Most of the attention to Tuesday’s primaries was drawn to Wisconsin, where the proxy “battle” between Mike Pence and his former boss was purportedly taking place. In the Republican gubernatorial primary, Trump allegiant Tim Michels, a very wealthy man of several domiciles, ended the public career of former Lieutenant Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch, who had the support of Pence and much of what passes for the Republican establishment in the post-Walker era. But my attention was directed by a very smart person, who generally has a laser pointer for a political instinct, toward the Republican races in Connecticut.

Wednesday was the anniversary of the inauguration of Gerald Ford. (Get used to these, kidz. This summer was the 50th anniversary of the actual break-in; there are two years of golden anniversaries to come.) This was Richard Nixon’s final, permanent eviction notice from government housing. The earlier ones had been delivered by Republicans, most notably one day in 1973 when Nixon aide John Ehrlichman tried his tough-guy act on the Ervin committee. It did not end well for him.

"I think I express the feelings of the 42 other Republican Senators that I work with [...] and in fact the Republican Party, far better than these illegal, unconstitutional and gross acts which have been committed over the past several months by various individuals […] God knows Republicans don't view their fellow Americans as enemies to be harassed but rather [...] as human beings to be loved and wanted.”

That was a Connecticut Republican named Lowell Weicker, slapping Ehrlichman into the following Tuesday to a resounding ovation in the Senate hearing room.

Connecticut Republicans used to be akin to Massachusetts Republicans, albeit a little more attached to the insurance industry and the money centers of Manhattan. Even old Prescott Bush, who had too many interesting friends in Germany in the 1930s, joined the fight against Joe McCarthy. He was way ahead of the curve on reproductive rights and was an early booster of the United Negro College Fund, which later had its famous slogan, “a mind is a terrible thing to waste,” butchered by Dan Quayle, a vice president in the employ of Prescott’s son. (History is so cool.)

Anyway, their day is done.

Connecticut Republicans made it quite plain on Tuesday that their red ball caps are cocked, locked and ready to rock. Last Thursday, the former president* endorsed Leora Levy’s underdog campaign for the Senate against incumbent Democrat Richard Blumenthal, a stalwart on the Senate Judiciary Committee during the previous administration*. Lo and behold, she thumpingly defeated Themis Karides, a moderate who’d received nearly 60 percent of the vote at the state GOP convention, in a genuine upset. From the Hartford Courant:

Levy stunned many political observers by running a highly spirited campaign, raising more money than her rivals and constantly blasting Klarides in negative television commercials that were shown repeatedly on multiple channels. [...] "We're making history here," Levy said in her victory speech at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Old Greenwich. "It’s really exciting. This is just chapter one. We’ve got the longer chapter ahead. … My sister and I escaped communist Cuba. ... This is our story, and our journey was tragedy and sacrifice. But it was hope at the end. And we found hope here in America. My American Dream is I am a candidate here for the U.S. Senate."

Levy wasted no time in establishing her MAGA bona fides.

Regarding Monday’s high-profile search by FBI agents for classified documents at Trump’s home at Mar-a-Lago in Florida, Levy said, “That is unAmerican. That is what they do in Cuba, in China, in dictatorships […] Here in Connecticut, Dick Blumenthal is Joe Biden. Dick Blumenthal supported defunding the police.’’

That is, of course, wildly untrue. I have no experience with Blumenthal as a campaigner, except that he’s a Democrat in Connecticut who’s never lost a race. But I hope he and his people are ready because the shitstorm is approaching.

By the way, the Republican nominee for Secretary of State in Connecticut is a guy named Dominic Rapini, a Silicon Valley refugee whose attitude toward government in general, and elections in particular, he was proud to share with a local site called CT News Junkie:

Fixing the current election technology system is an urgent need, he said, adding that there’s a saying in Silicon Valley, “You have to destroy the good to make room for the great.”

“I want to get it functional and then I want to destroy it and start all over again,” he said. “I treat Connecticut elections software as a brand. I want to instill a sense of confidence with our voters, so we will be best in class across the board.”

Lowell Weicker is dead, and I’m not feeling so well myself.

Headshot of Charles P. Pierce
Charles P. Pierce

Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976. He lives near Boston and has three children.