

Rep. Cara Pavalock-D’Amato, R-Bristol, probably can’t wait for 2022 to be over – though perhaps for somewhat different reasons than the rest of us. State law requires legislators to reside in the district they represent, and she and her family recently bought a new house in what is now a neighboring district. That means she’s stuck living in a cramped efficiency apartment above a vacant pawn shop until her term expires.
Except local Democrats are complaining that she does not, in fact, live in said tiny apartment but instead spends most of her time at her spacious new home outside the 77th District with her husband and son. Apparently, Bristol Democratic Town Committee Chair Morris Patton has been driving by and checking both the parking lot of the apartment building and the new house for her car for the past three months or so. He said in the complaint that her car was not observed at the apartment, but was “regularly” at the new house.
So does she live in the district or not? All we really have is her word that yes, she does, against the observations of the chair of the opposing party about her car not being there. That can lead us into the murky legal territory of what it actually means to “reside in” a place. Do you sleep there every night? Make supper there? Do you clean the bathroom there, or sit up late watching old sitcoms on your laptop? The state Constitution doesn’t have an exact definition; perhaps the writers of the document assumed this would be something that’s obvious.
It’s easy to get in trouble for not actually living in the place you’ve been elected to represent. After all, if you up and left the district, how invested can you actually be in what happens there? One of the reasons why former U.S. Rep. Sam Gejdensen lost to Rob Simmons in 2000 was an accusation that he no longer lived in the 2nd District, something the flinty Yankees of eastern Connecticut didn’t take kindly to. And Republicans have been making much hay about Sen. Chris Murphy living in Washington, D.C., instead of Connecticut, though I’m not sure what they want him to do about that. Commute? Be separated from his family all the time?
There’s no law that members of Congress have to live in the places they represent. Former state Senator George Logan, who is hoping to take on 5th District U.S. Rep. Jahana Hayes this fall, actually lives in the 3rd District, currently represented by Rep. Rosa DeLauro. He’s promised to move, but legally, he doesn’t have to.
Still, it is important that representatives live in their districts, if only because our politics are so geography-based. Can you represent people you don’t live near and never meet? Probably, but you can’t do it well.
That brings us back to this dustup in Bristol. It’s not likely that Rep. Pavalock-D’Amato is going to lose her seat over this; the only ones who can kick her out are the members of the General Assembly, and they’re not going to want to do that. They’ll likely just take her word for it and see how it all shakes out in November.
None of this would matter all that much if Rep. Pavalock-D’Amato was either going to step down after this term or run in the neighboring 78th District, currently represented by Rep. Whit Betts, R-Bristol. Lucky for her, though, her district is about to follow her to her new home.


Support authentic, locally owned and operated public service journalism!
In an excruciatingly obvious example of why our bipartisan redistricting system is nothing more than an incumbency protection scheme, Republican leaders managed to negotiate new district lines that stretch out the 77th enough to include the part of Bristol that Pavalock-D’Amato is moving to. In exchange, the 78th, which is mostly Plymouth and eastern Bristol, now includes a slender peninsula of central Bristol.
Both the 77th and the 78th were geographically compact before. Now they are stretched and warped, and all so that a state representative could live in her new house and keep her job. Nice.
If that’s not a good reason for redistricting reform, I don’t know what is.
Related

