Democrats pick Bowles to try to hold Senate seat in 18th
Democratic delegates unanimously selected Timothy Bowles as their candidate in the 18th District state Senate race at a gathering Monday night at the Jewett City VFW.
Bowles will face off against Republican Heather Somers in the contest to fill the seat being vacated by five-term state Sen. Andrew Maynard, D-Stonington, in the district that includes Voluntown, Griswold, Preston, Stonington, North Stonington, Sterling, Plainfield and Groton.
A farmer in Preston, Bowles previously has served as a selectman and state representative. He currently works as an academic assistant at the Interdistrict School for Arts and Communication in New London, and prior to that,
was employed for almost 30 years with the state as a social worker and program manager for the state Department of Children and Families, and as a legislative liaison for the state Office of Policy and Management.
After retiring from the state in 2009, Bowles worked for a time as a behavioral health consultant for a regional educational service center. He has a master’s degree in child welfare.
“This campaign is about coming together in eastern Connecticut to find solutions for the challenges that face us all every day,” Bowles said in a prepared statement following Monday’s nomination. “It’s going to take all of us working together to make sure our kids have a world-class education, our workers get the training they need to win the jobs of the future, and that we take on the challenge of saving a generation from opioid addiction.”
In a recent op-ed in The Day (“The Time Right for Term Limits,” May 22) Bowles argued for a major reform and restructuring of state government.
“To get there, we need smarter and more practical government that works for us,” he said in his news release. “We need leaders who’re going to take a serious look at our state government — invest in what works — and get rid of what doesn’t.”
“We need to start by putting in term limits and cutting the size and cost of the legislature,” he said.
Bowles has proposed reducing the number of state representatives by 30 percent to save taxpayers more than $3 million annually.
At the convention attended by about 35 people, Bowles was nominated as the party’s candidate for the 18th District race by Scott Bates, chairman of the Democratic Town Committee in Stonington, and seconded by Conrad Heede, chairman of the Groton Democratic Town Committee.
“I congratulate my opponent for earning the Democratic nod along with the support of Gov. Malloy, lobbyists and other insiders who’ve all raised money to send him back to Hartford in recent weeks,” said Somers, the Republican challenger. “I look forward to discussing our visions for the future because there is so much on the line for our state in this election. Will we continue down the path of the status quo that has led us to fiscal ruin or will we send a different type of leader to Hartford, a Hartford outsider with experience on the local level and in business who will fight for our region, and a new direction for our struggling state?”
“With so much at stake we cannot afford to send someone who has been part of the problem back to roost under the Gold Dome in Hartford,” she said.