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

This week, we’re bringing you news of a shakeup at the top of Ryan Fazio’s gubernatorial campaign and rumors of two legislators who might not run for re-election this year.

Plus, we’ll introduce you to three legislative staffers who are changing the way state lawmakers communicate.

Let’s dive in…

Fazio shaking up campaign team

State Sen. Ryan Fazio has parted ways with the consultant who helped launch his campaign for governor, the Tip Sheet has learned. 

Jim Conroy, the political strategist whose work with former Gov. Charlie Baker in Massachusetts made him a fitting choice for Fazio, is out. A pick for campaign manager and a new general consultant is forthcoming, a source familiar with the matter said.

Stay with the Tip Sheet for more updates on the moves in the gubernatorial race.

Meet the staffers changing the way legislators communicate

At first glance, Andrew Tammaro, Riley Cotton and Audrey McHoltz have little in common.

Tammaro is 28, with a thick mustache, wire-rimmed glasses and a quintessentially classic sartorial vibe.

Cotton, also 28, is a native Texan with a cool presence and a style that’s simultaneously alternative and timeless.

McHoltz, 36, exudes a bubbly positivity that reflects her roots as a self-described “theater girl.”

Together, the trio of Tammaro, Cotton and McHoltz stand at the forefront of an emerging trend in Connecticut’s legislature. With their distinct aesthetic and cultural sensibilities, they have each become public-facing figures on the social media pages of the caucuses they work for. Tammaro fronts content for the House Republicans, McHoltz for the Senate Democrats and Cotton, along with an emerging ensemble of fellow staffers, works for the House Democrats.

For as long as there have been cameras to capture the proceedings of the legislature, the norm has typically been for staffers to avoid the spotlight and allow their bosses to remain the center of attention. The proliferation of short-form video platforms like TikTok and Instagram Reels has changed that longstanding rule.

Traditional forms of reaching voters – broadcast television, mailers and town hall meetings – remain valuable. But legislative leaders on both sides of the aisle recognize that their intended audience has migrated to new spaces.

“We felt it was important to shift our platform,” Vincent Candelora, the leader of the House Republicans, said of the decision to commit more resources to social media content and allow Tammaro to become a face of the caucus.

That shift in strategy was visible during last year’s legislative session. One afternoon in March of 2025, Tammaro pitched a video responding to a press conference headlined by Sen. Chris Murphy. Caucus leadership let him run with it. Armed with a wireless microphone and one of his distinctive blazers, Tammaro stepped in front of the camera.

“Well, Senator Chris Murphy is in Hartford today running for president – I mean, holding another rally, another photo op,” Tammaro quipped in the post.

The video found success, racking up around 80,000 views on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.

“From there, I think we kind of realized that there was a lane that could be explored,” Tammaro said in an interview last week.

Tammaro is now in his fifth session with the House Republicans. He’s developed close working relationships with many of the caucus’s younger members including State Rep. Joe Polletta.

Over the last year, Tammaro has honed his on-camera style and used his deep knowledge of internet culture to help the caucus find its voice as a pithy, meme-fluent minority. Working with the House Republican communications team, Tammaro was one of the principal architects of the “Culture of Corruption” poster board that drew eyeballs and more than a few snickers from observers. 

The laughs were part of the point. The clear nod to the meme drawn from the show “Always Sunny in Philadelphia” was meant to get people talking.

“This is pretty mainstream meme that we were referencing,” Tammaro said.

“It was very intentional to do that in order to try to get more exposure,” Candelora added.

As a member of Generation X, Candelora is hardly an authority when it comes to knowing what’s dominant in internet meme culture. He said he’s gradually given Tammaro and the caucus’s other young staffers more latitude to lead the way.

“In the beginning it was a tighter leash,” he said. “The leash has definitely gotten much longer.”

“The beauty of meme culture is the ability to roll with the punches,” Tammaro explained. “It’s being able to capture, kind of, the zeitgeist of a particular moment.”

Tammaro’s more recent videos have adopted a style similar to that of TikTok political opinion influencers with direct-to-camera messages delivered against a backdrop of traditional news headlines.

On the other side of the building, Cotton has gotten to work helping the House Democrats find their own online voice and style.

While Tammaro and the Republican caucus have embraced a more punchy approach, the content produced by Cotton and her colleagues blends whimsy and wonkiness in a way that fits the character of many House Democrats.

One recent post describing the basics of the legislative process was opened by Cotton and multiple House Democrats staffers discussing how to pronounce the word “dais.”

“I thought that was great,” Matt Ritter, the House speaker, said. "It was really funny. It was catchy."

Ritter is admittedly a digital luddite. He said his daily social media diet consists of checking birthdays on Facebook and occasionally perusing the platform formerly known as Twitter for news about college basketball.

The internet habits of Ritter’s children – children often help explain social media to parents above a certain age – are still subject to family oversight. An ask from his 12-year-old son for a TikTok account has not yet been approved by the speaker’s wife, who is a physician. Instagram has been given the green light. A request for a Snapchat account has also been granted.

