Free Daily Headlines :

  • COVID-19
  • Vaccine Info
  • Money
  • Politics
  • Education
  • Health
  • Justice
  • More
    • Environment
    • Economic Development
    • Gaming
    • Investigations
    • Social Services
    • TRANSPORTATION
  • Opinion
    • CT Viewpoints
    • CT Artpoints
DONATE
Reflecting Connecticut’s Reality.
    COVID-19
    Vaccine Info
    Money
    Politics
    Education
    Health
    Justice
    More
    Environment
    Economic Development
    Gaming
    Investigations
    Social Services
    TRANSPORTATION
    Opinion
    CT Viewpoints
    CT Artpoints

LET�S GET SOCIAL

Show your love for great stories and out standing journalism

At the end of every session, power shifts to the minority

  • by Mark Pazniokas
  • April 26, 2010
  • View as "Clean Read" "Exit Clean Read"

With the legislature’s adjournment deadline of May 5 fast approaching, the Black and Puerto Rican Caucus suddenly found itself with new political muscle Monday.

Its members staged an ad hoc filibuster over Gov. M. Jodi Rell’s nomination of 10 white lawyers to the Superior Court and pressed for Rell to nominate a minority lawyer.

Their same request weeks ago went unnoticed and unanswered, but now the Rell administration is listening carefully and working to satisfy their concerns, legislators said.

Such is the magic of the last days of every session. When the clock strikes 12 on the final night, all legislation and nominations still awaiting action automatically die. So, a willingness to delay with long debates or other dilatory tactics becomes a potent weapon.

Like Cinderella at the ball, every legislator can become a king or queen, if only for a brief time.

“After a while, the leverage disappears,” said Rep. Arthur J. O’Neill, R-Southbury, the longest-serving Republican, “if it’s not resolved by the end of the session.”

The legislature’s Judiciary Committee postponed a confirmation vote Monday on an all-white class of judicial nominees after black and Puerto Rican legislators seemed as though they would endlessly debate the qualifications and the experience of the first nominee on the agenda, 39-year-old Laura Flynn Baldini.

Black and Puerto Rican Caucus members on the committee said they had no formal plan to filibuster, but one developed as they raised questions and objections about the first nominee.

“It just mushroomed into it,” said Rep. Charles “Don” Clemons Jr., D-Bridgeport, the caucus chairman and a member of the committee.

“We didn’t talk about a filibuster,” said Rep. Toni E. Walker, D-New Haven, a caucus member. “A lot of us had questions and comments, and a few of us are long-winded.”

The nine nominees – there were 10 in the group until one nominee withdrew a week ago for unrelated reasons – have been caught up in controversies over the budget and judicial disparity.

Rep. Michael P. Lawlor, D-East Haven, co-chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said he postponed a vote until Tuesday after it became clear that a debate on the nominees would stretch into the evening.

The House of Representatives was waiting to begin a session. Under legislative rules, no committee can meet while either chamber is in session. Ultimately, the session was canceled.

One reason: another minority, the House Republican caucus, was threatening to endlessly debate any issue that affected the budget, unless the Democratic leadership guaranteed a vote on Rell’s judicial appointments.

In effect, there was a filibuster threat on both sides of the issue.

“It’s pretty clear that nothing is happening,” Lawlor said.

Rell previously has appointed 38 judges: 31 were white, 6 were black and one was Latino. If her 10 recent nominees were included, 85 percent of her nominees were white, the same percentage as the judicial appointments of her predecessor, Gov. John G. Rowland.

House Minority Leader Lawrence F. Cafero Jr., R-Norwalk, said Rell told him and Senate Minority Leader John P. McKinney, R-Fairfield, that she is willing to promise naming one or more minority judges later this year. There are more than 20 judicial vacancies.

“They seemed heartened by that,” Cafero said of the Black and Puerto Rican Caucus.

Rell’s press office was unaware of any such overture. Lisa Moody, the governor’s chief of staff, could not be reached for comment.

