The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
GOP flexes legislative muscle
Party having resurgence in assembly after years out of power
HARTFORD — If a color can sum up a political moment, the Connecticut General Assembly is a subversive shade of magenta.
In a state Legislature that has been deep blue for decades, Republicans are enjoying a renaissance — and they are making Democrats know it.
Republicans won an 18-18 tie in the Senate in November 2016; in the legislative session that followed, they gained new lawmaking powers.
And this year, they have flexed that muscle with a new confidence that comes with a year of experience. That has frustrated Democrats and resulted in very little new legislation — with little hope for a win in the marathon three days before the legislative session ends at 12:01 Thursday morning.
“This year is different for us,” said Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff, D-Norwalk. “We’re on the offensive for our agenda, but we also have to be on the defensive on very radical bills. … We have to strategize.”
Senate Republican Leader Len Fasano, R-North Haven, said this year “our voices have been heard.”
“These guys have been passing legislation for the past seven years that have destroyed the state
economically,” he said. “They used to be able to say ‘Republicans talk all you want, we’ll vote yes and that will be it.’ Now they can’t say that so much.”
First in two decades
Beginning in 1994, Republicans held a brief twoyear majority in the state Senate. That was the last time the GOP has controlled either chamber of the Legislature.
Connecticut has had several Republican governors, but that forced negotiations between Democrats and the governor — leaving the legislative GOP by the wayside, said Ronald Schurin, associate political science professor in residence at the University of Connecticut.
But in recent years, Republicans have been gaining more seats. And their current tie in the Senate is a high-water mark, at least until the November midterms shake up the picture again.
With the tie, the GOP won a Senate co-chairman of each legislative committee in 2017. This has afforded Republicans more power to set committee agendas and determine which bills will see the light of day, said Schurin.
With the new co-chairmen, Republicans also exploited a new political maneuver, a little-used political tactic called “splitting the committee.”
If a chair asks to split a committee, only House members will be able to vote on a bill if it is a House proposal; if the bill is a Senate proposal, only senators on the committee can vote.
Each committee has two senators of each party on it. If two Senators vote against a bill and two for, it will not be forwarded to the Senate floor.
At least three times this session Republicans have exercised this tool to slow or kill a proposal identified as a top Democratic priority.
When Senate Republicans in March killed in committee a bill that would codify net neutrality rules in Connecticut regardless of federal steps to repeal them, Energy and Technology Committee co-chairman Sen. Gary Winfield, D-New Haven, called the move “highly unusual” and “stunning.”
“It was chaos,” he said.
Deal-making marathons
Most importantly, the Senate tie now means one Senate Democrat who disagrees with her caucus is enough to sink a Democratic priority.
The most visible example of this was the nomination of Supreme Court Justice Andrew McDonald to chief justice. An ally of the governor and former legislator himself, McDonald would have become the state’s first openly gay chief justice.
With Democrats screaming accusations of homophobia, Republicans in both chambers claimed McDonald exercised improper “judicial activism.” When Sen. Joan Hartley, D-Waterbury, voted with Republicans and Sen. Gayle Slossberg, D-Milford, recused herself, the nomination was sunk.
That vote in March undeniably soured relations between the parties.
“It’s almost like they want to be opposed to things for the sake of being opposed to things,” said Duff.
Fasano dismisses this; it’s just the disagreement of “reasonable minds,” he said.
If Democrats were to stand in his shoes, they’d see a lot of his priorities have died on the Senate floor over the years, he said. Now, morale in his party is up.
“You don’t get everything you want in this building,” he said.
Similar Senates votes where one or two Democrats had made a difference have continued several times during the session. And negotiations between the parties before each Senate session have become dealmaking marathons, Senate press secretaries say.
The uncertainty has had a trickle-down effect on the House. A five-hour Republican filibuster on a bump stock ban Tuesday night — complete with a flood of proposed amendments — showed Democrats exactly how the GOP can influence what business will see the floor.
“The last week, we do have to take time into consideration,” said Speaker of the House Joe Aresimowicz, D-Berlin, on Thursday. “If we have House bills that are going to require four, six, seven hours of debate in the House and we don’t think they have a chance to be called in the Senate, reorganize your priorities.”
The knowledge that controversial issues may not pass the Senate has forced Aresimowicz to change his priorities — even one that he said he was willing to stake his re-election on.
Slurping a large iced coffee, a weary Aresimowicz announced Wednesday that developing a plan to bring tolls to Connecticut highways would not get a vote this legislative session, as he promised numerous times.
When asked whether this was because some House Democrats predicted the bill could never pass the Senate anyway, Aresimowicz replied with resignation, “Might want to ask them.”
Quest for a majority
The political pattern we are seeing now is typical when a Republican minority achieves a rare rise in any state government, politcal science professor Schurin said. Republicans push for smaller government and fewer regulations (Democrats would say protections), using their enhanced powers to agenda set, filibuster and draw media coverage.
“Larger the minority, the less likely it is (for a Democratic majority) to get legislation passed,” Schurin said.
With a few exceptions, the scant, bled-out bills passed this session match Schurin’s observations. Budget negotiations between the two parties are nonexistent and major issues — like raising the minimum wage, legalizing recreational marijuana, permitting sports betting, adding a new Bridgeport casino and, of course, tolls — seem unlikely to see the floor.
“If Republicans are strategic, they probably will seek to avoid taking positions in the next few days or in the prior weeks and months that Democrats can use against them,” Schurin said. “That might be particularly the case now.”
Republicans have promised to campaign hard to take a lead in the Senate in November. Sen. Toni Boucher, R-Wilton, even canceled her exploration of a gubernatorial run to give Republicans a better chance of seizing the majority, she said in April.
Until then, the GOP has 72 more hours of resurgence. It’s not over yet.