Will They Fight?

While Judiciary Committee co-chair Michael Lawlor blasted Governor M. Jodi Rell’s Wednesday nomination of 10 lawyers to the Superior Court, some of those on the list came from Democratic leaders.  This will undermine Lawlor’s ability to fix the judicial branch’s budget troubles if it means fighting leaders of the House and Senate over their own nominations. Speaker of the House Christopher Donovan says he’s committed to balancing the court system budget before the nominations go forward.  His office declined to identify his two horses in this expensive race.

While the legislative leaders could promise to bring back their favorites in January, a new governor would have to nominate them and it’s never good to have been nominated and rejected.

The governor’s office has been complaining about money spent on bottled water in courthouses, but it blithely made 10 nominations to the Superior Court that will cost many times more than what Poland Springs delivers.  A seat on the bench is a prize worth several million dollars to each winner, so it’s hard to turn down a nomination.  Nevertheless, the course these nominations take will be more fraught and scrutinized than usual.

The governor wants to reward two loyalists, Public Safety Commissioner John Danaher and Office of Policy and Management Secretary Robert Genuario, with judgeships before she leaves office.  She has so little power in the legislature that she has to stir in some Democrats to make this a budget-busting brew that will go down in the House and Senate. Consistency on spending has disappeared at the State Capitol.

Watch Republican leaders to see if they will remain true to their talk of fiscal prudence by opposing all 10 nominees.  Rell has abandoned them on their core issues, so they have no reason to stand by her. Candidate recruitment has been going well, so this could become a rallying cry for the increasing ranks of Republican challengers in November’s elections.  With the state unemployment rate stuck at close to 9%, it could be tough for Democratic incumbents to explain why they parceled out 10 robes to people who already have jobs.  In the right hands, those visuals become compelling.

Then there’s the Judicial branch.  Its leaders would rather have its budget fixed than be further burdened by more judges It won’t be able to be mount a credible campaign for 10 more judges it doesn’t want.

This is a mess provoked by Rell–and aided by Democratic leaders– as she scrambles to find jobs for some friends, hardly the behavior of “the ethics governor.”   There is an air of desperation wafting out of the governor’s office that suggests 4 years of “reading days”  at home was preferable to Snow White engaged.