GOP House Leader
Lawrence Cafero
Photo by Steve Kotchko
Posted 5/31/11
When the year began, House Republican leader Lawrence Cafero (R-Norwalk) praised Democratic Gov. Dannel Malloy for a remarkably open attitude in dealing with GOP legislators. Cafero said any time he called the governor’s office for information, or to ask a question, he received a prompt response—much faster than anything Cafero experienced when Republican Gov. Jodi Rell ruled.
However, as the old cliché goes, “that was then, this is now, because Cafero is charging that the 2011 legislative session has turned into “the most partisan session in over 30 years,” and Cafero feels that is due in large part to Malloy.
When Rell was in power, during legislative sessions, she held regular meetings with Republican and Democratic leaders, to discuss major bills. That was necessary, of course, because Democrats ruled the legislature and she needed to bargain with them. It must be said that under Rell, GOP lawmakers sometimes complained that though they were at the meetings, they were just along for the ride, as Rell negotiated with the Dems.
Though Cafero fully understands the power dynamic of a Democrat-controlled legislature with the first Democratic governor in decades, what irks him is that he feels Malloy has changed his attitude big-time since taking office.
Indeed, in remarks delivered shortly after being sworn in, Malloy said: “We will need to solve our problems together—by pursuing with great urgency not Republican or Democratic ideas, but good ideas that know no political master or agenda.”
Cafero claims that openness has evaporated. “They (the Democrats) have literally excluded any contrary opinion to the ones that they hold,” he charged. “No Republican has been invited, or encouraged, or asked to participate in any decision regarding the budget or any major policy.”
Why the change? Cafero doesn’t know. He said he’s asked key administration officials about the turn-around in attitude but gets no substantive response.
To be fair, Republicans haven’t exactly been supportive of Malloy’s budget initiatives. They were turned off immediately by his inclusion of a broad array of tax hikes to help balance the budget, and ran their own public forums on the budget as Malloy crisscrossed the state gathering public input.
Yet, Cafero thinks there is more to the rift than simple philosophical differences over tax hikes or the level of state spending cuts. The GOP leader believes that Malloy, used to exercising executive authority as mayor of Stamford, has had trouble adjusting to the State Capitol and the General Assembly.
“It seems that the Governor’s position is ‘this is my world and you are just livin’ in it,’” said Cafero. “He tends to see the legislature as a nuisance, certainly not a partner, and is determined to, as he put its ‘get things done.’”
Malloy senior advisor Roy Occhiogrosso has stated more than once that harsh Republican criticism of the Governor is an expression of “frustration” that they remain in the minority and cannot cope with a chief exec who is determined to shake up the Capitol and accomplish real change.
Cafero counters by saying Malloy is the one who is frustrated. “He got elected by the slimmest of margins and assumed his party would be in lockstep behind him but he had to twist arms to get a budget through,” the GOP leader claimed. “The policies he’s put forth are coming under great scrutiny, and you see it wearing on him—so I understand why he would be frustrated.”
Burned by the Democrats alleged go-it-alone attitude on major bills, Republicans have decided on their own game plan for the annual grind as adjournment day, June 8, draws near. That tactic involves detailed questioning of every major bill that hits the House or Senate floor.
“We have an obligation on behalf of our constituents to go through these bills in detail, understand what they are, and ask the relevant questions,” Cafero explained. “They (the Democrats) may feel everything is done, and they don’t want to go through the hassle of explaining themselves, but we’re going to make ‘em do it.”
That strategy already has led to an emotional debate in the House and Senate over a Malloy administration push for an “early release” program for prison inmates that was tucked into a dense so-called “budget implementer” bill.
Democrats say it’s a laudable effort that encourages inmates to enroll in self-improvement programs in return for shortening their sentences. Democrats also say it will help prisoners re-adjust to society and discourage them from returning to crime. Republicans claim it is an ill-advised return to a discredited “good time” program that rewards prisoners for simply staying out of trouble. They claim it could put dangerous criminals on the street through early release.
No matter who is right, the prison debate will likely be just one of many partisan dogfights that occur before adjournment in a legislative session that leaves one asking: “Where’s the love?”