Democrat incumbent Mae Flexer faces Republican challenger Chris Reddy and Green party challenger Alice Leibowitz in the 29th state senate district election.
The district includes the towns of Brooklyn, Canterbury, Killingly, Mansfield, Pomfret, Putnam, Scotland, Windham and some of Thompson.
Leibowitz did not respond to requests for an interview with The Daily Campus and does not have a campaign website. According to the Norwich Bulletin, her campaign priorities include divestment from the military-industrial complex, switching to ranked choice voting and redistricting school systems so all students can attend schools of equal quality.
Reddy spoke about his background as a paramedic before becoming chairman of the Republican town committee.
“My background traditionally was not in politics. I was a paramedic for 28 years in the state of Connecticut,” Reddy said. “I taught EMT classes and paramedic classes for a number of years.”
Reddy said he got into politics in recent years. Reddy said that his job as chairman of the Republican town committee in Scotland, which is in the 29th district, involves identifying candidates for public office and working on messaging.
“I’m the chairman of the Republican town committee in my hometown of Scotland and that’s what kind of led me to get into the senatorial race,” Reddy said. “And when I looked at this year, I recognized that this was a seat that with the right campaign strategy and with the hard work that I put in, that this was a seat that I would be able to win.”
Flexer spoke about her legislative priorities and that she represents students at the University of Connecticut, Eastern Connecticut State University and Crown Valley Community College.
“I represent more college students than any other legislator and I take that responsibility really seriously,” Flexer said. “I’m really proud of the work that I’ve been able to do fighting for funding for public higher education in Connecticut.”
Flexer said that she was a student at UConn when she first ran for office.
“Fighting to make sure that Connecticut keeps public higher education affordable is something that’s been a top priority and it’s something that’s been a battle the entire time I’ve served in the state senate,” Flexer said.
Flexer spoke about the decrease in state funding to UConn as a percentage of UConn’s budget.
“It’s frustrating to me that, you know, public support for the University of Connecticut, for example, has gone from 50 percent of the cost to attend UConn 35 years ago or 30 years ago was paid for by the state of Connecticut,” Flexer said. “And now that number is less than 25 percent.”
Flexer said she was working to move things in the opposite direction and wanted to return to 50 percent of funding for public universities coming from Connecticut. Flexer also spoke about reproductive healthcare and domestic violence. She said UConn students came to her and Representative Gregg Haddad regarding accessibility to reproductive healthcare on campus.
“I was proud to work with those students and Representative Haddad last year to pass a bill that puts in place permanent requirements for access to reproductive healthcare on all of our college campuses across the state of Connecticut,” Flexer said.
Flexer also highlighted domestic violence as a top priority.
“I have been very focused as a legislator on issues surrounding violence against women,” Flexer said. “I’ve done a lot of work in the area of domestic violence and sexual violence.”
Reddy said that voters he spoke to prioritized affordability in Connecticut.
“The big things that they are concerned about, the number one thing by far is the affordability in Connecticut,” Reddy said. “If you look at virtually any of the lists of cost of living, cost of rent, cost of housing, utilities, even the price of gasoline and diesel, and then in relation to consumer goods, these are things that are really concerning people right now,” Reddy said.
Reddy cited data from the Yankee Institute regarding revenue sources in Connecticut.
“I do think that Connecticut is a very large, onerous bureaucracy to a lot of taxpayers,” Reddy said. “Right now, there’s 360 sources of revenue for the state, interconnected through taxes, fees and licensing. The lowest 200 of them bring in only about [0.15 percent] of total revenue in the state of Connecticut and many of these programs in fact cost the state money.”
State Senate majority leader Bob Duff sent an open letter to UConn President Radenka Maric in August asking UConn to increase enrollment to 40,000 students. Both Reddy and Flexer voiced opposition to Duff’s plan.
“I want to make sure that any expansion that UConn would consider in undergrad and graduate population would be one that considers what they’re doing to the quality of education they’re providing for each student and to make sure that that level of education is maintained,” Reddy said.
Flexer said that Duff did not notify her prior to sending the letter.
“Senator Duff put together a letter that he did not talk to me about before he did it,” Flexer said. “He put together a proposal that has serious impacts for my district. And the contents of his letter are not something I support.”
Reddy and Flexer commented on the potential cuts to approximately 245 academic programs at UConn.
“I think that it’s unfortunate that we can’t maintain the diversity of the programs that are offered at UConn,” Reddy said.
Reddy said he supports more state appropriations to UConn.
“The 29th district, this is UConn country. This is where UConn calls itself home,” Reddy said. “Financial support from the state is important, it not only helps out UConn to continue growing as a university, but also it helps out the town of Mansfield in the way of the [Payment in Lieu of Taxes] funds.”
Flexer said that some members of Governor Ned Lamont’s administration view cuts to public higher education as the best fiscal policy for Connecticut. She is a member of the Higher Education Sustainability Advisory Board, which is looking at funding for all institutions of public higher education in Connecticut.
“That includes the OPM secretary [Jeffrey Beckham]. It was his initiative that created this board that is supposed to be looking at these issues,” Flexer said. “He comes to the Board with this scarcity mindset and believes that institutions like UConn have a lot of space and a lot of money that can be cut back.”
Flexer said she disagreed with Secretary Beckham and disagreed with cuts to majors.
“He’s one of the main drivers of this conversation for cutbacks at UConn and therefore the kinds of conversations that are happening directly on campus right now with faculty, staff and students cutting back majors, cutting back programs, cutting back academic disciplines all across the university,” Flexer said.
Tuition costs have more than doubled since Mae Flexer has been in office:
It would seem that Mae Flexer has been extremely ineffective at securing the necessary resources to offset tuition hikes, and other mandated costs to students. She said herself in this article that all the people who have any sway over the state budget as it relates to UConn have not included her in official letters to the University, or included her in discussions. She is a lame duck, and her effectiveness in supporting locally important resources has been proven to be minimal. In her own words: “I represent more college students than any other legislator and I take that responsibility really seriously,” Flexer said. “I’m really proud of the work that I’ve been able to do fighting for funding for public higher education in Connecticut.” Her own party doesn’t connect with her on important issues like drastic increases to student population, and reduced funding to the university.
Just look at Windham Hospital. Once a thriving community hospital that she purports to be “fighting for”, but is now reduced to a 22-bed Emergency Dept now that all other services have been cut or removed.
It’s time for change, and for someone who understands how our colleges, healthcare and economy have been damaged by such an ineffective legislator.
I think Chris Reddy will be a fresh new voice for our towns and I voted for him for State Senator in this important election.
With UCONN spending millions on its administrators and sports programs, it looks like they have money. Just the wrong priorities.
Students should be fully aware that the only time Mae Flexer is active with students is when she wants their vote, but she has clearly been unable to secure impactful resources for them.
Pandering to UConn students every two years is very transparent (donuts for votes). Hope students are smart enough to realize that their votes are better spent in their actual hometowns where their national vote is meaningful to their families.