Incumbent Maria Horn seeks reelection

Maria Horn, a Democrat who is running for reelection as the state representative from the 64th state House District, has lived in Salisbury since 1994, full-time since 2008.

She is running against Republican Brian Ohler of North Canaan, who held the seat for one term before losing to Horn in the 2018 election.

“Most of my career has been in law, although I did work for J.P. Morgan first to help pay for law school ,” she said. She worked in a private legal practice and then as an assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York in the criminal division. She said she was there during the births of her first two children but left before the birth of the third.

“When I came up to Salisbury, I got involved with several nonprofits” including the boards of Women’s Support Services in Sharon and Indian Mountain School in Lakeville (both of which she chaired). She served on the Salisbury Board of Finance and helped with fundraising for the McCall Foundation (now the McCall Center for Behavioral Health).

Horn said that after the 2016 presidential election she decided to run for office. 

“State government felt more urgent and necessary than ever before” as a way to solve problems.

Of her term in the General Assembly, she said, “It feels both short and long.”

With her first term almost under her belt, Horn observed: “State government gets stuff done.

“Almost two-thirds of the legislation we passed in 2019 was overwhelmingly bipartisan, fewer than 20 people voted against it.”

In discussing the governor’s recent role and the Legislature’s shut down, she observed that, “The legislative process is cumbersome. It should be. Legislative debates are messy processes.”

She regrets not being able to campaign in person during the pandemic, in part because she enjoys the face-to-face conversations with constituents, even when they have different points of view.

“The political diversity in our district is healthy.  It means you have to engage with people who agree and disagree with you.”

Being able to see all the corners of an issue is something Horn feels is essential. For example, “I’m the vice chair of the appropriations committee. People get narrowed in on their issues, and you can’t be fiscally responsible if you don’t widen your vision and look at the whole picture. So I’m in the room for all the conversations. State governments have to balance their budgets; if you want to fund something, you have to see what allows you to do that.

“I feel like Connecticut has kicked the can down the road a lot, with pensions for example, and with Lamont we have looked at restructuring that so it’s sustainable.

“We have kept spending in line, so we have a robust rainy day fund, more than $3 billion.”

The economy isn’t the only thing that matters.

“There is work to be done on health care,” she noted, but “even in a pandemic we’ve made some steps, such as making telehealth more widely available” and curbing insulin prices. 

Horn is very concerned about internet and cell phone connectivity. 

“The governor has focused on the digital divide, which is present in both rural and urban areas, though for different reasons — but it all impacts the economic divide. And if we don’t address it, kids are going to get left behind.

“In our region so far 5G is not the answer and it draws a lot of concern. We need fiber optic cable, we need a more basic level of infrastructure.

“Our problem is we are underserved and sporadically served. So we are working to get a different definition of ‘absence of connectivity’ to get some federal help and to get some borrowing help from the state, in partnership with the providers.”

The  environment is one of her top priorities. “I saw the dismantling of protections on the federal level, and I wanted to be part of protecting our environment. It’s not just something that infuses the character of our community, it’s also an economic driver.”

Horn was alone among Northwest Corner legislators in voting for a police accountability bill this year.

“It was a tough bill, and the rhetoric from both sides was searing. I was not satisfied with the all-or-nothing approach of the original bill, so I was part of a group of legislators who sought, and found, a compromise solution on the most difficult part of the legislation: qualified immunity.”

While the bill reformed the concept of qualified immunity in cases of police misconduct, “no police officer will face additional financial liability.

“Instead it narrows the defense in a way, so that municipalities are now responsible for making sure they are watching and taking care of the police force and making sure they follow the rules.”

She said the bill will have little or no effect on the 64th District. “We have no record of these kinds of cases in our region and there’s no reason why they’re suddenly going to be an issue.”

When asked if she is considering running for a higher office in state or national politics, she said, “I want to be a state representative.” She is beginning to know her way around, which will help her to help her district. “A Legislature is a communal bond, you have to build relationships over time. You do that by being trustworthy and open to conversation and working and being a good colleague.

“In 2019, I focused on getting Connecticut’s fiscal house in order: being careful about spending, restructuring our pension obligations, and protecting the Rainy Day Fund — while shoring up the state as a bulwark against the rollback of federal laws and regulations, especially on the environment and healthcare. 

“I looked forward to continuing that in 2020, but instead we ran headlong into the COVID pandemic, the killing of George Floyd, Isaias, and our world completely shifted.  

“The Legislature shut down, but my job continued full-time with constituent service. I no longer had to do that long drive into Hartford, but I put in the miles in the district, meeting people in person and over Zoom daily to connect services with the need on the ground.  

“I have learned that common ground is not something you ‘find’ — it’s something you create, with hard work, the ability to listen to diverse views, a focus on details and creativity. The police accountability bill is one example of that, but it’s an approach that applies across the board, for our fiscal, environmental, and economic health. 

“I hope we can continue to accomplish things that are important to people who live here, and I hope to stick around.”