA that is run by McCrory’s friend, Sonserae Cicero-Hamlin.

A forensic audit was ordered last year after state officials were stunned when the Blue Hills Civic Association reported that $300,000 in state money was apparently sent to scammers in a fraudulent bank transfer. Workers at the nonprofit were laid off after the money went missing, and the organization eventually ceased operating.

McCrory, who served in the House for 12 years before succeeding Democrat Eric Coleman in the Senate in 2017, says he has “engaged in no wrongdoing.”

After months of sharp clashes, the winners of Tuesday’s primaries are now pivoting for another round of battles against new challengers in the November election.

In the state legislature, all 151 seats in the state House of Representatives and 36 in the Senate will be on the ballot as Democrats try to increase their majorities and Republicans attempt to win races in a strongly Democratic state. The recruiting has not been easy as Republicans lack candidates in various blue districts, allowing Democrats to run unopposed with guaranteed victories, particularly in major cities like Hartford and New Haven. To a lesser extent, Republicans have traditionally also had districts that were unopposed in their strongholds with longtime incumbents.

U.S. House

Republicans will be running against five Democrats for the U.S. House, including four longtime incumbents.

In the 4th District in Fairfield County, Greenwich resident Michael Goldstein will be battling in a rematch against longtime incumbent U.S. Rep. Jim Himes, who defeated U.S. Rep. Chris Shays in 2008 and has held the seat ever since. Shays had held the seat for 21 years, but Himes won at the same time that Democrat Barack Obama swept into office with a huge turnout in Bridgeport and other communities. Since then, lower Fairfield County has trended blue as Democrats have held the seat that was previously held in the 1970s and 1980s by liberal Republicans like Lowell P. Weicker, Jr. and Stewart McKinney.

In the 5th District, primary winner Chris Shea of Cheshire will be running against incumbent U.S. Rep. Jahana Hayes of Wolcott. A longtime Navy SEAL, Shea captured the endorsement during the state convention at the Mohegan Sun casino and then won the primary Tuesday night.

McCrory, who is the subject of an ongoing federal criminal investigation, came in third in a three-way race behind state Rep. Maryam Khan and Ayana Taylor, the chairwoman of the Windsor Board of Education, according to early results compiled by the candidates. The Associated Press had not called the race by 10:05 p.m.

Khan, who won the Democratic endorsement in the race at a hotly contested convention in May, declared victory in the race early Tuesday night.

“Tonight, the voters of Hartford, Windsor, and Bloomfield sent a message that’s been building for years: our government belongs to the people who show up for it, not the people who buy their way into it,” Khan, who was also backed by the Working Families Party, said in a statement. “My opponent spent six years chairing the Education Committee … watching our public schools close one by one. I ran because I believe this district deserves more — a government that taxes the wealthy their fair share, holds Eversource accountable, and puts real money into the neighborhood schools that raised us.”

“I’m proud to run as a Working Families Party candidate, because that’s exactly what WFP was built for: proving that working people don’t have to wait for permission to lead,” Kahn added. “This is one seat, but it’s part of a bigger fight … We’re not managing decline anymore. We’re building something new, together, and tonight is just the beginning.”

McCrory’s election defeat comes roughly a year after news broke that the Democratic senator was being investigated by the FBI for his role in dispersing millions of dollars in state grant money to a number of Hartford nonprofits.

The shadow of that investigation trailed McCrory this year as Khan and Taylor both decided to challenge him for the 2nd Senate District, which he has held since 2017.

McCrory aggressively campaigned across the three-town district in recent weeks and received endorsements from prominent Democrats, including outgoing Senate President Martin Looney and Sen. Bob Duff, the current Senate majority leader. But it was not enough to salvage his political career.

After watching the election results roll in on Tuesday night, McCrory took the stage at a restaurant in Bloomfield to conceded and to thank his supporters for continuing to stand behind him after more than 20 years in the Connecticut General Assembly.

“I’m not as disappointed as I thought I was,” McCrory added. “But hey, we did the best we can.”

“Don’t be upset. Do not be upset,” McCrory added. “Another time will come and we will figure this out to make sure our community gets the representation that we deserve. Two more years is not a long way from here. Who knows what will happen then.”

Taylor, who also challenged McCrory in 2024, also issued a conciliatory statement on Tuesday congratulating Khan on her election victory.

“Clearly today didn’t go the way we hoped it would go,” Taylor said. “We ran a clean, honest, open campaign… I will forever be proud of what we accomplished in this race.”

