Voters in Connecticut elected a new General Assembly in November, but the Legislature”™s makeup is already changing before the start of the next session on Jan. 5. Gov.-elect Dan Malloy has appointed some key lawmakers to his new administration, creating vacancies in the Legislature and necessitating special elections to fill open positions.
The 2011 session of the General Assembly will run from early January to no later than midnight on Wednesday, June 8, but lawmakers”™ main order of business over those five months will be to create a new, two-year state budget. If that is not accomplished by June 8, summertime special sessions are likely.
Malloy is Connecticut”™s first Democratic governor in 20 years, and he will work with a Legislature that was changed fairly significantly by the elections and continues to change.
With the retirement or defeat at the polls of many sitting legislators, and now with the appointment of some lawmakers to his administration, there will be more than 30 new legislators coming to the Capitol this year. Two former members are returning for new terms and one House member, Beth Bye (D-West Hartford), is moving into the Senate.
With Republicans picking up 14 seats in the House and one more Senate seat in the fall election, the new tally, so far, is 23 Democrats and 13 Republicans in the Senate and 100 Democrats and 51 Republicans in the House.
Special elections, however, will be held to fill the seats of State Sen. Andrew McDonald (D-Stamford) and Rep. Michael Lawlor (D-East Haven), who served as co-chairs of the Legislature”™s Judiciary Committee. McDonald will become the governor”™s chief legal counsel and Lawlor will be undersecretary for Criminal Justice Policy and Planning in the Office of Policy and Management.
In addition, Sen. Don DeFronzo (D-New Britain), chair of the Transportation Committee, will become commissioner of the Department of Administrative Services. And Rep. Jamie Spallone (D-Essex) is moving from the Legislature to become deputy to Denise Merrill, the incoming secretary of the state.
Other changes, and more special elections, are possible.
Staying mostly the same is the legislative leadership lineup. Democrats re-elected Sen. Don Williams (D-Brooklyn) as Senate president pro tem, and Sen. Martin Looney (D-New Haven) as majority leader. In the House, Rep. Chris Donovan (D-Meriden) was re-elected speaker and Rep. Brendan Sharkey (D-Hamden) was elected the new majority leader, replacing Secretary of the State-elect Denise Merrill (D-Mansfield Center).
Republicans re-elected Rep. Larry Cafero (R-Norwalk) as House minority leader, and the Senate minority leader will once again be Sen. John McKinney (R-Southport).
The influx of new members and exit of many sitting lawmakers means much of the Legislature will have a lot to learn, quickly, about the numerous issues facing Connecticut. To add to this challenge, selections for the legislative committees, where the Legislature does its most significant work in the first few months, are still being made. In some cases, committee chairs will change; in the Judiciary and Transportation committees, as noted, and in the Finance Committee, where Rep. Cam Staples (D-New Haven), for example, chose not to seek re-election and will leave his position as chair of the Finance Committee.
When everything is settled, the new General Assembly has a big mission ”” working with a new administration to fix a $3.5 billion budget deficit in each of the next two years, restore fiscal responsibility to Connecticut, and recharge a slowly recovering economy.
Gaining the confidence of the state”™s business community is key to accomplishing those goals, says John Rathgeber, president and CEO of the Connecticut Business and Industry Association.
“We”™re at a crisis point in this state. A lot of businesses have lost confidence in Connecticut as a place to invest in and create opportunities,” Rathgeber said at a recent statewide conference. “We can”™t solve our fiscal problems without a growing economy. We can”™t solve our social problems and our education problems without getting our economy back on track.”
For more information about the Legislature, contact CBIA”™s Bonnie Stewart at 860-244-1925 or bonnie.stewart@cbia.com.
