Three Navy vets seek House seat
The three candidates running for the 42nd House District are campaigning on different issues, but they all share a few things: residency in Ledyard, Navy service and a desire to better represent their constituents in Hartford.
Incumbent state Rep. Mike France, a Republican, is running against political newcomer Matt Geren, a Democrat, and petitioning candidate Rob Lawrence, also a Democrat. The 42nd District includes all of Preston, most of Ledyard, and a portion of Montville.
France, 58, has served as a state representative since 2014. Before that, he was on the Ledyard Town Council from 2011 to 2014 and served as chair of the Finance Committee. He said he learned a lot from his time on Town Council, which he felt was critical to seeing how government should be run, but serving as state representative provides an opportunity for greater impact on the state.
Geren, 38, said he’s been interested in public office since his family moved to Ledyard in 2017, but timing hadn’t worked out to run for Town Council or the Board of Education with having young children. He is running for the state representative seat this year to provide new leadership on issues that matter to everyone in the district.
Lawrence, 66, has served on Ledyard’s Planning Commission and has run in Ledyard’s mayoral race a few times, most recently last year as a petitioning candidate. A retired steamfitter who now cooks for Groton Community Meals, he said working-class people need working-class representation.
The issues
“People want to feel that their legislators, their representatives have energy, have drive and have
the skills to get things done in Hartford,” Geren said. “Being new is, I think, an absolute advantage here because I bring a fresh perspective to things.”
As he has campaigned, he said he found that constituents in the different towns in the district are generally concerned about the same things, especially health care, problems which he said have “been laid bare” by the pandemic, and education. If elected, he said he would want to review how school funding and budgets are determined at the state level to make sure districts are getting the money they need.
Lawrence is campaigning as a progressive Democrat — he calls himself a “Berniecrat” or an “FDR Democrat” — and he said running for state representative is about patriotism and doing the right thing for everyone with honesty and integrity.
“I’m tired of lawyers, bankers, so- called professionals speaking for everybody because they don’t speak for everybody,” he said. “The corporate class thinks nothing of the working class, and our whole system is designed around money, and I think that needs to be stopped.”
He championed regionalizing public services and renewable energy, noting the great potential the 42nd District has for solar, wind and tidal energy given its elevation and river frontage. He said tidal turbines, which generate energy from the ebb and flow of the tides, could be an opportunity for both, as he would work with other legislators with districts on the Thames River for cost sharing on an electricity source that isn’t dependent on weather.
France said he wanted to run for a fourth term because the work to get the state out of “fiscal disarray” isn’t done.
“We did some good work in the previous cycle,” France said, referring to the 2017 budget. “There was a lot more interaction between the two parties, which I think serves the public better, and out of that came a compromised budget — late, it was October — but the result of that are some very positive things for the state of Connecticut and its residents.”
France currently serves on the Appropriations, Planning and Development, and Government Administration and Elections committees, which he said align with his skills as an engineering manager. He said he likes being able to help his constituents; amid the coronavirus pandemic, he said they’ve been concerned with issues like education models and the plan to return to normal operations.
If reelected, he said he and the rest of the legislature will have to tackle the financial impact of the pandemic on the state’s budget and programs as well as the challenges that schools are facing and what school boards need from the state to move forward.
“That is the most important thing, the financial health of the state and the economy, because when the economy is going well, there are jobs for the people here, and they can better afford the quality of life that is phenomenal here,” he said.
Specific to the pandemic, Geren said he wants to fund technology for teachers; current allocations have been made for Chromebooks for students’ distance learning, yet teachers also need up-todate equipment to conduct their virtual lessons. He wants to help develop a controlled, science- based plan forward out of the pandemic, emphasizing the need for widely available rapid testing.
Geren, who works as a trainer for financial professionals and raises heritage livestock, also said the state needs to tax residents appropriately.
“In the state generally we have a very high tax burden overall, and a lot of that falls onto the middle class and seniors,” he said, citing specifically property and income taxes. He said he would adjust property taxes and close loopholes in estate and business taxes.
Lawrence said he’s a big proponent of using public votes on fiscal issues so residents can have direct say in how their taxes are spent, as well as public options for health care, collective bargaining and the legalization of marijuana. He supports technical education, apprenticeships and infrastructure development, adding that the Green New Deal, if passed, would create a lot of infrastructure jobs.
“That’s what being a progressive is all about,” he said. “I’m not looking tomorrow, I’m looking 20 years from now, 30 years from now, and that’s how our government needs to start thinking. What kind of world are we leaving (the next generation)?”