One question that The Day did not routinely ask candidates for state office in past campaign seasons was "What are your views on a woman's access to an abortion in Connecticut?"

Some first-time candidates — women more often than men — would offer their opinions in interviews, but since the 1973 Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade had settled the issue as a constitutional right, and Connecticut had codified the tenets of that decision in 1990, there was little imperative for a candidate to wade into the controversy. 

That changes now, presuming the draft Supreme Court decision leaked last week will be followed by a decision that fundamentally changes federal law. Abortion access would become a matter of state jurisdiction, as Texas, Mississippi and other states are seeking.

Connecticut's government is not waiting around for the final decision. With the passage last month of a bill that broadens access to abortions and legal protections, and the rallying of the General Assembly's Reproductive Rights Caucus, candidates for the legislature and statewide office will have had to quickly declare where they stand. The statewide nominating conventions are underway this weekend. And there will be another X-factor in play: many new, first-time candidates.

At the eleventh hour of the session, an unusual alignment of Democrats and Republicans voted to raise the pay of legislators and other state officials effective with the new terms in January. At least 31 legislators and the state treasurer and secretary of the state have announced that they are stepping down, and the comptroller resigned for health reasons earlier this year.

This is the first raise in more than 20 years. The increase from $28,000 to $40,000 for legislators creates openings for new, younger and more diverse candidates at a compensation level that could make it affordable for them to serve. Connecticut's is considered a "hybrid" legislature. The National Conference of State Legislatures defines that as legislators devoting 74 percent of a full-time job to their duties but normally needing another source of income.

Joe de la Cruz is the outgoing (in all senses of the word) representative for the 41st district that until redistricting has covered parts of Groton and southern New London. He crystallized the pay raise debate with his speech on the first day of the session, saying that financial realities would prevent him from seeking re-election: "I want to remind you of all the voices that never made it here that would sound like my voice ... because of the limitations we have."

When the majority House Democrats raised the raise question last week, Rep. Doug Dubitsky of Chaplin, a conservative Republican, echoed de la Cruz and spoke in support of raises.

"It makes it incredibly difficult for regular people in a diversity of jobs to do this. That's why we are over-representative of lawyers, independently rich people, retired people and adults living in their parents' basement. And that's what we've got here," Dubitsky said.

And when the House debated the bill expanding access to abortion, the Connecticut Mirror reported, Democratic first-term Rep. Trenée McGee of West Haven, in her first floor speech, opposed it, citing statistics to show how abortions disproportionately affect the Black community.

There is no stereotyping what the consciences of legislators will move them to support. If a $40,000 salary enables a public-spirited newcomer to serve when $28,000 does not, a variety of scenarios could unfold in a legislature more representative of Connecticut demographics. It could be less heavily entrenched in the party lines on any subject — abortion access, state-contracted human services, fair housing, gun control, you name it.

Ordinarily the last-minute, under-debated votes at session's end violate my sense of fairness, and they certainly rub the minority party the wrong way, but the topic of pay raises is different. It has been aired so often and for so long that members already knew the pros and cons.

Whoever the newbies turn out to be after Nov. 8, I hope they will honor the culture of civility they will inherit in the General Assembly, because outside those halls, in Connecticut and across the country, this is going to be a vociferous election year.

Lisa McGinley is member of The Day Editorial Board.