Good morning and welcome back to the Tip Sheet, a weekly newsletter from Tom Dudchik’s Capitol Report written by Mike Cerulli.

The 2025 legislative session has begun!

Coverage of the first few days of the session was driven by a discussion on the cost of electricity. We’ll break down some drama that played out on the sidelines of the first meeting of the Energy and Technology Committee.

We’ll also take a look at a proposal from House Minority Leader Vinny Candelora that takes aim at a longstanding frustration of his: vacancies on the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority.

Plus, what do a Bridgeport Democrat and a Greenwich Republican have in common? Turns out, they both agree on – wait for it – a 105-year old maritime law. We’ll explain.

Let’s dive in…

Candelora will push for PURA vacancies to be filled…by Ritter and Looney

If Vinny Candelora has his way this session, the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) will be getting two additional members – whether the governor wants it or not.

Candelora told the Tip Sheet he will introduce legislation placing the power to appoint two of PURA’s five commissioners with House Speaker Matt Ritter and Senate President Marty Looney.

“The governor does not want to fulfill his requirements under the law by appointing two members to PURA, so I’m putting in legislation that would recommend those appointments be made by the speaker of the house and the president of the senate,” Candelora said.

Of course, Candelora’s push to essentially strip the governor of a power he has so far declined to exercise would need Democratic support.

Speaking with the Tip Sheet, Speaker Ritter didn't explicitly endorse Candelora's proposal but did outline what he sees as a binary situation.

“When we have a law that says you have to have five people and it says ‘shall have five,’ these are the reactions when there’s inaction,” Ritter said of Candelora’s proposal. “I’ve been very clear with the governor’s office for months now that I felt this was going to either lead to them having to go to five [PURA commissioners] on their own or change the law.”

For his part, Governor Lamont has largely dismissed the debate over the number of PURA commissioners. In his State of the State address, Lamont characterized a move from three to five commissioners as a “cosmetic” change. During an appearance on Sunday's 'Capitol Report' (which you can watch here) Lamont said, "Happy to do it if you want to do it, won't make a dimes worth of differnece."

Speaking frankly, Ritter described what he believed would happen if the shoe was on the other foot.

“If this was a Republican governor, we would’ve made the appointments a year and a half ago,” Ritter said. “Let’s just call it what it is: if it was Jodi Rell and she didn’t do it, the Democrats would’ve done it a long time ago.”

Candelora’s insistence that PURA be fully constituted is rooted in two thoughts – one based in principle and one informed by his own views on the authority’s actions. On one hand, Candelora says he is motivated by a simple desire for the governor to adhere to the relevant statute. As if to illustrate this, the Republican leader said he could be satisfied by a change to bring the number in the statute down to three from five.

“Look, I’d be willing to consider a governor’s proposal if he wanted to keep it at three [PURA commissioners],” Candelora said.

On the other hand, he has been critical of PURA’s chair, Marissa Gillett, and has suggested that the decision by the governor to not nominate a full complement of commissioners is intended to empower Gillett.

“I think that the power has been too centralized in PURA with the chairman,” Candelora said. “I think by adding two [commissioners] you begin to provide more perspectives into this process which has been under criticism by our rating agencies.”

Separately, Ritter disputed a concern that some have expressed that appointing additional members might dilute the power of a chairman who enjoys support in many corners of the Democratic party.

“When people tell me that adding members will lead to dysfunction and will hurt the progress we’ve made – if you believe that we’ve made progress – my only response is that’s just against everything I believe in,” Ritter said. “Leaders bring people along, they strike compromise whether it’s three, five, seven, or 151.”

He revisited that point later in his conversation with the Tip Sheet, again disputing the notion that more members would undermine Gillett.

“In the world that I live in, the ability to persuade people that you’re right…is a really important skill,” Ritter said. “And I just don’t know why, if somebody is so talented and so bright, I don’t know why – first of all, you’d only have to convince one other person, I suppose, if you went to five – why is that such a difficult thing to do?”

As for who those two additional commissioners might be, two names have been at the center of persistent rumors: former State Rep. Holly Cheeseman and State Sen. John Fonfara. Candelora has publicly advocated for Cheeseman and acknowledged that Fonfara has been the subject of behind-the-scenes discussions. Ritter noted that Cheeseman is “pretty well thought of and pretty well respected.”

Fonfara is a former chair of the Energy and Technology Committee. Cheeseman is also a veteran of the committee.

“I think he would’ve been a good choice,” Candelora said of Fonfara. “Unfortunately, he’s now taken the oath and that opportunity has passed us.”

The Tip Sheet asked Candelora about gossip swirling among some well-placed insiders that there had been advanced conversations to place Cheeseman and Fonfara on PURA using a maneuver similar to the one he is now publicly promoting. That maneuver would have required Fonfara to not take the oath of office last week.

“I have spoken to the other leaders about it, you know, prior to us being sworn in,” Candelora said. 

The Tip Sheet asked Ritter about those rumors and whether or not he thought Fonfara would have made a good commissioner.

