Power & Politics: Vote 2026 Westchester and the Hudson Valley primary election preview

Power & Politics: Mamdani's affordable housing plan, free inspections rollout, NY-7 race

Power & Politics: Mamdani’s affordable housing plan, free inspections rollout, NY-13 race

Power & Politics: NY state comptroller primary; Suffolk Democratic leadership race; State budget breakdown

Power & Politics: Primary Election results; Violence outside Newark's Delaney Hall; Real ID progress

Power & Politics: 5th Congressional District campaign; Weston First Selectwoman Sam Nestor running for State Senate District 26

newyork

News 12 Staff

CTPNP0613BBLOCKSC

I'm Mark Sudall. Welcome back to Power and Politics. I'm joined now by State Representative Lucy Dathan. Welcome back to the program. Nice to see you again. It's wonderful to see you, Mark. Thank you so much for having me. Absolutely. Now, uh, just wanted to get you on here to get a little bit of clarity, of course, and talk about your run for reelection too. Now you were going to challenge a fellow Democrat Sam Nestor, right, for, for state Senate but dropped out. And why was that? Well, initially. Um, I had planned to run for my seat, so I declared back in January, uh, that I was going to run for the state representative race, um, that I have held in the 142nd for the last 8 years, and that was the plan and then the 26th Senate district opened up and I thought this is an opportunity to kind of take that promotion to the Senate from the House, um, and decided to go for it and um. To be honest, at the time I didn't think there was going to be a very kind of crowded campaign for it and really thought this would be uh a good thing to have um and really wanted to have an opportunity to get myself more deeper involved in policy and the Senate is a great place to do so and so when uh the convention happened last month. And it kind of was a difficult time for me to actually do the campaigning that needed to get done um for that convention because we were still in session um, the convention didn't quite happen the way I had hoped it was gonna happen. Um, and an opportunity came up for me to stay in my house seat and so I reverted back to the House seat mainly because, you know, I really didn't think our party needs a contentious, um, primary. We have that happening at the governor's race. I'm not very happy about what's going on, um, and I really feel that, you know, we need to coalesce together and come around a. Uh, candidate and for me representing, uh, the 1 forty-second has been an honor and really just something I've loved to do and I don't wanna lose that so I decided to come back on. So you're back again running for for your old seat. Now newcomer Jack Pavey, I know, has also been in the race here too. So is there going to be a primary now or no, he dropped out. OK, got you. We want to get a little bit of clarity on that as well. Um, we, we had Jack on the show. Wonderful, certainly an impressive young man, no, very impressive. He interned for me for a little while, so I know him very well, and when he first decided to jump into the seat when he heard I was vacating the seat, he called me and we talk regularly and so it was a great conversation and He has such a bright future and such a charismatic young man and so knowledgeable and just will be an amazing asset at some stage whatever he decides to do and I do see that politics is in his future. Yes, I certainly don't think we've seen the last of him, that's for sure. So look, you've had some success in your seat. Why do you think you're the right candidate again? Well for me I'm a hard worker. I am the sort of person that feels that you have to get in there and you have to do the work, understand the policy and really understand all the implications for such policy around the state and it's not just um one niche. of folks, it's, it's a variety of folks, um, I bring that expertise from my finance background and also, uh, my just experience in the human services field and kind of keeping an eye on Medicaid and all the things around Medicaid and I know that my time is not finished yet and uh really hope to continue to do more so when you talk to constituents in in the district uh. What are they concerned about? What do they want to have done and changed? I think cost of living is really the key, and that's something that we've have been talking a lot about in our state. We hear it from property taxes, cost of electricity, of course all of the things happening federally with the war in Iran and the cost of fuel and gas for so many is just increasing. Um, so we really need to continue to address affordability. Um, I know that this year in our legislative session we did quite a bit of work around, uh, addressing affordability, but there is so much that still needs to be done and more work that needs to happen because we need to make sure that Connecticut is affordable for working families like here in Norwalk and New Canaan. What else are you most proud of, uh, from your work in the, in the house? Well this year I spearheaded an effort with my uh Senate co-chair uh Sujara Gadkar-W Wilcox, and what we did is implement a sort of statewide coordination effort to prevent human trafficking. This is a huge issue in our state and this is something um that we didn't really quite see how bad it was until really the likes of what was happening with Jeffrey Epstein and. Uh, other things around our, our country and, uh, even in here in our state, um, having such close access to New York and Boston right off I-95, we are a prime ground for human trafficking whether it's forced labor or sex trafficking, and this is something we need to continue to address so. Um, in the last year we've been working really hard to, um, coordinate those efforts to make sure that we get folks trained so that they can spot when folks have been trafficked. Hm, uh, so I guess look early in the game yet, but, um, I guess you're not gonna, uh. Turn down another run for the Senate possibly. You know what I have decided this whole process has made me reflect that I really love representing Norwalk and I'm going to stay in the House and there's certainly a lot of things to talk about. Yes, that's for sure. Absolutely. Well, Lucy, thank you so much for the time. Thank you so much for having me, Mark. Well, coming up, women from around the world stopped by Yale to learn how to run a political campaign.