Andrew Brown is a reporter for the Connecticut Mirror. Copyright 2026 @ CT Mirror (ctmirror.org).

Larson, 78, has built his career around Social Security as his signature issue. He says he needs to win this November so that he can become the chairman of the powerful Social Security subcommittee if the Democrats regain control of the U.S. House of Representatives.

But challenger Luke Bronin is criticizing Larson on his signature issue as they head toward the Aug. 11 Democratic primary in a competitive four-way race. Bronin recently highlighted that Larson was one of only four Democrats to vote in 2024 against the Social Security Fairness Act, which was later signed into law by President Joe Biden.

The measure expanded benefits for Social Security for more than 2.8 million teachers, firefighters, police officers, and other public workers in an overwhelming bipartisan vote of 327 to 75.

But Larson voted against it after saying that the measure was not paid for — and that his own bill would accomplish the same goal but would also pay for the increased benefits by raising the cap on taxes on income that is currently set at a maximum of $184,500 for this year. As such, workers currently earning $5 million per year pay the same amount of Social Security taxes as those earning $184,500 per year. Failing to pay for the benefits would impact the stability of the Social Security trust fund, according to Larson.

The new law erased federal rules that had reduced or eliminated benefits for public workers, and now an additional 32,000 Connecticut residents are collecting benefits.

“The only reform in the last 50 years was this bill, and Congressman Larson was one of only four Democrats to vote against that,” Bronin said as he was surrounded by firefighters and teachers. “I think we have to acknowledge that while Congressman Larson has been talking about Social Security for a long time, he’s never been able to move the ball forward. The bill that he has proposed every year for 12 years did not get out of his own committee, even when Democrats had the White House, Senate, and the House. So when something isn’t working, it’s time to try something new.”

But Larson and his supporters have repeatedly said his reelection is critical because he would become the chairman of the Social Security subcommittee next year to defend the benefit seniors rely on. His campaign blasted Bronin for appearing with the firefighters and teachers to say that Larson has been ineffective.

“Luke Bronin is lying. John Larson is the number one champion of Social Security in Congress, and Bronin’s attempt to paint him as anything else is desperate and patently untrue,” said Larson campaign spokesperson Bee Ungar. “John Larson is nationally recognized as the top leader supporting expanding benefits for workers and working families, and is opposed to cutting them, which requires billionaires to pay their fair share. Luke Bronin is making a fool of himself in an attempt to protect his corporate billionaire backers.”

Larson’s campaign also released statements from several advocates after Bronin’s criticism.

“Luke Bronin attacking John Larson on Social Security would be laughable if the potential consequences weren’t so deadly serious,” said Nancy J. Altman, president of Social Security Works, a non-profit advocacy group. “Larson is the most essential Social Security champion in Congress. If he is not re-elected, everyone in the nation will be worse off — except the billionaires. Luke Bronin is funded by the billionaires because they know that Larson will force them to finally start paying their fair share.”

When asked by The Courant, Larson said earlier this year that Democrats have had only four of the past 28 years where they controlled the White House and both the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate. Two of those years were under President Barack Obama and two under President Joe Biden.

The problem, Larson said, is that Congress was highly distracted during that time with passing the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare. Under Biden, Congress was distracted with the coronavirus pandemic and the American Rescue Plan of 2021 that provided $1.9 trillion to help keep the economy afloat with increased unemployment benefits and grants after many restaurants, retail stores, and other businesses closed down during the peak of the pandemic.

In the decades-long battle to improve Social Security, Bronin’s campaign says Larson has gotten nowhere on the issue since arriving in Congress in 1999.

“During that time, he has introduced multiple versions of the Social Security 2100 Act, collecting co-sponsors and press releases along the way,” the campaign said earlier this year. “However, his bill has never received a vote on the House floor. In fact, even when Democrats held the White House, the Senate, and the House majority in the 117th Congress and Larson chaired the Social Security Subcommittee of the Ways and Means Committee, he was not able to get his bill out of his own committee.”

Bronin has been endorsed by the Uniformed Professional Firefighters Association of Connecticut, which represents more than 4,000 firefighters in more than 70 local chapters. The new law has deleted two key provisions — the Windfall Elimination Provision and the Government Pension Offset — that had reduced payments to firefighters and other public employees who held second jobs and paid Social Security taxes on those wages.

