New Haven Register: Secretary of the state candidate wants people to ‘engage the system’ <read>
“I would like to transform the Connecticut climate to be one where businesses chose to come. I’m tired of seeing people frustrated because they can’t find a decent job. I’m tired of seeing my friends move out of state,” said Garcia, who graduated from the Yale’s School of Management, and worked at the now-bankrupt Lehman Brothers in New York, before returning to New Haven to start his own business.
A graduate of New Haven public schools, Garcia was a city alderman from 1996 to 2001, where among other things, he co-sponsored the state’s first living-wage legislation, which was adopted in 1997.
“Voter equity and jobs you can build a family around are things that are values of mine,” Garcia said. He said he was inspired to get back into politics by Barack Obama and his nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court.
He is vetting a lot of ideas on how to increase voter turnout in the state, particularly around early voting.
“We think too often that the way things are in Connecticut are the ways things are everywhere, but the truth is there are plenty of other states that have more progressive ways of doing it,” Garcia said.
He said obstacles to voting affect a cross-section of residents from single parents, who may be choosing between an hourly wage and time to vote, to senior citizens, to people who are sick and Fairfield County commuters, who leave the state early and return late.
Garcia is looking at solutions that might leverage the statewide voter registry and use of driver’s licenses, which could allow greater flexibility about where people cast their ballots.
“I’m running to give voice and to inspire people to engage the system, to come out to vote because I believe that when more Democrats vote, we get better Democrats elected,” he said.
