Going Green in Tuesday’s 39th District election

If voters want someone to represent them who works hard to understand the issues, the choice is a clear — Green Party candidate Mirna Martinez.

A few weeks ago voters in the 39th House District, consisting of New London’s first and second voting districts, had no choice as to whom they would be sending to Hartford. Popular Democratic freshman state Rep. Chris Soto faced no opposition.

Soto, however, took another path. Soon after the Nov. 6 election he accepted Gov. Ned Lamont’s invitation to join the new administration as the legislative affairs director. That set up Tuesday’s special election, with four candidates competing.

If voters want someone to represent them who works hard to understand the issues, is willing to consider a variety of perspectives, and is dedicated to making sure her city’s needs are not ignored in Hartford, the choice is a clear — Green Party candidate Mirna Martinez.

Running on a third party line, Martinez has a difficult path. She twice won election as a Green to the city’s Board of Education with cross endorsement from Republicans, before running exclusively on the Green line in 2017, eking out her return to the board by nine votes.

In interviews and in the debate The Day cosponsored with the League of Women Voters of Southeastern Connecticut, Martinez impressed us with her depth of knowledge on critical issues, including education, the state budget, tax policy, energy, transportation and health care.

Martinez’s views and our own do not line up on all issues. She wants to hike the income tax on the state’s very wealthy, seeing it as an issue of fairness, while we fear that it would drive more big taxpayers to other states. Her call for Connecticut going it alone on universal health care is an overreach given the fiscal challenges it confronts.

But she is no pie-in-the-sky ideologue. Martinez, 46, appears well prepared to do the hard work of finding and building coalitions to protect the city’s education funding, gain relief from the burden of hosting large tax-exempt nonprofits, and get a fair share of revenues from increased activity at State Pier, including in support of offshore wind-farm development.

Those organizational skills were on display when Martinez raised the small donations and collected the signatures necessary to gain $14,075 for her campaign under the state’s Citizens’ Election Program, the first Green to qualify, and a rare achievement for any third-party candidate.

Her primary challenger is the favorite, endorsed Democrat Anthony Nolan, serving his fourth term on the council and its president this past year. On many issues, they align. Both favor gradually boosting the minimum wage to $15 and instituting a paid family leave program. Both are skeptical of tolls, but would consider a modest toll program with discounts for state drivers. Both would fight to maintain state funding for the magnet schools program. Though a Green, Martinez said she would caucus with the Democrats.

In the debate and interviews, however, Nolan, 51, did not display the same depth of knowledge on the issues. Complaints about his performance as a councilor — that he does not do his homework and falls short in his duties as a liaison to commissions — are too numerous to dismiss.

A city police officer, Nolan’s work with New London’s youth has been commendable, but he appears ill-suited and unenthusiastic about the game of politics as played at the state level.

Republican candidate Kat Goulart, 38, is well versed on the issues, but her fiscal conservative philosophy would seem an odd fit for a city in need of continuing state aid. One also has to question what kind of sway she would have as a member of the Republican caucus in a House chamber dominated by Democrats.

Petitioning candidate Jason Catala, 44, a registered Democrat who formerly was a member of the city’s Republican Party, calls for less state spending, says little about how he would achieve it, and wants his district exempted when it comes to cutting. It is hard to predict what he would do as the representative.

The smart choice in this race is for New London to go Green. Mirna Martinez gets our endorsement.