The Republican President of the Connecticut Senate broke with the majority of his caucus on Tuesday and voted with Democrats to approve several of Governor Dannel Malloy’s new Superior Court judge nominees.
Thirteen of the 18 Republicans in the Connecticut Senate opposed Malloy’s nominees because they say the state has yet to budget for the 32 new Superior Court judges.
Scott Frantz of Greenwich was one them.
“I would be a ‘no’ only because we don’t have the money to pay for it. Otherwise I would be in favor of it. Thank you, Madam President.”
Senate Republican President Len Fasano wasn’t persuaded to vote against the nominees including his former colleague and friend Eric Coleman, a Democrat who was a past Senate chair of the judiciary committee.
“Madam President, I’m not going to belabor this any longer except to say that he is going to be a great addition to our bench.”
Four other Republicans joined Fasano in voting with Democrats 23 to 13 for Coleman. They also voted for a number of Malloy’s other nominees by the same margin. The nominees now head to the House for approval. On Monday, the House, which has a Democratic majority, approved about a dozen of Malloy’s nominees on slim party line votes.
