New Faces Coming Soon to General Assembly
With Election Day 2010 finally in the rearview mirror (well, sort of), the picture emerging from the results is of several new faces heading to Hartford for the reconvening of the Connecticut General Assembly in January 2011. If the results stay as they are currently reported now, Republicans will have picked up fourteen seats in the House of Representatives and at least one seat in the State Senate.
There are at least fourteen races that have the potential to be settled after a recount so there remains some uncertainty in these races. If the numbers hold, however, Connecticut’s State House will feature a party division of an even 100 Democrats and 51 Republicans.
One of the State Senate’s insufferable personalities, Sen. Tom Colapietro, won’t be returning to Hartford in January 2011. Bristol’s blowhard was defeated by GOP rising star Jason Welch, a man who appeared downright genteel compared to Colapietro during the debates.
The “People Don’t Want to Sit Next to Me in the Cafeteria” Caucus is diminished but hardly defeated. Sen. Edith Prague narrowly escaped from her contest with Ledyard native Sean Sullivan in the race to represent the Norwich-based 17th State Senate District.
Republicans will wait to see whether their caucus grows by one more seat as challenger David Pia may or may not have defeated incumbent Democrat Anthony Musto in the 22nd Senate District. The ongoing fiasco that is Bridgeport will hold the results in that race in abeyance for at least a few more hours.
In the Manchester-based Fourth Senate District, Republican Chip Beckett trails former Manchester Mayor Steve Cassano by just 72 votes, making a recount likely in that district.
Nonetheless, in addition to Welch and perhaps Pia and/or Beckett, the Senate Republican caucus will be a bit different with two new members from open seats – Joe Markley, who is actually an old face at the State Capitol who will take Sam Caligiuri’s seat, and Kevin Kelly, who will take over from Sen. Dan Debicella who narrowly lost to Rep. Jim Himes in the race for the Fourth Congressional District.
