Submitted by Joe Kelly
Hartford is in dire need of balanced representation. Connecticut’s Democratic supermajority passes whatever it likes — shutting down debate, running roughshod over reasoned opposition, and even overturning the governor’s veto if it wants.
This partisan supermajority also overreacts to federal policy, sometimes foregoing common sense and local safety, in its zeal to countermand an administration it opposes.
Case in point: Substitute House Bill No. 5001, An Act Concerning Absentee Voting for All. The supermajority supposedly passed this sweeping law to make voting more convenient and accessible. But Hartford, with its hypersensitivity to all things Trump, felt the need to make sure all police are kept away from polling sites. Section 57 of the law makes it a crime for law enforcement officers and agents to “knowingly loiter or remain within two hundred fifty feet of an elections site.” This is now a Class C felony.
When there is no one to push back, the supermajority passes short-sighted rules like this without a thought for the ramifications. Officials belatedly slapped on a workaround for local and state officers. It grants police an exception to be within the 250-foot perimeter of a balloting place if they first obtain permission from a civilian “moderator” — a local election official or registrar.
Imagine if unruly demonstrators interfere with voting, criminals prey on people trying to vote, or an angry ex assaults someone — and the cops have to get permission from an untrained civilian before they can intervene. Yet that is a fair interpretation of this sloppy, anti-law enforcement rule.
And if a police officer stops to chat with a friend on the way out of the forbidden zone, she could still get slapped with a felony “loitering” charge and lose her career and her freedom. You can’t say you support the police then turn around and pass a law like this.
“In fifty years in law enforcement, I never had to consult a legal checklist before helping someone in trouble. Connecticut’s new law asks our officers to do just that near every polling place, under threat of a felony charge,” says Stamford Police Captain (ret.) Thomas Lombardo.
“If the state needed a stack of guidance documents just to explain what this law doesn’t mean, that tells you it was never written with the police officers who have to enforce it in mind,” he says. “Election Day should be one of the safest days of the year, not the one day our officers have to think twice before doing their job.”
The supermajority just doesn’t get it. Sen. Gary Winfield (D-10th District), co-chair of the Judiciary Committee, dismissed concerns, saying “No one is going to get a Class C felony,” and that “It seems absolutely ridiculous to think that.”
But it’s not ridiculous to police officers and their families to worry about it. A Class C felony is the same level as 2nd degree manslaughter and sexual assault. It’s punishable by up to 10 years in prison and/or a fine. Conviction of a Class C felony also means decertification, ending a police officer’s career. Winfield’s flippant dismissal of these concerns indicates just how out of touch the supermajority has become.
The predictable confusion and consternation from the short-sighted law necessitated interpretation and clarification from the Secretary of the State and elected officials, and it has further divided our lawmakers from those who enforce the law. All of this was avoidable.
The sad part is that there is plenty of common ground on these issues, but Connecticut is run by a single all-powerful party. There is no balance, no debate, and no brakes to make sure the laws passed accomplish what they are intended to accomplish — and nothing more.
This is why I strongly urge you to vote Republican in the upcoming election, to break up the centralized power in Hartford and give common sense and common ground a fighting chance.
Joe Kelly is running to represent the 36th District in the Connecticut State Senate.