Politics & Government
Weisberg says it is time to address climate change
Sherman Democrat seeking 108th District state House seat
By Scott Benjamin
SHERMAN – It is the last official day of spring and the weatherman is underscoring the 3 H’s – Hot, Hazy and Humid - and the beach is the place to go.
The temperature is heading toward 93 degrees, the cooling centers are in operation and Anne Weisberg says it is a sign that Connecticut needs prompt action to address climate change.
Find out what's happening in Brookfieldfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
“I’m worried about the lake,” said the Democratic nominee in the 108th state House District about Lake Candlewood, the largest lake in the state, which cuts through Sherman, New Fairfield, Danbury, New Milford – the four towns where she is running – as well as Brookfield.
“With climate change. Rising temperatures are impacting algae. . . The lake is really important to the economy of this area,” Weisberg said in an interview with Patch.com.
Find out what's happening in Brookfieldfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Gov. Ned Lamont (D-Greenwich) has supported get all gas-powered vehicles off the road by 2035. However, the legislation stalled in the Regulations Review Committee last fall before there was a vote.
There was talk of a special session in January of the full General Assembly to address the issue, but it never materialized. It didn’t get to the finish line during the regular session, but there has been consideration of holding a lame-duck special session after the November 5 election.
State Rep. Bob Godfrey (D-110) of Danbury told Patch.com recently, “Tailpipe exhaust is the biggest source of pollution in this state,” he declared. “Some of my constituents are getting sick because of the pollution in the air. We’ve got to act. If we do nothing, we become noncompliant.”
The Republicans have countered that there is insufficient infrastructure to rapidly make the conversion and the costs could become prohibitive for the middle- and lower classes.
State Senate Republican Leader Stephen Harding (R-30) of Brookfield told Patch.com last year that electric car owners he has spoken with have indicated that the governor’s plan is impractical.
Weisberg, who lives in Sherman, said, “I think that there is a huge cost to not doing it. You have heat wave after hear wave.”
Weisberg said that one poll indicated that 70 percent of the respondents said that climate change is an important issue.
“It is an emerging industry,” she commented. “It is really growing and we should get our share.”
In a phone interview with Patch.com, former two-time Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill Curry said he has met Weisberg and was impressed by her “high pedigree” as a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley and then Harvard Law School. She now teaches leadership courses at New York University.
Voters in the 108th District have not elected a Democrat since 1982, when at age 24 attorney Larry Riefberg, now the Danbury Democratic Town Committee chairman, captured the seat as Democratic Gov. Bill O’Neill of East Hampton was annexing his first full term and future vice-presidential nominee Joe Lieberman of Stamford was being elected as state attorney general.
New Fairfield Republicans have held the seat since then: Norma Gyle, 1985-1999, Mary Ann Carson 1999-2011, Richard Smith 2011-2021 and, since January 2021, Patrick Callahan.
Callahan, a former chief probation officer, garnered 54.83 percent of the vote in 2020 and 57.83 percent in 2022.
Said Weisberg, “I always root for the underdog, and I know that I am the underdog.”
She just began raising funds toward obtaining a state Citizens’ Election Program grant and will soon embark on canvassing.
Weisberg said that since the pandemic, work-from-home has become more common, which means canvassing doesn’t have to be largely confined to the weekends.
“In these communities you’re just as likely to find someone home during the week,” she commented.
Weisberg said she expects a larger turnout of Democrats in a presidential election, which “will help” her prospects of winning.
On another issue, she said Connecticut is in need of more housing.
Justin Potter of Kent, the Democratic candidate in the 30th state Senate District, has said that more rental housing should be available in central business districts of small towns at more affordable rates if the occupants agree to volunteer a certain number of hours to the town each week. He recently told Patch.com that in Kent a survey indicates that 78 homeowner households “pay more than 50 percent o their income on housing.”
Weisberg said she supports the steps that Potter outlined.
On a fiscal issue, Weisberg said that she would have supported the 2023 reductions in the state income tax rate from five percent to 4.5 percent for the middle class and from three down to two percent for the lower class.
