Hartford

Um, of course, we did see this on the screen, that, uh, Elias comes and hits him with the guitar and knocks him out or whatever backstage.

And, uh, he was super excited, "There's Roman Reigns," but the fans were booing Roman Reigns, and I don't know, uh, what that's all about, if it's a Hartford, Connecticut thing or, or what.

But the fans were booing Roman Reig- Roman Reigns, and then Elias comes out, sits down, he has his guitar, he, he, he talks his smack or whatever, and, you know, he calls Hartford a toilet, you know? [laughs]

[laughs]

And, um, does his little song, "Hartford's a disgrace," you know, and it's, it's his usual thing.

And, uh, he starts to leave, and I could see my, my son is bummed out.

He's like, "Oh, man, Roman Reigns isn't, isn't gonna do anything?" Well, he comes out and ah, I don't even know really how it goes.

I've only, I've only been through Connecticut one time.

Last summer I went to Hartford.

Uh, I will say that it was a gorgeous place, very small.

You know, kind of the old town vibes when I did pull off the interstate, but I'm not very familiar with the state as a whole.

Indeed.

Indeed.

That's where I met him as a matter of fact while I was in Hartford.

So I mean, hey, we could get this going y'all.

Yours truly, Johnny Dollar.

[dramatic music] Expense accounts submitted by Special Investigator Johnny Dollar, DeFloyd's of London, North American office, Hartford, Connecticut.

Following is an account of expenses incurred during my investigation of the Night in Paris matter.

[dramatic music] Expense account item one, $12 even for a call to Paris, France, to a man I wouldn't trust any further than you could throw the Louvre, Louis DeMassac.

I'll be there.

[hangs up phone] [instrumental music] Expense account item two, $1,000 worth of American Express traveler's checks.

428 of it went for plane fare, Hartford to New York to Paris.

The flight was uneventful, except for the person who occupied the seat next to me.

Yeah, uh-huh.

I just got to Hartford, Connecticut.

We are beginning tech tomorrow.

So these will be, you know, cool 10-hour days.

What was cool is Jim Murray, believe it or not, and I were born in the same hometown of New London, Connecticut.

And we both grew up in Connecticut, him in Hartford, myself in East Lyme.

So we always had that common sort of experience to talk about whenever we met.

He, of course, was a lot older than me at the time.

So your investigative piece, again co-written with Luke Goldstein, is titled How a Hedge Fund Billionaire Became the Democrats' New Kingmaker.

The story specifically cites the Democratic Party challenge by former Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin against longtime 14-term incumbent congressman from Connecticut, John Larson.

Luke Bronin won that election, 54% to 33%.

And he'll likely be elected to Congress this November.

Yeah, yeah, it is.

I think this race is, you know, for us when we were writing this, it's like kind of the key to understanding, you know, this billionaire, hedge fund billionaire in Connecticut who we were sort of profiling.

You know, I think that the story that was told about that race, you know, in which, as you said, you know, former Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin unseated, you know, the longtime incumbent John Larson, who is sort of this longtime progressive figure.

The story that sort of emerged after that election is one about sort of the gerontocracy, right, of the Democratic Party.

It's been a beautiful ride down here, like no traffic even on the Mass Pike.

Hartford was easy and I get here and I'm like, this is like a resort feel.

Oh, absolutely gorgeous.

Absolutely.

The first time I went, it was the 2024 playoffs.

I hop in a rental car with the Star Tribune's Kent Youngblood at the Hartford airport.

And I'm just like, God, so this place is an hour and 10 minutes from Hartford.

And yeah, but just, and then being there for an extended period covering games three and four there, it's like, okay, I've been in this casino for, I don't even know how many hours, but it's just such like a fun community around the team.

And also like, you know, you leave shoot around, and you leave the game and you leave media availability, and you run into the players and the coaches literally, just like around that just gargantuan facility.