A night for insiders to party, network
Toward the end of Gov. Ned Lamont’s inaugural ball Wednesday, long after the first couple made their exit, the head of a nonprofit services agency greeted state Treasurer Shawn Wooden.
“Congratulations,” he said to the newly sworn-in Wooden, who controls $34 billion in pension funds. Holding his right hand up to mimic taking an oath, he added, “You really nailed it.”
Wooden joined the gag, feigning pride in how he stuck the dialogue perfectly. “I do.”
They touched each others’ shoulders. The nonprofit head turned and wheeled into the night but not before turning back to say, “Anything I can do.”
Multiply that exchange times 10,000 for a picture of an oddly loose, black-tie celebration of Connecticut’s Democratic Party power base, lobbyists, labor leaders and foot soldiers, industry executives and friends of the newly seated state officials.
On the surface, it was an opulent party with dozens of Connecticut restaurants serving small samples of serious grub and celebs such as MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski — as Scarborough, a former GOP congressman from Florida and later a New Canaan resident, fronted a very loud R&B band.
Business titans including recently retired PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi and multibillionaire Bridgewater hedge fund founder Ray Dalio, both Ned friends from Greenwich, held forth as Lamont basically danced, and wildly, the whole time he was there — wearing low-cut Doc Martens or something like them, with thick, bright red laces.
But this is politics and business, where networking counts almost as much as dealmaking. And this crowd of more than 1,000, most of whom paid $200 per ticket ($99 for “young professionals” under 29) included some real pros.
Doing the dance of maintaining contact for a purpose is not an add-on — it’s who they are; who we are, if news columnists dressed in tuxedos count as part of the networking machine. See it as corrupt insiderism, or as I prefer, humans being human.
“We are the law school of the state of Connecticut. Our job is to do right by the taxpayers,” said UConn law school Dean Timothy Fisher. He and I looked around the room and surmised there could be 100, maybe 200 UConn lawyers. His goal, besides a fun night? “Just to maintain our presence and show our respect for these officers.”
Matthew Nemerson, a familiar figure as New Haven’s economic development chief under Mayor Toni Harp, and before that head of the Connecticut Technology Council, has a brand new gig as vice president at Budderfly, a Shelton energy services company.
“We’re changing the whole model about how to do energy efficiency,” Nemerson said. “We take the risk and we share the savings with you.” He was telling that story, aside from just seeing old friends.
“We’ve got to educate governments on how to use our model.”
As my colleague Kaitlyn Krasselt and I watched and listened, most people downplayed the whole lobbying and plying power stuff. For Sen. Martin Looney, D-New Haven, president pro-tem of the Senate, the night was less about people currying favor with him, and more about him seeing old friends such as former Rep. Cameron Staples, who co-chaired the education committee and is now CEO of the New England Association of Schools and Colleges.
Any talk about the Massachusetts-based association accrediting a consolidated Connecticut community college system, after it rejected the plan last spring? No need, on this night.
A steady stream of wellwishers approached House Speaker Joe Aresimowicz as he sat at a table with his cousin, Donald Arasimowicz (same family, different spelling) and Donald’s wife, Jennifer Arasimowicz. She’s general counsel at FuelCell Energy in Danbury and might well have networked with the likes of Nemerson.
“I’m sure there’s a bunch of that going on,” Arasimowicz said, but she was there just to enjoy herself, not advance business.
Secretary of the State Denise Merrill, now the longest serving constitutional officer along with Comptroller Kevin Lembo, accepted plenty of congratulations — and reached out to people for her political cause.
“Are you kidding me? I’ve got a constitutional amendment to pass,” Merrill said, referring to the open-voting initiative that failed in a referendum in 2014, which she’s committed to seeing through.
Lamont set the tone for an informal atmosphere of talking — at least when the band wasn’t playing — with some jokes, like the “dilemma” of whether he would have an inaugural ball at all.
“I asked my friend Lowell Weicker,” he said, talking about the former governor, who was also from Greenwich when he served from 1991 to 1995. “I said, what do you think? He said, ‘I love a Connecticut party.’ ”
Weicker, recall, left the Republicans to run under “A Connecticut Party” as a reformer.
If you wanted to talk to Lamont, you’d have to cut a few moves with him and his wife, Annie, on one of two dance floors at the cavernous Connecticut Convention Center. “It’s a relaxed setting, setting the tone for the next four years,” lobbyist David Kozak said.
We’ll see about the whole four years. For this night, the lobbying, or at least networking, was subtle but real.
Labor leaders and union employees didn’t need to ply anyone. Salvatore Luciano, president of the state AFLCIO, said labor had “a few hundred” people in the room, to celebrate. “We knocked on over 60,000 doors,” he said. “Tonight is just a celebration, not only for the constitutionals, but for a governor who is truly at the bottom of his heart an optimist.”
Another optimist, Sen. George Logan, R-Ansonia, was one of the few Republicans on hand and he brought his ax. After playing his trademark, kick-ass version of Jimi Hendrix’s solo guitar “Star Spangled Banner” — made famous at Woodstock — he stayed late. “I grew up with a lot of these people” in the New Haven area he said.
The hard stuff will come soon enough. For now, Logan said, “It’s the honeymoon.”