Connecticut House minority Leader Themis Klarides says she’s hopeful Republicans will have a better working relationship with incoming Democratic Governor Ned Lamont than they had with outgoing Democratic Governor Dannel Malloy.
Klarides, a Republican from Derby, says she’s spoken at length with Lamont ahead of the legislative session that begins next week. She says she’s pleased with Lamont’s grasp of the state’s fiscal problems.
“I think he also intellectually understands that there has to be some drastic changes to how we move the state forward.”
Klarides says she’s hoping Lamont will be different from Malloy who came into office eight years ago with a similar understanding of the state’s fiscal woes but failed to govern from the middle.
“I think he believes he can wrangle my colleagues on the other side of the aisle. But believing you can, and actually knowing how difficult it is, are two different things. So we’ll have to see how it goes.”
Democrats have a 23 to 13 seat advantage over Republicans in the state Senate and a 92 to 59 seat advantage in the state House.
