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State Representative Sean Scanlon to Seek Third Term

State Representative Sean Scanlon (D-98), serving Guilford and Branford, has announced his intention to seek a third term in November 2018.

Scanlon was first elected in 2014, taking over the seat from longtime Democratic representative Pat Widlitz. As one of the younger members of the General Assembly, Scanlon made the opioid crisis an early focus and he recently becoming chair of the Insurance and Real Estate Committee. Scanlon said while there are a lot of challenges to being in government, this is a job he wants to keep.

“There is nothing I’d rather be doing with my life right now than working to make our community a better place,” he said. “Despite all of the difficulties that we face in the state, I really do love this job.”

Looking back on his time in office, Scanlon said he is proud of the work he has done to combat the opioid crisis and his efforts to stop cuts in state aid to Guilford and Branford.

“The last two years in a row the various budget proposals have shown us getting completely wiped out with state funding,” he said. “I have heard loud and clear in office hours and in calls and emails from constituents that that would have been a disaster. So I’m really proud of the fact that I was able to work really hard to reverse those cuts and, despite the really bad budget environment that we’re in right now, to by and large protect our community from drastic cuts. Obviously I will do everything in my power to continue doing that in the future.”

Regarding the budget, Scanlon said he’s pleased to have been a part of a bipartisan effort that finally brought an end to the budget standoff last October.

“I think that sends a very strong signal to the people of Connecticut and especially our business community that we are going to put aside politics and partisanship in favor of doing the right thing and getting Connecticut on a better footing,” he said. “I hope that going into this session—even though it is an election year—that we will continue working together in a collaborative matter when it comes to the state budget.”

In this election cycle, Connecticut residents will have the opportunity to elect a new governor. Governor Dannel P. Malloy (D) announced he will not seek another term, an announcement that set off a flurry of activity and speculation as to who would be the Democratic front-runner to try and succeed him. When conversations started around the possibility of current comptroller and Guilford resident Kevin Lembo running for governor, Scanlon’s name was discussed as a possible candidate for comptroller. However, Scanlon said he looking forward to running for his current seat again in November.

“When all that sort of movement was going on, the party leadership had sort of encouraged me to take a look at running for a different office and obviously I was flattered by that, but I am committed to running again and serving the people of Guilford and Branford,” he said. “Hopefully they will see fit to re-elect me and allow me to continue doing this job for them.”

If re-elected, Scanlon said there are several issues he wants to work on, but specifically two issues he plans to introduce in the coming session in regard to the cost of health care. Scanlon said he wants to use his platform as chairman of the Insurance and Real Estate Committee to help his constituents with this issue.

“The second most common thing I hear from people after how expensive their insurance is, how expensive drugs are,” he said. “I learned a lot about the prescription drug industry working on the opioid issue and I want to come at it from another angle, which is that for a lot of people in our society, they rely on taking drugs to stay healthy and the cost of these drugs going up and up is leading to the cost of insurance going up and up. The two things are very much intertwined and...I’m going to file legislation the next two weeks about both of these topics.”