Connecticut Local Politics

Update: Russo was sworn in today. Read about it here.

The Democrats lost their supermajority in the Senate this week when Republican Rob Russo won the seat vacated by Democrat Bill Finch when he became Mayor of Bridgeport (okay, about four months after he became Mayor). The news was greeted with a surprisingly deafening silence, other than some well-deserved, over-the-top gloating from the Republicans. Theoretically, the Democrats now do not have the power to override one of Gov. Rell’s vetoes without enlisting the help of the Republicans.

But in practice, almost nothing has changed. Let’s look at the numbers. Gov. Rell vetoed six bills last year, including a lackluster health plan, in-state tuition for illegal immigrants and legalization of medical marijuana. One bill, which required Medicare waivers to be reviewed by a legislative committee instead of the governor, was overriden by the legislature. The rest stood, not even coming up for an override vote.

One for six, and the one came on a bill that was more about the balance of power between the legislature and the governor than it was about actual policy. This was a legislature that seemed to be very energetic and positive about the changes it could effect back in early 2007, but ineffectual leadership and the unwillingness of conservative Democrats to go along with their more progressive counterparts meant that the supermajority, in effect, never really existed.

So what passed this week was a quirk of math, 66.66667% down to 63.888889%. It will mean little in practice for the legislature’s business, whatever that might be this year.

It’s more important symbolically for the Republicans, however, who can now claim three straight wins in special elections, including this week’s surprisingly huge 20+ point seat flipping victory for Russo. It’s not a bad position to be in as legislators and their potential challengers start thinking about November.