Sky’s the limit in Tweed ethics standoff

If you like a good showdown between lawyers, or lawmakers, or (bonus!) both, this one’s for you.

Senate Republican Leader Len Fasano and Connecticut Attorney General William Tong should technically be on the same team, except Tong is a Democrat. Tong rose to his current position after serving as a state representative in the district serving Stamford and Darien, so he and Fasano have a highlight reel of smackdowns in the General Assembly.

On July 16, Fasano wrote a letter asking Tong to appeal a ruling involving TweedNew Haven Airport to the U.S. Supreme Court. The decision could allow runway expansion, which is supported by New Haven Mayor Toni Harp.

Connecticut isn’t exactly known for its airports, but virtually every gubernatorial candidate last summer championed the concept of solid state growth through runway expansion as though they had thought of the idea.

Fasano, who serves East Haven and Wallingford along with parts of North Haven and Durham, is an inyourface competitor, a vestige of his days playing football at Yale. He’s burnished by his traditional role as Hartford underdog, so he favors big plays (he re

cently asked University of Connecticut to charge its $20 million exit fee for dumping the American Athletic Conference to its foundation rather than taxpayers).

Fasano had a teammate for that original letter, Senate President Pro Tempore Martin Looney, a New Haven Democrat. But in the days that followed, Fasano concluded Tong should recuse himself because he and Harp are political allies.

So he wrote another letter, this time without Looney on his team. He closed with some delightful hubris: “After you recuse yourself, please let me know who will be making the decision on appealing the ruling in the Tweed case.”

The essence of Tong’s response was “no, but let’s meet and talk about it.”

Back in May, Fasano objected to Tong weighing in on union matters, citing conflicts of interest. “I am very concerned about Tong,” he said at the time.

With his longtime rival Dannel Malloy gone after eight years in the governor’s office, Fasano seems to be settling for keeping the game alive with one of Malloy’s closest confidantes. Andrew McDonald was also in that Malloy camp, and Fasano led the campaign last year to block McDonald from becoming chief justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court.

Defining “conflict of interest” is not always easy. But if we called a timeout whenever political circumstances like this one arose, chaos would ensue. The Beltway would shut down within hours.

Bizarrely, there are clearer examples of potential conflicts in this matter. Looney lives near the runway in question, so he’d undoubtedly prefer not to have more noise in the ’hood. And Fasano neglects to mention throughout his missives that he owns the Silver Sands Beach Club near the southern end of the airport.

Expanding airports deserves serious consideration for everyone in Connecticut, including neighbors of runways. But Fasano’s objections are flights of fancy.

Connecticut isn’t exactly known for its airports, but virtually every gubernatorial candidate championed the concept of state growth through expansion as though they had thought of the idea.