In the many months after the Connecticut Port Authority imploded with scandal, I watched with some chagrin as eastern Connecticut lawmakers did little to intervene. The greatest, most lasting injustice of the mismanagement at the port authority was turning the state-owned State Pier, the heart of the historic deepwater port of New London, over to its private competitor in New Haven. The awarding of the contract for managing the port in New London to the politically connected Gateway Terminals of New Haven essentially led almost immediately to the closure of the state's port, the loss of dozens of longshoremen jobs and a near-death blow to the supplier of eastern Connecticut road salt, a direct Gateway competitor.