Connecticut State Senate

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Connecticut State Senate
Stephen Harding (R)
since February 16, 2024
Structure
Seats36
Political groups
Majority
  •   Democratic (24)

Minority

Length of term
2 years
AuthorityArticle III, Section 1,
Hartford, Connecticut
Website
Official Senate Page

The Connecticut State Senate is the upper house of the Connecticut General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The state senate comprises 36 members, each representing a district with around 99,280 inhabitants. Senators are elected to two-year terms without term limits. The Connecticut State Senate is one of 14 state legislative upper houses whose members serve two-year terms; four-year terms are more common.

As in other

gubernatorial appointments to the state's executive departments, the state cabinet, commissions and boards. Unlike a majority of U.S. state legislatures, both the Connecticut House of Representatives and the State Senate vote on the composition to the Connecticut Supreme Court
.

The Senate meets within the State Capitol in Hartford.

History

The Senate has its basis in the earliest incarnation of the General Assembly, the "General Corte" established in 1636 whose membership was divided between at least six generally elected magistrates (the predecessor of the Senate) and three-member "committees" representing each of the towns of the Connecticut Colony (the predecessors of the House of Representatives). The Fundamental Orders of Connecticut, adopted in 1639, renamed the committees to "deputies", the Corte to the Court, and established that the magistrates were generally elected for yearlong terms; the magistrate who received the highest number of votes would serve as governor for the year, so long as he had previously served as a magistrate and had not been governor the previous year. Other magistrates were elected deputy governor, secretary, and treasurer. Although the magistrates and deputies sat together, they voted separately and in 1645 it was decreed that a measure had to have the approval of both groups in order to pass. The Charter of 1662 replaced the six magistrates with twelve assistants, not including the governor and deputy governor, and renamed the legislature to the General Assembly. In 1698, the General Assembly split into a bicameral body, divided between the Council and the House of Representatives. The Council contained the twelve assistants, deputy governor, and governor, who led the body, while the House was led by a Speaker elected from among its members. Because the governor led it and other notables sat in it, the Council took precedence to the House and when the two chambers were at odds, the House deferred to the council.[citation needed] The 1818 constitution renamed the council to the Senate,[1] removed the governor and deputy governor from its membership, and removed all remaining judicial and executive authority from it, but it remained largely the same in that it still consisted of twelve generally elected members. It was in 1828 that senatorial districts were established and the number of senators revised to between eight and twenty-four; the number was altered to between twenty-four and thirty-six in 1901, with the General Assembly setting it at thirty-six immediately. Senatorial terms were raised to two years in 1875.[2]

In 1814–15, the Hartford Convention met in the Connecticut Senate chamber of what is now the Old State House.

Leadership of the Senate

The

minority
leaders are elected by their respective party caucuses.

The President of the Senate is

Stephen Harding (R-Brookfield
).

Current leadership

Position Senator District
Lieutenant Governor
Susan Bysiewicz
President Pro Tempore
Martin Looney
11
Majority Leader
Bob Duff 25
Minority Leader
Stephen Harding
30

Make-up of the Senate

As of January 2023, the makeup of the Connecticut Senate consisted of 24 seats for Democrats and 12 seats for Republicans. In the 2022 elections, Democrats picked up District 20, giving them 24 seats to the Republicans' 12 seats.

24 12
Democratic Republican
Affiliation Party Total
Democratic
Republican Vacant
End of Previous Legislature: 2021–2023 23 13 36 0
Start of Current Legislature: 2023–2025 24 12 36 0
Latest Voting Share 66.7% 33.3% 100%

Members of the Senate

Current members of the Connecticut Senate, as of January 4, 2023.

