If all had gone according to plan, Jerry Labriola Jr. would have spent the summer focused solely on his family, his real estate law practice and his gig playing keyboards in a pop-rock cover band.

But Labriola now has another task: rebuilding the fractured Connecticut Republican Party.

The lifelong Republican who proudly cast his first vote for President Gerald Ford in 1976 took over as GOP state chairman in late June. It wasn't a job he spent months campaigning for. In fact, Labriola decided to run for the post only after the favored candidate abruptly dropped out less than two weeks before the state central committee was scheduled to choose a new leader.

Competing and connecting

Each year, our 40 Under Forty program gets bigger and better.
That’s good news for everyone except the judges. When we asked three past winners to sort through the nominations, little did any of us realize we’d be handing them a binder that weighed more than five pounds.

From well over 250 nominations for more than 160 individuals, our judges honed the list to the best and brightest. Among the 75 percent who didn’t make this class were some strong candidates who most certainly will be community leaders in years to come. While they didn’t make the class this year, we encourage them to try again.

Hartford, Conn. (July 25, 2011) – Forty individuals, all under the age of 40, will be honored on Thursday, September 26, from 5:30-9:00 p.m. at the CT Convention Center in Hartford at the 40 Under Forty Awards. Produced by the Hartford Business Journal, the ceremony will recognize the Hartford region’s driven young business leaders.

“We are excited to recognize the outstanding achievements of these young business leaders,” said Gail Lebert, publisher of the Hartford Business Journal. “This year’s class is a driven, community-minded group of entrepreneurs, executives and philanthropists and we congratulate them on their many successes.”

The two Hartford teens stand in the dimmed and vacant state Supreme Court, hands planted in the warmth of their waist-cinched puffy coats. Chins skyward, their eyes skim the room's great murals and golden oak paneling.

"Where does the judge sit?" whispers Shantol Spencer, 16.

Corey Brinson, the Hartford attorney standing beside the pair, points to the long bench before them. But Spencer counts seven chairs.

"So, there's more than one judge?" the Weaver High School junior asks.

Seven, explains Brinson. But they're actually called justices. And they're appointed by the governor. Together, he says, they make up the state's highest court — the court of last resort.

"The things that happen here are very, very important," Brinson says.

A few nods, a few glances more, and the three weave through the rest of the building before exiting to the court's rainy Capitol Avenue steps. The girls bunch under Brinson's oversize umbrella, and they slosh onward to the civil and criminal courts that are next up on their afternoon tour. It's a loop around the legal system that Brinson likes to give to the students he mentors, about 10 in all — most of whom think they'd like to study law.