Latest Column | ‘Distraction and Power: A Troubling Start to the 2026 Session’ (March 2026)

By: State Sen. Rob Sampson

The 2026 legislative session is underway, and Connecticut residents are already seeing a familiar pattern: distraction at the microphone and consolidation of power in the fine print.

Opening day made that clear.

Instead of using his State of the State Address to confront affordability, electric bills, crime, fraud, and the daily pressures facing Connecticut families, Governor Ned Lamont chose to inflame national political divisions inside a chamber that should be focused on our state.

That decision was deliberate, and it served a purpose.

In the same speech where he praised Connecticut law enforcement as “perhaps the best trained police force in the world,” he accused federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers of being “barely trained at all,” said they “see the world as us versus them,” and claimed they were arresting people “often based upon the color of their skin.” He declared, “Everywhere you go, uninvited, violence follows. Go home.”

Those are extraordinary accusations to level from the podium of the Connecticut House chamber. A Governor should not use a State of the State address to create hostility and division.

At some point I simply got up and walked out. Not as a stunt, but because a Connecticut State of the State speech had turned into a national political performance. Predictably, some in the media treated that as the story.

It was not.

Because while attention was fixed on partisan theatrics, Democratic leaders were granting themselves hundreds of millions of your taxpayer dollars to spend with virtually no oversight.

On that same opening day, they advanced legislation authorizing up to 330 million dollars in discretionary spending under the label of an “emergency” response to potential federal “policy impacts.” It is a blank check for the Governor in an election year.

We have seen this before.

In November, under the excuse of a possible federal shutdown that ended before the Senate even voted, the legislature rushed through a 500 million dollar “Federal Cuts Response Fund.” No public hearings. No meaningful debate. Of that 500 million dollars, about 187 million was spent before the authority expired.

Even that sweeping language was not broad enough.

So, they returned on opening day and widened it dramatically.

The new bill allows spending based on virtually any federal “action or inaction.” If Washington acts, they can spend. If Washington fails to act, they can spend. If guidance changes or courts rule, they can spend.

That is not emergency governance. That is convenience government.

I did not stay quiet. I exposed it on the Senate floor, walking through the language line by line and explaining how it concentrates power and weakens representative government. But when headlines are dominated by national political outrage, the half billion dollars quietly being handed over in Hartford becomes background noise.

That is not coincidence. It is strategy.

Meanwhile, Connecticut families are being crushed.

Constituents contact my office every day describing impossible choices between electric bills and groceries, heating oil and prescriptions, staying in Connecticut or leaving the state they love.

After decades of one-party Democratic control of state government, Connecticut ranks among the highest taxed states in America, among the highest electric rates, and among the most expensive places to live. Businesses struggle. Seniors are squeezed. Young families question whether they can build a future here.

And now we are hearing about rebate checks going out right before an election. Let us be honest about what that is. The state collects too much from you, holds it, and then returns a portion at the most politically convenient moment.

Those inadequate rebate checks may well be the Governor’s last act in office. The next act should be electing a Republican governor who will help enact real structural reform instead of temporary political relief.

Senate Republicans have already put forward a serious affordability plan that delivers more than one billion dollars in permanent, structural tax relief. Not one-time payments. Not short-term gimmicks. Real income tax reductions. Real car tax relief. Real efforts to lower electric costs by addressing the policies that created the public benefits charges in the first place.

Our plan is about restoring affordability for the long term. It is about trusting families with their own money. It is about reversing decades of decisions that have made Connecticut less competitive and less affordable.

The people of Connecticut deserve leadership focused on lowering costs and protecting representative government, not distracting from power grabs and campaigning with taxpayer dollars.

Connecticut still has a choice. We can continue down the path of bigger government, higher costs, and election year theatrics, or we can demand structural reform, accountability, and real relief.

That choice is coming.

And I intend to make sure the people of this state understand exactly what is at stake.