State election features old, new faces; voting records from latest sessions

Posted By: Evan Ruszczyk November 6, 2022

While Democrats currently hold a 24-12 majority in the state senate and a 97-54 majority in the state house, Bristol’s contingent is majority Republican. Tuesday’s election pits several Republican incumbents and one newcomer against two Democratic newcomers and one candidate who is making a second run in the 77th House district.

Bristol is represented in the Senate by Republican Sen. Henri Martin and in the House of Representatives by Republican Rep. Cara Pavalock-D’Amato in the 77th district and Republican Rep. Whit Betts in the 78th district. Democrat Rep. Chris Ziogas represents Bristol in the 79th district.

Bett and Ziogas are retiring this year.

Martin is running against Democratic challenger newcomer Gregory Hahn in the 31st Senate district.

Pavalock-D’Amato is running against Democratic challenger Andrew Rasmussen-Tuller in the 77th House district for the second time.

Newcomers to the 79th House races include Republican Jennifer Van Gorder who will face Democrat Mary Fortier. Fortier did run against Martin last time around.

Republican Joe Hoxha is running unopposed in the 78th district.

This is the first year new district boundaries will apply.

Click here for the new district boundaries for the 31st Senate district. Click here for the new district boundaries for the 77th House district. Click here for the 78th House district. Click here for the 79th House district. Use the plus and minus signs to zoom in and zoom out.

Voting records on specific issues from current office holders follow. Betts and Ziogas were not approached for TBE candidate profiles. Republican candidates Martin, Pavalock-D’Amato and Van Gorder did not respond to TBE requests.

Republican Joe Hoxha, who is running unopposed in the 78th House district did reply. Democratic challengers Hahn, Rasmussen-Tuller and Fortier, candidates in for the 31st Senate seat and 77th and 79th House seats, respectively, completed the profiles. The profiles can be found here.

The Connecticut General Assembly is a bicameral legislative body, composed of the 151-member House of Representatives and 36-member Senate.

The Assembly is made up of 25 committees and their various sub-committees. Each committee has members from both the House and Senate. The chair for most committees is held by the ruling party. Some committees, whose purposes are mostly administrative, are considered officially bipartisan and have chairs from both the Democratic and Republican caucuses.

Sessions run from February to May in even-numbered years, in odd-numbered years the sessions last from January to June to complete the state’s budget.

Most bills must pass through one of the committees before being voted on in the House and Senate.

Voting records

Last year among its issues, the Connecticut General Assembly (CGA) voted to legalize recreational marijuana use for adults.

Martin was absent the day the vote was taken and did not participate. Ziogas voted yes and Pavalock-D’Amato and Betts both voted no.

In the wake of the Dobbs decision being handed down by the Supreme Court earlier this year, the CGA passed a law that protects healthcare providers who perform abortions and abortion-related care, protects patients traveling to Connecticut for abortion care and allows for a broader range of health care providers to provide certain kinds of abortion-related care.

Martin, Pavalock-D’Amato and Ziogas voted no. Betts was absent and did not vote.

Martin, Pavalock D’Amato, Betts and Ziogas all voted yes on a bill that allows clinical social workers to periodically perform behavioral health assessments of police officers.