Kevin Rennie: Ann Lamont’s emails show an administration in flux

Ann Huntress Lamont did not think you would read this far. The wife of Gov. Ned Lamont and a powerhouse in his administration wrote in a March 12 email to the governor and three staff members, “headlines matter - as you know most people don’t go beyond that.” But you may still want to keep reading.

Emails to and from Mrs. Lamont obtained through a request for documents under the Freedom of Information Act reveal life inside the Lamont bunker as it struggled to work the levers of power in its first year.

From soda to health care to the land mine of tolls, the messages provide a look at an administration run by people with little experience wrestling with an independent legislature and intricate bureaucracy. Lamont receives advice from a wide range of sources. His accomplished wife appears at times to be his most vocal advisor -- though not always aware of the unintended consequences of change.

The wealthy governor grew so irked with the legislature’s resistance to his budget that he -- apparently joking -- proposed to his staff that the state limit legislators’ health insurance coverage in retaliation for opposing his unpopular tax on soda.

“Let’s cap legislators health insurance claims, given their showy addiction 16 ounce Sodas, it could be very expensive to the next generation. Show picture 🙂 let’s go on the offense,” Lamont wrote in an email that included his wife, who responded, “Love it!” The proposal came at the end of a message expressing dismay that his administration was playing too much defense.

But another insider got caught up in the sugary drink mess. In January, Ned Lamont announced with fanfare that Indra Nooyi would be helping his administration with economic development. Nooyi was a big get. She retired last year as the head of PepisCo and ascended to a seat on the Amazon board of directors. Last month, her portrait was inducted into the National Portrait Gallery collection. My friends, that is living.

Nooyi, the celebrated corporate face of sugary drinks for years, was in a spot in February when her friend Ned Lamont proposed that tax on soda. Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, guru of leadership studies at Yale who wrote a fulsome profile of Nooyi in 2018, shared some unsettling news in a Feb. 20 message to both Lamonts. “Psst - if you get a chance -Indra is embarrassed and surprised by the soda tax - avoiding PepsiCo colleagues and media.” Oh dear.

Nooyi is a trooper. The legislature killed the tax and Nooyi soldiers on, trying to serve Connecticut. The administration does not cooperate. In a June 13 email to Ann Lamont, Nooyi complains, “My only request Annie and Ned. For me to talk about the budget, I need it laid out in a way that I can speak from it. Been desperately trying to get from governors team. I think root canal is easier. They seem to be swamped.”

Indeed, the workload is heavy, and to Mrs. Lamont, “it sometimes feels like 5 people are doing everything.”

Ann Lamont, who receives weekly briefings from chief of staff Ryan Drajewicz, is a force in her husband’s administration. She knew that her husband’s decision to abandon his trucks-only campaign pledge would be a costly gamble. In a Feb. 17 message to chief of staff Ryan Drajewicz, she tags the toll proposal as “breaking a promise out of the box.” She doesn’t “want to lose good will with voters so quickly you can’t get things done.” Too late.

Damaging as Lamont’s toll odyssey has been, it would have been worse if he’d followed the advice of deputy chief of staff Jonathan Dach. He suggested in a Feb. 23 message that the “Boss” propose imposing a vehicle miles traveled tax -- allowing the state to track our miles with GPS technology and impose a fee -- when Lamont met with other New England governors.

Ann Lamont, who has made a fortune in health care investments, was a key advisor in choosing the new social services commissioner. Mrs. Lamont thinks fewer people should be in nursing homes. In a March 6 message, she writes, “I know nursing home [aides] are afraid to lose jobs but they can be repurposed to good jobs in home care.” Someone might want to run that by the powerful healthcare workers’ union.

In a July 29 email, the Lamonts’ daughter Emily provides polling information from the campaign and bemoans that “they left TOLLS and failure to pass TOLLS dominate.” Her father is still the “Rich guy from Greenwich.” She adds, “Guarantee you legalize weed and you’ll see a quick sustained bump.”

Maybe next year.

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