Glassman fears college student loan debt could trigger recession

By Scott Benjamin

SIMSBURY – Mary Glassman says that over the last generation costs have gone from the point that a summer job could pay for another year at the University of Connecticut (UConn) at Storrs to where college student loan debt will likely be the cause of the next great recession since there too many graduates that will not be able to repay their loans.

Glassman, 59. who served for 16 years over two stints as the first selectman of Simsbury and is the Democratic convention-endorsed candidate in the August 14 primary in the Fifth Congressional District, said about 40 years ago she paid for her tuition at UConn by working as a waitress and at other jobs in the summer.

She said college debt is now “staggering,” as it has reached the point where it is common for graduates to face $100,000 in loan repayments.

“It’s stifling young people,” said Glassman, who has three adult children.

She said there should be more alternatives to “re-finance at a lower level” and that colleges need to provide more options, including increased online learning.

Glassman said her college experiences have been valuable in all facets of her career.

She worked at The Daily Campus, the UConn school newspaper, which also includes the late former U.S. Rep. Bill Ratchford (D-5) of Danbury, Middletown Mayor Dan Drew and Marla Romash, the former communications director to former Vice President Al Gore, among its alumni.

Glassman, who grew up in New Britain, said her work at The Daily Campus and after graduation as a reporter at The New Britain Herald prompted her to “look at both sides of the issue.”

That was helpful as she took night classes at the University Of Connecticut School Of Law. She became an attorney and later worked as a legal advisor to Moira Lyons of Stamford, the former speaker of the state House of Representatives, and then an executive aide to former Lieutenant Governor Kevin Sullivan of West Hartford.

Perhaps she also should be in Ripley’s Believe It Or Not for being on the ballot for lieutenant governor with three different gubernatorial candidates – former New Haven Mayor John DeStefano, Gov. Dannel Malloy of Stamford and the current Democratic convention nominee for governor, Ned Lamont of Greenwich.

Glassman, who was Malloy’s running mate in 2006 when he initially sought the governorship, outpolled him in the primary to win nomination and then ran on the ticket in the general election with DeStefano.

Glassman also made a brief bid for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in 2010.

“I would not be a candidate for Congress without my education at the University of Connecticut,” she said.

She faces Jahana Hayes of Wolcott, a former national teacher of the year, in the primary for the seat held by departing U.S. Rep. Elizabeth Esty (D-Cheshire).

Glassman narrowly won the convention endorsement in May. Since then, Hayes has annexed support from the Working Families Party and labor organizations, which are typically considered important in a Democratic primary in Connecticut.

The Democrats have controlled the district since 2006 when U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Cheshire) upset Republican Nancy Johnson of New Britain, who had been in Congress for 24 years, beginning with her stint in the now-defunct Sixth District.

In particular, since Murphy’s victory, Democrats have been able to win the five cities in the sprawling 41-municipality district –Waterbury, Danbury, New Britain, Meriden and Torrington by a combined plurality of at least 15,000 votes and have scored victories in parts of Litchfield County’s Northwest Corner – such as Salisbury and Kent – and in Simsbury and other parts of the Farmington Valley.

Former Meriden Mayor Manny Santos is the Republican convention nominee. He faces former college instructor Ruby O’Neill of Southbury and Watertown businessman Richard DuPont in the primary.

Esty has called it one of the “most diverse districts” in the country, as it stretches from Salisbury to Newtown with a mixture of cities, wealthy suburbs and rural towns. Murphy has said you can have consecutive campaign stops in Salisbury, Waterbury and Simsbury and think that “you’re in three different regions of the country.”

It has been an abbreviated campaign, since Esty - who appeared to be favored to be the first congressman to win a fourth term in the district since Democrat John Monagan of Waterbury, who was defeated in 1972 - announced in early April that she would not run again following reports on her handling of a sexual harassment case related to her former chief of staff and another staff member.

Glassman was the first Democrat to announce for the seat.

“As a first-time federal candidate, the amount of money you have to raise is unbelievable,” she said, noting that during her bids for governor and lieutenant governor in 2010 she sought to seek many small contributions to qualify for a grant from the Citizen Elections Program.

She said the first step in campaign finance reform should be addressing the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision in which allowed super Political Action Committees to restrict expenditures on campaign advertising.

Glassman said as a result of the Citizens United decision the Super PAC spending is “not transparent.”