State Rep. Jillian Gilchrest of West Hartford agrees with Bronin that Larson should have voted in favor of the bill, even if it was only one portion compared to the much larger Social Security bill.

“It significantly helps Connecticut teachers who don’t make enough and often have to work two jobs or come to the profession after another job,” Gilchrest told The Courant in an interview.  “I think Larson really missed the mark on voting against that policy, and if that’s an indication of how he weighs policy decisions, I think it is telling on why he hasn’t been more effective in his 28 years.”

Gilchrest said it is not a good reason to vote against an important policy simply “because it wasn’t the full package.”

Even if the Democrats take control of the House after the November elections, Republican President Donald J. Trump will still have two more years remaining — and will have the ability to block various proposals.

“Larson has had that role in one fashion or another and still has not been able to make progress,” Gilchrest said. “He should have been able to do something. When the Democrats get power, they have not been able to pass policies that protect people and improve people’s lives, so I don’t know why we keep sending back the same people.”

Hartford school board member Ruth Fortune said Social Security is a key issue that she handled when she advised clients as a financial adviser.

“The only thing more frustrating than watching these two career politicians spar over Social Security is knowing the issue is being used to score political points,” Fortune said Monday. “The more this race becomes about them — whether it’s a debate over the source of their money or a purity contest over who cares more — the less it is about the people who actually rely on Social Security.”

The 23-member commission is chaired by Lamont’s deputy chief of staff, Natalie Wagner, and includes a mix of bipartisan state and local elected officials, union leaders, school administrators and policy analysts. Its mission: to interrogate the entirety of Connecticut’s complex school funding system and propose reforms.

The governor appeared in person to share opening remarks and lay out his vision for the group.

“Think about how much money we’re spending, how we do that, and how we make sure it makes the biggest difference. I want money going to the classroom, I want money going to the teachers, and I want more teachers,” Lamont told the members of the commission.

Lamont reiterated his longstanding assertion that the commission’s work wouldn’t sit “on a shelf somewhere collecting dust.” He wants its report, due in January 2027, to set the stage for the next legislative session, where the General Assembly will have the opportunity to tackle what has become a serious fiscal problem for the state.

“We are spending hundreds of millions of dollars more on K-12 than we did before. … We’re still not keeping up,” Lamont said.

He also used the opportunity to signal where his own education priorities currently lie. High on the list: special education, a topic he has brought up several times in recent months.

“I would urge you to think about how the state should … help you take the lead on special education. A, in terms of funding. B, in terms of how we can better negotiate, make sure we have local solutions” instead of sending kids with special needs out of their home districts, Lamont told the commission.

Sending children to specialized out-of-district facilities is a major financial burden for many local school systems. The state has a program — the excess cost grant — to cover some of those expenses, but it has significant gaps. A newer source of state funding, the SEED grant, helps pay for in-district special education services, but advocates say it doesn’t come close to meeting the need.

Lamont also urged the commission to consider transportation and health insurance, two other major sources of financial pressure for districts. He said health insurance costs in particular have risen by as much as 40%.

“There, we need some work,” Lamont said. “At a minimum, look at the Partnership Plan run by [State Comptroller] Sean Scanlon.”

The Connecticut Partnership Plan allows non-state public employees — for example, people who work for municipal school districts — to get the same health care coverage as state employees and retirees.

Lamont also included a plug for a topic he called “a personal favorite”: teacher apprenticeship programs.

“Maybe their third year of teacher’s college in the Ivory Tower — that’s great, but maybe you want to be in the classroom, working with a master teacher,” Lamont said.

Various school administrators have said teachers come out of university still needing significant training, which the districts that hire them often end up having to provide.

The governor closed his remarks with a nod toward student mental health services.

That “type of program, I think, is worth expanding … maybe that’s another way to get a young person there another shoulder to lean on,” Lamont said.

Shortly after the governor’s comments, the commission launched into a detailed presentation from the consultant group Education Resource Strategies on the current state of play in Connecticut education policy. One notable statistic: By at least one measure, Connecticut has the highest funding disparity between high- and low-poverty districts of any state in the country.

The ranking reflects a concern that dominated the recent legislative session: Schools in less affluent towns and cities aren’t getting enough money, and students often pay the price.

The Blue Ribbon Commission will meet regularly through the rest of the year. Its final report is due Jan. 15.

Theo Peck-Suzuki is a reporter for the Connecticut Mirror. Copyright 2026 @ CT Mirror (ctmirror.org).