Another special election set for open House seat
Voters in the 71st Assembly District will head to the polls on Feb. 22 to chose a candidate to fill the unexpired term of Rep. Anthony J. D’amelio, one of several lawmakers to step down in recent months.
Gov. Ned Lamont scheduled the election Friday, a week after D’amelio resigned. The Waterbury Republican, who has served since 1997, is leaving politics to focus on his restaurant business.
D’amelio is part of a small wave of mid-term resignations from the House just weeks before the legislature is set to reconvene.
“We’ll have five in about a year, which I think is a record,’’ said Rep. Vin Candelora of North Branford, the Republican leader in the House. “I’ve never seen that volume.”
The reasons for the departures are varied but the pandemic played a role in at least in D’amelio’s case, where the COVID crisis placed new pressures on the restaurant industry.
“It’s no secret he was looking to retire, but the issues of the pandemic exacerbated it,’’ Candelora said.
The first to depart was Rep.
J.P. Sredzinski, a Republican who represented Newtown and Monroe, and stepped down last year, citing the demands of work and family. Rep. Caroline Simmons, a Democrat from Stamford, vacated her seat in November after she was elected the city’s mayor.
And this week, Rep. Brandon Mcgee, a Democrat whose district includes Hartford and Windsor, announced his resignation. Mcgee will take a job as a senior adviser for the Lamont reelection campaign.
Those departures follow the resignation of Democratic state Rep. Michael Dimassa of West Haven in October following his arrest on fraud charges. A special election to fill his unexpired term was held on Dec. 14; Democrat Treneé Mcgee won the race over Republican Richard Depalma and petitioning candidate Portia Bias, who is unaffiliated.
A date for the special election to succeed Mcgee has not been set.
Under state law, the governor is required to issue a writ of special election within 10 days of a legislative seat becoming vacant, and a special election must be held 46 days after the writ is issued.
The legislative session begins on Feb. 9.