A few minutes before 5 p.m. today Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell’s office announced she had pulled out her pen and vetoed several bills, prompting a fusillade of equally last minute e-mails from angry lawmakers, including her potential gubernatorial opponent, Democratic Stamford Mayor Dannel Malloy, and other special interests.
With state offices closed tomorrow for the Fourth of July holiday and again on Monday for a deficit-related paid furlough day, it was quite a way for Rell to end the week.
It’s kind of like tossing a couple of Roman candles or M-80s into the middle of the family picnic, hopping into your car and getting out of dodge, leaving everyone scrambling, spitting out their potato salad and wondering “what the #@*#%!?!?!?”
UPDATE: I asked Adam Liegeot, a spokesman for the Governor, whether she has set some sort of new “veto record” over the past few weeks.
Liegeot in an e-mail responded: “As of this date, the Governor has signed 187 bills and vetoed 14 bills of the 2009 legislative session. This is the most vetoes by a Governor since Gov. Weicker vetoed 13 bills in 1993.”
And I doubt Rell will stop at 14. Off the top of my head there are at least two high-profile health reform bills Democrats pushed through the General Assembly which have been criticized by the Governor’s budget staff as too expensive.
