State politics are sane compared to the Washington scene
It is as if Connecticut politics and Washington politics exist in parallel universes.
Connecticut politics remain much the same. A Democratic moderate, Ned Lamont, is governor. When Republicans recapture the seat, which the party someday will, she or he will be a moderate.
Democrats hold solid majorities in the state House and Senate, but have not run roughshod over the Republican minority. Elected leaders in the two parties have their strong disagreements, but largely absent is the kind of rhetoric, seen in our national politics, which treats those in the opposing party as the enemy or un-American.
“This document does reflect collaboration and input from the Republican Party. And I want to thank the governor for bringing us into the room and listening to what we had to say,” said House Minority Leader Vincent J. Candelora, R-North Branford, at the signing of the state budget now in place.
“Compromise is not a dirty word,” said Lamont, who presented Candelora with one of the signing pens.
Such an exchange taking place between a U.S. House Republican leader and President Joe Biden is unimaginable.
Lamont has backed policies dear to his party’s progressive wing, including support for a minimum wage that is among the highest in the nation and for liberal family leave and sick-day regulations. He has pushed a green agenda, too green for many Republican lawmakers when it comes to Lamont’s plan to continue with California emission standards that now ban the sale of gas-powered new motor vehicles after 2035.
Yet Lamont frustrated many in his party when, prior to the last session, he said he would block any attempts to weaken fiscal guardrails that were erected in 2017. Those guardrails were the result of bipartisan legislating, involving a coalition of Republicans and fiscally moderate Democrats. The guardrails prevent a legislative spending spree when tax revenues exceed expectations. Progressives, who never see a problem that more government spending cannot fix, wanted to tap billions of dollars in excess revenues. Instead, the money went to creating a healthy rainy day fund, paying down the debt on a grossly underfunded pension system, and making tax cuts possible.
Another example that Connecticut politics is different arrived in my mail recently. It was a legislative update from Heather Somers, a Republican. She is my state senator. I live in Griswold.
“I am committed to representing everyone faithfully, regardless of party or background, across our diverse district,” wrote Somers in a letter included in the mailing.
Diverse? Politically speaking, that is an understatement.
Somers’s 18th Senate District ranges from the progressive coastal towns of Groton and Stonington north to the conservative and Trump-supporting communities of North Stonington, Preston, Sterling, Voluntown, Plainfield and Griswold. Somers lives in Groton.
In her mailer, Somers focuses on legislation she backed that I suspect has support across the district, despite ideological differences. The list includes legislation to combat the fentanyl crisis, featuring increased funding both for treatment and for police. The toll of opiate abuse has not spared any communities. The senator also pointed to her leadership on legislation allowing licensed pharmacists to prescribe birth control pills, simplifying access. Somers is the ranking member of the Public Health Committee.
Somers further notes her support for the income tax cuts passed in the last session, which were pushed by Lamont. The flyer features her photo, with Lamont, alongside a breakdown of $11 million in aid for the 18th District.
In Washington, most Republican lawmakers would never be caught in a photo with the Democratic president. As for sharing credit in with the opposing party for an accomplishment, forget about it in D.C.
A functioning democracy depends on strong policy debates along with a willingness, once votes are cast, to find the compromises and common ground necessary for government to function. In Washington, lawmakers cannot even get federal budgets passed, depending instead on “continuing resolutions,” usually preceded by dramatics that look more like brinkmanship than governance.
Unfortunately, there will be no insulating state politics from the turbulent 2024 election year that confronts us. The presidential race, likely featuring a rematch between the unpopular Biden and his predecessor, Donald Trump, a criminal defendant in multiple cases, will dominate the political landscape.
How this conjunction of criminal prosecutions and a presidential election turns out is impossible to predict, which makes it more terrifying. It is as if we are all in the lead car on the roller coaster, climbing up that long incline, knowing a stomach-churning drop awaits us, but not knowing whether this scary ride goes completely off the tracks.
It is enough to make one yearn for the politics of old. You know, the kind we still sort of have in Connecticut, our land of steady habits.