For the past 10 years, state Rep. John Hampton and Sen. Kevin Witkos worked together across the aisle to help their constituents in the Farmington Valley.
But as part of a wave of nearly 30 retirements from the state legislature, Witkos is now leaving after 20 years and Hampton is departing after a decade. The two lawmakers represent a long streak of election victories and a wealth of experience in their communities that started even before they reached the legislature.
Their departures have opened up a path for newcomers, including leading to an expected Democratic primary for the state House of Representatives for the first time in Simsbury in decades.
Former first selectman Eric Wellman will be battling against Democratic attorney Melissa E. Osborne, a veteran campaigner who has gained name recognition while losing against Witkos in 2014, 2018, and 2020. Wellman captured the nomination of the Simsbury town committee, but Osborne says she will collect the necessary 322 signatures by the June 7 deadline to force the August primary.
Osborne, 54, has already captured key endorsements from Hampton and two of the most popular Simsbury first selectmen over the past 30 years — Mary Glassman and Anita Mielert.
One of the key issues motivating Osborne is the recently leaked U.S. Supreme Court draft opinion that could overturn the nation’s law on abortion.
“I’ve been raising the alarm bells about the threat to Roe v. Wade for years when the common wisdom was that Roe was safe, and I was watching the evolving jurisprudence at the court, and I knew that it wasn’t,” Osborne said in an interview. “Now, here we are at the precipice of history, and it’s time to send a woman to Hartford to fight this fight.”
Wellman, too, supports abortion access, sending out a video saying that he supports women’s rights, including the right “to autonomy over their own bodies.” Wellman, 39, had been planning to run a primary against Hampton from the left after Hampton cast numerous votes for years that broke with the Democratic Party’s majority on state fiscal issues and most recently on a bill concerning abortion access.
Wellman is known as a strong supporter of open space, having pushed for preserving nearly 300 acres in the north end of town that includes tobacco barns where Martin Luther King Jr. worked in the summer at a young age.
The winner of the Democratic primary is expected to face Republican Mike Paine, a longtime refuse hauler whose family’s name is emblazoned on garbage and recycling cans all across town.
The retirements statewide will lead to a new generation of leaders in the legislature. Statewide, six of the 36 Senate seats are open as members are retiring.
The retirements were among the reasons that lawmakers decided to increase pay for legislators — boosting the base salary to $40,000 per year, up from the current $28,000, starting in January 2023.
“There are moments in time in politics where people who have been around for a long time say, ‘I’m done,'” said Republican state chairman Ben Proto. “We saw it after the income tax, and people said they didn’t want to do this anymore. We saw it after 2008 when there was a lot of [financial] upheaval. I think we’re seeing it now, where people are looking around and saying, ‘I have a family to support, I’ve got a business to run,’ or ‘I just want to go and enjoy my life.'”
Proto added, “The money is clearly an issue. They’ve changed the salary structure, but if you’re paying me 40 grand, and I’ve got to give up substantially more than that at my [other] job.”
On the Senate side, the departure by Witkos provides a rare opening for newcomers for a seat that he has held for 20 years.
Historically, Republicans have held the 8th Senate district for more than 50 years, dating to the days of Lewis B. Rome, Reginald Smith, James Fleming and Thomas Herlihy.
Declared candidates for Witkos’ state Senate seat in the Farmington Valley include Republican Lisa Seminara of Avon and Democrat Paul Honig of Harwinton. A member of Avon’s school board, Seminara is a licensed social worker with a master’s degree from Columbia University in New York City.
Honig, a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, spent 22 years in the financial world and currently serves on the local board of selectmen. He lost to longtime state Rep. John Piscopo of Thomaston, the longest-serving House Republican in his 34th year in Hartford, by 29 percentage points in 2018 and 23 percentage points in 2020.
Witkos, 57, has served for the past two decades — starting with a stunning upset in 2002 of seven-term Rep. Jesse Stratton in Canton. Stratton had been expected to run for speaker of the House against incumbent Democrat Moira Lyons, but she lost her seat in her hometown.
In recent years, Witkos defeated Osborne with the races getting closer each time. Most recently, he won by five percentage points in 2020 in the sprawling, 11-town Senate district that stretches from Avon and Canton to Torrington and Colebrook.
Former state Democratic chairman John F. Droney Jr. said that Democrats have made strong inroads for years in the Farmington Valley and the entire 5th Congressional District, once a Republican stronghold more than 15 years ago in the days of Republican U.S. Rep. Nancy Johnson of New Britain.
“The new generation that is able to afford to live in Simsbury or Avon or West Hartford is much more affluent and is not a bunch of old Yankees, and they’re voting Democratic,” Droney said in an interview. “It’s as simple as that.”
Christopher Keating can be reached at ckeating@courant.com.