OP-ED | 3 Things the Legislature Probably Won’t Focus On, But Should
Susan Bigelow lays out the issues the General Assembly ought to take up during the short session that starts Wednesday.
Keep reading
Final Map Is Closer To Democratic Proposal
A special master charged with remapping Connecticut’s five congressional districts fulfilled his court-ordered task Tuesday and submitted a plan that balances the districts’ populations while making as few changes as possible to their current boundaries. In a 44-page report to the state Supreme Court, Stanford University professor Nathaniel Persily offered a redistricting map which largely…
Keep reading
Lawmakers Fail to Reach Last-Minute Compromise on Redistricting
The future of Connecticut’s congressional districts is back in the hands of a court-appointed special master after a last-minute appeal for compromise this week among legislative Democrats and Republicans failed to produce results. The once-a-decade task of redrawing the boundaries of Connecticut’s five congressional districts wound up in the state Supreme Court’s purview late-last year…
Keep reading
Special Master Urges Commission to Make One Last Attempt at a Congressional Map
A court-appointed special master invited members of Connecticut’s bipartisan redistricting panel Monday to make one last attempt at negotiating the lines of new congressional districts. Last month, the state Supreme Court assigned the special master, Stanford University professor Nathaniel Persily, to draft a plan to ensure each of the state’s five congressional districts have an…
Keep readingSpecial Master Weighs Modest Changes To Congressional Districts
Following a snow delay, a court-appointed special master will hear testimony Monday from Democrats and Republicans on proposed redistricting maps which largely preserve the boundaries of Connecticut’s five congressional districts. The special master, Nathaniel Persily, was assigned by the state Supreme Court in late December after the legislature’s bipartisan Reapportionment Commission failed to come to…
Keep reading
Missed Deadlines, Outside Pressure Thwart Congressional Maps
As Connecticut’s bipartisan redistricting panel missed a court-extended deadline Tuesday members from both parties said the outside pressure of national politics had complicated their efforts to adjust the lines of the state’s five congressional districts.
Keep reading
Redistricting Commission Tells Court They Aren’t At An Impasse
Facing an already-prolonged deadline next week, Connecticut’s redistricting committee sought Wednesday to delay compliance with a state Supreme Court order that it propose candidates to supervise negotiations of a new congressional district map. The bipartisan Reapportionment Commission’s request was included in an update to the court late Wednesday. The process of adjusting the state’s five…
Keep reading
Supreme Court Considers Special Master While Redistricting Panel Asks For Time
State Supreme Court justices reacted with measured skepticism Thursday to a petition from Connecituct’s bipartisan redistricting panel for more time to complete work on a map of congressional voting districts. During a brief morning hearing, Assistant Attorney General Maura Murphy Osborne asked the justices to grant the nine-member Reapportionment Commission’s request to continue working on…
Keep readingMore from Susan Bigelow

OP-ED | Ignoring COVID-19 Isn’t a Solution
Susan Bigelow says it’s strange. On the one hand, things are getting bad enough that some schools have had to close due to staff shortages. But on the other hand, when was the last time you saw a politician taking basic precautions like wearing a mask?
Keep reading
OP-ED | Connecticut Democrats go all in on Roe
Susan Bigelow says the two major parties held their state conventions this weekend, endorsing candidates, setting up a few primaries for August, and establishing their themes for the fall, and one party looks a lot more united and fired up than the other.
Keep reading
ANALYSIS | Will the 2022 Legislative Session Help or Hurt Democrats in the Fall?
The short but surprisingly productive 2022 session of the General Assembly is coming to a close this week. As Democrats race to pass bills, and Republicans do all they can to talk them to death, a question that has to be on the minds of a lot of legislators is what the session means, if…
Keep reading
OP-ED | LGBTQ Youth are in Danger All Over the Country; Connecticut Should be Their Shield
LGBTQ rights are being rolled back in the one place where openness, inclusivity, and acceptance does the most good: the nation’s classrooms. What are we going to do about it?
Keep reading
OP-ED | Stupid Stuff Creeps into Connecticut Governor’s Race
Susan Bigelow says the culture wars are back in Connecticut, and they are just as dumb as they’ve ever been.
Keep reading
OP-ED | The General Assembly Needs to Act on Climate Legislation This Year
It’s sometimes hard to remember, what with all the other crises in the world going on right now, that the inexorable march of climate change is still the greatest threat humanity will have to contend with this century. The pandemic, inflation, the war in Ukraine, and the decline of democracy worldwide seem much more immediate,…
Keep reading