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10/13/2020 01:30 PMDemocrat Christine Cohen is the incumbent representative of the 12th State Senate District, representing six towns along the shoreline. A former Guilford Board of Education member and a Madison business owner, Cohen took the senate position in a special election in 2018, following the retirement of Ted Kennedy, Jr. She currently chairs the senate Environment Committee and co-chairs the bipartisan Coastal Caucus, which she also created.
This election, Cohen is facing a challenge from Republican Joe LaPorta and, as the pandemic and related issues upend voter’s priorities, Cohen said she is hoping to continue representing the 12th District with empathy and passion as a “moderate, bipartisan, research-driven legislator.”
Health Care
One of the issues that is often at the forefront of voter’s minds, but has taken an outsized importance during the current health crisis, is health care. Cohen introduced a bill in 2019 that would have given “small employers and their employees” the option of participating in the state’s health care plan—a so-called public option. Though that bill failed in the face of opposition by insurance lobbyists, Cohen said she believes that now more than ever, legislators need to fight for common-sense health care reforms.
“This is a breaking point for folks. We need to do something,” Cohen said. “[People are] foregoing healthcare and putting off important procedures because [people] haven’t yet met their deductibles...I really would like to get back there and fight for good health care.”
She cited her own experience with her business, where she said she was being asked to pay a $16,000 deductible and $1,600 monthly premiums for a private health care plan. Cohen said that though many health care bills failed to get much traction in year’s past, there has been “good progress” in recent months in the legislature.
“I think we can get it over the finish line...I think that public option is really key,” she said.
The Environment
On the Environment Committee, Cohen said she saw one of her big roles as working toward equity as far as the unequal distribution of the effects of climate change and pollution, citing a bill passed early this month that gives lower-income communities more say and more oversight of developments that cause pollution.
Cohen described the “inextricable link” that shows more people of color are affected by the physical, mental, and communal effects of environmental pollution and decay, citing the numerous studies that have shown non-White people bear the brunt of these ill-effects, even when controlling for poverty and other factors.
“We need to recognize that and do what we can as a state to prevent these unfair practices from occurring,” she said. “And frankly, we don’t want more polluting facilities in the state anyway.”
Regionalization
Another area of legislation that has sparked discussions and controversy is regionalization efforts. Cohen said she would not support “forced regionalization” of any kind, something that has been discussed in recent years by the state, and said decisions, particularly in the realm of schools, should come from local leaders.
“I think we need to be having a discussion about regionalization,” Cohen said. “I’m charged with representing the 12th District, where a lot of schools are regionalized already.”
Killingworth and Durham participate in regional school districts.
Police Accountability
One of the most controversial issues not directly related to the pandemic is the police accountability bill, which Cohen voted to approve. In the wake of police killings of Black people in the state and around the country, Connecticut passed a series of reforms that added more oversight to police departments and made changes to qualified immunity, which protects officers from legal liability if they violate people’s constitutional or statutory rights.
Officers who have while on duty killed Black people in the state in recent years, such as State Trooper Brian North, who shot and killed 19 year-old Mubarack Soulemane this year, and Bridgeport officer James Boulay, who killed 15 year-old Jayson Negron in 2017, have not been fired or charged with crimes.
Many police officers and their advocates have contended that new restrictions and oversights will make it difficult to effectively carry out their duties, putting more people at risk and hampering recruitment.
Cohen, who last month participated in a special use of force training for lawmakers hosted by Madison Police Chief Jack Drumm, said the goal is to “bring everybody to the table and really understand what’s going on.”
“When we do all come to the table, and [police are] telling us, ‘When we’re faced with this, so perhaps this approach won’t work for us,’ or whatever the scenario might be, it provides greater insight and understanding as we move forward,” Cohen said.
Among reforms that were discussed but not passed in the police accountability bill were a full removal of qualified immunity and powers to de-certify police officers found guilty of misconduct.
Cohen said that she had not been willing to support any bill that included a total revocation of qualified immunity; the law that passed now holds officers liable if a court finds they acted “willfully, wantonly, and recklessly.”
On other restrictions, she said that going forward she would have to “really have a discussion and bring together” various groups before she could make a decision on these issues, saying specifically she wanted law enforcement experts to weigh in.
The Budget
Economically, with both long and short-term effects of the pandemic still ravaging state and local businesses, Cohen said she would support continuing government programs such as bridge loans and rental assistance even as the state begins to re-open.
“I feel like we need to be out there talking to small businesses, different sectors have varying needs and we need to be addressing them each individually,” Cohen said.
Cohen said she supported Governor Ned Lamont’s decision to tap the state’s $3 billion rainy day fund as it faces down a deficit, and ensure that these programs continue even as the state faces a historic deficit.
Federal assistance is something for which Connecticut business owners should be “hopeful,” despite the uncertainty in the stimulus negotiations in Washington D.C. Cohen said she has been in “constant communication” with federal representatives to make sure 12th District businesses receive the most up-to-date information in those developments.
But programs enacted early on, including a bridge loan program and a deferral of state sales tax payments, were not enough, according to Cohen, and the goal now is not to cut people off who are still struggling, but instead find “creative” ways to make limited government funds work as effectively as possible.
“These businesses that I’m meeting with today are thinking, ‘What next for us?’ That money’s gone...where do we go from here? That’s a good question,” Cohen said. “That’s my mission, going out and talking to businesses, hearing from them [about] what do [they] need most.”