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Filibuster-ready if needed: State Sen. Gary Winfield at WNHH FM.
Gary Winfield was ready to talk. And talk. And talk. For hours and hours.
He let his colleagues in the legislature know that he was ready to talk and talk and talk.
So he didn’t need to end up talking. He got the message across — and mission accomplished.
The hours of talk would take the form of a filibuster on the floor of the State Senate. Winfield threatened to wage the filibuster near the end of the just-completed legislative session — to keep talking and asking questions and tie up other votes — to prevent the legislature from approving the governor’s pick as the state’s first prison ombudsman and bypassing two higher-ranking more activist-oriented choices.
Winfield, a Democratic state senator running this year for a sixth two-year term representing the 10th District (covering swaths of New Haven and West Haven), talked about that no-need-to-talk-and-talk-and-talk episode during a conversation Tuesday about the session on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven.”
The story began earlier this year when Gov. Ned Lamont nominated a veteran public defender named Hilary Carpenter to serve as ombudsman. He picked Carpenter from a list of three recommendations of a Correction Advisory Committee.
Winfield has championed criminal justice reform and specifically prison reform throughout his years at the Capitol, fighting to end the death penalty and solitary confinement and improve health care access behind bars. He had an investment in the law creating the ombudsman.
So he, like other reform advocates, was dismayed to see that Lamont bypassed the committee’s two top choices who happen to be active in the issue in New Haven: New Haven civil-rights lawyer Ken Krayeske and activist Barbara Fair. Lamont didn’t give a public reason for his choice. Winfield said the reason was obvious.
“Ken had sued the state, sometimes, successfully, on behalf of prisoners. Barbara is a person who is going to fight. It’s not always going to feel good for the person on the other side of it.” Winfield said.
“I want someone who is going to take this seriously. The governor didn’t want somebody like Barbara who would fight on these issues in a strong way.”
Winfield, who chairs the legislature’s Judiciary Committee, said he notified the governor’s office that the Carpenter choice would be “problematic.” It went ahead with the nomination anyway.
Winfield then informed his colleagues that he planned to filibuster for at least four hours on the floor to prevent the vote. That would eat up time needed to consider other legislation near the session’s end.
His colleagues had reason to take him seriously: Winfield went through with a filibuster threat in 2015 to stop a proposal to have police collect DNA of all arrestees, no matter what offense. He had been blocking the bill for five years, he said, when he learned that it had passed the House at 3 a.m. on a Saturday. The Senate was scheduled it take it up hours later.
“OK. I’m ready,” Winfield recalled telling his colleagues. In between making his arguments, he had a list of 500 to 600 questions to pose to the bill’s supporters.
How do you come up with that many questions about an issue? Winfield was asked on “Dateline.”
“Let’s say you have a sentence, and the sentence is, ‘All bikes should be ridden downtown,’” Winfield responded.
“What is ‘all bikes should be ridden downtown’ about?
“Do you mean tricycles …”
The questions can be endless.
Three hours into that 2015 filibuster, colleagues asked how much longer he prepared to speak. “I went in the desk and showed them the questions,” he recalled. “I was at Question 2.”
The bill died. It has not resurfaced since.
This time around, with the prison ombudsman issue, Winfield didn’t need to start the clock. The bill was withdrawn. The Black and Puerto Rican Caucus (of which he’s a member) struck a deal with the governor’s office: They will negotiate a “compromise” candidate to serve as ombudsman on an interim basis. Then the process of interviewing candidates will begin again. Krayeske and Fair will be eligible to participate again. The Correction Advisory Committee will again draw up three ranked finalists for the governor to choose from.
Winfield was asked if he worries the governor will bypass the top choices again to avoid appointing a prisoners’ advocate to the post.
“I don’t think he would do that again,” he responded, “given that the administration is aware that if they do it, they have a least one problem. Which is sitting right here.”
Click on the video to watch the full discussion with State Sen. Gary Winfield — including his desire to continue serving in the legislature to pursue challenges like criminal-justice reform and climate change and to perform constituent service — on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven.” Click here to subscribe or here to listen to other episodes of Dateline New Haven.