The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
State Dems seek help from BLM supporters
Senators looks to pass historic, ambitious reform package
HARTFORD — As a Black Lives Matter flag flew above them outside the Capitol, Senate Democrats on Friday called for the statewide antiracism movement to help them pass an ambitious, historic reform package aimed at unraveling generations of discrimination.
While the senators are trying to seize the moment, it’s unlikely that in a General Assembly that is still uncertain how to resume in a condensed summertime special session with hundreds of people in the Capitol, will be able to accomplish the raft of initiatives, from police accountability to housing, education and economic reforms.
In addition to punishing police violence, the Senate majority will propose mandating body
cameras on cops; widening civilian review of incidents; and banning chokeholds; the purchase of surplus military equipment and no-knock arrest warrants, as well other tactics linked to brutality on the part of law enforcement.
But the senators, citing the Juneteenth commemoration of the emancipation of the last remaining slaves after the Civil War in 1865, also want to support big-picture issues such as more affordable housing outside the racially effected major cities. They want measures to back minority-owned businesses and recruitment of more public school teachers of color.
They want to tackle health-equity issues that were exposed in the coronavirus pandemic. All in a special session toward the end of July as the state is still slowly emerging from the coronsvirus pandemic.
“This state has to get comfortable with being uncomfortable. Everything is on the table,” said state Sen. Gary Winfield, D-New Haven, cochairman of the legislative Judiciary Committee. “Nothing that we’re doing is what we’ve done.”
Gov. Ned Lamont indicated later Friday that a lot of the major systemic changes might be too much to consider in a short special session.
“There’s still more that we need to do in addition to those issues to address the complex and difficult problems of racial and economic inequality,” Lamont said in a written statement. “I look forward to working with legislators and other stakeholders on those issues during the next regular session.”
By mid-afternoon, House Majority Leader Matt Ritter said the session would also include expanded absentee balloting rules for the November election.
Led by three African Americans in the 22member Senate majority, the Democrats stressed the need for supporters of Black Lives Matter throughout the state, particularly suburban and rural towns whose lawmakers have stifled decades of social, educational and economic change, to lobby their lawmakers now, before exact legislative proposals have been drafted.
“We have said what we expect to see,” Winfield said. “Others may be saying what they expect to see, and that’s where the conversation starts at. There are a lot of parts to this. ”
He said it’s going to be up to a majority of 151
House members and 36 senators to realize the failures of the past and the need for systemic change. “I keep getting asked the question, ‘Well, how can we do it?’ My question is how did we do what we did? How have we allowed it that people in our state get to lead lives that are completely unrecognizable when you really understand the lives they live, to the majority of the state.”
“This is not a stunt, this is a commitment to doing as much as we can in a special session,” said Sen. Marilyn Moore, DBridgeport, whose district includes Trumbull and part of Monroe. “When you talk about a new normal, we are creating a new normal. This is not the same world we left here in March. And the people in the street aren’t going to let us do anything more than correct some of the wrongs.”
She said that many minority workers, particular health industry employees, have been treated unfairly and exposed to health risks during the coronavirus pandemic, which as of Friday had been connected with 4,238 deaths. “It’s our responsibility to come in here and do as much as we can. We can find out who wants to be on the right side of history and who wants to be on the wrong side.”
“We need to change government and we need to change law enforcement,” said Sen. Douglas McCrory, D-Hartford, co-chairman of the Education Committee. He said that in past sessions some reform measures failed, but after the societal reaction to the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25, there is a new feeling of urgency.
“That’s why it’s so important to do it right now,” McCrory said. “We need allies. More than allies, we need accomplices. I want somebody who understands what we’re saying to get in there. I honestly believe that residents of Connecticut are looking for us to make bold changes.”
Senate President Pro Tempore Martin Looney, D-New Haven, said the target date for a special legislative session is the third week in July, after technical issues for safely bringing 187 lawmakers and hundreds of staff and the public back into the Capitol, which has been closed since March 12 in the coronavirus pandemic.
In reaction, Senate Minority Leader Len Fasano, R-North Haven, said Friday that there is a lot to support in the Democrats’ proposals. He understands the need to introduce a variety of issues.
“It makes sense,” he said in a phone interview. “If you were to roll out an agenda and pick some and leave others off somebody is going to get mad. Looking at the 10,00-foot level, I understand. There are a lot of things there. I think there’s room for conversation, room for agreement, and on others we may have agreement on some things. Housing is a difficult topic to wrap your head round.”
But outside review of police actions and body cameras are things he is open to. “I think we can do a lot of this on a bipartisan basis,” Fasano said.
House Minority Leader Themis Klarides, R-Derby, said Friday that the sheer scope of the Senate Democrats’ goals is likely to work against certain portions of it in a special session.
“I respect their feelings on these things,” Klarides said in a late-afternoon phone interview. She said that the bipartisan leaders of the Judiciary Committee will draft legislation that can win votes from both sides of the aisle.
The issue of absentee ballots is thorny because the state Constitution limits the use of mail-in ballots only for limited reasons, including sickness, but not fear of sickness.
“If we’re in a health care crisis people shouldn’t be afraid to go to vote there or even work at the polling places,” Klarides said, stressing the need to have a debate on the issue.
Ritter said he expects the House of Representatives and the Senate will not be in the state Capitol on the same days, in order to keep with socialdistancing protocols.
“The House is open to defining police accountability broadly, and the issues of zoning, economic and health care,” Ritter said, stressing the need to approve the new mail-in voting law by July 31 so it can go into effect by the Nov. 3 presidential election.
“The real test now is that we have to start drafting bills in cooperation with the governor,” Ritter said, adding the state budget set to start on July 1 has a projected deficit in the billions of dollars, with no signal from Congress on whether state governments will receive more federal aid in the pandemic.
“I think in July, Connecticut will pass a national model in police accountability,” Ritter said. “And I hope that bill can address other things. No matter what we vote on in July, there is a lot more work ahead for now, next May and 2015. “It’s not a one-bill solution. We need to capture that momentum.”
In addition, there will be a new system for voting, allowing House members to cast ballots on bills from the Legislative Office Building offices via computer. But they will have to be physically present in the House chamber to speak.
kdixon@ctpost.com