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It's been a wild ride. I started this campaign back in May. It's been six hard months of campaigning, but we were able to engage so many different voters from across such a wide and diverse community. And I'm just so grateful for the opportunity to have earned their trust and support and represent the 148th district in Hartford. I'm Mark Suo. Welcome back to power and Politics. That was Jonathan Jacobson after winning a state house seat in district 148 representing part of Stanford. The Democrat defeated Republican Olga Anastas by a wide margin. 30%. Jacobson was raised in Stanford. He's an attorney who's also served on the city's board of Representatives for nearly a decade. Welcome Jonathan Jacobson and congratulations. Thanks Mark. Thanks for having me back. Always a pleasure to be here. Now, in the democratic primary, you beat the incumbent Annabelle Figueroa who also was a colleague on the Board of Reps until she resigned after the firestorm over her inflammatory comments. We have a quote here from her. We cannot permit a person who is of Jewish origin to represent our community. Figueroa was also booted from the Stanford Democratic City Committee. What's your reaction to all of that? You know, I, I it's, it's been tough. Uh She resigned from the City council. The Board of Representatives has since rescinded that resignation. Uh It's my understanding that the Stanford City Council Board of Representatives is taking steps to uh to remove her from office. Uh She uh she has been expelled from the Stanford Democratic City Committee. Uh that uh she appealed that decision, that appeal was unanimously dismissed. Uh And now uh the voters of the district have determined that uh that they wanna change. So my focus now is ahead. Uh I, I, I'm trying to stay away from what took place during the primary. Uh uh That, that is a fight for others. Um All I can say is that uh by 2 to 1 margin, the voters of our district during the democratic par uh primary and during the general election uh rejected the notion that a person like me cannot represent the community. Now, Democrats retain control of the House and Senate and now have a veto proof majority in each chamber. What are the major items you think on the agenda? Well, number one for sure has to be cost of living whether it's affordable housing, energy costs or rising inflation. That's the number one issue that's facing the state. That's the number one issue that people are talking to me about in our community. Uh Here in Stanford, the uh traffic issue is, is significant. The 995 corridor over by exit nine, which is part of my district. It was rated one of the most, one of the most congested, uh uh portions of highway in America. So, uh infrastructure improvement, traffic alleviation is certainly another topic. Um I think also with respect to what happened with the federal election and the new Trump administration. Uh, there, there are going to have to be uh uh provisions or expectations set as to some national policies that are gonna take place. And I think that we as a state have to anticipate uh some measures that will be coming down and what we can do to bolster um the policies that matter to us here at home. Well, and certainly there's uh a core of immigrants in your district as well. Is that be an issue? I think that it will when we saw the last Trump administration, uh there was a significant uh upswing in, you know, II, I remember ice agents coming to the courthouses uh to deport. Um And, and one of the, one of the strongest things that we've made here in Connecticut and Stanford in particular uh was, was uh asylum cities, asylum state. Um And I think that there's going to be some significant challenges, uh what's gonna happen at the national level. Uh I I is, is funding going to be withheld because of how Stanford or the city of the state of Connecticut treats uh or, or has its immigration policy? Um Are there gonna be uh resources withheld because of how uh with Title nine, with how we treat transgender athletes? There is a lot of uncertainty with the new administration, but I think it's incumbent on us as state lawmakers and not just to react but to anticipate and prepare for those eventualities. Now, top Democrats in the state say they want to work with Trump and the administration whenever possible. But Attorney General William Tong says they won't help with those mass deportations either. Um I mean, you kind of touched on that a little bit. Let's talk about uh the, the champion of women's reproductive and sexual health and uh how that will be protected here at our state. Well, fortunately, Connecticut uh has a pretty strong safeguards and II I advocated uh and, and ran on a platform of being a champion of women's reproductive health. My, my father was an OBGYN, so women's reproductive and sexual health was literally dinner table conversation in my house growing up. Um So I think that that is, you know, I touched on that a bit. II I am concerned about potential ramifications, uh uh withholding of funding or other or other consequences that potentially could come down from uh Washington because of the policies that the State of Connecticut has taken. But with that being said, we have to continue to champion those rights because uh reproductive rights are human rights and whether it, it's uh uh see abortion, access or gender reaffirming health care. These are all personal issues that I don't think the government should be having any say in. It should be between a person and their health care provider. Only. What else? Uh is one of the first things you'd like to accomplish in Hartford. You know, honestly, uh II I ran uh a lot on environmental. Um That was how I earned my spurs in Stanford. I'd like to see us continue to gravitate towards more green initiatives which I think can really alleviate issues most notably with our uh the rising cost of energy. Uh That's one of the ways that we can tackle it. Obviously, I think again, going back to affordable housing and transportation, which are uh significant issues in my district in particular. Um That's where I've set my eyes on that. Those are the measures that I've advocated and championed as a city councilman and I intend to do more of the same at the state level. Uh Before we let you go here in about the 30 seconds, we have left. You mentioned, uh that uh former Senator Joe Lieberman was a big impact on your life. Tell us about that. Uh I grew up in Stanford, uh I went to Hebrew school for nine years and uh Senator Lieberman was always a role model and inspiration. Um I actually got the opportunity to intern for him in Washington DC, uh, and, uh, being a, uh, uh, a young, uh kid in Stanford seeing how well and how, how high he was able to go. Uh, I thought the sky was the limit and, uh, it's certainly a wonderful opportunity to potentially, uh, uh, follow in tho those steps. All right, we wish you all the best. Thank you so much. Thanks, Mark, while the Trump administration is likely to pull the plug on President Biden's push to juice sales for electric vehicles. We'll show you what's happening here in Connecticut.

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In our last segment, we spoke about how the incoming Trump administration could impact things right here in Connecticut, the president elect is likely to roll back many of President Biden's initiatives including those to juice up electric vehicle sales. And in our state, Governor LaMotte just ended his controversial ev mandate news. 12 Connecticut's John Craven has that story. Towns like Oxford were devastated this summer. A foot of rain fell in one afternoon. Four years ago. Tropical storm Isaias cost $21 billion in damage. Understanding how the climate works, how the sound works. Lee Smitz with the environmental group. Sound Waters sees the risk. First hand Harbor Center is Stanford is doing a huge resilience project right now to transform the parking lot that was no longer viable because it was right at the water, gas powered cars are the biggest driver of climate change. But Tuesday, Governor Lamont took electric vehicle mandates off the table for good. The new Trump administration opposes them. We are following, you know, the federal standards and I think the federal standards are no more. Republicans say Lamotte's move is a win for consumers who can't afford more expensive. S we already saw that a shift away from electric vehicles. So I would rather see us sort of take more of a cautious approach, but the news may not be all grim for electric vehicles. Elon Musk, the face of Tesla is a key part of the Trump administration. So there will be a discussion, I doubt it's mandates, but I think there may still be some incentives. One thing I love on a day like today is the variety. But Smitz worries that incentives aren't enough. There are impacts, parking lot that used to, that used to work now floods a building site that used to be viable now needs to be raised. Environmentalist raising concerns about the cost of doing nothing. John Craven News 12, Connecticut in 2021. Connecticut also backed out of a carbon cap agreement with other states after Republicans called it a gas tax. Well, that's all our time. And remember local elections lead to national change. I'm Mark Sudal. Thanks for watching.

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Washington went red – but Connecticut got even bluer on Election Day.

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