2nd voter forum draws dozen concerned citizens

By Patricia Villers
Register Staff
pvillers@nhregister.com

    MILFORD - About a dozen civic-minded area residents gathered Wednesday night at the Margaret Egan Center for a New Haven Register-sponsored Citizens’ Agenda Voter Forum.   
    This was the second forum co-hosted by New Haven Register Community Engagement Editors Angi Carter and Ed Stannard. They held a similar event last month in New Haven.
    Participants hailed from Ansonia, Derby, Milford, New Haven, Trumbull, and Woodbridge.
    Stannard said the newspaper has “a new focus to reach out to the community,” which includes live daily news meetings that can be viewed online at www.nhregister.com.
    Carter said the idea is to create “a partnership between the Register and the people we rely on to read our news.”
    Woodbridge resident Kim Hynes represented the nonprofit Common Cause and the New Haven Votes Coalition. She said the coalition is “a group of nonprofits (working) to get out the vote in New Haven” and “get people excited” about municipal elections.   
    Hynes may be reached at khynes@commoncause.org/ct.
    Derby resident Judy Szewczyk, who served as campaign manager for incumbent Republican Mayor Anthony Staffieri, also was on hand. She recently launched Clearly Derby, a blog to inform Derbyites of the happenings in their hometown.
    She said social media played a big role in the November election and she launched the blog because she didn’t want to lose that connection with voters.
    Szewczyk said she realizes it is difficult for working people who are busy raising children to find the time to get involved in local politics. She said the blog and a Facebook page are set up to inform citizens about the process. “We’re trying to bring it to the people,” Szewczyk said.
    She said credibility is a big issue in politics, since many people see it “as a game.” 
    Trumbull resident Jean Rabinow, an administrator in the Hamden League of Women Voters office, said even though it’s February the election season has started.
    She said the LWV asks candidates about issues that matter most to voters. They include the economy, unemployment, health care, national debt and reform of the financial services industry.
    Several citizens voiced concern about the amount of money needed to run for elected office. Rabinow said the more money a candidate spends on campaigns, the more the average voters “become detached from that person.”
   She contends that seeing candidates on television commercials “adds celebrity to that person, like they are different from us.”
    For information about upcoming citizens’ forums, contact Stannard, estannard@nhregister.com, 203-789-5743 or Carter, acarter@nhregister.com, 203-789-5752.