Well it looks like we poor slobs in Connecticut will have to endure yet another clash of egos of ambitious rich politicians for yet another election cycle.

I'll focus here on the gubernatorial race.

For now, I'll stay away from what looks to be shaping up, at least in part, like a money-washed U.S. Senate contest between the Democratic incumbent from Connecticut, one of the richest people in the Senate, and a former state Republican lawmaker now married to one of the obscenely well-compensated executives of the electric company that we all tithe to in our electric bills, some of the highest in the country.

The gubernatorial race looks like it will be a remake of the one four years ago, with a rich, self-funded Republican, Bob Stefanowski, running against the rich, self-funded incumbent, Ned Lamont.

Yawn.

I think maybe there should be a new election law in Connecticut that would make rich self-funders retire from politics when they lose, rather than putting us all through expensive, unsuccessful remakes.

That would have ruled out not just Stefanowski's attempted rematch, but expensive redos by Linda McMahon, the wrestling mogul, who lost two Senate bids, and Tom Foley, the wealthy Republican businessman who lost twice to former Gov. Dannel Malloy.

It seems to me those losers had a hard time escaping the stench of some of the sources of their money, the violence of wrestling entertainment, for McMahon, union busting at a southern manufacturing plant, for Foley, and preying on the poor as a payday lender, for Stefanowski.

It feels like voters might care less about inherited fortunes, like the one that came to Lamont from a rich granddaddy.

I would suggest that the latest Stefanowski campaign is dead on arrival, and not just because it is unseemly to elect someone governor who made money on people so financially desperate they have to pay unconscionable lending fees against future earnings.

Rather it seems Donald Trump will once again be the undoing of Stefanowski, who can't likely get elected with or without the former president and his lies about the 2020 election.

I may have missed it, but I have yet to see Stefanowski renounce Trump, who is now the subject of numerous investigations that are almost certainly going to unravel in a way to horrify Connecticut Democrats and independents by the time voting starts in the fall.

It's hard to imagine Connecticut voters signing on this year for a Trumpist governor.

It was a good club for Lamont to use to whack Stefanowski with four years ago, calling his Trump-endorsed opponent "Trumpanowski" in one Tweet.

Stefanowski's long history of Trump support will play worse in Connecticut this year than it did four years ago, especially after the Jan. 6 committee of the House of Representatives completes its televised prime-time hearings on the Trump-inspired insurrection.

You might expect Stefanowski to run from Trump as fast as he can in still-blue Connecticut. But of course he can't. No one will get the Republican nomination for governor in Connecticut by insulting Trumpists and calling out the former president's election lies.

I would love to see Lamont face a serious challenger from either party or from an independent campaign.

It would be especially rewarding to see Connecticut Democrats recover some of their party's principles rather than simply elect a Republican-like, tax-averse squire from Fairfield County who only pays lip service to hardworking voters and urban problems.

But establishment Connecticut Democrats are too busy napping in the sun, like spoiled housecats, to summon any new gubernatorial candidates who might rescue the soul of the party.

And Stefanowski will write some more checks and be the next down the rabbit hole, perhaps followed by his sponsor Trump, of rich, two-time losers.

Alas, we will have a gallery of them here in Connecticut.

This is the opinion of David Collins.

d.collins@theday.com