It s been quite a week for Connecticut politics, what with some Republicans claiming last week s riots in Washington were started by antifa leftists and the incoming House minority leader comparing the siege of the U.S. Capitol with the summer s Black Lives Matter protests.
Connecticut journalists have kept up pretty well with the turmoil.
Some of the curious news twists of the week have actually pivoted on Connecticut journalism, both good and bad.
On the good side of that equation, we saw fine reporting from Jon Lender of the Hartford Courant, who thoroughly explored what I would have to label the corrupt deal in which Gov. Ned Lamont used his emergency pandemic powers to bypass competitive bidding rules and award a $250,000 contract with possibly more to come to the public relations firm of politically connected Duby McDowell.
Duby McDowell and Kevin Rennie will no longer be co-hosts of WFSB, Channel 3′s weekend Face the State news-interview show after this Sunday’s broadcast, following criticism that McDowell had a conflict of interest because of her private public-relations firm’s new $250,000, no-bid contract with the administration of Gov. Ned Lamont, a fellow Democrat for whom she has expressed public support. McDowell and Rennie, who is a Courant columnist, were hired as a team in October to replace recently departed “Face the State” host Dennis House and now they’re both leaving after a problem surfaced with one of them, McDowell. “Face the State” will continue, but WFSB has not said who will replace the duo after their final broadcast Sunday at 8:30 a.m. on the local CBS affiliate.
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Published January 07. 2021 6:20PM By
Gov. Ned Lamont has been largely judicious in the use of the emergency powers granted him to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, which makes the administration’s decision to use those powers to steer a contract to a public-relations firm with strong Democratic Party connections all the more puzzling and troubling.
In late December, with many folks distracted by the holidays, the administration announced it had entered into a three-month, $250,000 contract with McDowell Communications to handle communications about the pandemic and the vaccine rollout. The state is using federal COVID-relief funds to pay for the work.
Sometimes a government announcement raises at least as many questions as it answers. That’s what happened last week when the Lamont Administration announced it has entered a three-month, no-bid contract paying $250,000 to a public-relations firm headed by Duby McDowell a former TV reporter with Democratic political ties who now co-hosts WFSB, Channel 3′s, Sunday Face the State program to take the lead on news and communications about the COVID-19 pandemic for the state Department of Public Health.