Paul Bass Photo
Ted Kennedy, Jr at WNHH’s studio.
Ted Kennedy Jr. plans to seek a second term as state senator of the 12th District, but has decided to formally announce his candidacy later on in the year.
Kennedy has served for one year. His second year, this one, is known as a short-session year, one that runs from February to May.
Wednesday is the “Opening Day” of the joint session of the Connecticut General Assembly’s 2016 legislative session. Gov. Dannel P. Malloy delivers his state of the state address at noon. It will be televised by CT‑N.
“I love my job. I am good at it. I love the people of the shoreline and so my thought is to continue in the work if the citizens of the 12th District honor me with their vote,” Kennedy said on WNHH radio’s “Legal Eagle” show. He added he was “contemplating” a second term. “So you are thinking about it seriously,” the Eagle asked. “I’m thinking about it,” he replied.
In the interview, Kennedy observed the brevity of two-year terms under which all Connecticut legislators serve. The governor’s term is four years.
“You know, it seems my election was just the other day. These two-year terms come up rather quickly. Maybe we need to do something about that,” he said, adding, “It seems like I was just sworn in and now I am running for election again.”
As the 2016 election comes into view, state senators and state representatives often raise this topic. Overall, senators in only 12 states, including Connecticut, New York and Vermont, have two-year terms. Senators in 31 states serve four-year terms. In New Jersey, senate members serve for either two or four year periods as do state senators in six other states – Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Minnesota and Texas; the duration of a term — either two or four years — depends on the proximity of the election to reapportionments that occur after the federal census.
Kennedy made his comments about re-election after the Eagle asked him if he would follow State Rep. Sean Scanlon (D‑98) and State Rep. Lonnie Reed (D‑102,) both members of the Branford delegation who formally announced their decisions to seek reelection last month. As of yesterday’s online filings on the State Elections Enforcement Commission (SEEC), no Republican opponents had registered or formed a committee to challenge Reed and Scanlon or Kennedy.
Environmental Priorities This Session
Kennedy, co-chairman of the General Assembly’s Environment Committee, gave the broad outlines of his environmental priorities in the 45-minute radio interview. He said his committee approaches issues in a collaborative way. “We passed 24 bills last term in what was a contentious session,” he said. He said both sides of the aisle look to find bi-partisan compromises.
Kennedy said that during the upcoming term he expects a variety of bills to be introduced, including finding ways to reduce the single use of plastic bags, figuring out how best to discard batteries and recycle tires, and working on how best to get companies like Amazon to reduce the box packaging implosion generated by online shopping.
He also wants to start an animal abuser registry, not an easy objective, he observed.
On a recent Legal Eagle radio program, Laura Burban, Branford’s Dan Cosgrove Animal Shelter director, observed that in order to create an animal abuser registry, “You have to have judges convicting offenders and that is rare. That’s the primary problem.”
As for revisiting enhanced criminal penalties for animal cruelty, Kennedy said he intended to again propose changes to the use of accelerated rehabilitation laws in animal cruelty cases. A tougher A/R bill passed the Senate last term but died in the House as the session ended.
Boxes, Boxes, Boxes
“Municipalities are now overwhelmed with extra packing material that the towns have to deal with after consumers open their boxes” to retrieve gifts, he said. Then the box and packaging innards are left to the town to deal with. ‘Eventually the costs are passed onto the taxpayers,” Kennedy said.
In addition, Kennedy said his committee would seek alternative funding measures for the state’s parks.
Also on his to-do list is to investigate dumping harbor dredging waste in Long Island Sound.
Click on the above sound file to listen to the full episode.
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