UPDATE (5:47 p.m.)
Vice President Joe Biden has ditched his prepared remarks and is giving a full-throated defense of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and indictment of the GOP.
“This isn’t your father’s Republican Party,” Biden told top Democratic contributors and dignitaries, according to a person inside the event.
The private reception is closed to the press.
Biden bemoaned the partisan gridlock in the nation’s capital, characterizing it as “this god awful division.”
The VEEP referred to Malloy as an innovator.
“It’s all about being one Connecticut,” Biden was said to have told the small group, which numbered about 30 people, including Miss USA Nia Sanchez.
UPDATE (5:20 p.m.)
North Street, flanked by trophy estates and manicured lawns, more closely resembles the Post Road at rush hour.
The north-south artery was shut down for about 20 minutes to clear the way for the motorcade of Vice President Joe Biden — 16 motorcycles and 20 cars.
Biden is currently addressing 30 dignitaries, some of whom paid $15,000 to be photographed with the VEEP, at a reception for the Democratic Governors Association.
UPDATE (3:55 p.m.)
A chauffeur-driven Rolls Royce with the Connecticut vanity plate “SCIENCE” likely mistook us for the valet en route to $10K per person reception with Vice President Joe Biden.
The car pulled off onto a service road at the North Street fire station, where Greenwich police are keeping the media at bay.
It’s about one-quarter mile to Wyckham Hill Lane, where the first of two fundraisers with the VEEP is expected to get underway shortly.
Miss USA Nia Sanchez – Contributed photo.
UPDATE (3:37 p.m.)
Vice President Joe Biden is surrounding himself with the beautiful people.
Miss USA Nia Sanchez, the 24-year-old pageant queen from Nevada, is among the guests at a private reception for the Democratic Governors Association that is is scheduled to get underway shortly in Greenwich, Hearst Connecticut Media has learned.
About 30 to 40 people are awaiting the VEEP, who is said to be running about 30 minutes late, a source familiar with Biden’s itinerary told the newspaper.
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy greets Vice President Joe Biden as he disembarks from Air Force Two at Bradley International Airport on Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2014. Contributed photo.
UPDATE (2:20 p.m.)
NetJets is for amateurs.
Vice President Joe Biden has the solution to Fairfield County gridlock: Air Force Two.
The VEEP, accompanied by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., is expected to take the short hop from Bradley to Westchester County Airport for a pair of top-dollar fundraisers in Greenwich and Malloy’s hometown of Stamford later this afternoon.
The Boeing C-32, a modified version of a Boeing 757, costs about $22,000 an hour to operate.
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, left, and Vice President Joe Biden participate in a roundtable on a workforce development initiative at Goodwin College in East Hartford on Aug. 20, 2014. Contributed photo.
UPDATE (1:56 p.m.)
Vice President Joe Biden, visting Goodwin College in East Hartford for a roundtable event with Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, extended his condolences to the family slain American journalist James Foley.
“Our hearts go out to the Foley family,” Biden said. “We all mourn Jim’s loss.”
Biden condemned Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) for the beheading of Foley.
“This was a man doing his job…victimized by one most outrageous groups I’ve encountered,” Biden said, according to NBC Connecticut’s George Colli, who was part of the White House reporter pool inside the event.
Biden singled-out Connecticut during the event, characterizing the state as a leader in manufacturing.
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He’s President Barack Obama’s No. 2, but Vice President Joe Biden is no cheap ticket.
Biden will command $10,000 per person at a private reception this afternoon in backcountry Greenwich benefiting the Democratic Governors Association, the first of two Gold Coast fundraisers meant to try to preserve the endangered incumbency of Dannel P. Malloy.
For another $5,000, heavy hitters can get their photo taken with Biden, who is being hosted by Albanian banker Richard Lukaj at his $6.6 million estate, which backs up onto a nature preserve that the Secret Service is expected to close to hikers and mountain bikers.
Fresh off a week-long vacation in the Hamptons, Biden will later visit the French neo-Renaissance chateau of Stamford real estate developer Thomas Rich — the property is known locally as the Castle — for a state Democratic Party fundraiser.
Both events are closed to the media.
The lone public event on Biden’s schedule will come at 12:30 p.m. at Goodwin College in East Hartford, where the VP is scheduled to make a joint appearance with Malloy to promote a workforce development initiative.
Biden and Malloy are expected bypass the Merritt Parkway on their way down to Greenwich, swooping in to Westchester County Airport by unspecified aircraft.
A July 27 New York Times and CBS News poll showed Malloy trailing Republican Tom Foley by 9 percentage points in a rematch of their 2010 tilt, which was decided by 6,400 votes.
Foley took the high road on Biden’s visit in an interview with Hearst Connecticut Media.
“It’s great,” Foley said. “Any time the vice president of the United States comes to Connecticut, that’s good for Connecticut.”
Hearst Connecticut Media will have comprehensive real-time coverage of Biden’s visit to Connecticut. Please check back for updates and follow us on Twitter @gettinviggy