Matt Lesser

Matt L. Lesser is an American politician who represents the 9th district in the Connecticut Senate. First elected to the State House in 2008, Lesser was re-elected in 2010, 2012, 2014, and 2016. In 2018 he was elected as state senator for the 9th district, winning 57% of the vote.[1][2]

Matthew Lesser
Connecticut Senator from the 9th District
Assumed office
January 9, 2019
Preceded byPaul R. Doyle
Member of the Connecticut House of Representatives from the 100th District
In office
January, 2009 – January 9, 2019
Preceded byRaymond C. Kalinowski
Succeeded byQuentin Phipps
Personal details
Born (1983-04-29) April 29, 1983
Washington, DC
Political partyDemocratic
ResidenceMiddletown, Connecticut
Alma materWesleyan University

Early career

In 2006, Lesser, as a full-time student at Wesleyan University and President of the College Democrats of Connecticut, organized the largest student voter mobilization drive in the country.[3] He hired staff and organized students across the state, increasing voter turnout by nearly 700% at the University of Connecticut.[4]

In 2007, Lesser was elected as Chairman of the Middletown Planning and Zoning Commission with a platform of preserving open space.[5]

House election

On May 20, 2008, Lesser, then a student at Wesleyan University, was selected to run as the second youngest candidate for State Representative at the Democratic 100th District Convention.[6][7] Lesser received the endorsement of then-Connecticut Secretary of State Susan Bysiewicz, who once held the 100th District State representative seat.[8] Lesser also received support from State Senator Tom Gaffey and Middletown DTC Chairman Dan Russo.[9] Lesser defeated 3-term incumbent Ray Kalinowski, a veteran, retired federal agent, former first selectman, and member of the state legislature for six years, who claimed "The only way to get 10 years of experience is to work for 10 years." [10][11]

In Connecticut's General Assembly as a state representative, Lesser served as the House Chairman of the Banking Committee. Additionally, he sat on the Government Administration and Elections and Insurance and Real Estate Committees.[12]

Since taking office in 2009, Lesser has written and passed a number of laws, including Connecticut's first in the nation Student Loan Bill of Rights,[13] an act prohibiting fracking waste from being dumped in Connecticut,[14] and updated workplace safety standards.[12] Additionally, Lesser has dedicated his political career to expanding and securing voting rights, advocating for measures such as early voting in Connecticut, no excuse absentee voting, and the national popular vote interstate compact.[15]

In 2012, Lesser was elected to a leadership role in the Democratic Party's National Platform Committee, which was co-chaired by then Newark, NJ mayor Corey Booker and Lt. Gen. Claudia Kennedy.[16] Lesser has worked on behalf of Senators Chris Dodd and Barack Obama.

Senate election

Lesser announced a run for state senator in May 2018.[17] He won a primary contest on August 14 against Antonio Guerrera, a previous state representative.[18] The general election featured some controversy when a "mailer" was sent out to voters featuring an altered image of the candidate clutching $100 dollar bills.[19] The mailer garnered national media attention and accusations of antisemitism against the candidate.[20] Lesser won the general election in November and was appointed as Senate Chairman of the Insurance and Real Estate Committee in the following month.[21][22]

Personal life

Lesser lives in Middletown's North End with his wife Sarah and his dog Lucy. He attended Wesleyan University in Middletown before being elected for public office. He previously served on Middletown's Planning and Zoning Commission.[12]

Political positions

Lesser has stated that he plans to shift the burden of education from the taxpayers to the state, as the state legislature had already agreed to pay for 50% of the costs of education. However, this is a contested claim since the supposed state "promise" of 50% funding comes from a 1979 report of the Connecticut State Board of Education (SBE) and the Connecticut School Finance Advisory Panel called A Plan for Promoting Equal Educational Opportunity in Connecticut and is viewed as outdated and misinterpreted by opponents.[23]

In order to lower the cost of education further, Lesser has supported a controversial "pooling" bill that would have allowed municipalities, small businesses and nonprofit organizations to join the state's health insurance plan until it was vetoed by Governor M. Jodi Rell on June 13 in 2008.[24] Lesser has also called for switching schools over to renewable alternative sources of energy and for funding of the PILOT and ECS programs to lower education costs further still.

Over the course of the 2019 legislative session Lesser has championed support for a public health insurance option in the state of Connecticut,[25] personally overseeing the bill from his position as Co-Chair when it passed out of the insurance committee.[26] Lesser commented during a press conference that the bill's passage into law would be "the most transformative change to healthcare in years."[27] He congratulated the state of Washington and its governor via Twitter a few hours before the state became the first in the nation to sign a public option bill into law.[28][29]

