Hynes2012
This section is for blog posts related to my 2012 run for State Representative in the 114th Assembly District of Connecticut.
No Taxation without Representation
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sun, 07/08/2012 - 09:02As the Fourth of July celebrates wind down and we return to our regularly scheduled summer activities, I thought it would be useful to reflect on how the two should be related. One of the great slogans of the American Revolution was "No taxation without representation". While everyone wants their taxes to be as low as reasonable and taxes is always an issue in campaigns, I want to focus for a moment on the final words of the phrase, representation.
I am running to represent the people of Woodbridge, Orange and Derby in Hartford. To do this, I need to spend time getting to speak with and know as many of the people as possible. The fireworks in Orange provided a great opportunity to do this. As I walked around the crowd, I asked people where they were from to see if they would be in the 114th Assembly District. Orange is now split into parts of three different districts, so I asked people from Orange if they knew who their State Representative was. Many did not.
I had heard, years ago that as many as 80% of people don't know who their State Representative is, a disappointing number I found hard to believe. Yet as I talked to the people at the fireworks, it seemed that this may be accurate.
We have people represent us in our local government, up in Hartford, and down in Washington because most people are too busy with their daily lives to be fully involved with legislative processes. A representative democracy is a good way of governing, but to work well, we should at least get to know our representatives and share our thoughts with them.
At a minimum, we need to get out and vote, yet turnout in elections is horribly low. What we really should be doing is meeting those that wish to represent us at campaign events and town committee meetings. As part of my campaign, I've spoken at town committee meetings in Woodbridge, Orange and Derby. I've gone to campaign events for Rosa DeLauro and Chris Murphy. I hope many of you will consider doing the same. The next Woodbridge Democratic Town Committee meeting is Monday at 7 PM at the Senior Center in Woodbridge. It would be great to see more people attend.
As we look at the Revolutionary war slogan of "No taxation without representation" and seek ways to achieve the most reasonable tax rates, let us not forget the other side of the quote. Let's work together to make sure that we elect officials who will represent all of us.
Group Dynamics of Electoral Campaigning
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Wed, 07/04/2012 - 06:55Here is another one of my longer blog posts thinking about what it means to run for office. It has also been submitted to the Bethwood Patch.
Recently, I wrote a blog post about being a participant observer in electoral politics. I'm running for State Representative in the 114th Assembly District in Connecticut, which includes all of Woodbridge, much of Orange, and the eastern side of Derby. Since that blog post, I've been very busy with tactical aspects of my campaign and haven't been writing as much as I would like.
This morning, I'm taking a few minutes to reflect on an aspect of running for elected office that I haven't found a lot written about, group dynamics.
I've had a long interest in group dynamics, especially as it relates to online communities and to group psychotherapy. It's a topic I've studied for over a decade and I'm a member of a mailing list of group psychotherapists.
So, let's try to look at this from a group perspective. I'm a member of a very large, non cohesive group. It is made up of about 15,000 members. It is the registered voters in the 114th assembly district. Like any large group, there are interesting subgroups to look at. There are the registered Democrats, the registered Republicans, the unaffiliated voters, and those that are registered with less known political parties.
There is the group of people who vote in primaries, the group of people who vote in municipal elections, the group of people who vote only in presidential elections, and the group of people who don't get out and vote at all.
I have chosen, perhaps because of some valence, to take up the role of candidate. For my friends with a group relations bent based, I am perhaps engaged in what Wilfred Bion would refer to as Basic Assumption - Pairing. My opponent and I are engaged in a discourse representing different views of how our community should move forward. The rest of the group watches, perhaps adding comments here or there, and hoping that the person whose views most closely match theirs prevails. We are seeing this dynamic intensify in U.S. politics as politics becomes more and more polarized.
