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Compassion, Humility, and Energy

One can to get to know a man when sharing a few treads of fiberglass deck on a bobbing little boat while fishing for tuna in five-foot swells 14 miles off the northern tip of Cape Cod. That was October 2017. However, I first met “JMP” [state representative candidate John-Michael Parker] 20 years earlier and have come to know him fairly well.

I can’t think of another person who possesses the immense richness and vibrancy of character, intelligence, intuitiveness, and kindness that JMP exudes. What he lacks in government experience, he makes up in genuine compassion, humility, and energy. He will listen to everyone in this district and bring those voices to the capitol. Are these not the virtues we seek in our elected officials? JMP is a rock star now, and his star will surely brighten over time.

I wish to stay in Madison, but we need change. We know the stories: neighbor’s homes sitting unsold, seniors and graduates fleeing—the latter returning only for life’s passages, not to work or start a family. We have zero job growth (outside the service sector) and zero wage growth. We live in a tiny economic bubble. There are just no reasons to be here, thanks to mismanagement in Hartford. As our census declines, we all decline, and our little hamlets of Madison and Durham may fade.

We need to give JMP the opportunity to land that tuna! And if that fish tugs and gnaws at his line without the hook being set, JMP will have that line back out there fast. He is a relentless angler, and won’t let the next one get away. That’s how he’ll work in Hartford.

Let’s not let JMP get away.

Christopher Bracken

Madison