Jordan Ashby Photo
State Sen. Gary Winfield at Newhallville stop-violence fair.
Paul Bass Photo
John Carlson, fellow GOP candidate Eric Mastroianni at WNHH FM.
To Gary Winfield, the job of state legislator is akin to a long-distance runner. He sees the finish line in the distance: Better public education. Humane prisons. Fairer policing. The legislator gets closer every year, step by step, methodically making gains along the way, keeping the ultimate goal in mind.
That record of veteran service is a reason the Newhallville Democrat gave for why he’s running this year for a sixth term as a state senator representing New Haven and West Haven.
That’s a reason John Carlson, a Hill Republican, gave for why he’s challenging Winfield this year for the 10th State Senate District seat: New Haven Democrats have been in power too long, without producing the right results, he argued.
The two candidates offered those reasons during separate recent interviews on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven” program.
Winfield spoke about the progress he and colleagues have made on criminal justice and education reforms since he has championed those issues since he was first elected to the legislature, as a state representative, in 2008.
“These things take a long time,” he noted.
He spent years convincing colleagues to support his proposal to end the death penalty in Connecticut, for instance. He eventually succeeded. Then he had to help elect a Democratic governor to sign the bill.
He and like-minded colleagues began in the 2010s by passing a law supporting the outfitting of local cops with body cameras, now a widespread practice. They succeeded in having the state document police stops by race to help address racial profiling. They created a police accountability task force following a controversial shooting of two civilians by a Hamden cop; a year later, amid the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, they passed a police accountability bill that made it easier for victims of police violence to sue offending officers.
This past year, Winfield, who co-chairs the legislature’s Judiciary Committee, succeeded in passing a “medical Miranda” bill through the State Senate to ensure people get care if they complain of injuries while in police custody. The measure didn’t make it through the State House in 2022. If reelected, Winfield and colleagues like state Senate President Pro Tem Martin Looney intend to pass the measure again with hopes of getting it past that finish line and to the governor for a signature; they argue that the recent Randy Cox case in New Haven underscores the need.
Each step requires having challenging conversations with fellow legislators from different parts of the state. “We don’t all come from the same place,” observed Winfield, who has built productive relationships with legislators who have different outlooks.
On education, Winfield addressed learning gaps and the need for more parental involvement with bills passed a decade ago. (Click here for a 2013 article about his education efforts at the time; and here for another 2013 about the specific early-ed literacy program he was promoting.) More recently he supported the “Right to Read” law requiring public school curricula to switch from “balanced literacy” to “structured literacy” approaches to reading, based on a shift in the nationwide consensus on how best to teach it.
In New Haven — where reading scores have plummeted — Board of Education officials are resisting the required change, disagreeing with the new consensus.
Winfield made a point to attend a Board of Alders hearing on the matter to spell out the requirements of the new law.
“This role is to make the public aware. I represent the people of New Haven. If the children of New Haven aren’t getting the education they deserve, it is my responsibility to show up and say something,” he said.
Click on the video to watch the full interview with Gary Winfield on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven.”
John Carlson also spoke of Winfield’s — and New Haven Democrats’ — long tenure in office. He called that a problem.
His main goal in running — for mayor last year, for state senator this year — is to “bring democracy back to the city,” he said.
New Haven last elected a non-Democratic (aka Republican) mayor in 1951. All its contested elected offices, from alder to state legislator, are held by Democrats.
“We don’t have democracy in the city. One-party rule for 50 years has been horrible,” argued Carlson, a public schoolteacher and active community volunteer who also serves as Republican town chair.
He sided with critics of Winfield’s police accountability law, claiming it “has made life more difficult for citizens of Connecticut” and “needs tweaking.”
Like Republicans statewide and nationwide, Carlson cited high inflation and gas prices and taxes and invoked an unpopular incumbent president in criticizing his opponent. He sought to tie him to the work of the state’s Democratic Party as well.
“Build Back Better is more like Build Backwards,” Carlson stated. “Biden has singlehandedly destroyed one of the best economies we had in decades, in 18 months.”
Winfield “raised taxes every time with [Govs.] Lamont and Malloy. I can’t give him a free pass,” Carlson said. “The seat was open. We didn’t have a candidate. The best thing for democracy in New Haven is to have a quality candidate, which I am.”
He called for cutting taxes and avoiding any new taxes, instead focusing on new revenues from legalized gambling and cannabis to address pressing needs.
Click on the video to watch the full interview with John Carlson on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven.”
I wonder if Mr.Carlson dropped his doctor after he or she had been practicing for ten years. There are plenty of long-serving legislators, Republican and Democrat, whose constituents think are doing a fine job and who continue to re-elect them.