The subgroup of those who are politically active and are hoping my views will prevail show a wide range of reactions. Some have contributed the maximum amount of money permissible to my campaign. With the Citizens Election Program in Connecticut, that is $100. They have spent time helping me get my message out. They express frustration that I have not been raising enough money, that I have not been contacting enough voters, or that I have not stayed closely enough to my message. They have high hopes for my campaign, and nothing will be enough to satisfy them until I get elected. Others, who are politically active and that I've hoped would be more involved in the campaign have resisted my requests for assistance and have expressed frustration at my repeated requests.
My job, assuming I get elected, will be to represent all of the people in the district. Not just those who share my views, or not just those that hold specific expectations of me.
At times, I hold the frustrations of my most ardent supporters, the weariness of my least enthused supporters, and I try to maintain the participant observer role in such a way that I might transform local politics.
How do we move away from basic assumption - pairing thinking, while at the same time holding fast to our hopes and dreams? How do we find common ground while seeking to differentiate ourselves from our opponents? How do we keep campaigning at peek performance without burning out?
These are the questions I struggle with as I campaign. Part of my stump speech is, don't vote for me because I have all the answers, parroted from party leaders or talking heads on cable television. Vote for me because I'll ask the tough questions. How do we understand the group dynamics of electoral politics and shift them to more of a working group behavior is just one of those difficult questions.
Legislative Acts Affecting Seniors - More Information
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sat, 06/23/2012 - 22:13The following is the latest blog post I've submitted to the Bethwood Patch.
Earlier this month, the State Representative from the 114th Assembly District, which includes Woodbridge, shared a blog post on the Bethwood Patch about 'Legislative Acts Affecting Seniors'. I am running against her in the November election and I applauded her blog post. My campaign is about getting people more informed and more involved in their communities, including in what is happening up in Hartford.
In this light, I would like to expand upon her blog post. She mentioned three bills, but did not mention the bill numbers or how to get more information about them. I did a little research at the Connecticut General Assembly website, and believe I know more about these bills now.
The first bill mentioned was an Elderly Rental Rebate Program. I believe this was S.B. 105, AN ACT CONCERNING THE RENTAL REBATE APPLICATION PERIOD.
It was introduced by the Planning and Development committee, where no one voted against the bill. It had 11 co-sponsors, including Sen. Joe Crisco from Woodbridge. There was a public hearing on the bill in February, where the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities and the Director of Elder Services for the City of New Haven expressed support for the bill. There was no opposition voiced.
The bill moved to the Appropriations committee where Rep Pat Dillon from New Haven moved the bill and Sen. Bob Duff from Norwalk seconded the motion. Like with the Planning and Development committee, the bill passed this committee with no opposition. My opponent sits on the appropriations committee, and with 51 other legislators, voted to support the bill.
The bill was voted on in the Senate with a roll call vote, and all thirty-six State Senators voted in favor of the bill. The CGA website does not list a vote tally for the House, so I assume it passed by unanimous consent.
The second bill listed, appears to be S.B. 138, AN ACT ESTABLISHING A TASK FORCE TO STUDY "AGING IN PLACE". This bill was introduced by the Aging Committee. It had 17 co-sponsors, including Sen. Joe Crisco from Woodbridge. The bill was moved by Rep. John Frey of Ridgefield and seconded by Senator Edith Prague of Columbia. Like the first bill, this bill cleared its committee unanimously. Several people testified in favor of the bill and there was no opposition.
Sen. Prague offered a minor amendment to the bill and it passed both chambers without any opposition.
The third bill appears to be S.B. 139, AN ACT CONCERNING NOTIFICATION OF FINANCIAL STABILITY OF NURSING HOME FACILITIES AND MANAGED RESIDENTIAL COMMUNITIES TO PATIENTS AND RESIDENTS.
It also was introduced by the Aging committee. Again, Sen. Joe Crisco from Woodbridge was one of the co-sponsors. This bill had 16 co-sponsors. Another of the co-sponsors was Sen. Gayle Slossberg from Milford. With redistricting, Sen. Slossberg's district now includes a southern portion of Woodbridge. Like the previous bill, this bill also passed Aging with no opposition. It went to the Public Health Committee where it passed with no opposition. It then went on to pass both chambers with no opposition.
