EJFORTHE89TH - Press Release

For immediate release

August 8, 2020

My name is EJ Maher and I am your Democratic candidate for CT State Representative for the 89th District; Bethany, Cheshire and Prospect. I want to introduce myself and ask for your support. Please reach out to me at ejforthe89th@gmail.com to share your hopes for the future of our communities and our state. Please also follow me on fb, ig and twitter as ejforthe89th. Finally, I need your help! Please click this link, https://www.secure.anedot.com/ejforthe89th/donate to help me qualify for the CT Citizens Election Program grant…

I am a 40 year old lifetime Connecticut resident. I grew up in Stratford, went to high school in Milford and have lived in many of the surrounding towns since graduating from New York University in 2004. I have been married to my beautiful wife Sandy for 13 years and we have lived in Bethany since 2013 with three incredible young ladies we are proud to call our daughters. I have been a firefighter for the City of Norwalk for over 10 years. Prior to that I was the production controller for an aerospace manufacturer in New Haven. I have further professional experience in construction, project/retail management, food service, public service, education and marketing.

I formerly sat on the Cable Television Advisory Council for the City of New Haven and I am a former Vice-President of the New Haven Chapter of the CT Young Democrats. I am currently serving in my elected position as a member of the Bethany Community School Board of Education. I also serve as Bethany’s representative to the ACES Regional Governing Board.

I have always striven to be of service to my community. Running for State Representative of the 89th district is an opportunity to expand the reach of that service. To be able to serve the communities of Bethany, Cheshire and Prospect at the state level will be a privilege that I will not take for granted.

The covid-19 pandemic and the opioid epidemic have further cemented my resolve to ensure that healthcare is within reach of every single resident of our community and in the State of Connecticut.

The education of our children needs to be equitable and rigorous for all students, regardless of where they live or what personal obstacles they may have to overcome in order to learn and thrive. I further believe that our vocational preparation is failing to reach the students that need it the most. We need a pipeline to trade apprenticeship for non-college bound young people and vocational training should be accessible to any of CT’s residents.

We need strong unions with easy and protected access to union representation for all workers.

We must guarantee that a full week of work will provide the income necessary to support a family. I will fight to ensure all workers are treated equally and alike and that we all receive a living wage for our honest time and labor. We must ensure businesses pay their fair share of taxes and we should also examine the tax-exempt entities in this state to ensure compliance with current law while reexamining those laws to ensure the spirit and intent of tax exemption is not being misapplied.

Investing now in our state’s infrastructure; our roads, bridges, parks, beaches, historical buildings and tourist attractions can provide good paying jobs now to those who need them most while recovering from the losses caused by measures taken to slow the spread of the covid-19 virus.

Our residents and our businesses large and small will need support to recover from the covid-19 pandemic, I will work to make sure state resources are distributed fairly and not misemployed.

I believe we can protect our state’s resident’s 2nd amendment rights while doing more to keep guns out of the hands of those who would seek to do harm with them.

Finally, I believe indisputably that black lives do matter. I steadfastly and unequivocally support our public safety officers and the good work they do every day, often without thanks, but we can no longer tolerate the undeniably disproportionate impact of law enforcement on communities and citizens of color. The recent special legislative session judiciously took up the important work of moving the practice of policing in our state to a system that serves its mandate and protects all of CTs residents. That work is not done. We must forge a lasting relationship between police and the communities they serve. Together we can effect meaningful and immediate change toward fair and effective policing built for the 21st century. That bridge won’t be built overnight but it is imperative that we move to repair the fractured relationship that exists today so we can all move forward and thrive, together.

We have so much good work to do in Hartford in the coming months and years. We must meaningfully engage the groups and communities that we will be working for (including Black, Latinx, Women, LGBTQ+ and those living in poverty) to identify short and long term goals and to immediately implement the best strategies and plans to meaningfully and quantifiably move toward a better future for all of Connecticut’s residents. From the moment the next class of legislators are sworn in next year I will be working hard to bring equality to all Connecticut residents and to ensure that no one is held down again while they are begging to breathe. We cannot elect leaders anymore who show up and list the reasons why we cannot do all of these things. We must show up to fight for progress that has heretofore stalled- no more excuses. We are…

Better. Together.

EJ Maher

ejforthe89th