Flexer to Courant, Keating: You Are Racists and Part of the Problem

State Senator Mae Flexer (D-Killingly) accused the Hartford Courant and veteran political reporter Chris Keating of racism for not including state Senator Gary Winfield (D-New Haven) in an article about requiring the wider use of police body cameras. Flexer wrote on her Twitter account that the Courant and Keating “completely erased the incredible work of black legislators like @10SDDem Gary Winfield.”

“You are part of the problem,” Flexer tweeted at the newspaper and Keating, adopting a favorite line of loathsome demagogue Donald Trump in blaming the press for the nation’s ills. Trump has repeatedly called the media “enemies of the people.”

Keating, contacted by Daily Ructions, says that Winfield was the first legislator he called Tuesday morning for a comment on the story and left a message for the New Haven Democrat. Winfield did not return Keating’s call.

In Connecticut, when reporters talk to the four Democratic leaders who set the legislative agenda, they speak to white Democrats because there are no minority members in the top positions in the House and Senate. Flexer would know that because as a member of the House and now the Senate, she has cast her vote for those positions for fellow white Democrats. The Senate Democrats, where Flexer serves as co-chair of the government administration committee, have chosen only white Democrats as their top two leaders for decades.

Winfield, who is African-American, is the co-chair of the legislature’s judiciary committee and is thought to have a chance to oust Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff for the Senate’s number two spot after November’s election.

Flexer has expressed interest in the top Senate jobs, but has been concerned she would have to stop soliciting lobbyists for donations to underwrite her salary with a political organization.