Incumbent Craig Miner will seek Senate seat again

State Sen. Craig Miner (R-30) is running for reelection, although he hasn’t made a formal announcement.

“So I guess you’ll be the first” he said in a phone interview Sunday, May 17.

Miner was elected to the state Senate in 2016, and represented the 68th District in the state House of Representatives for eight terms prior.

The 30th Senate District includes the towns of Brookfield, Canaan (Falls Village), Cornwall, Goshen, Kent, Litchfield, Morris, New Milford, North Canaan, Salisbury, Sharon, Torrington, Warren and Winchester.

Miner said he normally doesn’t begin campaigning in earnest this early, and he has been busy with constituent services during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Asked how he thinks Gov. Ned Lamont (D) has done in dealing with the public health emergency, Miner was generally supportive.

“This is a 100-year plus crisis,” he said. “I don’t know that anyone else would have done any better.” 

He said his office received dozens of calls from constituents having trouble with unemployment claims, and he and his staff have been busy helping to resolve them.

Other issues include helping constituents deal with state agencies — such as the Department of Motor Vehicles — that are mostly shut down.

“If the governor had been a little more involved, people wouldn’t have waited” as long as they did.

On the other hand, “it’s not like he didn’t have anything else going on.”

Asked if he was concerned that the governor might be reluctant to give up the extraordinary powers he has assumed during the crisis, Miner said he thought the governor had already exceeded the limits on special powers imposed by the leadership of the Legislature.

“I don’t think the General Assembly will allow that to continue. I don’t think he wants it either.”

Looking ahead to the election campaign, Miner said he doesn’t see how he can “press the flesh when you can’t be under 6 feet from someone.”

He didn’t think going to door-to-door, “with a mask and longish hair,” was very likely either. 

He said the campaign is a secondary concern at the moment. 

“It’s been a serious few months,” he said. “Constituent service will be my focus.”