Newcomer takes on veteran in Stamford’s 145th House District
STAMFORD — J.D. Ospina faces state Rep. Patricia Billie Miller’s political legacy most days when he clocks in to work.
The Stamford offices of Community Health Center, a non-profit healthcare provider for underserved communities, put Miller’s name on a plaque, dedicating a fifth-floor community room to the longtime representative from District 145.
Ospina’s office is just a few doors over.
The young Republican newcomer understands the implications of running against his
district’s longtime Democratic representative to Hartford. But Ospina wants to challenge Miller’s political approach and believes new ideas in the statehouse are long overdue.
“It was tough for me to run against her because I’ll admit, she is a good person, she has done a lot of good for the community, and she’s done good for the health center,” said Ospina. “But I think that it’s time for us to find a new leader, especially somebody who understands municipal finance.”
Ospina
Ospina holds a master’s degree in Public Administration from New York University. He said his biggest concern is the state’s $ 2.1 billion budget deficit, which he called the main reason he is running for office.
“That’s a deficit that people will pay for one way or another, will pay for through higher cost of living, rent, higher groceries, more sales tax, more income tax,” said Ospina.
He hopes voters elect him to help spur growth — which he said can be done without raising taxes or reintroducing tolls to state highways, the latter a part of a transportation plan by Gov. Ned Lamont that could return for consideration in the coming year.
“If we go to tolls, that’s just another tax in the on the middle income, lower to middle income,” Ospina said.
As a first step toward improving transportation in the state, Ospina advocates for performing a full audit of the department that oversees it.
Ospina has earned endorsements from organizations including Westfield Trabajos, a group that aims to connect Hispanic people with jobs in Fairfield and Westchester counties.
The candidate said appealing to middle-income Latinos like clients of Westfield Trabajos is his way of paying homage to his childhood and his parents, who immigrated to the United States from Colombia.
He grew up in Greenwich’s Armstrong Court, a public housing development. The Ospina family depended on government assistance like SNAP benefits and Medicaid, but his father maintained that their reliance on government programs would only be temporary. Ospina remembers his father telling him to “try your best never to live off of the system and put a limit on your dreams.”
He said that admonition fueled his embrace of the Republican Party.
“That’s what Medicaid and food stamps and a lot of those welfare programs do — it puts a limit literally on your income,” he said. “And if you pass that income threshold, you lose all benefits.”
“But if you have that mentality, you’re not going to progress,” Ospina continued.
Ospina tends to make political opinions like those known via social media, where he is prolific. Much of his campaign exists online, particularly on Facebook. The candidate posts about everything from his disdain for higher taxes and general obligation bonds to meetings with groups across Stamford.
Miller
Where her opponent boasts a fresh perspective, Miller brings a career of civil service. Prior to her election to the state House in 2009, she served on the Stamford Board of Representatives. Before that, she worked at the Stamford Housing Authority for decades.
Miller now works as an affordable housing consultant on top of her duties in Hartford, which are many: She currently serves as assistant majority leader in the House and serves as chair of the Bonding Subcommittee and as a member of the Education Committee, Judiciary Committee, and Finance, Revenue & Bonding Committee.
Despite her array of appointments, Miller says her main priority in Hartford has always been education reform, born out of her own experience.
“As a child growing up at Stanford, there were certain deficiencies,” stated Miller. “There were certain things that I think that our education could have done better.”
Miller said she faced blatant discrimination while attending Stamford Public Schools in the late 1960s and early 1970s. People told her that she was not smart enough to take certain classes or to succeed academically. Her daughters faced the same issues at Stamford schools decades later.
Miller left public school for Low-Heywood school after obtaining a scholarship. She was the private school’s first African-American graduate, and Miller credits much of her success to the education she received.
Now, the Democrat tries to ensure that students in her district and the city at large remain unscathed by the same systemic racism that pushed her out.
While in office, Miller has championed the state’s K-3 Reading Initiative, which tests a student’s reading during early school years.
“They say… if you don’t know how to read by the end of the third grade, that you’re going to go to prison,” she said.
“And so, what I’ve done is made it my business to make sure that children are going to have the opportunity to read.”
The legislator hopes to help close the achievement gap in Stamford, as the state has identified Stamford as one of its Alliance Districts. These school districts are the 33 lowest performers on state indexes; others include Norwalk, Bridgeport and Danbury.
Miller is popular in her home district. She’s garnered endorsements from the Connecticut League of Conservation Voters and CT Against Gun Violence, and she’s won re-election with at least 75 percent of the vote every year since she first took office.
But education won’t be Miller’s only focus if reelected. After the November election, Miller hopes to pay closer attention to the inequalities exacerbated by the ongoing pandemic.
“When I get back to Hartford, I’m going to look at issues that have been impacted, maybe something that I never paid close attention to much like our health care,” she said. “I’m going to be more actively involved, because of the disparities in the individuals who were impacted by COVID.”
In Connecticut, the Black death rate for COVID-19 is about 1.5 times greater than the rate for white residents.
Though she is running in the 145th, Miller said she hopes residents of Stamford understand she’s dedicated to them, whether they are her direct constituents or not.
“Know that I’m honest,” she said. “I know that I work hard for them and I will continue to work hard for them.”