Connecticut House of Representatives | |
---|---|
Connecticut General Assembly | |
Type | |
Type | |
Term limits
|
None |
History | |
New session started
|
January 5, 2017 |
Leadership | |
Speaker of the House
|
|
Majority Leader
|
|
Minority Leader
|
|
Structure | |
Seats | 151 |
Political groups
|
Majority
Minority
|
Length of term
|
2 years |
Authority | Article III, Section 1, Connecticut Constitution |
Salary | $28,000/year |
Elections | |
Last election
|
November 8, 2016 (151 seats) |
Next election
|
November 6, 2018 (151 seats) |
Redistricting | Legislative Control |
Meeting place | |
House of Representatives Chamber Connecticut State Capitol Hartford, Connecticut |
|
Website | |
Connecticut House of Representatives |
Majority
Minority
The Connecticut House of Representatives is the lower house in the Connecticut General Assembly, the state legislature of the US state of Connecticut. The house is composed of 151 members representing an equal number of districts, with each constituency containing nearly 22,600 residents. Representatives are elected to two-year terms with no term limits. The House convenes within the Connecticut State Capitol in Hartford.
The House of Representatives has its basis in the earliest incarnation of the General Assembly, the "General Corte" established in 1636 whose membership was divided between six generally elected magistrates (the predecessor of the Connecticut Senate) and three-member "committees" representing each of the three towns of the Connecticut Colony (Hartford, Wethersfield, and Windsor). The Fundamental Orders of Connecticut, adopted in 1639, replaced the committees with deputies; each town would elect three or four deputies for six-month terms. Although the magistrates and deputies sat together, they voted separately and in 1645 it was decreed that a measure had to have the approval of both groups in order to pass. The Charter of 1662 reduced the number of deputies per town to no more than two, and also changed the title of the legislature to the General Assembly. It was in 1698 that the General Assembly divided itself into its current bicameral form, with the twelve assistants (that replaced the magistrates) as the Council (which became the Senate in the 1818 constitution) and the deputies as the House of Representatives, which began electing the Speaker to preside over it. The terms of representatives were raised to two years in 1884.