Daily Archive
Stories Posted on September 27, 2008
Rell favors constitutional convention
Category: Initiative and Referendum · State: Connecticut · Source: Connecticut Post
The controversial statewide effort to hold the state's first Constitutional Convention since 1965 got a boost on Friday when Gov. M. Jodi Rell said she favors the November-ballot issue. She said it would be a good way to create a new initiative-and-referendum law to allow voters to use the ballot box to change government and force votes on new laws, as is done in states like California. The anti-abortion Family Institute of Connecticut Action said Friday that Rell's endorsement is good news in the weeks before Connecticut voters see the ballot question on Nov. 4. But House Majority Leader Christopher G. Donovan, in reaction to the governor, said voters have the power to remove lawmakers every two years and that the constitutional issue is being used by fringe groups to try to force unpopular positions upon the state. Rell was just finishing an impromptu news conference with reporters in the Capitol complex Friday afternoon when she was asked a final question on whether she favors a Constitutional Convention. "Yes, I actually do," Rell said. "But I also think that we should have some type of controls on a Constitutional Convention so that we don't have an excess, if you will, of a number of types of frivolous types of amendments being offered year after year."