https://vod.prod.alticeustech.com/transcode/aba1c601-8b19-44f6-9e05-472bd929a2a4/aba1c601-8b19-44f6-9e05-472bd929a2a4.transcribe

CTPNP0613CBLOCKSCGOOD_2026-06-13-18-54-26

Aspiring politicians from around the world at Yale Law School this week, and all of them are women. They're learning how to run a political campaign. News 12 John Craven reports these women could have a big impact in this year's elections. So we're going to break it down. It's summer school at Yale, but look closely. The students are women. So in Idaho people can only donate up to $1000 for me running for state legislature, and the subject is how to run a political campaign. You're getting a $1150 average contribution. This is the campaign school at Yale, predominantly for women who run a. Run for office or run campaigns and for men who support women candidates. Patty Russo cut her teeth working for Ella Grosso, Connecticut's first female governor. Our mission is to increase the number of of of women in the political pipeline. The school is for Republicans, Democrats, Independents, and women who just want a seat. The table. Don't we make up more than 50% of the population in this country? I think it is a really unique opportunity. This is the 30th year for this campaign school, but in that time, a lot has changed, especially social media. This has been what I wanted to do. At 26, Emma Barron is the youngest member of Fairfield's RTM. She used Instagram to reach Gen Z voters. Most of the people I know my age had no idea what the RTM was before I started to get involved, and they were also starting to learn and take the journey with me. Patty Russo says the messaging has changed. It's briefer, you know, the attention span of people is shorter. And so have the messengers in New Haven, John Craven, News 12, Connecticut. And some big names have gone through the campaign school at Yale, including Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords. Governor Lamont signed a new law this week that could mean more support for police, firefighters, and EMTs. Up to 401st responders can now get free tuition at state colleges. Others can get help paying their mortgage. Gives first responders a real opportunity to live in the community that they serve, raise their families, and build stronger relationships with the people they protect. The tuition waivers will cost around $2 million according to a fiscal analysis. That's all our time. I'm Mark Sudall. Thanks for watching.

https://vod.prod.alticeustech.com/transcode/ce0f149f-ba14-4375-a7b7-54d71bab03d6/ce0f149f-ba14-4375-a7b7-54d71bab03d6.transcribe

The city of New Britain is demanding former Mayor Erin Stewart repay more than $240,000 following a state investigation into her spending, as federal authorities continue to review the case.

More Stories

More from News 12

Kris Kolluri answers viewers' questions on News 12's ‘Ask Kris Kolluri’ - June 9, 2026

Power & Politics: Vote 2026 Westchester and the Hudson Valley primary election preview

Power & Politics: Mamdani's affordable housing plan, free inspections rollout, NY-7 race

Power & Politics: Mamdani’s affordable housing plan, free inspections rollout, NY-13 race

Power & Politics: NY state comptroller primary; Suffolk Democratic leadership race; State budget breakdown

Power & Politics: Primary Election results; Violence outside Newark's Delaney Hall; Real ID progress

Ad Choices

Privacy Policy

Terms of Service

Privacy Manager