During a 2014 talk, Esty said that during the early stages of that election cycle some incumbents had faced at least $1 million in negative television advertising.

“It’s pretty hard for these folks to concentrate on their jobs,” she said, adding that Congress had done an inadequate job in addressing campaign finance reform.

While in the U.S. House, Murphy called for partial public financing of congressional campaigns.

While in Congress, former U.S. Rep. Jim Maloney (D-5) of Danbury, who served from 1997 to 2003, said that he usually worked 80 hours a week. “My constituents should not be concerned that I work 80 hours a week,” he said. “They should be concerned that I usually devote 20 of those hours to campaign-related activities.”

U.S. Rep. Rick Nolan (D-Minn.) has introduced the Stop Act, which would prohibit federal legislators from making phone calls to solicit campaign contributions. They would still be able to attend campaign fund-raising events.

The campaign staffs and consultants would have to make the fund-raising phone calls.

The legislation was featured in a segment on CBS’ “60 Minutes” in 2016.

Nolan, who previously served in Congress from 1975 to 1981, has complained that some congressmen have been instructed by the national congressional campaign committees to raise at least $18,000 a day or spend as many as 30 hours a week making calls for contributions. He said a generation ago there were no call centers located near Capitol Hill.

Glassman did not endorse the Stop Act.

“I’m not sure it’s the amount of hours,” she said. “It’s the amount of money coming into the system.”

“You’re still going to be doing the same thing,” Glassman added regarding the restrictions associated with the proposed Stop Act. “You’re still going to be raising money.”

Political observers have said the legislation would not address campaign finance reform but would tackle congressional time management.

Although she immediately jumped into the race to serve in Washington, Glassman said she realizes that, if elected, it’s more difficult to connect with constituents when you’re not working in their municipality each day.

“What I love about municipal government is that you get things done,” she said. “You pave the roads, you make the schools safe, you open the emergency shelter when there is a storm. You go to the grocery store and you hear about what needs to be fixed.”

As first selectman, Simsbury had an AAA bond rating, the highest possible, and the town was rated as one of the Top 100 Best Places To Live In America by Money Magazine. She helped commission the International Skating Center to town was partly responsible for expanding its bike paths.

Glassman expressed optimism about the economy in the Fifth District, saying that Jackson Labs, a bioscience company that opened just four years ago near the University of Connecticut Health Center in Farmington is doing research for a number of companies in the state. The company was lured to Connecticut through financial incentives spearheaded by Malloy.

Glassman said beyond generating more employment in the only New England state that hasn’t recovered all of the jobs it lost in the 2008 recession elected officials need to help fill the 13,000 jobs that are currently vacant because there aren’t qualified applicants.

If elected, she said she wants to secure federal money to provide more robotics programs for students in middle school to help provide training for manufacturing positions.

“The training needs to start earlier,” said Glassman.

She said, In general, with a growing federal budget deficit and a state economy that has slowly recovered from the 2008 recession and as a result has reduced state assistance to municipalities, “partnerships between private companies and public entities” will become more important.

Washington Post economics columnist Robert Samuelson recently reported that the trustees for Social Security and Medicare indicated that it represented 42 percent of federal spending in 2017 and the figure was more than 50 percent of federal spending if Medicaid was added to figures.

He contends that the large social spending with a greater share of the population retiring will crowd out appropriations for other programs.

U.S. Rep. Jim Himes (D-4) of Greenwich has said Social Security and Medicare will have to “be reformed in the next 10 years.”

Glassman said “a good way to make the program [Social Security] stand up” would be to increase the maximum amount of income subject to the payroll tax.

Currently only the first $128,400 of income is subject to the payroll tax. Glassman said she supports former Democratic President Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign proposal to increase that to $250,000.

On another topic, she said she is concerned that President Donald Trump’s nomination to fill the vacant seat in the U.S. Supreme Court will put some social policies on “the chopping block,” including a “woman’s right to choose.”

The Republicans have a 51-49 majority in the U.S. Senate, which will vote on confirming the president’s nominee. However, reports indicate that at least three Democrats in states that Trump carried in 2016 might be inclined to vote for his selection even if Republican senators Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska vote against the president’s selection.

“I think we need to appeal to the people in our districts,” Glassman said when asked about the best Democratic response to the president’s nominee, which is supposed to be announced on Monday, July 9.

Regarding gun legislation Glassman said, “I’m very proud of what Connecticut has been able to pass” regarding background checks. She said the federal government should take similar steps.