The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Running against ‘extreme partisanship’
To Margaret Streicker, who has built a successful business developing and managing high-end real estate, Washington is blocking Connecticut’s economic progress, and Rosa DeLauro is a large part of the problem.
In her first political campaign, Streicker, 45, of Milford, is taking on the long-term 3rd District congresswoman head-on.
“I think it’s necessary to bring pragmatic, real-world solutions to work to solve the problems that we as a country are facing,” she said.
Connecticut, in particular, is suffering from a loss of jobs and high taxes, she said. “Connecticut has been at the mercy of 30 years of failed policy and it has to stop,” she said.
Streicker. a Republican, and DeLauro, the congressional 3rd District incumbent have released contentious ads against each other.
Streicker’s companies specialize in acquiring landmark rental properties and converting them to luxury housing, which has at times included evicting longtime tenants. She attended Princeton University and earned degrees in architecture and real estate development at Columbia University, where she teaches entrepreneurship as an adjunct professor.
Streicker said she was motivated to run for office by the political division in the country, which she sees as hindering progress. As a businesswoman, she has brought different interests together for a common goal. “There is an extreme partisanship that is tearing the fabric of our country apart,” she said. “This country is wonderful; it’s fantastic.”
However, the partisan atmosphere is “not good for the health and wellbeing of our nation,” she said.
DeLauro is a prime offender, Streicker said. “She has not voted once out of step with Nancy Pelosi this past cycle. That says everything,” she said.
On coronaviru, she said the partnership between the public and private sectors “has been able to ramp up the PPE and the ventilators in record time” and that the United States