Environment
It was environmental advocacy that first stimulated my interest in politics. As a teenager, I volunteered to clean up our Connecticut River riverfront, thinking that it was such a shame that our government didn’t do more to prevent that type of pollution. I have carried that belief into government. My first real political battle was over an environmental issue. As a 24-year-old member of my local Planning and Zoning Commission, I became involved in a local movement to oppose the placement of a giant power plant on fragile wetlands. The system, it seemed, was broken. Local residents and town governments were not being given the authority needed to ensure that their precious natural resources would be preserved.
My neighbors and I called on our State Representative to assist us in our fight, but he failed us. So, I decided to run for the General Assembly myself. I challenged that State Representative, and when I won, the first bill I introduced was legislation empowering local governments in protecting delicate wetlands against power plant development.
