nothin “Pragmatic Progressive” Sees The Forest In… | New Haven Independent

Pragmatic Progressive” Sees The Forest In The Trees

Christine Stuart Photo

Jonathan Harris at candidate forum in New Haven.

Jonathan Harris used a word you don’t usually hear from the rest of the pack eyeing the governor’s mansion this year: lumber.

He used the word in an interview to cite an example of how his government experience has prepared him to serve as a pragmatic progressive” problem-solver” — someone who combines left-of-center political values with nuts-and-bolts action — should he succeed in his current uphill quest to win the Democratic gubernatorial election and then the general election.

Asked during an interview on WNHH FM’s Dateline New Haven” program for a specific example of how to do that, Harris spoke about looking afresh at state assets” for how better to find revenues to run government and pay off old pension debts.

Assets like trees.

We have 360,000 or so acres of forest land,” he noted. Do we actually have management of that forest land?”

A non-“progressive” approach to assets” like government land is … to sell it. Or clear-cut it.

Harris offered a different idea: look at how to manage the forests better.

To have proper forest management, you need to sometimes take down trees,” he said. He suggested teaming up with University of Connecticut’s forest school to identify trees that need to come down for other trees to thrive. Then he recommended selling that lumber.

Boil that down to cash and help with the pension” burden on the state, he said. He estimated the state might be able to bring in $10-$20 million a year that way.

We need to start thinking outside the box” in government, he said.

Harris is the one candidate so far running for governor who can claim he has made state laws, overseen a state agency, and run a municipality: He served as West Hartford’s mayor, as state senator, and, until this past April, state commissioner of consumer protection.

He said in those jobs he developed a track recording for thinking outside the box to solve problems in practical but also progressive ways: Finding ways to boost the number of patients registered for medical marijuana from 1,400 to 17,000 during his consumer protection tenure; negotiating with Catholic hospitals to agree to let third parties administer Plan B contraception so that girls brutalized by sexual assault” don’t need to take cabs to other hospitals to get treatment; updating rules on parking and density so West Hartford could turn an undeveloped area into the thriving Blue Back Square. In the WNHH interview he spoke about how attention to zoning obstacles or outdated parking rules can help support bottom-up economic development” as an alternative to relying on tax breaks to the largest employers threatening to leave the state.

He said those experiences give him a running start on finding smart ways to bring government into the 21st century — in how the Department of Motor Vehicles does background checks, for instance, or how liquor regulators carry out their jobs — and save money while delivering better government.

That experience and practical bent also led him to offer caveats when embracing positions like favoring new electronic tolls on state highways: He said we should combine that idea with lowering the gas tax, so that interstate drivers who now wait to fill up in Massachusetts or New York do so in Connecticut instead, and buy a burrito” in the process. (Gov. Dannel P. Malloy has called for a seven-cent hike in the gas tax.)

A lawyer and economic development consultant by trade, Harris, who’s 54, has racked up endorsements from state legislators past and present like Edith Prague and Derek Slap for his gubernatorial quest, which is still officially in the exploratory” phase.

You can hear him discuss more of his platform and his record in the full WNHH FM Dateline New Haven” interview by clicking on the audio file or the Facebook Live video below.

WNHH interviews with other gubernatorial candidates:

Click on the above audio file or the Facebook Live video below for the full interview with gubernatorial candidate Ned Lamont on WNHH FM’s Dateline New Haven.” Click here to read a story about the interview.

Click on the above audio file or the Facebook Live video below to hear the full Dateline New Haven” interview with Democratic gubernatorial candidate Luke Bronin on WNHH FM, in which he also discussed, among other topics, the need for more vo-tech education and raining programs for coding and other high-tech jobs, as well as public-private job-creation partnerships. Click here to read an article about the interview.

Click on or download the above audio file or Facebook Live video below to listen to the full interview with Joe Ganim. Click here to read an article about the interview.

Click on or download the above audio file or the Facebook Live video below for an interview with Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Dita Bhargava on WNHH radio’s Dateline New Haven.” Click here to read a story about the interview. Click on or download the above audio file or on the Facebook Live video to below to hear an interview with GOP gubernatorial candidate Mike Handler on WNHH radio’s Dateline New Haven” program. Click here for a story about that interview. Click on or download the above audio file or the Facebook Live video below to hear an interview with GOP gubernatorial candidate Prasad Srinivasan on WNHH radio’s Dateline New Haven.” Click here to read a story about that interview. Click on the above audio file or the Facebook Live video below to hear a WNHH radio’s Dateline New Haven” interview with GOP gubernatorial candidate Steve Obsitnik. Click here to read a story about that interview. Click on or download the above audio file to hear a previous WNHH FM Dateline New Haven” interview with Democratic gubernatorial candidate Joe Ganim. Click here for a story about that interview. Click on or download the above audio file to a an interview with GOP gubernatorial candidate Mark Boughton on WNHH radio’s Dateline New Haven” program; and click here to read a story about that interview. Click on or download the above audio file to hear an interview with Democratic gubernatorial candidate Dan Drew; and click here to read a story about the interview.

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