Stamford Elections

Alex Kasser (D)

CT Senate, District 36

Parties Democrat

Position State Senator for Greenwich, New Canaan and Stamford. PhD candidate, Yale University. Former corporate attorney, Skadden, Arps, New York & Chicago and Chairman, Mount Sinai Children’s Environmental Health Center, New York.

Email [email protected]

Phone

Candidate website

Do you support the resolution to amend our state constitution to allow for early voting in Connecticut?

Yes, I unequivocally support early voting. I not only support it, I co-sponsored and enthusiastically voted for the resolution. Unfortunately, Republican Senators voted against it and the resolution failed. Voting rights should not be a partisan issue, but sadly they now are.

After the recent power outages resulting from Tropical Storm Isais, there was a call for increased regulation of our state's utility companies. Do you believe new legislation to regulate utilities is required? Please explain.

Yes, and that's why I voted for the Take Back Our Grid Act, which we passed on October 1st. This new law requires utility companies to meet specific performance metrics -- including customer satisfaction, storm resilience and faster restoration of power -- before they can increase prices or reward their own executives. It also requires utilities to pay customers if they fail to restore power within 96 hours, which will incentivize Eversource to work a lot faster and more efficiently in future storms. This new law is not a complete solution, but it is a significant step forward as it shifts some of the power away from the utilities and back to the people they serve. After this law is implemented, we may determine that stricter metrics are needed. I am certainly open to that.

What will you do to increase state funding to Stamford? What barriers do you see, and how will you overcome them? (e.g., for public schools -- Stamford gets among the lowest if not the lowest level of funding from the state)?

I will always keep fighting for more resources for Stamford. During the shutdown, I fought to bring more testing kits and free testing centers to the city.
I worked closely with Stamford Hospital to ensure they had what they needed in terms of supplies.
And I have consistently fought for more state funding for Stamford Public Schools. Students and their families deserve safe schools - free of mold, Covid-19 and other toxins. And every student deserves an excellent education - and the support they need to succeed. I will keep fighting hard for Stamford Public Schools -- including teachers, students and their families.

COVID spurred the introduction of live online access to legislative sessions. Would you support an effort to make this a permanent addition to our process? Do you have other COVID-related priorities?

Absolutely. I was one of the first legislators to host an online legislative public hearing. As Chair of the Banking Committee, I hosted a public hearing with CT banks, credit unions, advocacy groups and non-profits to learn what we could do to help more people and businesses during the pandemic. The issues discussed in that hearing led to some of the Executive Orders that were issued in the following weeks and months. As Vice Chair of the Judiciary Committee, I also participated in a number of online public hearings. I would absolutely support continuing this process, and also allowing hybrid hearings. The more people participate, the stronger our democracy becomes. I support any measure that creates greater access for the public and more transparency in the legislative process.