Update, 11:58 a.m.
NEW LONDON, CT -- The chairman of the state's Republican Party has called for State Rep. Ernest Hewett of New London to step down following a remark he made to a 17-year-old girl last week.
According to the Hartford Courant, GOP chairman Jerry Labriola Jr. criticized House Speaker J. Brendan Sharkey's decision to strip Hewett of his deputy speaker title in response to the incident as a "slap on the wrist." Labriola said the Connecticut General Assembly has the ability to inflict a harsher punishment on Hewett, such as an official censure calling on him to resign, and that Hewett would "save the legislature some valuable time" by stepping down.
"Representative Hewett’s offensive remark was a disgrace and an embarrassment," Labriola said. "The fact that it was made to a 17 year-old intern visiting the State Capitol to attend a public hearing sends an absolutely atrocious message."
Update, 10:55 a.m.
Rep. Ernest Hewett has apologized to a 17-year-old girl for a remark he made to her during a public hearing of the Appropriations Committee.
According to the Hartford Courant, Hewett made the apology through Connecticut Science Center CEO Matt Fleury. Fleury said he, the girl, and her parents were attending the hearing and that none of them heard Hewett's remark clearly. He said he was unaware that the remark could be interpreted as an offensive one until the appearance of later news accounts.
"Tonight I called Representative Hewett, who emphatically apologized. We believe him to be sincere," Fleury said in a statement. "We have passed his apology on to the student, and she has accepted it. We are honoring her desire to maintain her privacy."
The girl spoke at the Appropriations Committee's public hearing on Feb. 20 to advocate for funding for the Connecticut Science Center in Hartford, which would lose $630,000 under Gov. Dannel Malloy's budget.
A video recording of the hearing was unavailable on the Connecticut Network website. According to an audio recording posted on The Day, the girl spoke about her work with the center including how it had made her overcome her fear of snakes. During comments at the end of the girl's testimony, Hewett commented, "And if you're bashful, I've got a snake sitting under my desk here."
Hewett said he meant to make a humorous comment and later realized that the remark could be misconstrued. House Speaker J. Brendan Sharkey stripped Hewett of his deputy speaker role, which he received in January, upon hearing the recording.
Original story
Rep. Ernest Hewett has lost his deputy leader position after Speaker of the House J. Brendan Sharkey determined that the New London representative made a sexually suggestive remark to a teenage girl.
According to the Connecticut Post, Sharkey stripped Hewett of the title after listening to a recording of a budget hearing before the Appropriations Committee last week. During the hearing, a 17-year-old intern from the Connecticut Science Center reportedly said her work at the center had helped her overcome her fear of snakes; Hewett allegedly responded by saying he had a live snake under his desk.
Sharkey said he considered the remark to be sexual innuendo and thought that it was "disturbing," according to the report. He said he did not think such language should be used in a public setting.
Connecticut Network takes video recordings of Connecticut General Assembly committee hearings, but a recording of the incident was not available in the site's archives.
Hewett said he took responsibility for the incident and apologized to the girl and his fellow legislators. According to The Day, Hewett said he meant to make another joking statement and realized later that his remark could be interpreted as sexual innuendo.
The loss of the deputy leader position comes with a $6,446 pay cut given to leaders above the regular $28,000 legislator's salary, according to the Connecticut Post.
Hewett, a Democrat who formerly served on the New London City Council and as the council's ceremonial mayor, has represented the city in the Connecticut General Assembly since his election in 2004. He easily won re-election to a fourth term last November.
Sharkey appointed Hewett as deputy speaker in January. According to an annoucement on Hewett's website, the role allowed Hewett to preside over business in the House of Representatives when Sharkey was absent. Hewett has also served as deputy majority leader in the legislature.
Hewett is serving on the Appropriations, Children, Judiciary, and Legislative Management committees for this term of the legislature.
Oh gosh Sue--Don't get me started!!!
It is kind of like when John Kerry told a German crowd--"Americans have a right to be stupid"---and it got back to us. Now we may know he was trying to be funny---but we certainly didn't appreciate it---did we? However--if he said it to his 'buddies'--and we never knew about him saying such a thing--would it matter to us??? Sometimes people say--exactly what they mean--even jokingly.
Don't attack him for this lapse of judgment. Go after his politics and be civil, he deserves just that. He's a great citizen and a great civil servant doing the (Democrat) people's work despite that he's on the wrong side of the political fence. If there's too much of a clamour against him then I'll vote foir him if he runs again just because sometimes there's more important things in the world than a person's sense of politics. And I say that as a staunch conservative and a big critic of all things Democrat.
Grandstanding a non-issue like this is pathetic. Hewitt is a son of New London and he's a good man. He deserves the benefit of the doubt with regard to what he said. Grow up people. You focus on non issues instead of tree-hugging Rt 11, tolls on CT highways, a governor with a fact-twisting malicious mouth who dreams of ways to hate business and impose more taxes on CT residents and a Blumenthal looking to rival Charlie Schumer to be the King of Hot Air, Rally in support of Hewitt while the pinheads look for ways to grandstand this even more than they've done. I don't care if he is left wing, he';s a fine person.
Asked if he chose to only have males, he said, "I don't get to choose. That's why I was so leery about staying away from interns. I don't know what they're going to give me. They may give me a female, but I don't want a female intern. That may sound sexist but I really don't. That way that keeps me good and that keeps everybody else good." so, hes such a deviant that he can't have a female intern without wanting to have sex or harrassing them? at best he's a sexist and at worse he's a sexual deviant! This is offensive as it gets!
I was taught long ago to never ever pick up a female hitchhiker, not because of me. I think I know if I'm a predator (as Bill Clinton is) and I'm not. But I don't know what a hitchhiker might claim despite my noble gesture to pick her up, if that's what I were to do (notice the subjunctive tense). It has nothing to do with being a sexist, so crawl back under that rock. The world isn't perfect and some people want to try to keep out of trouble if at all possible. Do you get it? Or perhaps to you this is rocket science. Maybe in your world a lady wears a low cut blouse in order to draw attention to her feet, right? Sure. Sexist, pffff! Gimme a break. By the way, men are different than women, did you know that? That's why you have a girl's name and I don't.
I'm a Republican here in New London. I'm a member of a failed party run by pinheads who can't debate themselves out of a paper bag. You don't know Hewett so stop judging a person you don't know. Instead, find a better candidate in this horribly liberal state to run against him but stick with issues that matter. Last I looked Rt 11 might be completed after the Messiah comes. Sart attacking Malloy because there's a man with a viscious tongue. I mean to say there's a nasty SOB, not a shred of class or decency. Start attacking Dodd, you let his buddy T Kennedy get away with murder. Pres Clinton has been resurrected from the dead, what a pc of vermin he is. Don't mention these reprobates in the same sentence as Mr. Hewett who is a decent man, much to your chagrin.
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/time-for-rep-ernest-hewett-to-resign/
Hewett has a reputation of being a good man, a nice man. He made a quip, a glib remark that's easy to construe as an innuendo. So now you must shame him from now until eternity and to do so without a word against the vermin I just listed. Rape is OK from Clinton and Gore but a twisted remark from a New Londoner isn't? There's something wrong with the fish that you're frying, it stinks in a most foul way. You ought to go after those fine and upstanding big name Democrats first before you try to impugn the character of Mr. Hewett. By the way, Democrats, the NEXT time that a Republican might have issues, I expect each and everyone of Mr. Hewett's impassioned defenders to come to his aid and provide the same spirited tactical air support for that Republican. Like that's ever gonna happen, a liberal putting principle before party.