As the #2 House Deputy Leader, I am involved in daily negotiations of all legislation. I have the respect of my caucus and colleagues on the other side of the aisle including the Majority Leader, Speaker, Senate Leadership and Governor and interact with them regularly. My 33 years as an experienced trial attorney litigating transportation, employment, municipal, personal injury and commercial cases throughout Connecticut has provided me with a unique skill set in reading, writing, revising and predicting how legislation will impact our constituents in their daily lives.

As a married father of two boys and a girl, all of whom went through the public school system in New Canaan and two of whom played athletics in college, I bring parental experience that has and will continue to improve legislation to assist administrators, teachers and parents in navigating and improving the public school system. Some of that experience includes how athletics can be a benefit or detriment to that educational experience if not handled properly. For example, it is clear to me that biological boys should not be competing against biological girls, it is a safety and fairness issue. We also need school choice with money following the child. It has worked well in other states and we can make it work well here in Connecticut.

Being your state representative since 2013 has been, and continues to be, the greatest honor of my professional career, and I would greatly appreciate the opportunity to continue fighting for you in Hartford.

In addition to school choice, other top priorities include continuing to fix the police accountability bill to make our roads & communities safer; addressing the broken family court system; & continuing to improve the economic environment for individuals & businesses.

Regarding fixing the Police Accountability Bill, we need to allow an immediate appeal of any denial of qualified immunity before trial so officers will return to active policing if they can be vindicated prior to trial if they act reasonably under the circumstances. Also, allowing consent searches again & permitting the observed smoking of marijuana as probable cause for a vehicle stop. All the above will make our roads safer.

For fixing our family courts, we need better oversight of fees (court approval); a status conference in days not years when requested; & better automatic disclosures by parties. Lastly, we need to do a better job with judicial training.

Finally, to improve the economic environment for individuals & businesses, we need to maintain the 2017 Republican fiscal guardrails as intended. They’re why our budget has been balanced & why our debt burden is finally decreasing. I will also advocate reducing the tax burden on everyone, particularly on seniors. If we eliminate the tax on social security, pensions, gifts & estates (about 2% of the current budget), we will be one of the top states to retire in & our property values will increase.

Building more city owned housing is the best way to control affordable housing but making building easier and less restrictive for private builders in areas that already have mixed use buildings for housing and commercial use is the best way to get more housing built quickly. Local control of zoning and offering tax incentives to put the new construction where it makes the most sense is the key to development that is acceptable to residents. I have filed an number of amendments over the years to fix Connecticut’s affordable housing law (CGS sec 8-30g) that will absolutely create more local control and result in more housing by empowering local officials but holding them responsible for actually building said additional housing. In fact last session, my amendment, which gave town’s credit for excess housing built beyond what was necessary for a moratorium, was passed and signed by the Governor. I have and will continue to offer reasonable solutions that get passed into law.

Mandating electric vehicles by a certain date, subsidizing wind turbines in the sound and solar panels on farm land is increasing energy costs dramatically with no relief in sight. I would work with surrounding states to try increase natural gas capacity over the next 5 to 10 years. In the short term, I would work with Millstone to increase the nuclear power being generated. Last year, the Governor signed a bill, that we supported, reversing a moratorium on new nuclear power generation that had been in place since 1979. We should be exploring the expansion of the current power output at Millstone or adding output with SMRs or small modular reactors. Millstone could go from producing 50% of Connecticut’s power needs to 100% and then natural gas or alternative “greener” sources that are cheaper could be brought on line to lower rates further. I would also explore getting PURA out from under the purview of DEEP and examine what fees are being put in the electric bill that should be paid out of the general fund (green energy incentives for example). Grandma living in Stamford on a fixed budget should not be subsidizing charging stations being put in New Canaan for the benefit of millionaires driving a $100,000 electric vehicles.