Matt Lesser

Matt Lesser is an American politician, member of the Democratic party. He is a current member of the Connecticut House of Representatives representing Connecticut's 100th district in the General Assembly. The district is made up of parts of Middletown. Lesser was first elected in 2008 and re-elected in 2010, 2012, and 2014.

Lesser serves as House Chairman of the Banking Committee. He also sits on the Appropriations and Government and Elections Committees.

Lesser has worked on behalf of Senators Chris Dodd and Barack Obama and the Democratic National Committee and interned at the Brookings Institution Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy.

Early career

In 2006, Lesser, as a full-time student at Wesleyan University and President of the College Democrats of Connecticut, organized the largest student voter mobilization drive in the country. He hired staff and organized students across the state, increasing voter turnout by nearly 700% at the University of Connecticut.^[1]

In 2007, Lesser was elected as Chairman to Middletown's Planning and Zoning Commission with a platform of preserving open space.^[2]

House election

On May 20, 2008, Matt Lesser, then a student at Wesleyan University, was selected to run as the second youngest candidate for State Representative at the Democratic 100th District Convention.^[3][4] Lesser received the endorsement of then Connecticut Secretary of State Susan Bysiewicz, who once held the 100th District State representative seat.^[5] Lesser also received support from State Senator Tom Gaffey and Middletown DTC Chairman Dan Russo.^[6] Lesser defeated 3-term incumbent Ray Kalinowski, a veteran, retired federal agent, former first selectman, and member of the state legislature for six years, who claimed "The only way to get 10 years of experience is to work for 10 years." ^[7][8]

Political positions

Lesser has stated that he plans to shift the burden of education from the taxpayers to the state, as the state legislature had already agreed to pay for 50% of the costs of education. However, this is a contested claim since the supposed state “promise” of 50% funding comes from a 1979 report of the Connecticut State Board of Education (SBE) and the Connecticut School Finance Advisory Panel called A Plan for Promoting Equal Educational Opportunity in Connecticut and is viewed as outdated and misinterpreted by opponents.^[9]

In order to lower the cost of education further, Lesser has supported a controversial "pooling" bill that would have allowed municipalities, small businesses and nonprofit organizations to join the state's health insurance plan until it was vetoed by Governor M. Jodi Rell on June 13.^[10] Lesser has also called for switching schools over to renewable alternative sources of energy and for funding of the PILOT and ECS programs to lower education costs further still.

References

External links

• Lesser's Official Website