{news} Colin Bennett in The Day

[David Bedell]

Here's a profile of Colin from the New London Day:

http://www.theday.com/re.aspx?re=b251c7a2-d3e0-4d13-bd33-6f60d37812f0


Bennett Hopes To Make late Push To Get Votes
By Eileen McNamara

Published on 10/30/2006


As a third-party candidate in a district where he's running against a 
popular incumbent this year, Colin Bennett recognizes he will need to do a 
lot of grass-roots work.

But just two weeks before the election, Bennett, a member of Connecticut's 
Green Party, has yet to start much campaigning. That's because, said the 
ardent activist, he has been too busy volunteering for various community 
action groups to work on his own election bid.

“I'm going to have start soon,” he said.

Bennett, who is 27 and lives in Westbrook, is challenging seven-term 
incumbent Democrat Eileen Daily. He ran against her in 2004 as well, along 
with candidates from the Republican and Working Families parties. Bennett 
garnered just 603 votes to Daily's 20,557.

His lackluster support in 2004, however, did little to dampen Bennett's 
enthusiasm and commitment. He's also on the Green Party's ticket this year 
to run for state comptroller but said that ballot position is simply a 
place-holder for his party, to help it fill out its roster of candidates and 
give it more visibility in elections so it can qualify for future public 
financing.

It's really the 33rd Senate District Bennett hopes to capture.

A former teacher who now works for a Hartford-based environmental advocacy 
group called Clean Water Action, it's no surprise that one of Bennett's top 
priorities is Connecticut's environment.

“I'm interested in protecting land and preserving our green spaces,” he 
said, “not just creating parks for kids.”

When pressed for specific initiatives or issues he would pursue if elected, 
Bennett said he has not developed a detailed platform but rather has broad 
ideas and concerns he would bring to Hartford.

“I really don't think it should be about what I want,” he said. “I think I 
should be a voice for the people of the district and do what they want me to 
do.”

Mostly, he said, he hopes to become the district's senator so he can 
advocate for those who have no voice at the capitol, particularly the poor 
and disadvantaged.

“I want to be accountable to the citizens of Connecticut. I want to make the 
people's issues my issues,” he said. “I want to go to bat for people who 
need help. Someone who's making $100,000 a year, I'm not necessarily going 
to bat for them.”

A lifelong resident of Connecticut, Bennett said he supports efforts to find 
alternatives to the state's dependence on fossil fuels. He said would push 
for more support of renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar power, 
as well as biodiesel and ethanol fuels, which give off fewer destructive 
emissions, he said.

“Global warming is going to be the biggest issue our nation is going to 
face,” Bennett said.

One specific environmental issue he said he would pursue if elected is 
limiting diesel exhaust emitted by school buses. Bennett, who is single and 
has a 7-year-old daughter, said he was shocked to learn the extent that 
school bus exhaust fumes permeate the interior of a school bus.

“The air inside a school bus is dirtier than the air outside,” he said. So 
far, he said, most politicians have balked at requiring bus companies to 
install filters on buses that would reduce the emissions.

“And it's all because of cost,” he said. “But do we want to poison our 
children or spend a few hundred dollars on this filter? It's a problem 
that's easy to solve.”

Bennett said he wants to serve in the state's legislature because ,“I look 
around Connecticut, and I see a lot of problems.”

He said he loves it here and wants to make it a better place for his 
daughter and future generations.

“For every problem here, there's at least 10, 15 or 100 solutions to that 
problem,” he said. “We just have to want to embrace them.”

He said he also supports campaign finance and property-tax reform.

A justice of the peace in Westbrook and a member of that town's Forest 
Commission, Bennett founded a group called Great Land Conservation Trust 
Inc., a nonprofit agency that seeks, through conservation and education 
efforts, to preserve undeveloped land.

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