The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Looney’s temptations of power as acting governor
If we didn’t know it already, we’ve learned over the last 17 months that a Connecticut governor wields a lot of power, what with executive orders and control over a 50,000-person bureaucracy, not to mention the National Guard.
No one knows this better than Sen. Martin Looney, the New Haven Democrat who has held seats in the General Assembly for an astounding 41 years, the last seven as president pro-tempore of the state Senate. And this week, Looney has held the rare and tantalizing title of acting governor, with both Gov. Ned Lamont and Lt. Gov Susan Bysiewicz spending some dog days of summer in other states.
The pressure is on for the liberal lion from Lighthouse Point (OK Morris Cove, but it’s close). He has until late Thursday, when Bysiewicz is set to return from New Mexico, three days before Lamont ends his vacation in Maine. What might he do?
So far, Looney hasn’t exactly thrown around his temporary power; no orders, no emergency appointments, not a single proclamation. He even turned down a state police security detail, a perk of the acting post. “I said that I didn’t think that would be necessary unless something came up,” Looney told me Tuesday. “And frankly I think it would scare the neighbors.”
You can bet the pragmatic progressive has thought about potential ploys. Take, for example, a tax hike on the richest Connecticut residents, which Looney fought for and lost this spring in a clash with fellow Democrat Lamont, who insisted on holding the line against new levies.
“We’d probably do a 1 percent capital gains tax. That would raise $131 million,” Looney said dreamily, after I suggested he might be able to quietly sneak through a 2-percent hike in a late-night executive order. Did it cross his mind? “Yes, of course,” he admitted, but he added, “It would probably be overturned once the governor came back.”
Looney would also like to rescind an order that Lamont crafted and Bysiewicz signed on Friday night, giving Connecticut cities and towns the right to require masks indoors, even inside private businesses. Looney favors a unified state policy from the governor’s office, preferably with a stricter mask requirement. “You have a Tower of Babel effect in my estimation,” he said of the new order.
Alas, that move wouldn’t last very long either.
Something like it did happen in Idaho in May, when Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin, a conservative Republican, took advantage of Gov. Brad Little’s exit from their state, and signed an order banning mask mandates by cities, towns and schools. Little returned the next day and angrily rescinded McGeachin’s action. And get this: He’s a Republican too, facing a likely reelection challenge from her.
Idaho has a history of acting governor stunts like that, but it’s just not how we roll in genteel Connecticut. Looney was acting governor once before, a few years ago, and had a quiet week.
Still, surely Looney, from the worldwide pizza capital, could declare New Haven-style pizza the state food while Lamont is Down East surrounded by lobsters. Looney supported the flatbread honor this year after the state House voted for it. But with debate time scarce, it never came up for a vote in the Senate, and some Republicans objected to adopting it without debate.
I’m hoping for a lastminute pizza ruling as a topping to Looney’s reign.
Other possible orders?
Looney remains lukewarm about an upcoming expansion of Tweed New Haven Airport, so maybe a moratorium on the needed runway extension could find his signature. Then again, the U.S. Court of Appeals threw out the state’s 2009 law barring a Tweed runway lengthening, two years ago. “That might be subject to a court challenge,” Looney, a lawyer, said of a possible Tweed order.
How about forcing Yale University to pay more to the city of New Haven in lieu of property taxes? Dang, the Constitution.
Ah yes! Everyone can agree Connecticut should “take back the notch” – that little parcel that should rightfully belong to Suffield where Massachusetts dips into the northern border. “I don’t know whether I would have to mobilize the National Guard to occupy the area and whether Massachusetts would mount a counteroffensive,” Looney said.
Orders and military coups aside, he’s taking the role seriously. “I’ve gotten a lot of very nice calls from my Senate colleagues and others congratulating me and saying it’s nice to call you ‘Governor,’ ” he told me, though he added, “I didn’t have a chance to print up letterheads or signing forms or pens for proclamations.”
Looney said he hadn’t spoken with Lamont this week. He did head up to the state Capitol Tuesday for some routine business, where he spoke with me from his seat of power. “I figured it would be good if I would be present in the building for at least one of the days that I was acting governor,” he said. “I parked in front of the Capitol instead of the [Legislative Office Building] garage so people would know that I’m up here.”
Did he at least take the governor’s parking space? “Force of habit, I went to my own spot,” he conceded, adding that as head of the Senate, with offices in the Capitol and the Legislative Office Building, “I have the closest spot in both places.”