Sure, politics is hemispheric. Depending on your perspective, the bad guys are in the other party; and in the dark. Even the overall majority who eschew labels and have registered as unaffiliated, if they vote, have to choose candidates who are from one party or another. But when it comes down to it, people and their families are the same throughout the state, whatever political labels they wear.
And in the cauldrons that are politics and the Connecticut General Assembly, sheer proximity, multiplied by years of committee meetings, debates, campaigns and House and Senate sessions, friendships are forged. So it was no surprise on Tuesday to see Republican State Chairman Jerry Labriola exchanging pleasantries, even joking with Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman and Gov. Dannel P. Malloy. The scene was St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church in Fairfield, before the memorial service for Lucie C. McKinney, 80, the mother of Senate Minority Leader John McKinney, R-Fairfield, who is campaigning for the GOP nomination to challenge Malloy for governor. Malloy had an aisle seat, Wyman sat next to him and Labriola, who on any given day has lots of criticism against Malloy, was next to Wyman. A few rows back sat Tom Foley, who won the Republican party endorsement last weekend, when McKinney and Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton won enough support to force August 12 primaries. By the door of the church, among about 50 people standing who couldn’t get seats in the crowded church, was Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch.
“This event transcended political partisanship,” Labriola said afterwards. “At times like these, for a brief moment we put aside the political competition. I enjoyed the exchanges I had with the governor and the lieutenant governor.”
