Red, white & you Register Citizen Voters Guide

INSIDE AND ONLINE: It's been an election year for the ages. With Nov. 3 approaching, the coronavirus pandemic has resulted in record numbers of voters seeking absentee ballots, a situation that will test the voting process in Connecticut and across the country. A record number of state residents are also registered to vote, a sign of the higher-than-normal interest in this year's election. In today's paper, as well as online at RegisterCitizen.com, readers will find a comprehensive look at their Congressional and General Assembly candidates as well as the candidates for president.

U.S. Congress 1st District

Name: John Larson

Party: Democrat

Race: 1st U.S. House District

Born and raised in East Hartford’s Mayberry Village, John Larson is in his

11th term as Connecticut’s Democratic 1st District congressional representative, first elected in 1998. He was a state senator for 12 years before that, serving until 1995, and was the Senate president for 8 of those. He has been a teacher, a coach and a business owner. He is on the House Ways and Means Committee, the Subcommittee on Tax Policy, and is chairman of the Social Security Subcommittee. He has been an advocate for gun control, green energy and energy independence, military families, and protecting Social Security. He and his wife, Leslie, have three children: Carolyn, Laura, and Raymond.

Name: Mary Fay

Party: Republican

Race: 1st U.S. House District

Mary Fay has been a resident of West Hartford for 17 years and is a financial services senior executive, according to her campaign site.

Her campaign also notes Fay, the daughter of a school teacher, was raised in East Hartford and attended public schools. She is a graduate of Skidmore College, with a degree in business/accounting and a minor in government and earned an MBA from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Fay is a two-term member of the West Hartford Town Council, an appointed member of the West Hartford library board, a volunteer at Morley school, and active in Concerned Citizens of West Hartford and Save our Water, CT, according to her campaign site.

Fay notes her priorities are to grow the economy, ensure public safety and to invest in families and education.

Name: Tom McCormick

Party: Green

Race: 1st U.S. House District

Candidate Tom McCormick, of West Hartford, describes himself as a citizen activist. His campaign bio immediately notes that McCormick “started my citizenship opposing the Vietnam War while a student at UConn in 1973. I participated in blocking gates at Westover AFB. Gave up deferment and sent my 1A draft card back to sender.”

Further, among other activist endeavors he has organized or participated in, McCormick notes “shutting Millstone has been my avocation.”

Among other elements of his platform says he has “long advocated (for) steeply progressive income and inheritance taxes”; opposes nuclear weapons, proposes “adjudication for the undocumented with a path to citizenship.”

House of Representatives 64th House Dist.

Name: Maria Horn

Party: Democrat

Race: 64th House District

Maria Horn is running for her second term to serve the 64th House District, which includes the towns of Canaan, Cornwall, Kent, Norfolk,

North Canaan, Sharon and Salisbury; the southern part of Goshen and much of the city of Torrington. In 2019, she defeated incumbent Republican Brian Ohler by 61 votes, a victory that wasn’t official for nearly a week due to a recount. Ohler is challenging Horn for the House seat this year.

Horn says she intends to continue working hard to serve her constituents. She cited the state’s rainy-fund as an asset to buffer the effects of the pandemic on the state’s businesses and residents, and says she’ll continue to focus on protecting the environment and health care. Horn, an attorney, lives in Salisbury with her husband, Tom Quinn. They have two daughters and a son.

U.S. Congress 5th District

Name: Jahana Hayes

Party: Democrat

Race: U.S. House 5th District

When U.S. Rep. Jahana Hayes took the national stage as the first African-American woman to represent Connecticut in Congress, she was already used to the spotlight at the 2016 national Teacher of the Year. Hayes made the cover of Rolling Stone as one of the women of color who helped Democrats take control of the House of Representatives in the 2018 midterm elections.

Hayes, a Democrat, serves on the committees of Education and Labor, and Agriculture. Her top legislative priority is helping families get equitable access to quality education and affordable health care. She is also an advocate for immigration reform, gun violence prevention, veteran issues, social justice, and transportation investment. Her leadership style, she says, is “working in a bipartisan way to bring positive change to the lives of every person in our community.”

Name: David X. Sullivan

Party: Republican

Race: U.S. House 5th District

Three days after New Fairfield resident David X. Sullivan retired from a 30-year career as a federal prosecutor, he announced his bid to serve Connecticut in the U.S. House of Representatives. Sullivan is trying to be the first Republican to represent the 5th District since 2006. As an assistant U.S. attorney in Connecticut, Sullivan tried civil and criminal cases ranging from drug trafficking to mail fraud.

Sullivan, who is running a law-andorder campaign, said he supports separate measures by President Trump and a GOP senator to increase police training and accountability when it comes to the use of force. He supports increasing school choice for parents and closing the achievement gap between urban students and suburban students. Sullivan says he will be “be a forceful advocate in Congress for capitalism and against socialism.”

Name: Bruce Walczak

Party: Independent

Race: U.S. House 5th District

As a late entry as the Independent Party candidate on the ticket for the 5th Congressional District, Bruce Walczak of Newtown admits he has his work cut out for him. Moreover, the relocation consultant doesn’t plan to raise money or campaign conventionally. Instead, he hopes to stand out on the principle that the partisan two-party system of Republicans and Democrats is responsible for dysfunction in Washington, D.C., politics and the division among Americans. While Walczak says he won’t be pigeonholed on issues and will advocate for creative solutions, he is more aligned with the political beliefs of the Democratic incumbent Jahana Hayes than the GOP challenger David X. Sullivan.

