Gov.-elect Dan Malloy will make official tomorrow what’s been apparent for weeks: Roy Occhiogrosso, his media strategist through two statewide campaigns, will be joining the administration as a senior adviser.
According to Kevin Rennie’s blog, Malloy also will name Sen. Andrew McDonald, D-Stamford, as his legal counsel. McDonald, who was legal counsel during Malloy’s mayoral administration in Stamford, has declined in recent weeks to say if he would take the post.
The mischievous Rennie headlined his piece “Team of Rivals,” which is sure to stir the pot in Malloy’s inner circle.
McDonald’s departure will end one bit of speculation at the Capitol: Would he stick around, hoping that Senate President Pro Tem Donald E. Williams Jr. might move on, letting McDonald join the Senate leadership?
As legal counsel, McDonald is likely to enjoy the same profile and influence that the job once carried. He is a close friend of Malloy, who performed McDonald’s wedding ceremony. His departure will leave open the co-chair of the judiciary committee.
Malloy is holding a press conference in Stamford to announce his two senior staff appointments.
The legislature’s leadership is holding up committee assignments, waiting to see who might jump to the Malloy administration or jobs for one of the other newly elected constitutional officers
The other co-chair, Rep. Michael P. Lawlor, D-East Haven, is another Malloy supporter frequently mentioned as a possible appointee, though Lawlor has declined to discuss any interest in stepping down as the committee’s longest-serving chair.
Meanwhile, House Majority Leader Denise Merrill, the incoming secretary of the state, has offered a job to Rep. James Spallone, D-Essex, the co-chairman of the government administration and elections committee. No word on whether he will accept.