Connecticut: The land of steady political habits?

Undaunted by a rising sea of red across this nation, Connecticut defied a trend toward throwing the bums out in last Tuesday’s midterm Congressional and state elections. We voted for continuity, which on the state level typically means leaving the Democrats in charge of everything but the governorship.

Oops. This time voters made a statement about the do-nothing reign of Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell by very narrowly electing an activist Democrat, Dan Malloy, over a Republican businessman, Tom Foley, who had vowed to cut spending and not raise taxes.

What are we to make of this status-quo result? I’m not one for rash action. Sometimes you need to stay the course for the system to work, but consider this:

The green-eye-shade wearers in Hartford tell us the state faces deficits of more than $3 billion in each of the next three fiscal years. And another $3 billion a year will have to be found to invest in assets that will cover the skyrocketing costs of state retiree pension and health care obligations. Last year, rather than cut spending or raise the necessary revenues, the General Assembly borrowed almost $1 billion to close the deficit.

How did the electorate react to such mismanagement? There are 150 seats in the state House of Representatives and 36 in the Senate. At this writing, there are still a couple of recounts going on, but it looks like a total of between six and eight incumbents were defeated.

As one commenter on my blog so aptly put it, “Are the people running our state doing such a bang-up job that they deserve to be rehired? I believe the definition of insanity is to keep doing the same thing and expect a different result.â€

To top it off, an AFCME official told The Hartford Courant all of the union’s endorsed candidates prevailed in races for governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, comptroller, treasurer, secretary of the state, U.S. Senate and all five congressional seats.

A whopping 70 percent of union-supported candidates won their races for General Assembly. Bear in mind that the only way the state’s long-term fiscal outlook can be stabilized is with significant concessions on the part of public-sector labor unions.

Incumbent state Rep. Roberta Willis (D-64) of Lakeville, a favorite of labor unions, easily won re-election over Republican challenger Kathy Lauretano by a margin of 57-43 percent. Lauretano had vowed to try to reform the employee pension system by banning the practice of piling on the overtime during an employee’s last two years to grossly inflate pension benefits after retirement.

A few positive notes locally for the GOP: state Sen. Andrew Roraback (R-30) faced only token opposition and will return to Hartford; despite being out of the country for months, freshman state Rep. John Rigby (R-63) of Colebrook appears to have eked a victory over Democratic challenger Bill Riiska, a Winsted native, by about 30 votes; and Linda McMahon, the wrestling magnate trying to buy a U.S. Senate seat, lost to Democrat Dick Blumenthal in all of the state’s eight counties — except Litchfield.

Some Democrats are excellent problem solvers. And on that score, Malloy had a pretty good record as mayor of Stamford. But his options as governor will range from unpleasant to awful. He will surely have to raise taxes, cut programs and negotiate give-backs from state employee unions, all the while trying to improve Connecticut’s dismal business climate without bankrupting the state’s 169 municipalities.

If Malloy fails, then we all lose. We’ll be California writ small. Or Winsted writ large.

Lakeville resident Terry Cowgill, who blogs at terrycowgill.blogspot.com, is a former editor and senior writer at The Lakeville Journal Company and host of Conversations With Terry Cowgill on CATV6. He can be reached at terrycowgill@gmail.com.