HARTFORD — Since it was first put on display in December 2009, the modern bronze copy of “The Genius of Connecticut,” with its steely face, prominent wings and flowing robes, has been a major attraction on the daily tours of the State Capitol.
Connecticut
Opinion: The CT citizens locked out at the ballot box
As voters across Connecticut were casting ballots in this year’s presidential election, over 5,400 residents were being denied the right to vote because of Connecticut’s felony disenfranchisement law, which precludes those currently serving sentences for felonies from casting a ballot.
This practice perpetuates racial and economic injustice, and it undermines the central tenet of participatory democracy: that every citizen have a say over the laws that govern them. To ensure the equal and just treatment of its citizenry, Connecticut should end this practice.
In fact, Connecticut has a chance to become a national leader by ending felony disenfranchisement. Too often throughout history, the state has been among the last to dismantle policies that suppress the political power of communities of color. In 1818, Connecticut limited voting to white people, a restriction it did not repeal until 1876 —six years after the 15th Amendment prohibited racial discrimination in voting. By contrast, every other state in New England enfranchised Black residents before the Civil War.
In 1855, Connecticut was the first state to adopt a literacy test to restrict voting rights, a tactic that would become widely adopted in the Jim Crow South to systematically disenfranchise Black voters. Over a century later, when the Voting Rights Act finally banned the practice nationwide, Connecticut was one of the few states where this policy was still in effect.
Connecticut’s existing felony disenfranchisement policy continues to perpetuate the state’s legacy of suppressing the political power of minority communities. Black and Hispanic residents are incarcerated in Connecticut at nearly 10 and four times the rate of white residents, respectively. This over-representation is no coincidence: racial bias and discrimination are pervasive in the criminal legal system, leading to racially disparate outcomes in sentencing and convictions.
The impact of disenfranchisement also extends far beyond the individuals who have been stripped of their right to vote. Without a voice at the ballot box, incarcerated people are unable to cast votes in the interest of their neighborhoods, their children and families.
The effects ripple across communities —and because Connecticut remains one of the most segregated states in the country, the harm is concentrated in areas already grappling with the impacts of systemic discrimination. These are communities that face chronically underfunded schools, limited access to essential resources like grocery stores, childcare, and healthcare services, and more. By stripping those with felony convictions of their right to vote, Connecticut dilutes the political power of communities that most need to be heard.
In 2021, Connecticut took a meaningful step forward by restoring the vote to individuals on parole —but the state should do more. Connecticut should join Vermont, Maine, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico in granting universal suffrage regardless of incarceration status. It is the right thing to do as a matter of racial and economic justice.
It is also sound, pragmatic policy that promotes safe communities: studies show that voting strengthens ties between individuals and their communities and reduces recidivism among those reintegrating post-incarceration. Finally, universal suffrage would augment the political power of minority groups that have too often been marginalized in our political conversations.
Connecticut has an opportunity —and a responsibility— to advance racial and economic justice, strengthen its democracy, and promote safer communities by ensuring that every citizen, regardless of conviction status, has the right to vote.
Arianna Khan, Ethan Seidenberg, and Lauren Taylor are students in the Civil Rights Advocacy Clinic at Yale Law School.
NEW HAVEN, Conn. (WTNH) — Housing advocates and experts are weighing in on a recent report on Connecticut’s housing crisis, after the state received a failing score for a second year in a row.
Titled “Grading the States: Affordability & Homebuilding Report Cards,” the Nutmeg State ranks at number 46 compared to all 50 states. Each grade is weighed on a 100-point scale across two factors: affordability and homebuilding.
The median household income sits at $95,392 per year in Connecticut, yet the median listing price for a home lands a little over $500,000.
While some believe there is some truth to the score, people like Connecticut Realtor Michael Barbaro say it’s a bit of an oversimplification.
“The fact is, we’re a small state. We have high density, we have older housing stock,” Barbaro said. “So all these factors coming together, giving us that score is probably not fair. It’s probably penalizing us for characteristics that we just can’t change here.”
While Connecticut has seen a rise in building permits, factors like a high cost of living, rising construction costs and restrictive regulations aren’t helping in the eyes of some.
To address the state’s housing needs, at least 120,000 units need to be built, according to a 2025 commissioned study by the Connecticut Office of Policy and Management.
“We’re digging out of like a really deep hole on under production,” Chelsea Ross, executive director of the Partnership for Strong Communities, said. “So it’s going to take us a while to have that part of our grade increase.”
State lawmakers passed legislation last year, formally known as House Bill 5002, with the goal to incentivize new builds and alter zoning regulations.
