The Silence of Those Who Would Be Governor.

Thursday and Friday were historic days in modern Connecticut political history. On Thursday, the legislature’s Democratic leadership imploded into incoherence as its members were appalled to discover they were expected to vote for a messy, greedy budget. The stampede left leaders undone and incapable of explaining the way forward for even a few hours at a time.

Friday afternoon saw a bipartisan response forming on the rubble of the previous day. It began with a Republican budget proposal–shaped by the Senate Republicans and eventually supported by House Republicans–that had been unveiled months before. The decisive moment, however, came when three Democrats voted for it, providing a wide margin of victory in the evenly divided upper chamber.

Early Saturday morning, after an extended and notably bitter debate, enough Democrats joined their House Republican colleagues to provide a majority for the Republican proposal.

Missing in action was the herd of Republican and Democratic candidates for governor. The next governor will have to live with the biennial budget that is finally adopted. The opening days of the new administration will be spent coping with the new budget and proposing one to follow it.

Budget decisions made this week–even with Governor Dannel P. Malloy’s veto of the bipartisan budget–are of lasting significance. We have entered into a new era of consequences. The politically ambitious, who spend their days seeking to persuade party activitists of their ability to lead, have been hibernating. Some cowering. Those are not the hallmarks of leadership that seeks to lead the state through the many perils that await.

When will they find their voices and add specific ideas to this critical debate?