Politics

Julia H. Tashjian of Windsor, a Democratic insider who was Connecticut’s secretary of the state for two terms in the 1980s, twice winning on tickets led by Gov. William A. O’Neill, died Thursday. She was 74.

The Democratic State Convention that propelled her to statewide office in 1982 was the last of its kind, run on unwritten rules from the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, when tickets were carefully balanced and personal connections often trumped policy.

The legislature’s Republican minority won’t propose an alternative budget this year for the first time in six years, a political shift that the GOP and Democrats are now racing to define in the minds of voters.

The GOP spin is that Democrats have irreparably ruined the state’s finances, at least for the short term. The Democratic spin is that the minority is playing the easy role of critics, but it can’t hack the hard work of governing.

One legislator compared it to the blood sports of ancient Rome. Another called it “appalling.” But the House of Representatives voted Tuesday to legalize mixed martial arts in Connecticut, one of two states that ban the sport.

Queasiness over the nearly free-form combat sport was evident during the debate, but the real threat to legalization stems more from bare-knuckle politics: The Senate previously has blocked legalization in deference to organized labor.