Courant Takes Notice

From Saturday's Courant:

GOP Lawmakers Develop Their Own Punch

Defying Democrats, Rell On Taxes Plays Well With The Party's Base

By MARK PAZNIOKAS
Courant Staff Writer

May 26 2007


Outnumbered and struggling for relevance, Republican state legislators may have found a new identity and purpose by defying both Democrats and their own governor on taxes.

At the very least, the gambit is playing well among Republican donors who paid between $250 and $1,000 to attend the GOP's pre-eminent fundraiser, the Prescott Bush Awards Dinner.

They accorded hero status to House Minority Leader Lawrence F. Cafero Jr., who pressured Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell last month to back away from an income-tax increase she sought to fund greater aid for education.

Cafero and House Republicans offered a budget that could be balanced without a tax increase - a criticism of the Democratic majority's tax plan, but one that also reflected on Rell.

On Thursday night, the GOP base signaled its approval at the Bush dinner, applauding louder for Cafero and Senate Minority Leader Louis C. DeLuca, who were introduced together, than for Rell.

Rell, who has since abandoned her tax increase and sided with legislative Republicans, seemed to take no offense at the applause for Cafero and DeLuca.

"That's absolutely no reflection on the governor. That's a reflection that the [legislative] Republicans staked some new territory this session, and people recognized that," said her spokesman, Chris Cooper. "And the governor was applauding as loudly as anybody."

In her own brief remarks Thursday, Rell encouraged the legislative leaders to continue fighting for Republican values.

Rell, who credited rising state revenues for her own decision to abandon a call for a tax increase, also has been more partisan on the budget in recent days.

"The Democrats simply don't get it," Rell said Wednesday during an unannounced visit to the Capitol press room. "Stop talking about taxes, and let's talk about getting the spending under control."

Twice this week, House Republicans tried to force a vote on a 25-cent reduction in the gas tax for the summer, a proposal Democrats dismissed as political grandstanding. But it is resonating with the beleaguered GOP.

"Larry and Lou have the Democrats on the run," Chris Healy, the new Republican state chairman, told the Bush dinner audience of 600 donors.

"Thank God!" yelled Mary Ann Turner of Enfield, a Republican town chairwoman.

Healy and others were happy to see a feistiness among the base after the debacle of the 2006 election, when Rell and her running mate, Michael Fedeles, were the only Republicans to win statewide office.

In Hartford, Republicans saw their numbers in the legislature shrink to 44 of 151 in the House and 12 of 36 in the Senate. Democrats also won four of the five U.S. House seats in Connecticut, unseating two Republican incumbents.

"We're picking ourselves up off the floor," Healy said. "We're a little bloody, and we're looking for a fight."

Cafero, 49, a lawyer from Norwalk, took over as House minority leader in January, determined to give his caucus a stronger identity.

He reshuffled his staff, hiring campaign consultant and former party Chairman George Gallo as his chief of staff.

"I think there was a culture of incumbency that Larry has successfully broken," Healy said in an interview Friday. "We weren't put here to stand around and take the crumbs the Democrats throw us occasionally."

Cafero has said he and the governor are aware that their interests will not always coincide. As governor, Rell will have to compromise with the Democratic majority to pass a budget.

Healy, who was elected state chairman in January with Rell's blessing, has the potentially awkward task of simultaneously defending the governor and Republican legislators when they are at odds.

He said Cafero, with his alternative budget, simply was trying to show "there was another way."

"To her credit, the governor looked at it, saw the new [revenue] numbers," Healy said. "She was open to a change in her tactics, but not her philosophy. She is still committed to her education idea."

Contact Mark Pazniokas at mpazniokas@courant.com.


Copyright 2007, Hartford Courant