The majority of folks at the State House don’t want to leave it up to the governor should we find ourselves with an empty U.S. Senate seat someday.
Tuesday night, as the state Legislature scrambled to clears its plate of political issues, the state Reps. decided to yank the governor’s power to pick a Senator. Instead, the bill would require a special election to choose a replacement should Sen. Chris Dodd or Sen. Joe Lieberman step down unexpectedly.
It's better for democracy for people select a successor, advocates said.
The Senate already approved it. Now it moves into the hands of woman who would be directly affected.
It’s questionable whether Gov. M. Jodi Rell would sign it into law.
Rep. David Labriola, a Republican from Naugatuck, calls the bill "a brazen power grab" and says the state could be left without a senator for 150 days.
Republicans failed to amend the bill to require the state's senators to be Connecticut residents for all six years of their terms.
