9 July—A red-shouldered hawk flies out of the woods every morning at 9:30, perches on the Exbury azalea outside the office window, glides down to the Asessippi lilac by the windmill, spends about a minute there, flies over to the dead white ash to relax for a few minutes, then soars back into the woods.

A lone fairly young wild turkey has been making the rounds of Pinchpenny Park twice a day—early morning and late afternoon—for two weeks. No idea where the rest of the flock is or if it’s even survived the weather or predation by bobcats and coyotes. And black bears can’t be ruled out as turkey predators.

Five-term State Representative Josh Elliott, a member of the dreaded Progressive Caucus, yesterday filed all the bumf to run for governor next year. Of course he’s a Democrat. (Progressive Republicans went out of fashion even before Trumpublicans were excreted.) Problem is, incumbent Gov. Ned Lamont, also a Democrat (and more progressive than he likes to let on), has intimated—but not yet confirmed—that he’ll go for a third term.

Elliott had predicted that Lamont wouldn’t go unchallenged. Second sight? Or simply fulfilling his own non-prophecy?

Just in this session, Rep. Elliott co-introduced some 145 bills. Most of them, believe it or not, were pretty worthy, like the one permitting assisted suicide and another authorizing municipalities to prohibit the sale of dogs, cats, and rabbits in pet shops. Pity it didn’t prohibit the sale of all animals in pet shops, including fish.

On the other hand, some of Josh’s bills, like the one actually requiring all registered voters to actually vote and another giving unemployment insurance to striking workers, were rather ridiculous. None of the four made it into law, by the way, the strikers’ pay thanks to Lamont’s veto.

So assuming that Elliott actually goes through with his challenge to Lamont (he dropped out of the secretary of the state race in 2022 to run again for his house seat), he must know that he’ll lose a convention and primary because Ned is exceptionally popular among Democrats—even though organized labor may try to make him sweat.

Disaffected Democrats could—but not necessarily would and less likely will—give the Connecticut GOP an opportunity to finesse a Republican governor as well as a little more clout in the General Assembly. But unless they field a better gubernatorial candidate than the ones they’ve put up since the late—and great—Gov. Jodi Rell, they’ll screw themselves yet again.

And that’s precisely what’s likely to happen next year. Because screwing themselves is what Connecticut Republicans do best . . .