However it ends, the federal criminal investigation of state House Speaker Chris Donovan's congressional campaign will have provided a primer about Connecticut's political economy.
First, state government raised cigarette taxes so high as to confer great profitability not only on cigarette smuggling but also the rental of cigarette manufacturing machines in "roll-your-own" tobacco shops. When the state tried to enforce the cigarette tax on the shops, a court found the tax didn't cover cigarettes made by people rolling their own on rented machines.
So a law to close the tax loophole was introduced in the legislature, setting off a scheme to stop it. The FBI quickly penetrated the scheme and inflated it into a sting operation, indicting two Donovan campaign officials and six other people. The indictments have obtained a guilty plea from a state employee union official described as a close friend of the House speaker, as well as incriminating emails from a legislative staffer.
The scheme was to raise money from "roll-your-own" interests, illegally disguise its origin, and donate it to the speaker's campaign for Congress on the understanding that he would subvert the legislation. The legislation was subverted for a while, as the legislature somehow didn't get around to it during its regular session. The bill was passed in a special session, after the scandal broke.
Donovan says he knew nothing about the scheme, remains a candidate for the Democratic nomination in the 5th District, and insists indignantly, "My vote is not for sale." Maybe it's not, but throughout Connecticut special interests are always available for purchase politically, government being so pervasive — taxing, regulating or subsidizing nearly everything — that special interests have become practically a buffet for elected officials. "Roll-your-own" tobacco shops constitute barely an hors d'oeuvre.
Donovan may not have purchased the "roll-your-own" lobby with a promise to block the tax legislation, but he long has owned the franchise on Connecticut's public employee unions, which are sticking with him even as the scandal grows and suspicion about him jeopardizes his party's hold on the 5th District seat in Congress.
And that may be the conclusion of the Connecticut political primer — that for most of the people who practice it, politics is much less about principles, issues and parties than it is about themselves.
Chris Powell is managing editor of the Journal Inquirer in Manchester.
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