The Black and Puerto Rican Caucus is not the only legislative bloc empowered by the calendar. The Republican minority in both chambers also is at its maximum influence this week and next.

By postponing action on most bills until April — the House approved no legislation in March — the Democratic leadership has surrendered much of the power that comes with majorities of 114-37 in the House and 24-12 in the Senate.

“Time does go on the side of the minority, if you will,” Cafero said. “Meaning that if there are certain bills we don’t want to put forward, we’re going to let that be known by the things we say on the floor of the House.”

The issue of judicial diversity was the second to stall legislative confirmation of the nine nominees, who include Rell’s budget chief, Robert L. Genuario of Norwalk, and her public safety commissioner, John A. Danaher III of West Hartford.

House members threatened to indefinitely delay confirmation unless the Rell administration resolve a budget dispute with the judicial department. They struck a deal Thursday, but Senate President Pro Tempore Donald E. Williams Jr., D-Brooklyn, objected Friday, saying he would hold up the judges until the entire budget for fiscal 2011 was resolved.

Cafero and McKinney countered William’s threat to hold the nominees hostage with their own threat to hold delay every bill with a budgetary impact, essentially tying up the General Assembly. To be fair, Cafero never used the words “hostage” or “filibuster.”

Instead, he said, “I found it imperative to scrutinize each and every bill.”

And that can take time.

 

 

 

Sign up for CT Mirror's free daily news summary.

Free to Read. Not Free to Produce.

The Connecticut Mirror is a nonprofit newsroom. 90% of our revenue comes from people like you. If you value our reporting please consider making a donation. You'll enjoy reading CT Mirror even more knowing you helped make it happen.

YES, I'LL DONATE TODAY

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mark Pazniokas

SEE WHAT READERS SAID

RELATED STORIES
Data show mass vaccination sites are reaching the general population — not the vulnerable areas they are supposed to target
by Dave Altimari

Some of the mass vaccination sites were supposed to target more vulnerable populations, where the demographics are different.

Assisted suicide lobby spreads falsehoods to promote systemic ableism
by Stephen Mendelsohn

Proponents of assisted suicide repeatedly spread falsehoods to promote their lethal and ableist agenda.  The February 8 op-ed, “Aid in dying is not assisted suicide” is no exception. Suicide is defined as the act of taking one’s life intentionally.  The person who intentionally ingests a prescribed lethal overdose more closely fits the dictionary definition of suicide than the despondent person who jumps off a bridge.  The desire for suicide is a cry for help, even when redefined as a “medical treatment option.”

TCI will create a fourth gasoline tax
by Christian A. Herb

The Transportation Climate Initiative, or TCI, calls for a proposed emissions fee on gasoline to help battle climate change. On the surface, supporters say it is a small price to pay to help save the planet; and if you truly believe that this is the case, then you should consider voting for it. Despite the administration’s efforts to go out of their way to not call TCI a tax, the simple truth is that it will only create additional financial hardships on lower- and middle-income families struggling to make ends meet during the pandemic.

Let’s keep telehealth when the pandemic ends
by Steven Madonick, MD

Telehealth may lead to positive, even transformational changes in psychiatric care, and Connecticut needs to keep it after the pandemic. Connecticut needs to pass the necessary laws to continue telehealth and telephonic care.

What we’ve lost, what we’ve learned during our year of COVID
by CT Mirror Staff

On March 6, 2020, Gov. Ned Lamont announced that the first case of COVID-19 had been detected in Connecticut, and within weeks, life as we knew it was a memory. Schools were shut down, universities emptied, businesses shuttered. Those of us who were fortunate enough to be able to work from home set up shop at our […]

Support Our Work

Show your love for great stories and outstanding journalism.