Name: Brian Ohler

Party: Republican

Race: 64th House District

Brian Ohler is a resident of Canaan and a lifelong resident of Connecticut. Ohler is a veteran of the Connecticut Army National

Guard and has served in Afghanistan and Iraq. He has served as a volunteer firefighter and as a safety and security adviser for the Region 1 School District, Region 7 School District, the New Milford Public School District, and the Marvelwood School. He holds an associate degree in criminal justice and a bachelor’s degree in homeland security and emergency management. He attends Sacred Heart University and the University of New Haven, where he is pursuing a master’s degree in emergency management.

State Senate 8th District

Name: Melissa Osborne Party: Democrat Race: 8th state Senate District

Melissa Osborne, an attorney with her own practice in Avon, serves on the Charter Revision Commission in Simsbury. She previously served as the Vice Chairwoman of the Child Welfare and Juvenile Law Committee of the Connecticut Bar Association, according to her campaign website. A native of New York, she has practiced law since 1997 and previously worked in corporate, acquisitions, real-estate and finance law. She is a breast cancer survivor, a mother and worked her way through college in the evenings, according to her campaign.

Name: Kevin Witkos Party: Republican Race: 8th state Senate District Profile: Kevin Witkos entered politics after 28 years in law enforcement, including a role as a sergeant with the Canton

Police Department. He represented the 17th House district for three terms before being elected to the state Senate in 2008, where he now serves on the Finance, Revenue and Bonding; General Law; and Executive and Legislative Nominations committees. He also works as a community relations and economic development specialist for Eversource.

The 8th state Senate District includes Avon, Barkhamsted, Canton, Colebrook, Granby, Hartland, Harwinton, New Hartford, Norfolk, Simsbury and Torrington. Witkos, seeking his seventh term in office, is the latest in a long line of Republicans to represent the district.

State Senate 30th District

Name: Craig Miner

Party: Republican

Race: 30th Senate District

Craig Miner was elected to the 30th Senate District in 2016, after serving eight terms as state representative for the 66th District. He is a former first selectman for the town of Litchfield. Miner serves as the Republican Ranking Member of the Environment and Labor & Public Employees Committees. He is co-chairman of the Regulation Review Committee and a member of the Appropriations Committee. His public service background also includes having served on the state’s Sheff v. O’Neill panel and E911 Commission, and as chairman of the Litchfield Hills Council of Elected Officials. According to his Senate page, he has held sales and management positions in several local automotive dealerships and owned and operated the Litchfield Filling Station from 1989 to 1998. He is married to his wife, Margy, and lives in Litchfield. He has three children and four grandchildren.

Name: David Gronbach

Party: Democrat

Race: 30th Senate District

David Gronbach, 44, served as the mayor of New Milford from 2015-17. He is an owner and partner at Gronbach Law Offices LLC, which he runs with his wife of 17 years, Vanessa. He has three children, ages 14, 13, and 12. He studied law at Pace University School of Law and previously served as an administrative judge/impartial hearing officer at New York State Education Department. His goal is to be an advocate for the people of the 30th District, which includes the towns of Brookfield, Canaan and part of Torrington. He and his wife previously owned Bank Street Book Nook bookstore in downtown New Milford.

House of Representatives 65th Assembly

Name: Michelle Cook

Party: Democrat

Race: 65th House District

Michelle Cook has represented the 65th House district since 2008. She is now the deputy speaker of the state House and sits on the education, public health, human services and legislative management committees. A native of St.

Louis, she previously served as a board member for the Girl Scouts of Connecticut and helped found the PTO at Torrington High School in 2002. She also previously served on the Torrington Early Childhood Collaborative Committee and on the Board of Directors for the Torrington Twisters Baseball Team. She is married to Christopher Cook and has four children.

Name: Christopher Beyus

Party: Republican

Race: 65th House District Christopher Beyus is a native of Torrington, graduating in 2014 from Oliver Wolcott Tech. He is the chairman of the city’s Republican Town Committee — the youngest person to hold such a role in the state as of September — a member of the Board of Finance, a co-founder of the Torrington Trails Network and a former member of the city’s Economic Development Commission. His mother, Joanne, owns and operates Alfredo’s Deli in Torrington, while his father, Ken, is the facilities manager for Torrington Downtown Partners.

Name: Don Alexander Party: Green Party Race: 65th House District

Don Alexander is a retired quality assurance engineer who previously worked for Dymotek in Ellington, according to a statement posted on his campaign Facebook page. He has been married to his wife, Patty, for 41 years and has three children. He was motivated to run for office by a desire to leave a fair and appropriate world to the next generation, he said.

“Our children, grandchildren and generations after them are going to inherit what we leave them and right now what we are going to leave them is a mess,” Alexander said in a statement on his Facebook page. “Whether it be equal pay for women, LGBTQ rights, justice equality for minorities or something as basic as clean air to breathe and clean water to drink, our children should have the chance not only to survive but to thrive in an atmosphere of equality, safety, good health and freedom.”