“But he’s followed by Uncle Franklin,” Ritter said, referring to his chief of staff and longtime friend, Franklin Perry. “So, he knows to be careful.”

Ritter, 42, does not have his own TikTok account or an active Instagram. He had to be prompted by a staffer to remember the name of Snapchat and the extent of his Reddit knowledge appeared to be that one of the platform’s co-founders, Alex Ohanian, is married to Serena Williams.

Just like Candelora, Ritter said he has placed a lot of trust in his staff, particularly Kimmi Grove and Todd Murphy, when it comes to pursuing a larger social media presence for the caucus.

In Cotton, the House Democratic Office has found a frontwoman who is accustomed to performance and creative strategy. Cotton has formal training in graphic design and most recently worked at a signage company. She moonlights as a musician, working the circuit of local venues and posting performances online. Her original music and covers (like this rendition of Jason Isbell’s “Cast Iron Skillet”) are well worth a listen.

Cotton’s pivot into politics came after a conversation with a friend who works for the caucus.

“I wanted to be more inspired by the work that I was doing in my 9 to 5,” Cotton said.

This year’s session marks Cotton’s first experience in government. Her content leans into that outsider status, bringing viewers along for an inside look at state government. The video about the speaker's dais is part of a series Cotton has titled "What the heck is going on here?"

“I would say I’m more of a translator than an educator,” she said when asked if she viewed her content as educational.

Asked about the places she draws inspiration for content, Cotton cited Chi Ossé, the progressive New York councilman who helped pioneer a style of vertical video making that has been widely adopted by other politicians.

James Tallarico, the Texas representative battling to be the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate, is another touchpoint with his minimalist, direct style.

“We have to figure out who the cool kids are,” Cotton said of her job.

In the world of political content creation, there is perhaps no one who fits the “cool kid” description better than New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

“He’s got the film-y, vintage, kind of old school vibe that I try to pull a lot visually into the stuff we’re doing,” Coton said, demonstrating the value of an artist’s eye.

Mamdani is also a lodestar for McHoltz of the Senate Democratic Office.

“It’s so engaging,” McHoltz said of Mamdani’s content. “It’s simple, digestible and interesting.”

Like Cotton, McHoltz is new to government. She’s incorporated a similar outsider, learn-as-we-go narrative into her videos. But she’s no stranger to creating content that shapes political discourse.

For six consecutive seasons, McHoltz has been a video editor for “Saturday Night Live.” Her work focused mainly on the pre-taped segments that often take the form of parody commercials, movie trailers and the viral work of the comedy group “Please Don’t Destroy.”

McHoltz is not the first staffer from the Senate Democratic Office to step in front of the camera. But, like Cotton and Tammaro, her fluency with the craft has elevated the caucus’s content to a new level.

“I think it’s just a natural extension of what we’ve been doing for a while,” Bob Duff, the Democratic majority leader, said of the decision to hire McHoltz.

Duff has become something of a social media influencer himself, a development he attributes partly to a surprising source of inspiration: President Donald Trump.

“The only thing about Trump that has been interesting to me – that’s not aggravating – is that it’s allowed my inner creativity to kind of flourish a little bit,” he said.

Other senators and representatives have been less eager to formulate their own content.

“Legislators, you know, we can be stiff,” Ritter said. “We can be inflexible.”

Cotton, McHoltz, Tammaro and their fellow communications staffers have been catalysts for change on that front. They’ve each helped familiarize legislators with new mediums for political communication.

“It’s honestly a fun process because a lot of them understand that we’re doing this to serve them, to advance our priorities,” Tammaro said.

In addition to videos featuring staff, the legislative caucus accounts have increased their volume of lawmaker-fronted posts which are frequently conceived and edited by the on-camera staffers.

Not to be forgotten, the Senate Republicans have also been prolific in the realm of short form video. Where they differ from the other three caucuses is in keeping the camera fixed solely on legislators.

Rumor mill: Lack of filings from Maher and Romano fuel speculation

Among the class of Connecticut politicos who check the state’s campaign filing system with regularity, several notable omissions from the roster of incumbents filing for re-election have become the subject of rumors.

State Sen. Ceci Maher, a Democrat who represents multiple towns in Fairfield County, is one of only three Democratic senators who has not filed for re-election. The other two are State Sen. Jan Hochadel, who is said to be declining to seek another term, and State Sen. John Fonfara. In the last three cycles, Fonfara has filed later many of his colleagues, meaning this year might not be an anomaly. He opened his 2020, 2022 and 2024 campaign committees in May.

On the other hand, Maher, who was first elected in 2022, opened her 2024 committee in January of that year. Her 2022 campaign committee was also formed in January. Should she decline to run for another term, there is no shortage of Democrats in her district who might consider a run. State Rep. Lucy Dathan, a New Canaanite who was elected in 2018, has been mentioned as a possible successor if Maher steps aside this year.

The fractious political scene in Shelton might also see a succession process play out this year. State Rep. Amy Romano, a Republican elected in a special election last year to fill the seat vacated by Jason Perillo, has not yet filed as a candidate.

That’s all for this week. We’ll be back next week with another edition of the Tip Sheet!