National Popular Vote would make your ballot count

In a sense, the career of John Rowland, the twice-convicted former governor, prepared us for this political moment.

It was back in December of 2003 and he was somewhere between fibbing on the source of improvements to his weekend-getaway shack on Litchfield’s Bantam Lake, and finally getting busted by the feds for accepting luxury air charters to Las Vegas and Florida.

Back in the days of Backslapping Johnny, his little poems for the business types every holiday season at the Middlesex Chamber of Commerce were nearly humorous in their namechecking and doggerel. But that morning, with the reporters nosing around, about a year out from his guilty plea, the barometer was falling. His wife, Patty, was livid with the Capitol press corps, and at that breakfast, she read a painful pseudopoem. “Go ahead honey,” he said, prefacing her appearance at the podium. “What more can they do to us?”

Back then, Republicans and Democrats would still hang out together in the smoky basement bar at the State Armory called the Officers’ Club, a short stagger from the Legislative Office Building.

These days, partisanship is nearly to the extreme. And it’s going to get worse, in an election year with Connecticut’s blue color at stake.

A lot of this attitude is filtering up from Washington like swamp gas, thanks to the prevailing flavor in the White House and Congress.

One of the good things, though, is the resurgence of the National Popular Vote, an entity supported by 10 states plus the District of Columbia, representing 165 of the 270 electoral votes — there are 538 electoral votes in all — needed to give the next presidential election to the highest votegetter, rather than the winner of a few large states.

Last year, when it came before the General Assembly, the proposal reeked of sour grapes from the Hillary supporters who felt threatened by the ascension of the Tweeter in Chief. Now, after a year of gifts to himself and big business, from tax cuts to regulation rollbacks, to dismantling the Affordable Care Act and oversight of the financial industry and environment, there’s an argument for saying we’re all threatened, especially we denizens of high-tax states.

A group called Making Every Vote Count arrived in the State Capitol Press Room last week to tout a poll of 1,202 state voters who showed overwhelming — 78 percent — support for the National Popular Vote. Jim Glassman, a former State Department employee, said the poll saw bipartisan support, with 92 percent of Democrats, 62 percent of Republicans and 76 percent of unaffiliated voters in favor. The voters also want federal law to be changed, eliminating the antiquated Electoral College.

These days, partisanship is nearly to the extreme. And it’s going to get worse, in an election year with Connecticut’s blue color at stake.

“This kind of change is doable,” Glassman, a Republican, said. “It’s doable nationwide. It’s doable in Connecticut. And it’s urgent, given the state of America today. This is a completely nonpartisan view. People want to reconnect with their government, and this change will give them that opportunity. Right now, if you live in Connecticut, or any one of about 40 other states, your vote for president does not count. Of the 400 campaign events that the two presidential candidates held in 2016, exactly one was held in Connecticut. The president is determined in eight to 12 states.”

When the states making up 270 electoral votes — Connecticut has seven — is reached, then the compact would go into effect.

“It’s the right and the fair way to elect a president,” Glassman said.

The two historic arguments against the Electoral College are the 2000 election of George W. Bush over Democrat Al Gore, and the ClintonTrump throwdown, where the winners did not get the most votes but won the Electoral College.

One important person who changed his opposition to the idea, is Speaker of the House Joe Aresimowicz, D-Berlin. “We’ve had a couple of elections now,” he said Friday afternoon. He’s looking forward to the bill, identical to last year’s version, going through the committee process and eventually hitting the House floor.

“I support the National Popular Vote,” Gov. Dan Malloy said. “We’ve seen two presidents elected without the popular vote. Americans don’t understand it. The rest of the world doesn’t understand it. It’s time to make the change.”

If you’re interested in the issue, contact you state representative and senator. It’s an election year. So they have to listen to you.

After all, what more can they do to us?