On Friday, April 24, the Yale College Democrats traveled to Hartford to lobby the legislature in support of HB 6600, a bill that would establish the SustiNet universal health care system in Connecticut.
The Dems first heard from Lynne Ide, the healthcare4every1 campaign manager, and Kevin Lembo, the Head of Connecticut’s Office of the Healthcare Advocate. They both spoke about the importance of fighting for universal health care, right now, in our own state. Next, state Reps. Gary Holder-Winfield and Elizabeth Esty. They talked more specifically about how we can be effective advocates for SustiNet when we meet with legislators. Finally, Speaker of the House Chris Donovan expressed his support for health care reform and gave us words of encouragement.
After the event, students fanned out across the state house to meet with legislators and distribute literature to aides. Directly and via aides, we contacted over one hundred representatives and senators, including state representatives Martin Looney, Gary Holder- Winfield, David McCluskey, Elizabeth Esty, Brendan Sharkey, Mae Flexer, Toni Walker, and state senators Gary LeBeau, Andrew Roraback, and Andrew McDonald.
Joining us at the capitol were members of the Yale Public Health Coalition and the American Medical Student Association, to whom we are grateful for their participation.
On Friday, April 17, 470 ward 1 residents cast ballots in the Democratic aldermanic endorsement vote. Mike Jones received 233 votes (49.2 %), beating Katie Harrison and Minh Tran, who received 176 votes (36.9 %) and 61 votes (12.8%) respectively.
Following the announcement of the results, the Ward 1 Democratic Committee officially endorsed Mike for the aldermanic seat, which was followed by the Yale College Democrats automatic endorsement.
This marks the first time that the early aldermanic endorsement vote has occured, since in 2007 Rachel Plattus was had no opponent and thus no election was held. It has been very exciting to see so many Yale students get involved in campaigns and learn about the issues that affect New Haven and Yale alike. We congratulate Katie and Minh on their hard-fought campaigns, and hope that they continue to work on the issues they care about that affect us all.
Last Saturday’s homelessness rally was a big success, bring over 80 people to City Hall on Saturday morning despite the weather and the early hour, and attracting coverage from a variety of news sources.
The rally kicked off with Ben Stango, the lobbying coordinator of the Dems, getting the crowd excited about supportive housing. Then we heard from state Rep. Ken Green, the sponsor of HB 5071 (the supportive housing bill), who urged us to contact our state legislators about it. The mayor and state Rep. Holder-Winfield then spoke about why this is such an important issue. Finally, the coordinators of ShelterNow disucssed their work, and the Dukesmen sang us a few songs to go out on a light note.
The Dems/ShelterNow homelessness rally that will happen Saturday is already getting some press. If you care about taking steps to truly end homelessness, join us Saturday at 10:45 am on the New Haven Green (or the Aldermanic Chamber in City Hall if it rains) to hear the mayor and state legislators talk about H.B. 5071, the supportive housing bill.
These past 2 Mondays, 2 of the 3 candidates for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination spoke with the Dems about their visions for Connecticut. (It should be noted that Dan Malloy has not technically declared his candidacy but rather has formed an exploratory committee, whereas Jim Amann has declared and formed a candidate committee).
On March 30, former Speaker of the Connecticut House of Representatives Jim Amann sat down with Dems members to discuss his candidacy. Mr. Amann spoke about Governor Rell’s unwillingness to work with the legislature and his own experience in state government. On April 6, Mayor of Stamford Dan Malloy talked about his acheivements in his 4 terms as mayor and how he hopes to take on Governor Rell if he wins the nomination.
As part of the Democratic Party, the Yale College Democrats do not endorse in primaries. Nevertheless these were great opportunities to hear from Democratic leaders in Connecticut, and to get a preview of what should prove to be an exciting (if long) gubernatorial primary and general election.
Much has been written about the aldermanic race since Yale returned from break. With the election 2 weeks from today (and the registration deadline 1 week from today), it’s coming down to the wire for the campaigns. Here’s the recent reporting and editorializing on the race:
On Monday, March 26, the Dems hosted the first ward 1 aldermanic debate. More than 70 people showed up at the JE Theater to hear the candidates discuss the issues important to ward 1. The YDN liveblogged the event, and covered it in Tuesday’s paper.
Additionally, our new Elections Committee has written up an issues guide for this election, which provides some great background for those not familiar with local politics. You can get a quick summary by reading the 1-page guide, or go more in depth by reading the longer version.
Video of the debate is available courtesy of the Katie Harrison campaign. Photos from the event are over at Picasa:
For those who want to learn more about the race, here’s a review of the recent press coverage and editorials relating to the ward 1 aldermanic race. Herald articles are not posted to that paper’s unfortunate lack of a working website.
If I left out any articles I did so unintentionally. Please email me with any corrections. Also, the candidates’ websites can be found at my earlier post.
UPDATE: I just added a few articles that I had missed when I posted this.
Yale College might be on spring recess, but the Dems web team never goes on break. Over these 2 weeks we’ll be posting various materials and links that will help the reader stay informed about the issues and elections we care about.
To start off, today I point to President Obama’s health care reform website, healthreform.gov. This site contains the President’s report on the state of our health care system, and will have more content as a federal overhaul of the system begins. Those of us who are working on this issue on a state level are thrilled by the President’s dedication to this pressing issue.
Stay tuned for further updates, including the public release of our lobbying issue guides and a survey of press coverage of the ward 1 aldermanic race.
On Monday, March 2, the Dems hosted a panel on the current state our health care in Connecticut and on the national level. Demonstrating their dedication to fixing our broken system, over 60 Yalies turned out on that snowy evening to hear Monday, February 23. The panelists were Paul Wessel, Field Director for Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut, and Howard Forman, M.D., a health services researcher focusing on diagnostic radiology, health policy, and healthcare leadership.
The panel gave helpful insight into the problems with the American health care system and what can and may be done this legislative cycle to fix it. Photos from the event are over at Picasa.
