Thirty-four years ago: When the House ousted the Speaker.

It took the Connecticut House of Representatives just one ballot to upend the established order and oust incumbent Speaker of the House Irving Stolberg on January 4, 1989.

The plan was unveiled to House Republicans the afternoon before the new session of the legislature was to begin. Members of the Republican caucus agreed to join disaffected Democrats to oust Democrat Irving Stolberg, on the verge of a historic third term, and replace him with Newington Democrat Richard Balducci.

All 63 House Republicans joined 31 of the House’s 88 Democrats to replace Stolberg with Balducci on the first ballot–after defeating a motion to recess so the Democrats could knock some heads together. The plan to defeat Stolberg came together when a handful of Democrats, considered moderates at the time, met at a private office and realized their might be enough of them to form a majority with the House Republicans, who had chafed under Stolberg’s leadership during this two terms as speaker.

The ideological divide between House Republicans and Democrats was neither as rigid nor as broad then as it is today. Two extraordinary elements of the coup, as it was labeled by some, were that it remained secret until the night before it occurred and the Republicans asked for nothing in return for their votes–and received nothing. Years of tax increases and fiscal indiscipline followed–something the moderate Democrats who rebelled that morning 34 years ago might have resisted if they had not made one of their own speaker.

Later that day, Governor William O’Neill addressed a joint session of the legislature and noted, as a former Democratic House majority leader would, that the action was always in the House.

Published January 3, 2022.