{news} Nancy Burton in Sept. 19 Danbury News-Times

[David Bedell]

Be sure to visit Nancy's website at http://www.voteburton.org !


http://news.newstimes.com/story.php?id=65031

Candidate has environment as campaign centerpiece

By Fred Lucas
THE NEWS-TIMES

She has devoted 20 years to public interest and environmental law. But her 
license to practice law was suspended. So now she wants to be a state 
representative.

Nancy Burton of Redding is the Green Party candidate for state 
representative in the 135th District, representing parts of Redding, Easton 
and Weston.

Her campaign slogan is "Clean Air, Clean Water, Clean Government." That's 
because her key issues are closing down two nuclear power plants and 
enacting stronger laws against public corruption.

Burton has been a longtime opponent of the Millstone Nuclear Power Station 
in Waterford and the Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant in Buchanan, N.Y., 
near the Connecticut border.

She said Connecticut should bring more legal actions to have the New York 
plant shut down. Besides the normal health and safety risks posed by a power 
plant, the threat of a terrorist attack on the Indian Point plant could 
jeopardize the Danbury area, she said.

"If an airplane crashed into Indian Point, researchers have concluded it 
would be uninhabitable within 100 miles, with thousands of immediate deaths. 
That means good-bye Danbury," Burton said.

She said the Waterford plant, though still operational, is safer today 
because of her efforts. Despite running as a third party candidate against 
six-term Rep. John Stripp, R-Weston, she is optimistic about winning.

"This is a serious campaign," she said. "I'm running against a multi-term 
incumbent, but I come into this race with 20 years of experience in public 
interest law."

However her license to practice law in Connecticut was suspended in 2001 for 
five years. She was disbarred for allegedly misleading a group of residents 
to file a lawsuit against the town of Monroe and a developer to overturn a 
zoning decision.

Burton said the group knew what they were signing, but some Monroe residents 
said they were led to believe they were only signing a petition against the 
development.

Burton said "draconian punishment" was a case of retribution from the 
"society of Connecticut attorneys," because she had exposed "corruption and 
cronyism in the court system."

She can still practice law in federal courts and in New York courts.

There is no Democratic candidate in the race. Stripp declined to comment on 
Burton, but did comment on her party.

"The Green Party's heart is in the right place on the environment, but they 
seem to dislike the free enterprise system," Stripp said. "Free enterprise 
makes the money and allows society to decide what to do with that. If the 
system didn't make money and is impoverished, we wouldn't have choices."

Stripp said he favors a long term solution to eliminate the nuclear plants 
by encouraging better technology and conservation.

"If you shut all the nukes down right away, that's 50 percent of 
Connecticut's energy," he said. "That would mean we would need kerosene 
lamps. Kerosene lamps pollute the air. It's a complex issue. It's nice to 
have a bumper sticker solution."

Stripp said his top priority in Hartford would be to fight for more funding 
for school projects and for money for towns to buy open space so they can 
cut down on sprawl.

Burton said as a lawmaker, she would make it illegal not to report judicial 
misconduct. She also wants to stop public corruption in Hartford in the wake 
of the scandal-plagued administration of former Gov. John G. Rowland.

"There are two ways to cleanse the political order," she said. "One is to 
elect good people. The other is to enact good government laws."


Contact Fred Lucas

at flucas at newstimes.com

or at (203) 731-3358.

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