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Does one-party rule exist in Connecticut? Some, including Democrat state Sen. Beth Bye of West Hartford, say it does not. As someone who has witnessed the results of Democrat majority rule over the past four years, I respectfully disagree.

With the Democrats controlling the General Assembly and the governor's seat, we have seen one-sided policy decisions pushed into law and Republican alternatives pushed aside. As a result, Connecticut has not only been led down a path that heads straight toward "permanent fiscal crisis" in the words of the governor's budget director our state has also lost sight of many valid policy solutions.

It is true that about 80 percent of the time, Republicans and Democrats vote similarly on bills that make it to the floor of the Senate. This number is accurate, but it is also misleading. Here's why:

This percentage omits the hundreds of Republican proposals that Democrats never call for a vote to avoid taking a stand on difficult issues.

This percentage doesn't tell us how many Republican bills are killed while in the committee stage of the legislative review process.

This percentage does not include the 259 Republican amendments that have been rejected by the majority at a rate of 99 percent over the past four years.

This percentage also fails to acknowledge what happens when a Republican idea does manage to garner Democrat support it gets taken over by Democrats who slap their own names on what was once a Republican amendment.

In the current system, the bills that make it to the floor of the Senate are usually bills that are sensible updates to the law, so we vote similarly most of the time. The ideas that differ vastly from the majority are the ones that never make it that far.

The high percentage of on-the-floor agreements also fails to shed light on the stark differences in policy between Republicans and Democrats represented by the remaining 20 percent. What does that 20 percent include?

Republican votes against the Democratic majority when the governor wanted to implement the largest tax increase in state history.

Excerpt from:
One-Party Democratic Rule Stifles Connecticut