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

Well, the baseball season is over. As the late A. Bartlett Giamatti once wrote, “as soon as the chill rains come,” baseball “stops and leaves you to face the fall alone.”

But fear not. While the baseball season might have come to a dramatic end this weekend, campaign season is in full swing.

This week, we’ll take you on the road with Governor Ned Lamont as he gets ready for a re-election campaign and tries to boost his party’s odds in the upcoming municipal elections.

Let’s dive in…

On the road with Ned Lamont as he readies his re-election campaign

It was right around 11:00 AM on Saturday morning when two black SUVs bounded into the parking lot of a Subway sandwich shop on the corner of East Main Street and Martin Luther King Drive in New Britain.

The doors of the cars opened, and two serious looking men jumped out. A third man, clad in a navy windbreaker with wisps of grey hair swaying in the autumn breeze, exited the lead car.

The workers manning the morning shift at the Subway looked up to see Governor Ned Lamont and two plainclothes state troopers strolling in to make a pit stop.

What was he there to get?

“A piss,” Lamont said with a laugh later in the day.

Such is life on the road with the governor. Fast food chains are welcome way stations on a campaign trail that is still not technically a campaign trail. The governor has held to his policy of not explicitly stating that he is a candidate for re-election. On Friday, he said people can expect to hear from him "pretty soon" on that topic, even as little doubt remains as to his intentions.

The stated purpose of Lamont’s sojourn across the state this past weekend was to boost municipal candidates who are on the ballot this Tuesday. Democrats are hopeful that they can flip control of city halls in several key cities. Of course, there was another motive for the governor’s barnstorming.

The preparations for Lamont’s fourth run for governor have picked up in intensity in recent weeks. Kevin Rennie was first to report that Francesca Capodilupo, the respected operative who has guided Jim Himes and Roebrto Alves to victory, will helm the effort to secure four more years of Ned Lamont. Other moves are being made, too. Consultants are being selected and the governor’s advisors are eyeing an announcement within the next two weeks.

Lamont arrived in New Haven around 9:00 AM for the first stop of the day at the campaign headquarters of Mayor Justin Elicker. No campaign staff accompanied him. Only his security detail and his wife, Annie, were alongside him. 

The stop in New Haven offered a window into how the moderate governor is trying to shore up the left flank of his party as he eyes a third term.

The Elm City’s powerful Democratic Town Committee chairman Vincent Mauro Jr. served as the event’s emcee. A procession of speakers heaped praise on Mauro, Lamont, and the slate of Democrats up for election – avoiding any mention of cracks in their coalition.

Though the event’s speakers projected intraparty unity, there was no mistaking the ideological fault lines running underneath the Whalley Avenue sidewalk where the rally was held.

Josh Elliott, the sole man willing to challenge the governor’s path to re-nomination, stood in the crowd. He mingled among union members and grassroots activists who greeted him warmly.

Steve Winter, another progressive legislator, engaged Lamont in an animated one-on-one discussion about the state’s response to federal budget cuts.

“Everybody wants me to set aside hundreds of millions, billions of dollars, we’ll figure out what we need later,” Lamont said of his conversation with Winter. “It’s sort of not the way I work.”

Even Mauro seemed to subtly jab at the governor’s moderation. New Haven Democrats are clear on what it means to be a Democrat, Mauro said, unlike some on the state and national level.

Lamont’s own speech featured spirited references to the cutoff of SNAP benefits that began on Saturday as a result of the federal government shutdown.

“Look what Trump is doing to each and every one – look what he’s doing to our values,” Lamont said in a raised voice. “Look what he’s doing to the working families. He doesn’t give a damn about each and every one of you.”

Then, he turned to Josh Stanley, the secretary-treasurer of the Unite Here union’s Local 217.

“Josh, that’s what you’re standing up for and we’re right there with you,” the governor said.

That was one of several overtures Lamont made to the more liberal wing of the Democratic coalition.

“I love working with this man,” Lamont said while recognizing Martin Looney, the president of the State Senate. He rattled off a list of accomplishments – paid family leave, minimum wage increases, historic investments in childcare – making no mention of the many fronts on which he has clashed with the avowedly progressive New Haven senator.

After the New Haven stop, Lamont’s entourage set off for New Britain to kick off a rally for the Democratic mayoral nominee Bobby Sanchez.

Lamont hit many of the same notes as his New Haven speech. He accentuated his SNAP points with a nod to Jason Jakubowski, a New Britain native and the CEO of Connecticut Foodshare, who was standing near the back of the crowd. From underneath the brim of a Yankees cap, Jakubowski acknowledged the governor’s gratitude.

A lone attendee decked out in Working Families Party attire held up a small sign for Lamont to see. The sign listed the policy demands of Connecticut for All, a progressive organization which has called on the governor to respond more aggressively to the Trump administration.

The New Britain visit was a quick one for the governor. He’d stayed in New Haven longer than expected and was running behind schedule. After posing for pictures and sharing a few words with Sanchez, Lamont got back on the road. He made his Subway stop and then sped off toward Torrington.

In Torrington, a different kind of Democrat-on-Democrat conflict awaited Lamont. Luke Bronin and Jillian Gilchrest were both gladhanding inside the streetfront office where Stephen Ivain’s mayoral campaign is based. The two are challenging John Larson, the longtime congressman.

Unlike New Haven and New Britain, Torrington represents hostile political territory for Lamont. The city is one of just two communities that saw voters oust an incumbent Democratic legislator last year when Joe Canino, a millennial Republican, unseated veteran lawmaker Michelle Cook.

Canino’s win was emblematic of a broader trend in Torrington. The city is solid Trump territory and Lamont lost it by double digits in 2022. He prevailed by massive margins in both New Haven and New Britain. His stump speech seemed to reflect that reality. He spoke at length about property taxes and the need to bring in more commercial development in order to offset the burden on residential tax bills.

In an interview outside the campaign offices, Lamont drew inspiration from Ivain’s message when asked about campaigning in a place where voters might not be receptive to a Democrat.

“Listen to Steve,” Lamont said before paraphrasing Ivain’s pitch. “You’re property taxes just went up 33%. I’m a finance guy, I know how to manage. That’s gonna make a difference.”

“We’ve just gotta bring it home to people in terms of who’s making a difference,” Lamont said.

Reflecting on his morning on the road, Lamont said he felt a palpable energy among the party’s foot soldiers in the lead up to Tuesday’s elections.

“They know this election makes a difference,” Lamont said. “Maybe they were a little complacent last November. They’re not gonna be complacent this November.”

Lamont made one more stop that day, not at another Subway, but at an art gallery near Torrington’s city center.

We’ll be back next week with another edition of the Tip Sheet!