Electoral history
Connecticut 100th House District Election, 2008
Party Candidate Votes
Republican Raymond C. Kalinowski (inc.) 5,787
Democratic Matthew L. Lesser 6,186
Connecticut 100th House District Election, 2010
Party Candidate Votes
Republican John Swewczyk 4,433
Democratic Matthew L. Lesser (inc.) 4,756
Connecticut 100th House District Election, 2012
Party Candidate Votes
Republican Deborah A. Kleckowksi 3,057
Democratic Matthew L. Lesser (inc.) 6, 677
Connecticut 100th House District Election, 2014
Party Candidate Votes
Democratic Matthew L. Lesser (inc.) 4,558
Republican Angel R. Fernandez 2,138
Working Families Matthew L. Lesser 537
Connecticut 100th House District Election, 2016 [30]
Party Candidate Votes %
Democratic Matthew L. Lesser (inc.) 6,417 62.61
Republican Anthony R.J. Moran 3,136 30.60
Working Families Matthew L. Lesser 696 6.79
Connecticut 9th Senate District Election, 2018[31]
Party Candidate Votes %
Democratic Matthew L. Lesser 22,724 54.22
Republican Ed Charamut 17,674 42.15
Working Families Matthew L. Lesser 1,519 3.62
gollark: I see.
gollark: If you're just calculating that based on life expectancy that might be wrong.
gollark: That would suggest that you should try and cause self-belief by rapidly exposing people to ridiculous amounts of incompetence somehow.
gollark: And something something Berkson's paradox.
gollark: I imagine that you end up selecting for similar-to-you-in-some-way/socially adept people.

References
  1. "About Senator Lesser". www.senatedems.ct.gov. Retrieved 2019-05-04.
  2. "Matthew Lesser". Ballotpedia. Retrieved 2019-05-04.
  3. "The CT Mirror » Political Guide". The CT Mirror. Retrieved 2019-05-04.
  4. "College Democrats Bring Young Voters to the Polls". Archived from the original on 2008-06-12. Retrieved 2008-06-15.
  5. "Biography: Matthew Lesser, Democrat for State Representative". Retrieved 2008-06-15.
  6. "Convention Updates". 2008-05-21. Retrieved 2008-06-15.
  7. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2011-01-05. Retrieved 2011-01-15.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  8. "Susan Bysiewicz at 100th House District Convention". 2008-05-21. Retrieved 2008-06-15.
  9. "Matt Lesser Nominated in 100th District". Retrieved 2008-06-15.
  10. "Candidate Cites His Experience". The Baltimore Sun. 2008-06-10. Retrieved 2008-06-19.
  11. "Stay With Ray". The Town Times. 2008-06-13. pp. 8 & 20. Archived from the original on 2008-06-21. Retrieved 2008-06-19.
  12. "Biography". 17 December 2015. Retrieved 26 January 2018.
  13. "State Representative Matthew Lesser". www2.housedems.ct.gov. Retrieved 26 January 2018.
  14. "No fracking in Connecticut, but what about its waste?". Retrieved 26 January 2018.
  15. "Middletown's state Rep. Matt Lesser considering bid for Connecticut secretary of state in 2018". Retrieved 26 January 2018.
  16. "Drew, Lesser named to Democratic Party leadership posts". Retrieved 26 January 2018.
  17. Staff, Press (2018-05-23). "Middletown state Rep. Lesser running for 9th District Senate". Connecticut Post. Retrieved 2019-05-27.
  18. Beals, Shawn R. "Matt Lesser Wins Democratic 9th Senate Primary". courant.com. Retrieved 2019-05-28.
  19. Foderaro, Lisa W. (2018-10-30). "Political Mailer Prompts Charges of Anti-Semitism". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-05-27.
  20. Rosenberg, Eli (October 31, 2018). "Republican mailer depicts a Jewish candidate gripping cash and grinning. The GOP is no longer defending it". Washington Post. Retrieved May 27, 2019.
  21. Beals, Shawn R. "Lesser Wins 9th Senate District In Race That Gained National Attention For Anti-Semitism Charges". courant.com. Retrieved 2019-05-04.
  22. Ramirez, Hector (2018-12-27). "Senator-Elect Matt Lesser appointed to Co-Chair of the Insurance and Real Estate Committee". WTNH. Retrieved 2019-05-04.
  23. Mazzocca, D'Ann (1998-02-26). "Connecticut General Assembly: Office of Legislative Research". Retrieved 2008-06-15.
  24. Keating, Christopher (2008-06-13). "Rell Vetoes Health Care Bill". The Hartford Courant. Retrieved 2008-06-15.
  25. Staff, Press (2019-05-03). "Connecticut lawmakers celebrate health care public option bill". The Middletown Press. Retrieved 2019-05-04.
  26. "Public option health insurance bills clear committee". The CT Mirror. 2019-03-19. Retrieved 2019-05-04.
  27. "Lesser, Scanlon, Looney, Aresimowicz Announce Legislation to Bring Public Option for Health Insurance to Connecticut". www.senatedems.ct.gov. Retrieved 2019-05-04.
  28. Matt Lesser [@MattLesser] (13 May 2019). "Anything Washington can do, CT can do better. But seriously, congrats. #CTPublicOption" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  29. "Washingtonians to get public option on state's health-insurance exchange". The Seattle Times. 2019-05-13. Retrieved 2019-05-14.
  30. "Connecticut 100th District State House Results: Matt Lesser Wins". The New York Times. 1 August 2017. Retrieved 4 December 2019.
  31. Beals, Shawn R. "Lesser Wins 9th Senate District In Race That Gained National Attention For Anti-Semitism Charges". courant.com. Retrieved 4 December 2019.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.