The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
A party’s party doubles as a rarified job fair
The ticket cost $125. The payoff: Five full minutes of face time.
That was a good deal Monday night for a state appointee approaching a constitutional officer fresh off an election victory. As a political hire with a new boss coming in, he’s out of a job unless his new boss — or, perhaps, some other power broker in the new administration — takes him in.
“The conversation went well,” the appointee said. The officer, he added, “will be making a decision soon.”
On its face, the event with 500 people at the Connecticut Convention Center was a celebration for the Democrats, a chance for Gov.-elect Ned Lamont to rouse the troops ahead of Inauguration Day on Jan. 9, and for outgoing Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman to bid farewell.
Under the surface — barely — it was the most visible stop on a statewide, moveable job fair, a scramble for project managers, lawyers, communications pros, executive secretaries, political strategists and some top administrators including mayors and commissioners, to vie for coveted jobs in the Lamont administration.
Some call it bald patronage, a payoff for campaign debts. The appointee who had five minutes with a constitutional officer had worked on prior campaigns with that elected official, an experience he undoubtedly recalled in his 300 seconds at the brass ring.
Some call it a matching dance for highly qualified, and connected, Democratic operatives, with a few Republicans likely to sneak through.
“’Tis the season,” said a merry state Rep. Robyn Porter, D-New Haven, an influential figure at the Capitol who could help someone find a job, or perhaps land a lucrative post herself — though she said, “I’m not looking.”
That doesn’t mean they’re not looking for her.
“The train is leaving the station,” Porter said, “and if you want to be on it, get a ticket.”
A full train, like this one, only runs every four or eight years, when a new governor takes over — although, of course, the several hundred appointed jobs and commission seats, not to mention judgeships, come up in ones and twos all the time.
Monday’s party was a chance for some to stay away, the better to quell speculation, and for others to see and be seen at the open bar, bidding for position over the loud din of speeches and entertainment.
“I’m not that forward about it,” said one appointed agency manager hoping for a new job, who declared she had no conversations with would-be patrons. “This is supposed to be a social function and my mother and my grandmother raised me differently.”
Well, she allowed, she did have one little chat with a powerful figure. Just one.
It was hard to miss the tall, white-haired former Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch, now director of the Discovery Museum, who’s rumored to be up for commissioner of the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. He declined to talk about that, and did not have a conversation with Lamont beyond, perhaps, a handshake.
The current occupant of Finch’s old office, Mayor Joe Ganim, who lost to Lamont in a primary then helped him to a big win in Bridgeport, was on hand as well. I’d guess he was glad-handing on behalf of the beleaguered state’s beleaguered largest city, though you never know.
Likewise, Glendowlyn Thames, the Hartford city council president and executive director of CTNext, the entrepreneurship development office, might have been there to angle for a higher-level job, or perhaps to make sure the Capitol City remains top of mind to state power brokers. She would only smile when I asked.
“There are a thousand conversations,” she said. “It’s a time of transition.”
And there was Private Citizen Kevin B. Sullivan, the former everything — tax commissioner, lieutenant governor, Senate president pro-tem, West Hartford mayor — also not talking about any possible appointment from Lamont. “I think his job is to find new faces, new voices,” is all Sullivan would say.
There’s no hard count of these jobs and no organizational chart because the numbers rise and fall with budget negotiations and political jockeying.
The highest appointees require Senate approval, then there are agency deputies and other handpicked, loyal staff. Public information officers, about 35 in all, were converted from civil service to political appointees by Malloy, though it’s likely that Malloy reduced the number of patronage jobs, as he cut overall payroll and nearly halved the total number of state agencies.
Then there are about 5,000 non-union managers on the state payroll, most of which require a rigorous application process, though insiders are known to, ahem, occasionally land in those jobs.
Shawn Wooden, the incoming state treasurer, said he’s not sure exactly how many appointees he’ll have. “We’re still figuring it out,” he said, adding quickly, “It’s a professional office.”
Early in the evening, Wooden said, no, he had not received any resumes or direct requests for jobs at the party. He feigned looking in his jacket pocket. Less than an hour later he waved me over and said, “The answer is yes.”
For William Tong, the incoming state attorney general, appointments are highly specialized, not just seasoned administrators and managers. He’s not inundated by lawyers seeking work, but has seen plenty of interest, he said. “I’m in a position to make some serious appointments very soon,” Tong said, including the powerful deputy AG job, whose current occupant, Perry Zinn Rowthorn, turned him down.
For the record, there was no shortage of current and former state-appointed lawyers in the room.
As in any job market, some are neither searching nor hiring. “At best I’m a conduit,” said Craig Stevenson, the East Hartford Democratic Town Committee chairman. He’s known to be close to Susan Bysiewicz, the lieutenant governorelect. So he heard from some hopefuls.
“No great finds,” Stevenson said at the end of the night. Then, realizing it’s politics, restated, “or shall we say, they’re all great finds.”