While advocates of the bill praised the step, some say it’s just a start.
“What we have is kind of a framework for that work, but no real enforcement on how suburbs are going to handle that and ensure that they’re building more affordable housing,” Representative Antonio Felipe, chair of the legislative housing committee said.
Connecticut
‘The Genius of Connecticut,’ an allegorical statue, may never ‘return’ to the top of State Capitol
Brian Pencz, facilities administrator for the state Office of Legislative Management, which runs the 14-acre State Capitol complex, in a file photo in 2024. A statue called ‘The Genius of Connecticut’ has no skeletal body inside, ‘so it’s not stable enough to go up on top of the Capitol,’ said Pencz.
While thousands have seen the 18-foot-tall sculpture up close and personal, the goal of Capitol historians and preservationists has been to put the replica atop the gold dome. The original ruled over the building’s Gothic architecture from 1878 until damage to its base was found after the Hurricane of 1938, when the statue was dismantled and removed piece-by-piece.
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Now, though, the discovery of a lack of interior framing inside the 5,500-pound daemon, the allegorical protector of Connecticut, is making the administrators who run the 14-acre State Capitol complex worry whether it would be safe to put the sculpture atop the 274-foot-tall gold dome after a $50 million rehabilitation of the building begins late this year.
“There’s no skeletal body inside, so it’s not stable enough to go up on top of the Capitol,” said Brian Pencz, facilities administrator for the Office of Legislative Management in Hartford. “That is what the X-rays that we had done show.”
‘The Genius of Connecticut’ statue in the central atrium on the State Capitol, in Hartford, Conn., on Sept. 28, 2023. A plan to move it to the top of the dome may not move forward because of structural concerns about the statute.
The half-million dollars budgeted to hoist “The Genius” atop the dome — with its crown of oak leaves representing the state tree, a wreath of dried flowers in her right hand and mountain laurel, the state flower, in the left — could increase dramatically if the 20 pieces have to be taken apart, an armature inserted and the pieces welded back together, he said.
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That’s the issue before the State Capitol Preservation and Restoration Commission. The advisory panel, along with the Office of Legislative Management, considers a remounted “Genius” the culmination of the $50 million cleaning and repair program at the Capitol that includes applying a 3/1000ths-inch of gold leaf on the dome and rehabilitating 522 windows.
That cost doesn’t include necessary repairs to the original base of the “Genius,” above the dome in the area called the “lantern” of the Capitol, itself a tribute to the nation’s role in the American Civil War.
Complicating the work on the “Genius” is that the Polich Tallix Foundry of Rock Tavern, N.Y. — where it was cast, based on the 2007 advanced laser imaging of the plaster copy of the original that resides in the Capitol’s north lobby — has been sold to another company.
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Pencz recently told the Capitol Preservation Commission that it will have to wait a year or more to see whether adding a new skeleton or armature is even possible.
“I reached out to that company and a competitor of theirs to have them come in and look at it so we can at least get the process started, and I have only heard back from one and they’re out until mid-summer next year,” he said.
‘The Genius of Connecticut,’ a copy of an identical statue that was atop the State Capitol between 1878 and 1938, is a regular stop for tours under the Capitol’s 257-foot-tall rotunda. Plans to move it to the dome are threatened by a structural assessment of the sculpture.
State Sen. Cathy Osten, D-Sprague, co-chair of the legislative Appropriations Committee who leads the Preservation Commission, said she would like to know the cost of a skeletal component for the “Genius.”
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“I think it’s important for us to kind of get there. Personally, I’d like to see the ‘Genius’ get back where it belongs,” she said. “That’s where I’ve been along and I’d like to see that happen.”
Before the 1938 hurricane, the original statue had previously been hauled down in 1903, for about a year, when officials were concerned about damage from high winds, according to a 2021 article by Central Connecticut State University Professor Matthew Warshauer.
Warshauer, in a phone interview Monday, said he would also like to see the new version of the “Genius” atop the dome. But Warshauer also said he’d prefer that a statewide, grassroots citizen-fundraising effort pay for it, rather than state funds. He cited the importance of civic engagement, particularly in this semiquincentennial year of celebrating — and discussing — the 250 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
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“I wholeheartedly support raising the ‘Genius’ to the center of the Capitol and its towering heights,” Warshauer said. “But what will such an action mean if it’s done only by the General Assembly and not the public? Today we have to decide what our symbols are and what they can mean. It’s up to the people to decide, with the help of civic leaders and historians. It’s more meaningful if done with intention by the people and different groups of people.”
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