1. What do you believe is the single most important issue facing Easton voters and why?Â
Accountability is the most important issue facing voters. Government must be accountable during COVID and the pandemic recession, adding these urgent challenges to existing issues that demand accountability, from ensuring affordable health care to building an inclusive 21st-century economy, to responding to the climate crisis.
I infuse accountability into all my work as a state representative. Our state’s COVID response is grounded in the understanding that we are ultimately accountable to the people of Connecticut to devise effective COVID policies including adequate PPE and testing, even as the Trump administration denies the crisis. We’re accountable to mitigate the second wave by providing adequate resources, testing and ultimately vaccines to keep our kids in school, protect our elderly and at-risk populations, and blunt the pandemic recession.
With accountable fiscal policy, we’re positioned to emerge from the COVID crisis with the strongest fiscal rating in the northeast. Similarly, we’ve taken big steps to demand accountability from power companies with the Take Back Our Grid Act to reduce surprise rate hikes and prolonged outages. We’re accountable to defend basic rights here in Connecticut — from choice to the ACA and pre-existing conditions to LGBTQ rights — if threatened by a new Supreme Court.
2. What is the second most important issue?
Affordable, accessible health care was an urgent issue for voters in Easton even before the twin crises of the COVID pandemic and the Trump administration’s determination to tip the Supreme Court. It’s even more urgent now. Overturning the ACA would strip 379,000 Connecticut residents of health coverage and kick 14,000 young adults off their parents’ health plans, as well as denying a federal guarantee of coverage to 522,000 adults in our state with pre-existing conditions.
The state needs to act to protect those who’ve lost health coverage during the pandemic recession and to provide affordable options if the ACA falls. We’ve become a national leader in advancing mental health parity, extending telehealth, and the first state in the nation to cap insulin prices. We need to build on that work, rein in drug costs and expand access to affordable healthcare.
Without federal leadership, we need to ensure widespread access to tests and PPE, as well as vaccines until COVID is behind us. With unemployment rates rising, even those lucky enough to have secure, affordable health coverage, understand we need to address affordability access and costs to attract and retain businesses in the state. After thousands of conversations with constituents, I believe voters deserve results.
Why should Easton voters support you on Nov. 3?
I talk with thousands of constituents to hear the concerns of our community and work continuously to translate these into policy. I provide a direct line to the state’s resources for Easton — from new policies that will reduce dangerous and costly power outages, to help with unemployment claims, access to COVID tests and PPE to protect our elderly and frontline workers.
I publish my personal cell number because I’m committed to raising expectations of accessible and responsive representation. By serving in leadership roles in Hartford I amplify your voice. I ask for your vote to continue moving through these critical crises together.
