Secretary of the State
Susan Bysiewicz
Photo by Steve Kotchko
Posted 6/14/10
Democratic Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz has had a helluva year. After toying with a run for governor, she opted instead to try for the Democratic nomination for state attorney general, when the current officeholder Richard Blumenthal set his sights on the U.S. Senate.
At first it was all rosy for Bysiewicz. She’d been the frontrunner in the polls in the Democratic gubernatorial field, and quickly became the leader in the AG race. Then the bottom fell out.
Critics claimed Bysiewicz did not have the 10 years “active practice” in the legal profession that state law requires to be attorney general. Convinced she was qualified; Bysiewicz herself went to court asking a judge to determine her eligibility. A Superior Court judge said she could run, but when Bysiewicz asked the State Supreme Court for an expedited appeal to settle things once and for all—the high court ruled against Bysiewicz.
Just like that, Bysiewicz’ 2010 political hopes were dashed. Some Democrats thought she might try to seek reelection as Secretary of the State, or even State Comptroller, but Bysiewicz decided that might look desperate, so she decided to sit out the election.
Well, not exactly. Bysiewicz is still Secretary of the State until January, so she will be riding herd on all of this fall’s elections. Bysiewicz expects a very interesting year indeed. “We have longstanding incumbents (Democratic Sen. Chris Dodd and Republican Gov. Jodi Rell) leaving office, (creating) hotly-contested races on both sides of the aisle,” said Bysiewicz. “I don’t think we’ve had an election cycle this exciting in decades.”
In the old days, state nominating conventions weren’t held until midsummer, but changes in state election laws pushed the whole calendar forward. Conventions occurred in May, and primaries for state offices will be held August 10.
Primary day will be busy. Beyond the statewide nominations still up for grabs, there will be congressional primaries, legislative primaries, and even a number of contests at the probate judge level.
Bysiewicz said the probate court reform law reduced the number of probate courts from 117 down to 54, and that set off a scramble. “There are (new larger) districts where you have incumbent judges who don’t want to retire, so they are running against each other in primaries, or there are open seats for those districts, and because they are larger, they are more attractive, and there are a lot of people who want to run,” she said.
Another controversial element of the election reforms of the last few years is the so-called petition path to the primaries, requiring candidates who can’t garner 15% of convention delegates for automatic qualification, to go out and gather voter signatures on petitions for a spot on the ballot. Republican U.S. Senate hopeful Peter Schiff called the petition rule, requiring eight to 15 thousand voter signatures, stacked against the candidates in a system “rigged to fail”, in Schiff’s view.
Bysiewicz said candidates who know they are long shots may have to make a bold strategic move. “Candidates have to decide when they start, whether they’re going to spend their time going around to town committees for delegate support, or whether they want to start the petition process early and begin gathering signatures,” she said.
August may seem a weird time to hold important primaries, considering that a big chunk of the voting population may be out-of-state on vacation, at the beach, or hunkered down in their air-conditioned homes, unwilling to battle the “hot and stickies” to cast a vote.
Bysiewicz said the August weather didn’t discourage voters in 2006, when a spirited Democratic U.S. Senate battle between Joe Lieberman and Ned Lamont brought out the voters, who also were able to choose a Democratic gubernatorial nominee that day. “I will predict we’ll have the same kind of interest this time,” said Bysiewicz.
However, if she had her druthers, Bysiewicz would set primary day even earlier in the year. “I personally think it would be better to have primaries in June, because if you get the primaries over, you’ll have more time for healing (within the parties) and more time to regroup (before Election Day),” she said.
The biggest nail biter this year is not a tight political race, but what’s going to happen with a federal appeals court ruling on Connecticut’s public financing system for campaigns. Touted as major reform, the law was challenged for the way it treats minor parties, and indeed one federal judge rule the law is unfair and must be changed. The state appealed and the law remains in effect until a decision comes down. But when will that be? “The law is clearly in jeopardy, but the (appeals court) could choose not to do anything until after the election cycle, or they could issue a decision any day,” said Bysiewicz.
Many candidates using the public financing process have filed their paperwork or qualified for state funding as the election calendar progresses, but all that could be upset by a negative court ruling.
“I am hoping we have a decision by the court and a legislative fix right away to save (the law), or maybe we’ll have nothing happen until after the election in November,” said Bysiewicz. The General Assembly has authorized a “standby” special session to deal with a court ruling, if one occurs during the campaign season.
Bysiewicz has plenty to do monitoring this year’s elections. That should take her mind off her impending return to private life. Is that it for her political career? Probably not.
“I can say I love public service and I hope to continue, but I don’t have any particular plan at present,” she said. However, she said she is receiving some “very good suggestions” about what to do in the future. One distinct possibility is a run for the 2012 Democratic U.S Senate nomination for the seat currently held by independent Joe Lieberman.