Lamont shuffles his senior staff
Governor’s shakeup of team reflects concerns over communication, vision
After a tumultuous first six months in which Gov. Ned Lamont and his team were often criticized for failing to present a clear vision on the administration’s policies and backtracking on public statements, Lamont is shaking up his communications staff by bringing in both an outsider and a political veteran.
Max Reiss, a reporter for NBC 30 and a familiar face to the public, will join the Lamont administration as communications director, replacing Maribel La Luz, who is headed for the Department of Economic and Community Development where she’ll work on strategy. Reiss’ salary will be $120,000, the same as La Luz.
Jonathan Harris, the wellconnected and wellliked former West Hartford mayor who Lamont brought in at the end of April to help as a liaison between the governor’s office and the Legislature,
will remain with the governor’s team as a senior adviser, replacing Colleen Flanagan Johnson who will return to the private sector. Flanagan Johnson said she’d always intended to return to the private sector after the end of Lamont’s first legislative session, citing personal reasons. Harris’ salary will be the same as Flanagan Johnson’s — $150,000.
Lawmakers and lobbyists said they had trouble communicating with the administration, often citing a lack of experience in the core team — and the governor himself — for much of the 2019 session, but praised the move to bring in Harris, known as an expert communicator with a deep understanding of the inner workings of the politics of the Capitol. He spent 20 years in the building as a state senator, Democratic Party executive director and consumer affairs commissioner.
Harris’ tenure with the administration was intended to be temporary for the end of the legislative session — he said at the time he planned to “return to the mothership” in the Office of Policy and Management where he was originally appointed. Harris ran a shortlived campaign for governor himself, bowing out and endorsing Lamont just before the 2018 primary. Many were surprised when he was not initially appointed to a more significant position within the administration.
A veteran Capitol insider said Harris should bring stability to an office plagued by chaos — the result of an inexperienced governor — “Organizationally there hasn’t been a lot of great structure within the governor’s office with clear lines of who’s doing what.”
“These personnel adjustments will allow us to leverage the experience and expertise of these individuals in a way that best supports my administration’s goals going forward,” Lamont said in a statement announcing the staff changes. “Following my first legislative session, I conducted a holistic review to evaluate my office structure and needs relative to my goals.”
Reiss, who has covered Connecticut politics since 2014, is expected to help Lamont present a clearer message, something the governor struggled with during his first six months in office both publicly and privately with lobbyists and legislators.
“Leveraging Max’s political, policy, and new media experience will benefit my administration and its agencies,” Lamont said.
But, just like La Luz and Flanagan Johnson, he’ll have his work cut out for him.
During the legislative session, Lamont often made statements that were incorrect or required clarification, a tendency that put pressure on his staff that is already significantly smaller than that of the previous administration.
Just this week Lamont’s current staffers were left scrambling to correct the record when the governor made a comment about banning PFAS, a class of thousands of chemicals used in firefighting foams, a move that would actually require legislative approval.
The staff changes also earned Lamont some criticism on gender parity in his office — he is, critics pointed out, replacing two women with two men. Flanagan Johnson defended Lamont, and said that at the end of the day, his decisions were about who is best suited for the positions, regardless of gender.
“The governor and his administration continue to be committed to a diverse representative administration that looks like the people that it serves,” Flanagan Johnson said. “More than 50 percent of commissioners are women, several individuals of color. But ultimately he’s looking for the best people to do the job.”