$
Select One
  • Monthly
  • Yearly
  • Once
Artpoint painter
CT ViewpointsCT Artpoints
Opinion Assisted suicide lobby spreads falsehoods to promote systemic ableism
by Stephen Mendelsohn

Proponents of assisted suicide repeatedly spread falsehoods to promote their lethal and ableist agenda.  The February 8 op-ed, “Aid in dying is not assisted suicide” is no exception. Suicide is defined as the act of taking one’s life intentionally.  The person who intentionally ingests a prescribed lethal overdose more closely fits the dictionary definition of suicide than the despondent person who jumps off a bridge.  The desire for suicide is a cry for help, even when redefined as a “medical treatment option.”

Opinion TCI will create a fourth gasoline tax
by Christian A. Herb

The Transportation Climate Initiative, or TCI, calls for a proposed emissions fee on gasoline to help battle climate change. On the surface, supporters say it is a small price to pay to help save the planet; and if you truly believe that this is the case, then you should consider voting for it. Despite the administration’s efforts to go out of their way to not call TCI a tax, the simple truth is that it will only create additional financial hardships on lower- and middle-income families struggling to make ends meet during the pandemic.

Opinion Let’s keep telehealth when the pandemic ends
by Steven Madonick, MD

Telehealth may lead to positive, even transformational changes in psychiatric care, and Connecticut needs to keep it after the pandemic. Connecticut needs to pass the necessary laws to continue telehealth and telephonic care.

Opinion The public health bill no one is talking about, but should be
by Brian Festa

On February 16,  the legislature's Public Health Committee conducted a public hearing on two bills, S.B. 568 and H.B. 6423, both of which would eliminate the religious exemption to mandatory vaccinations for Connecticut schoolchildren.  The hearing was capped at 24 hours, depriving nearly 1,500 members of the public who had registered for the hearing their opportunity to be heard.  The vast majority of those who did testify, and who submitted written testimony, opposed the bill.  The committee is expected to vote on the bill as early as  today. 

Artwork Grand guidance
by Anne:Gogh

In a world of systemic oppression aimed towards those of darker skintones – representation matters. We are more than our equity elusive environments, more than numbers in a prison and much more than victims of societal dispositions. This piece depicts a melanated young man draped in a cape ascending high above multiple forms of oppression. […]

Artwork Shea
by Anthony Valentine

Shea is a story about race and social inequalities that plague America. It is a narrative that prompts the question, “Do you know what it’s like to wake up in new skin?”

Artwork The Declaration of Human Rights
by Andres Chaparro

Through my artwork I strive to create an example of ideas that reflect my desire to raise social consciousness, and cultural awareness. Jazz music is the catalyst to all my work, and plays a major influence in each piece of work.”

Artwork ‘A thing of beauty. Destroy it forever’
by Richard DiCarlo | Derby

During times like these it’s often fun to revisit something familiar and approach things with a different slant. I have been taking some Pop culture and Art masterpieces and applying the vintage 1960’s and 70’s classic figures (Fisher Price, little people) to the make an amusing pieces. Here is my homage to Fisher -Price, Yellow […]

Twitter Feed
A Twitter List by CTMirror

Engage

  • Reflections Tickets & Sponsorships
  • Events
  • Donate
  • Newsletter Sign-Up
  • Submit to Viewpoints
  • Submit to ArtPoints
  • Economic Indicator Dashboard
  • Speaking Engagements
  • Commenting Guidelines
  • Legal Notices
  • Contact Us

About

  • About CT Mirror
  • Announcements
  • Board
  • Staff
  • Sponsors and Funders
  • Donors
  • Friends of CT Mirror
  • History
  • Financial
  • Policies
  • Strategic Plan

Opportunity

  • Advertising and Sponsorship
  • Speaking Engagements
  • Use of Photography
  • Work for Us

Go Deeper

  • Steady Habits Podcast
  • Economic Indicator Dashboard
  • Five Things

The Connecticut News Project, Inc. 1049 Asylum Avenue, Hartford, CT 06105. Phone: 860-218-6380

© Copyright 2021, The Connecticut News Project. All Rights Reserved. Website by Web Publisher PRO