Candidate Brian Ohler seeks state rep seat

Brian Ohler, the Republican candidate for the state House of Representatives in the 64th District, is a lifelong , fifth-generation resident of North Canaan.

He won the 64th District seat in the 2016 election, and lost to Maria Horn (D-64) in 2018.

Ohler attended Oliver Wolcott Technical School in Torrington for high school, and served as an Army military policeman from 2001-13, with two tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan. He received three Purple Hearts during his service.

Ohler said that after being wounded “there were a lot of limitations placed on me” that made it hard for him to fully serve. After receiving an honorable discharge, he came home to North Canaan.

He earned an associate’s degree in Criminal Justice from Northwestern Connecticut Community College in Winsted; a B.S. in Homeland Security and Emergency Management from the University of New Haven; and will complete a master’s degree in public administration at Sacred Heart University in 2021.

“When I came home I saw a lot of my friends and the younger generation were moving away as fast as they could from Connecticut,” he recalled. “I was interested in trying to understand why they were leaving.”

He said people told him it was too expensive to live and do business in the state (and the district).

“The financial burden on farms and businesses compounded year after year, and I wanted to find solutions to stop that.

“So I got involved in politics.”

Ohler first ran for state representative against Democrat Roberta Willis in 2014, and lost.

Then he joined North Canaan’s Board of Finance. 

“That was a great spot to begin my political career,” he said, adding that, “I realized a lot of our problems were starting in Hartford.” 

So he ran again in 2016, after Willis retired, and served one term before losing to Horn in 2018.

He was on the appropriations, human services and public safety committees.

“I loved it,” he said. The hours were long, but “I never wavered.”

When he began his term in 2017, “they had just passed the two largest tax increases in our history.” 

He said those tax increases were supposed to reduce the state’s budget deficit and fund pension obligations, but state spending increased.

He said it was unfair for politicians to raise taxes “as a way to do good” and then increase state spending. 

“All that additional revenue collected from taxpayers is going to new spending. So we’re always in a perpetual debt cycle we can’t seem to get out of.”

Ohler said he took pride in the level of constituent service he provided during his term in the General Assembly.

He found that public assistance programs are poorly managed, with redundant line items in budgets — and that costs money the state can ill afford. “We need someone on the appropriations committee who understands each line item.”

Currently Ohler is the associate director of safety and engineering for Charlotte Hungerford Hospital in Torrington and for the northwest region of Hartford Healthcare.

“I oversee public safety, emergency management, telecommunications and small projects.” 

He said he enjoys the job. “I’ve always been in public safety” as a volunteer firefighter and EMT. 

Even though he is out of the state Legislature, people still ask him for help. 

“People still text me and message me daily for help with unemployment, safety, business issues, law enforcement. 

“I  never say no to people; they know I’m there to help.”

Regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, Ohler said the state is in a phased recovery process, “but the cycle of emergency management is coming back to prevention.

“So I am very focused on maintaining our schools and making sure we are able to educate and protect our children, trying to find a balance for our businesses. 

“We have lost a lot of business and a lot of jobs to COVID-19.”

He said local businesses are just trying to survive.

Helping those businesses means ensuring that “the state runs efficiently” when dealing with unemployment claims, business funding assistance and other aid. 

Regarding the recent furor over power outages, Ohler said Eversource has been “atrocious” in serving the rural Northwest Corner. 

“Just a few days ago there was news about Eversource looking for a $700 million cash advance from the state to assist them in their infrastructure upgrades. I do not support that.

“The failures that we saw during [tropical storm Isaias] should never have happened, with the plans and guidelines put in place after Superstorm Sandy and the storm in 2011.

“In the last 10 years Eversource has downsized its workforce and repair crews based in our rural area; and for any off-hours repairs, the repair crews are subcontracted,  they are not even Eversource linemen.

“The cost to support that kind of plan is astronomical and they’re passing the cost to the ratepayers.”

Another issue now facing the region is high-speed internet and cell phone service. Ohler said that cable companies have been reluctant to provide broadband internet service in the remote areas of the 64th District, which he finds “unacceptable.”

In a time when more and more ordinary activities are conducted online, “The internet and utilities here have been atrocious. 

“It’s very expensive for the utilities to bring internet and  broadband here, and they don’t see a return on their investment. But that is not acceptable. We need to connect everyone.”