“I don’t wanna talk about things that happened or didn’t happen but I would just say that the notion that John doesn’t know about energy is just wildly inaccurate,” Ritter said. Neither Ritter or Candelora expanded on who, exactly, might have suggested that Fonfara doesn’t know about energy.

One thing that is clear: If there were indeed people or one person in particular who worked behind-the-scenes to scuttle Fonfara’s chances to be appointed to PURA, they appear to have succeeded. They may now find themselves on the wrong side of the powerful co-chair of the Finance, Revenue, and Bonding Committee.

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Norm needles Fazio: “I’m not the guy who has this long range political future here…He has a different agenda than I do.”

Energy and Technology Committee co-chair Norm Needleman threw a few jabs in the direction of his Republican counterpart, Ryan Fazio, on the sidelines of their committee’s first meeting of the legislative session.

For months, Fazio has been one of the most high-profile legislators partaking in the debate following last summer’s higher-than-expected bills. He’s also been the chief pitchman for a six-point plan put forth by Republicans.

Needleman’s assessment of that plan?

“It’s political speak and not really real ideas,” he said in an interview with News 8.

The senator from Essex also suggested Fazio wasn’t purely focused on lowering rates for Connecticut residents.

“Sen. Fazio’s a very smart guy and I like working with him,” Needleman said. “But I gotta just push through the politics because I’m not the guy who has this long range political future here. He has a different agenda than I do.”

The Mayoral Beat: Alves rakes in cash, Arunan hosts national mayors group

Danbury Mayor Roberto Alves formally announced his re-election campaign last Thursday. His campaign said they’d raised more than $78,000 in just six weeks.

Alves will be campaigning for re-election at the same time as he is expected to be taking the reins of the state Democratic party organization. Governor Lamont has formally endorsed Alves to succeed party stalwart Nancy DiNardo.

Francesca Capodilupo will helm Alves’ re-election campaign. Capodilupo has been a trusted political hand at Alves’ side who has also served as campaign manager for Jim Himes.

Alves was at the Capitol for the opening day of the legislative session, joining a cadre of mayors who trekked up to Hartford for the day’s festivities.

Many of those mayors and first selectmen attended a breakfast hosted by Hartford Mayor Arunan Arulampalam at the Broad Street favorite Fire by Forge. Arulampalam brought staff from the National Conference of Mayors in to speak with the group. In addition to Alves, Arulampalam was joined by Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim, New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker, Stamford Mayor Caroline Simmons, Waterbury Mayor Paul Pernerewski, and others.

Fazio and Rosario: “Jones”-ing for a change

Pop quiz: What do a Bridgeport Democrat and a Greenwich Republican have in common? Aside from a shared hatred of Merritt Parkway traffic, it turns out there is another thing that unites at least two legislators hailing from the state’s largest city and one of its wealthiest enclaves.

In the past week, State Rep. Chris Rosario of Bridgeport and State Sen. Ryan Fazio of Greenwich each expressed their shared dislike of the 105-year old maritime law known as the Jones Act. The act requires cargo that is being transported between two American ports be shipped on vessels that are U.S.-built, U.S.-owned, and crewed by American citizens and permanent residents.

Why, you might ask, were Rosario and Fazio commiserating about the Jones Act? 

Well, the two were applauding a line in Governor Lamont’s State of the State address where he suggested that Congress “rethink” the Jones Act in an effort to lower the cost of bringing liquified natural gas to Connecticut.

As one of the most prominent Puerto Rican politicians in Connecticut, Rosario has long been a critic of the Jones Act, which advocates say unfairly harms Puerto Rico and other U.S. island territories by raising the cost of shipping goods. He immediately leapt to his feet and applauded when he heard the line.

Fazio and Steve Harding co-signed a letter calling on Connecticut’s congressional delegation to “do all you can to repeal this antiquated and burdensome law.”

A fact sheet published by the U.S. Maritime Administration, an agency of the U.S. Department of Transportation, says the Jones Act “encourages a strong U.S. Merchant Marine for both economic security and national defense by fostering a U.S.-flag fleet that can contribute to our financial wellbeing, and act as a sealift resource for the transportation of supplies in time of contingency.”

Before you go…

You didn’t think we weren’t going to mention it, did you?

For those that don’t know what we’re talking about right now…Governor Lamont nodded to a few items on the Tip Sheet’s State of the State bingo card in his address last Wednesday. Among other things, we predicted that Lamont might crack a ginger ale, mention Connecticut’s new welcome signs, and give a shout out to the man who championed those new signs.

The governor did all three at the same time.

“I want to give a shout-out to one Anthony Anthony, our chief marketing officer,” Lamont said while opening a can of zero sugar Canada Dry.

The governor raised the can of ginger ale over his head and shouted, “Bingo!”

Thanks to all our loyal readers who were in the chamber and noticed the reference.

We anticipate a budget address bingo card will be slightly harder to craft…

Maybe a second Anthony Anthony mention? A name so nice, you have to say it twice…or would it technically be four times? I guess we’ll find out.

We’ll be back next week with more exclusive news and analysis.