The honor of winning the Republican Party Endorsement

Tonight I had the privilige of winning the Simsbury Republican Party’s endorsement for State Representative for the 16th District.  Moira Wertheimer nominated me and Kevin North and Bob Hensley seconded my nomination.

Here are excerpts from my acceptance speech: 

“… I am running on three messages – 

Simple Math – spend no more than you make 

Balance in our State Legislature – we need to end the days of one party rule 

And a Strong Voice for our Local Business – small businesses are the ones who support our community and are the job creators, not government. 

Small business is not a “special interest”.  Small business represents your friends, neighbors, our coaches and teachers.  They own our grocery stores, our gift shops and restaurants. Our local businesses are the first ones our community groups go to support our local causes, to help reach their fundraising goals, to support dreams like Paw Meadow Park, to provide recycling at events, to buy an ad in a Little League booklet or community theater program.  They honor our Veterans by providing the funding to hang flags along Hopmeadow Street or support Social Services and programs at the Senior Center.  They support Simsbury Celebrates, Septemberfest and the Home Show. 

Our local business is the backbone of our community.  They hire our children, share in the burden of taxes, volunteer to clean up the river and attend our local events.  They unfailingly support our schools, churches and synagogues. If this is a “special interest”, I will be proud to fight for our Simsbury businesses at the State Legislature.  We have over regulated, over mandated and over taxed our businesses enough.

 Years of overspending, bloated government and budget gimmicks have created enduring budget deficits. Every time it’s the Connecticut taxpayer and small business owner that are forced to bail out government. There needs to be a cultural change in Hartford. It’s time to stop out of control spending…

…I am dismayed that our legislature thought that raising our minimum wage now was a good idea.

 Whether you agreed or not with the death penalty or medical marijuana, now was not the time to debate the issue – we should have been figuring out ways to bring our out of control budget back in line.  

Despite the largest tax increase in the State’s history, this year’s budget has a deficit of $284 million dollars. 

 This makes me mad and this is why I stand before you today.  I am not a career politician – I’ve been working my entire life.  I pay my taxes, I contribute to my community and I balance my own budget.   I deserve better from my State government. 

I cannot do this alone – I don’t care how good my walking shoes are or how many events I attend – I need all of you to be ambassadors for the change we need to make…