The Klarides Contradiction. Rare House Re-vote Allowed Republican Leader to Abandon Stand on Spending.

State Representative Themis Klarides (R-Florida) often complains about state spending. Anyone who has listened to her rhetoric through the years knows she hits the same notes in a narrow range. Klarides’s vote last week opposing Governor Ned Lamont‘s bloated bond package. Lamont abandoned his pledge to put the state on a “debt diet” that Klarides would support.

On the first—and normally the only—roll call vote on the proposal, Klarides was one of 21 votes against the bill. An hour later, the House voted again. One vote changed: Klarides’s. The 11 term incumbent Derby and Madison switched her vote from “no” to “yes” with no explanation. Klarides, at this hour of maximum danger for Connecticut is reported to have retreated to a warm climate for reflection or other pursuits.