I applaud the important work that the State Legislature did in passing these bills, and especially Sen. Crisco and Sen. Slossberg in being co-sponsors of these bills. I hope I will get an opportunity to serve with Sen. Crisco and Sen. Slossberg in co-sponsoring bills that helps our state better serve it's senior citizens.
The Evolving Political Observer Participant
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Wed, 06/20/2012 - 17:49When you become a candidate for public office you essentially grant everyone a license to tell you how you should act and what you should believe. I have certainly gotten my share of recommendations since I became the Democratic candidate for State Representative in the 114th Assembly District in Connecticut. People have suggested positions on policies, strategies for connecting with voters, even going so far as to give recommendations about what I should eat and what I should wear.
Most of these recommendations have been transactional instead of transformational, and I pay attention to them. But I'm more interested in the bigger, transformational questions. Becoming a candidate for public office changes the way people interact with you, and that changes you. They express hopes and desires about the sort of representative you'll be. I was also invited to be a member of the Connecticut Health Foundation's Health Leaders Fellowship Program. This is about changing as well. I write all of this as I sit in an airport terminal on my way to a conference I'm scheduled to speak at.
I've spoken at conferences before, but usually, it is at a conference that I wanted to attend, and sought to be a speaker. This time, the conference organizers invited me to come speak before I even knew about the conference.
In all of these, I hope I will live up to expectations. Having expectations to live up to can be a very powerful motivator for positive change. Yet there is something scary about change, particularly if you already like who you are, and voters seem not to like changes. They like to know what they are getting and eschew 'flip-floppers'.
It seems as if having clear sense of underlying beliefs enables people to change, to grow, and yet remain true to themselves. It is with this in mind, that I join the political fray as an observer participant. I'm interested in participating in this political process, as well as the other growth opportunities being presented to me. At the same time, I look forward to observing all of this, analyzing it, and writing about it.
Perhaps I can discover what it means to be a philosophical ethnographist State Representative, acting as an evolving political observer participant.
Discovering Derby
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sat, 06/16/2012 - 08:21Though I live in Woodbridge, Derby too often has been a city to drive through on my way to Beardsley's Cider Mill or Jones Farms. I've stopped from time to time at the Home Depot in Derby, but a Home Depot looks like a Home Depot just about anywhere. Yet now that I'm running for State Representative in a district that includes some of Derby, I really need to get to know the city a little bit better.
I must admit, it feels strange to call Derby a city. In terms of municipal organization, it's a city, but it is Connecticut's smallest city and has the feeling of a small town. Back in 2000, Derby was an "All-America City" winner. When I was younger, I lived in Williamstown, Mass, which is right next to North Adams which was an "All-America City" winner in my youth.
With this, my trip into Derby on Thursday felt very familiar. I stopped to speak at the Derby Democratic Town Committee in the basement of the Elks Lodge. Afterwards, I went up stairs and had a drink with some of the town committee members. They talked about the JC Penney that used to be in Derby and the Rambler dealership. Hopefully, I remember the places properly.
One of the key things we were talking about was when people used to shop where they lived. I remember going to stores when I was a kid, where you knew the owner of the store. The store owners knew that if they treated people poorly, they wouldn't hear the end of it, whether it be at church, at Little League, at the Memorial Day parade, or some event at the school.
In my youth up in Massachusetts, I used to go to local grocers like McNichol's and Eddie's Market. Those stores are gone, like their counterparts around the country are gone. I miss them. But it isn't enough to be nostalgic for an old grocery store that is now gone. Instead, we need to be working together to find ways to bring small locally owned businesses back. We need to highlight and promote our local businesses.
I don't know the businesses in Derby very well yet, but it is something I look forward to doing. I'll start off with the visit to Derby Day today. It looks like it should be a good day, and I hope a lot of people will turn out. I hope I'll get to meet a lot of folks from Derby and find out about the hidden gems that we should be telling friends about. Join me in discovering Derby.
