One of the more interesting vagaries in any campaign season is when an incumbent politician puts out is press release abut something that happened in their district, but doesn't make it clear what role they played in making it happen.

Such was the case Monday when Fifth District Congresswoman Elizabeth Esty's office put out a press release about Meriden-based drug maker Protein Sciences receiving a $669,156 grant from the federal Department of Health and Human Services. The funding is from the National Cancer Institute through the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program and will be used to support lung cancer treatment. 

The release is pretty standard fare, with Esty saying nice things about the company and Protein Sciences saying nice things about the Democratic congresswoman. What neither side makes clear is whether Esty had a hand in securing the funding.

If she did, then she should make it clear. Because otherwise it looks like an attempt to hitch her campaign's wagon to some positive news in the Fifth District.

Esty, a Cheshire woman, is smart enough and honorable enough to know better than to leave it open to question. She's also an experienced lawmaker who is good enough at what she does to know better.

Here's what Esty and the company said said in the press release. First, Esty:
 

“Protein Sciences is on the cutting edge of developing innovative healthcare solutions for the 21^st century, and it is no surprise that the Department of Health and Human Services awarded this funding,” she said. “Last year when I toured their facility, I saw first-hand how Protein Sciences stands as a global leader in the biotech industry, creating jobs here in Connecticut. This grant will allow Protein Sciences to continue to deliver life-saving technologies to effectively treat lung cancer patients and keep our families healthy.”

Now here's what Dan Adams, executive vice chairman and global head of business development for Protein Sciences said:

 

“We are gratified to be awarded this contract to help develop a novel approach to treating patients with lung cancer,” he said. “We are collaborating with UCLA and Vault Nano Inc., developers of the vault approach to targeted cell delivery, and using our proprietary baculovirus technology to manufacture recombinant vaults that will deliver a potent chemokine to tumors.

“Elizabeth Esty has been a strong supporter of our company and its proprietary technology that can transform the vaccine business with products such as Flublok and vaults.  She has been a leader in promoting groundbreaking Connecticut technologies such as ours in Washington, and we greatly appreciate her help,”  Adams said.

In the interest of full disclosure, an Esty staffer did reach out to me Monday and offered to provide me with additional information beyond the release. Coverage of other stories Monday did not permit me to make a call back.

I will follow up with a call to the Esty campaign Tuesday in an effort to get some answers to the questions that have been raised in this post. But tell me, dear reader, what conclusions do you draw having read what Esty and the company said. 

Len Suzio didn't spend too long in private life, licking his wounds over losing the 13th District State Senate Seat to Dante Bartolomeo last November.

Suzio (shown at left) announced Monday that he has been appointed to the Advisory Commitee for the state's Office of Victim Advocate. The Meriden Republican was appointed to the position by State Senate Minority Leader John McKinney, R-Fairfield.

"If you look at the make up of the Committee, I figured my being on it would make it interesting," Suzio said in a phone interview Tuesday. The current members of the advisory committee include Cathy Malloy, the wife of Democratic Governor Dannel Malloy and Mike Lawlor, who is undersecretary for the state's Office of Policy and Management.

When Suzio was still a Senator, he and Lawlor clashed frequently over the state's "Early Release" program for prisoners, particularly after the June 27 killing of 70-year-old Ibrahim Ghazal, a Meriden convenience store owner who was shot to death during an armed robbery.

"Last year, I had the opportunity to meet and work with the State Victim Advocate, Michelle Cruz, as we sought to reform the Early Release law that allows violent criminals out of prison long before their sentences are completely served," Suzio said. "All too often violent criminals are out of jail before their innocent victims are out of the hospital. I want to make certain the rights of crime victims are not run over roughshod by criminal rights lawyers and their political sympathizers."

Of course, serving on the advisory committee will give Suzio a higher political profile than if he had totally devoted his attention to his business as a banking industry consultant. Suzio said he hasn't ruled out a possible run for political office, but said "two years is a lifetime in politics."

BREAKING NEWS: Cox Communications is eliminating WPIX from the channel line-up of its Meriden system, which also includes subscribers in Cheshire and Southington.

Cox's Meriden system subscribers have not had access to the channel since last Friday when Cablevision blacked out WPIX's feed in a dispute with the New York City-base television station's owner, Tribune Co., over retransmission fees. Cablevision's Connecticut systems and Cox share a line use to bring WPIX's retransmission into the state and so Cox's Meriden customers were affected as a result.

A Cox regional spokeswoman, Dana Alexander Nolfe, had told the New Haven Register last Friday that Cox was working to rectify the problem. But on Wednesday, an angry subscriber from Meriden received this e-mail from a customer service representative at the company's New England headquarters, which is based in Rhode Island:                                                              

"Thank you for your recent e-mail to Cox regarding general questions for community outreach.

We do apologize for the inconvenience this may cause. At this time, Cox has decided to remove WPIX-11 from the channel lineup. Rather than find an alternative way to receive the signal, we've opted to discontinue the channel so that we can use the bandwidth to increase Internet speeds and add future HDTV content."

A call was placed to Nolfe shortly before 9 p.m. Wednesday after the newspaper was made aware of the e-mail an hour or so earlier. In the meantime, I'd like to know what Cox's Meriden customers think of the company's actions.

Submit your comments to this blog or e-mail them to me at lturmelle@nhregister.com