House Minority Leader Lawrence Cafero, R-Norwalk, said he was shocked last week to see a display that was advocating in favor of a piece of legislation in the concourse between the Legislative Office Building and the state Capitol.
Cafero took his complaint about the portrait display to Legislative Management, which agreed to take it down.
“It was like a paid ad on state property,” Cafero said Monday of the aid-in-dying portrait display removed last week.
The portrait display by the group Compassion and Choices was removed a week before it was scheduled to come down.
Cafero said a state building should not be a billboard for a legislative issue.
Jim Tracy, executive director of the Office of Legislative Management, said Monday that the only criteria they have to determine whether a group is given permission to use the concourse for a display is whether it’s “suitable for school-aged children.”
Tracy said his office is reviewing the current regulation and will propose stricter criteria to the Legislative Management Committee in the future.
Cafero said he happens to be against the aid-in-dying legislation, but said even if it was an issue he supported he would have complained. He said it’s not appropriate to advocate for or against something on state property.
Click here to read our story from Saturday about the disappearance of the portrait display.