She said that she supports the legislation that has been signed into law that expands the scope of companies that have to provide paid sick days.
Said Weisberg, “There is no doubt that paid sick days are better for the employee and the employer. It is a different approach to investing in people. If you invest in people, you will get so much more out of them in productivity, loyalty and good will.”
Lamont said in his State of the State address in February that he would like to ban iPhones usage in the schools by having students put them in a pouch.
“I think that distraction is a real problem,” Weisberg said of the use of iPhones.
However, she said it would be best to have individual school districts make the decision for their students. “They know their communities best.”
Weisberg said that he agrees with Surgeon General Vivek Murthy that warning labels should be placed on social media.
However, she added, “It is not sufficient to change people’s behavior.”
Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan has stated that people want it to be 2019 again – before the pandemic and the soaring inflation.
Remarked Weisberg, “We had rising inflation because of the pandemic. You can’t compare pre-pandemic to post-pandemic. It is like comparing apples and oranges.”
Jamil Ragland of CT News Junkie has reported that Connecticut Education Association President Kate Dias has said that there are not enough teachers in the state.
Weisberg said that she is concerned, but that having the state set a higher minimum salary for public school teachers “is going to raise the cost of education on communities that may or may not be able to afford that.”
Hugh McQuaid of CT News Junkie has reported that U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Greenwich) that he supported federal legislation that would provide up to $15,000 in tax credits and student loan forgiveness to college graduates who become teachers.
Weisberg said that she would support that step.
On a separate subject, Weisberg said even with the typically low turnouts in primaries, she opposes opening Connecticut’s primaries to unaffiliated voters.
“Thanks to a 1986 U.S. Supreme Court decision in a case brought by the CT Republican Party, CT law gives each party the authority to decide whether or not to allow open primaries.,” she stated in an e-mail message. “Neither the Republicans nor the Democratic Party in CT allow for them. I agree with this because it prohibits voters from one party from "cheating" by voting in the other party's primary for the weakest candidate.”
“The purpose of a primary is to give voters of each party the power to choose their strongest candidate,” added Weisberg. “I also believe it is important to provide a mechanism for unaffiliated voters to participate in primaries, which CT does by allowing them to change their registration before a primary and then change it back to unaffiliated if they choose.
Which elected officials – past or present – does Weisberg most admire?
Don Lowe, the Democratic first selectman of Sherman.
She explained, “He is so honest and open and down to earth. I just think he was this amazing ability to bring people together and to also stick to his principals at the same time.”
Democratic former President Barack Obama, who was rated 10th out of the 45 former presidents in the 2021 C-SPAN poll of professors, journalists and scholars.
Weisberg remarked, “He could have made a lot of money after getting his law degree from Harvard, but instead he was doing community organizing on the South Side of Chicago.”
She praised Obama for overcoming the Great Recession and getting the Affordable Care Act approved.
U.S. Rep. Jahana Hayes (D-5) of Wolcott.
“She has an incredible life story,” she said of the congresswoman’s rise from living in poverty in Waterbury to becoming national teacher of the year and then being elected to Congress.
Resources:
Interview with Anne Weisberg, Patch.com, on Wednesday, June 19, 2024.
E-mail statement from Anne Weisberg, Patch.com, on Thursday, June 20, 2024.
E-mail interview with Anne Weisberg, Patch.com, on Sunday, June 23, 2024.
https://ctmirror.org/2024/01/22/ct-gas-car-ban-ev-ned-lamont/
https://ctmirror.org/2024/05/07/ct-ev-study-bill/
https://patch.com/connecticut/brookfield/godfrey-says-he-impressed-alves-commitment-education
https://ctnewsjunkie.com/2024/05/28/guv-signs-paid-sick-days-expansion/
https://www.c-span.org/presidentsurvey2021/?personid=55625
https://ctnewsjunkie.com/2024/05/16/a-teacher-shortage-with-no-end-in-sight/
https://ballotpedia.org/Connecticut_House_of_Representatives_District_108