District Name[3] Party Hometown First elected Towns represented Occupation Leadership Role
1
John Fonfara Dem Hartford 1996 Hartford (part), Wethersfield (part) Marketing Consultant
2
Douglas McCrory Dem Bloomfield 2017^ Bloomfield (part), Hartford (part), Windsor (part) Educator
3
Saud Anwar Dem South Windsor 2019^ East Hartford, East Windsor, Ellington (part), South Windsor Physician
4
MD Rahman
Dem Manchester 2022 Andover, Bolton, Glastonbury, Manchester Business Owner
5
Derek Slap Dem West Hartford 2019^ Bloomfield (part), Burlington, Farmington (part), West Hartford College Professor
6
Rick Lopes Dem New Britain 2020 Berlin, Farmington (part), New Britain Business Owner
7
John Kissel Rep Enfield 1993^ East Granby, Ellington (part), Enfield, Granby (part), Somers, Suffield, Windsor (part), Windsor Locks Corporate Attorney
8
Lisa Seminara Rep Avon 2022 Avon, Barkhamsted, Canton, Colebrook, Granby (part), Hartland, Harwinton (part), New Hartford, Norfolk, Simsbury, Torrington (part) Social Worker
9
Matt Lesser Dem Middletown 2018 Cromwell, Middletown (part), Newington, Rocky Hill, Wethersfield (part) Former State Representative
10
Gary Winfield Dem New Haven 2014^ New Haven (part), West Haven (part) Photographer, Business Owner
11
Martin Looney Dem New Haven 1993 Hamden (part), New Haven (part) Attorney President Pro-Tempore
12
Christine Cohen Dem Guilford 2018 Branford, Durham (part), East Haven (part), Guilford, Killingworth, Madison, Middlefield (part), North Branford (part) Business Owner
13
Jan Hochadel Dem Meriden 2022 Cheshire (part), Meriden, Middlefield (part), Middletown (part) Union President
14
James Maroney Dem Milford 2018 Milford, Orange, West Haven (part), Woodbridge (part) Retired Attorney
15
Joan Hartley Dem Waterbury 2000 Middlebury (part), Naugatuck (part), Waterbury (part) Teacher
16
Rob Sampson Rep Wolcott 2018 Cheshire (part), Prospect, Southington, Waterbury (part), Wolcott Realtor
17
Jorge Cabrera Dem Hamden 2020 Ansonia, Beacon Falls, Bethany, Derby, Hamden (part), Naugatuck (part), Woodbridge (part) Union Organizer
18
Heather Somers Rep Groton 2016 Griswold, Groton, North Stonington, Plainfield, Preston, Sterling, Stonington, Voluntown Business Executive
19
Cathy Osten Dem Sprague 2012 Columbia, Franklin, Hebron, Lebanon, Ledyard, Lisbon, Marlborough, Montville (part), Norwich, Sprague Corrections Officer
20
Martha Marx
Dem New London 2022 Bozrah, East Lyme, Montville (part), New London, Old Lyme, Old Saybrook (part), Salem, Waterford Nurse
21
Kevin Kelly Rep Stratford 2010 Monroe (part), Seymour (part), Shelton, Stratford (part) Attorney
22
Marilyn Moore Dem Bridgeport 2014 Bridgeport (part), Monroe (part), Trumbull Community Organizer
23
Herron Gaston Dem Bridgeport 2022 Bridgeport (part), Stratford (part) Pastor
24
Julie Kushner Dem Danbury 2018 Danbury, New Fairfield (part), Ridgefield (part) Community Organizer
25
Bob Duff Dem Norwalk 2000 Darien (part), Norwalk Realtor Majority Leader
26
Ceci Maher Dem Wilton 2022 Darien (part), New Canaan (part), Stamford (part), Redding, Ridgefield (part), Weston (part), Westport, Wilton Social Worker
27
Patricia Billie Miller Dem Stamford 2021^ Darien (part), Stamford (part)
28
Tony Hwang Rep Fairfield 2014 Bethel (part), Easton, Fairfield, Newtown, Realtor
29
Mae Flexer Dem Windham 2014 Brooklyn, Canterbury, Killingly, Mansfield, Pomfret, Putnam, Scotland, Thompson (part), Windham Nonprofit Organizer
30
Stephen Harding Rep Brookfield 2022 Bethlehem (part), Brookfield (part), Canaan, Cornwall, Goshen, Kent, Litchfield, Morris, New Fairfield (part), New Milford, North Canaan, Salisbury, Sharon, Sherman, Torrington (part), Warren, Washington (part), Winchester Attorney Minority Leader
31
Henri Martin Rep Bristol 2014 Bristol, Harwinton (part), Plainville, Plymouth, Thomaston Real Estate Business Owner
32
Eric Berthel Rep Watertown 2017^ Bethel (part), Bethlehem (part), Bridgewater, Brookfield (part), Middlebury (part), Oxford, Roxbury, Seymour (part), Southbury, Washington (part), Watertown, Woodbury Strategic Outreach
33
Norman Needleman Dem Essex 2018 Chester, Clinton, Colchester, Deep River, East Haddam, East Hampton, Essex, Haddam, Lyme, Old Saybrook (part), Portland, Westbrook First Selectman
34
Paul Cicarella Rep North Haven 2020 Durham (part), East Haven (part), North Branford (part), North Haven, Wallingford Private Investigator
35
Jeff Gordon
Rep Woodstock 2022 Ashford, Chaplin, Coventry, Eastford, Ellington (part), Hampton,Stafford, Thompson (part), Tolland, Union, Vernon, Willington, Woodstock Physician
36
Ryan Fazio

Rep

Greenwich 2021^ Greenwich, New Canaan (part), Stamford (part) Greenwich Representative Town Meeting Member
^ Senator was first elected in a special election.

Past composition of the Senate

See also

References

  1. ^ Orcutt, Jacob (Fall 2018). "Connecticut's Old State House: Where the Constitution of 1818 Was Born". Connecticut Explored. Vol. 16, no. 4. pp. 46–48. Retrieved January 26, 2021.
  2. ^ Under the Gold Dome: An Insider's Look at the Connecticut Legislature, by Judge Robert Satter. New Haven: Connecticut Conference of Municipalities, 2004, pp. 16–27.
  3. ^ "Senate Members (listed alphabetically)". Connecticut General Assembly. Retrieved February 14, 2013.

External links