Political Capitol

The state House of Representatives passed a pretty big deal bill today intended to protect physicians who buy into the controversial notion of chronic, tick-borne Lyme disease from being investigated for treating it with long-term antibiotics.

Having been born and raised in Connecticut I’m familiar with Lyme disease, but I had no idea what a politically charged issue it is until I began writing stories about this legislation a few months ago.

Even though there are tons of folks out there, including some lawmakers, who believe they or their family members suffer from chronic recurring Lyme symptoms, the well-respected national Infectious Diseases Society says it’s a bunch of hogwash. And that apparently scares those docs who may secretly accept chronic Lyme as a fact but don’t want to acknowledge it publicly and get tattled on to higher medical authorities.

Speaking of hogs, it was tough getting any medical types to respond to the House’s unanimous passage of the Lyme legislation because of all the media hype over the swine flu.

I put in a call to the Infectious Diseases Society for a comment and got a polite e-mail back referring me to previous statements the group has issued.

“As you can imagine, we’re a bit swamped here with the swine flu pandemic,” the society’s spokesman apologized.

William Gerrish, spokesman for the state Department of Public Health, said he too was tied up with swine flu questions but would try to get me something on the Lyme bill.

I just bumped into Joseph Marie, who about a year ago was hired by Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell to take over the Department of Transportation.

I asked Marie for his thoughts on a proposal by legislative Republicans to merge the Department of Motor Vehicles into the DOT. The proposal was one of a over one dozen agency mergers/cuts the GOP minority put on the table a few weeks ago as part of their effort to cut the state’s potential, $8.7 billion budget deficit.

“I’ve got enough on my plate already,” Marie said with a smile. “That’s my initial thought.”

Marie came to Connecticut from Arizona following Rell’s nationwide search for someone to reform a department she has called “broken.”

“To be frank, I’m not sure I see a tremendous amount of synergy” between DOT and DMV, Marie said.

He said his agency is focused on operations and maintenance while the DMV deals mainly with licensing issues.

As The Advocate reported over the weekend, House Minority Leader Lawrence Cafero, R-Norwalk, today filed paperwork with the state Elections Enforcement Commission to form an exploratory committee for an unspecified statewide office in 2010 or to seek re-election in his district.

The name of his committee? “Explore Cafero,” which sounds like the title of a movie that might get him kicked out of the legislature or a sequel to The Fantastic Voyage.

He lists a website – explorecafero.com – but I’m not sure if I should visit it using my work computer.

So at the end of the Reps. Cafero/Wood budget forum that I referenced in the below Blog post, I went up to Tammy Langalis of Norwalk.

Langalis, a registered Republican, was in the audience and appeared pretty interested in the budget process. She asked Cafero and Wood plenty of questions both during the forum and also bent their ears afterward.

When I asked if she thought some sort of an income tax increase was unavoidable, considering the state’s growing deficit and the fact the Democrats control the legislature, Langalis said she hopes Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell will block it.

“If the Governor has the will to have no tax increase she might be able to pull it off. She’s very popular,” Langalis said.

A Quinnipiac University poll released in early April found Rell has an overall 72 percent approval rating and a 65 percent approval rating among Democrats.

And the legislature needs her to sign-off on a budget agreement. Sure the Democrats could send her a plan that she’d veto and then try to use their numbers to over-ride it. But it’s difficult to herd all those cats and I think all parties would rather reach some sort of compromise agreement.

So one could argue Rell, more than anyone else in Hartford, has the power to dig her heels in, fight a tax hike and impose more cuts on state spending OR the power to face the taxpayers of Connecticut and ask them to kick in some extra cash to help close the deficit and maintain state services.

It’s called political capital and Rell can decide how to spend it.

So far Rell’s been pushing for no new taxes, but last Friday cracked that door a bit when she told reporters “(new) revenue may be inevitable, but you need to make sure you cut as far as you can.”

Tammy Langalis, ladies and gentlemen. Smartest person in the room.

Yeah, I would have gone with the latter, too. But my job brought me to Norwalk’s Roton Middle School at 7 p.m. tonight in the hope that House Minority Leader Lawrence Cafero’s, R-Norwalk, budget forum would draw a diverse crowd with some interesting questions.

Five people have so far showed up, not counting reporters and Rep. Terrie Wood, R-Darien, who co-sponsored the event.

Clearly the wonderful weather trumped any concerns area residents have about what’s going on at the capitol.

Cafero and Wood are soldiering on with their presentation.

“I guess we’re going to have an intimate conversation about our state budget,” Cafero just told the small group.

It is not uncommon for the state to seek the lowest responsible bidder when it’s in the market for goods and services.

But as it turns out that approach is not used when Connecticut needs to purchase a new American flag to display on public property.

A bill requiring that all American and state flags flown on public property be made in the good old U.S. of A. has been making it’s way through the legislature. Demand for American flags was so high after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks that foreign companies began producing them, and some folks find that troublesome.

Like all bills, this proposal has a “fiscal note” attached so lawmakers can understand the potential impact on the budget i.e. would Connecticut have to spend money swapping-out a bunch of foreign-made flags for the real deal?

But according to the fiscal note, several years ago state government made a decision to only buy flags from companies whose product is manufactured in the United States, regardless of whether that is the cheapest approach.

Now, as for that flag your kid pledges allegiance to every morning in school or the flag your city council salutes before every meeting …

Capitol newsroom veteran Steve Kotchko interviews Stamford Mayor and potential Democratic gubernatorial candidate Dannel Malloy for his On the Record program on Connecticut Public Television.

I wasn’t able to catch up with House Minority Leader Lawrence Cafero, R-Norwalk, Thursday for a follow-up on the vote late Wednesday night approving same-sex marriage legislation codifying last year’s state Supreme Court ruling.

But we spoke about it today.

Despite unsuccessful efforts to amend the bill – specifically Cafero wanted to make it clear parents could pull their kids out of any life sciences class that broaches the topic of gay marriage – he ultimately voted to pass it.

“I believe in my heart a marriage should be defined as a union between one man and one woman,” Cafero said. “Obviously the state Supreme Court felt differently.”

Cafero said he was pleased with the final bill because some changes were made to protect religious organizations and associations.

“Whether we met or not, voted or not – up, down, sideways – or postponed or delayed (a vote), the fact of the matter is since the Supreme Court decision the law of the land is people of the same sex can marry unless and until we change the Constitution. That train already left the station,” Cafero said. “Frankly had we done nothing (and not codified the Supreme Court ruling) religious organizations do not have those protections. So it was very much necessary for them. That’s why I voted for it.”

Unlike some of his Republican colleagues and even a few Democrats – Rep. Bruce Morris, D-Norwalk – Cafero said he was not comfortable seeking an additional amendment allowing business owners to refuse to provide services for a same-sex wedding on religious grounds.

“Frankly I have some concerns with it,” Cafero said. He argued it might be too easy for someone to use it as an excuse to discriminate.

“(Someone could say) ‘I’m the religion of Larry Cafero and we don’t like green or red people’,” Cafero said. “I was a little leary of that amendment.”