Turns out a big loser from the November elections is now a big winner.

Betsy Ritter, a longtime House representative from Waterford, lost her bid for a state Senate seat, failing to carry even her hometown. The Democrat lost to the challenger from East Lyme, Paul Formica, in seven of eight towns in the district.

That might have been the end of the story. The voters spoke.

But, no.

Gov. Dannel Malloy, leveraging his own win at the polls and using the long reach of political patronage, plucked Ritter from the ashes of voter dismissal and nominated her instead to be the new commissioner on aging.

Never mind that $28,000-a-year state Senate job. Ritter, 63, is headed instead for a $125,000-a-year commissionership, with the potential to turbocharge a lifetime of state pension payments, courtesy of taxpayers.

If you can lose like that, who needs to win?

So do we think Gov. Malloy combed the country for the best person to take over a state agency with a $9.5 million budget, one charged with creating new support systems for Connecticut's elderly, and came up with Ritter? I don't.

Did she beat out all the other dozens of candidates with long resumes showing experience in executive management of big bureaucracies? Did she win out based on her qualifications and experience in directing progressive 21st-century care for the elderly? Not likely. Was there a search at all? Almost certainly not.

This was a shameful and arrogant appointment by the governor who, because of his own win at the polls, apparently feels emboldened to do whatever he wants, pay back any outstanding political favors, never mind the best interests of the state. This bodes very badly for the Malloy years ahead.

Honestly, would it be any less unseemly if he just plucked some stray inexperienced cousin, college pal or business crony and installed him or her in a commissionership? I don't think so.

It certainly cheapens the governor's hard-won win in November.

There is a long tradition of political patronage powering a big revolving door in Hartford, but Malloy seems to have honed it into a fine art. It's too bad he couldn't learn to do something else better.

Curiously, Ritter got into some political quicksand of her own last fall because of her failure, and the state's failure, to do anything about the abandoned historic buildings at Seaside in Waterford.

Some of the blame for the years of neglect of the state-owned buildings at Seaside fell on Donald DeFronzo, the former commissioner of administrative services, the agency responsible for Seaside. And where did Malloy find DeFronzo before making him commissioner in 2011? The legislature, of course. The former New Britain mayor served five terms in the Senate before Malloy appointed him a commissioner.

DeFronzo is retiring, to be succeeded by a new Malloy appointment, Melody Currey, who most recently ran the Department of Motor Vehicles. And where was she before Malloy appointed her to the DMV? In the General Assembly, of course, a deputy speaker of the House.

In naming the former politician to her new commissionership, Malloy praised Currey for making the DMV more accessible to the public.

Anyone who has found the DMV more accessible during the Malloy years, please raise your hands.

And who was the Malloy pick for a new DMV commissioner? That's right, someone from the state Senate.

These are good examples of the reasons why people are cynical about government and the way taxpayer money is wasted.

There is nowhere in the private sector where you could give away plum, high-paying jobs to unqualified candidates with no experience, just because you want to pay back some favors.

It is, at best, unethical.

If people think the legislators are underpaid - and I think they are - they should advocate for reform. Make it a full-time legislature and pay lawmakers appropriately. It wouldn't cost that much.

And when voters turn them out of office, pay attention.

People expect good government in a democracy, a meritocracy, to at least be about finding and appointing the most qualified and capable candidates for important jobs.

They don't expect them to be doled out like party favors.

This is the opinion of David Collins

d.collins@theday.com

Twitter: DavidCollinsct