Student Led Debate at GHS is Final Encounter between Simmons and Fazio before Nov 5

Greenwich High School social studies teacher Aaron Hull and his We The People team of students hosted candidates for State Senate in CT’s 36th district in the PAC on Thursday.

It was the final confrontation between incumbent, Republican Ryan Fazio and his Democratic challenger Nick Simmons.

Introductory Remarks

During his introduction Fazio, who graduated from Greenwich High School himself, talked about having worked in a bi-partisan fashion during his three years in the State Senate, co-authoring and passing six new laws including to strengthen oversight of utilities to protect consumers from abuses by Eversource and to expand access to birth control.

“There are both risks and possibilities ahead for our state in the next term. Currently the state legislature is roughly 36% Democrat and 35% Republican. I don’t think anything works in government if it is so one-sided,” Fazio said.

He talked about cutting the cost of living, energy bills and taxes and creating economic opportunity for all.

“Let’s improve healthcare access and reduce costs and make sure every kid, no matter their background, has access to a great education, and let’s make sure we make our politics more constructive and substantive instead of all the division we see on TV.”

Mr. Simmons was raised in Greenwich and was one of five siblings. He said his father was a moderate Republican and mother was a staunch Democrat. And while his parents had political arguments at the dinner table, he said, “They did try to instill in us that giving back and serving the community was one of the most important and rewarding things we can do with our lives.”

Simmons recalled interning for a CT Republican Congressman Chris Shays and being inspired to devote his career to public service.

Simmons said he had earned a Masters of Public Policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School. Then, while still early in his career he taught math at a middle school in Harlem and later was acting principal. More recently he said he served as deputy chief of staff for Governor Lamont where he helped oversee education policy, workforce policy, infrastructure investment and workforce development.

Abortion Rights

Simmons warned that while CT has been staunch in its defense of women’s right to choose and reproductive rights, people should not be complacent given what’s happening nationally.

“We thought this was codified into law with Roe V Wade but with the Supreme Court decision, and then all of a sudden that was overturned in 2022. What worries me most is we can be a coin flip away from Republicans owning the White House, the Senate, the House, and the Supreme Court. We could wake up in January with them controlling all four branches there.”

“No matter what they say we shouldn’t trust them because they said they wouldn’t overturn Roe V Wade and then they did,” Simmons said.

Mr. Fazio said he supported keeping abortion legal in Connecticut and would not vote to overturn that law.

“There should also not be ever any impositions from other states on our state law here  in Connecticut. The Full Faith and Credit clause of the US Constitution ensures that but we should make sure we uphold those constitutional rights for our state. But we also have to improve reproductive care and access generally and access to healthcare overall.”

“I was proud to co author a historic expansion to to birth control access in the state. Those regulations will be going into effect on December 5,” he added.

Gun Violence

Mr. Fazio said Connecticut had among the strongest gun laws in the country and he supported them.

“We have a problem particularly in Connecticut that we’re not enforcing the existing laws on the books. That makes them probably worth less than the paper they’re written on. There was a study  recently out of the state government that  said that 75% of all arrests and gun charges are dropped or dismissed by the state. I understand that sometimes there’s played down int he judicial process, but 75% is an enormously high number. In 2020 we passed shortsighted police reforms that actually handcuff the ability of police to take illegal guns off the street. It eliminated consent searches which are responsible for taking hundreds of illegal guns off the street in CT. I also support School Resource Officers and state support for expanding the number of School Resource Officers. Those reduce violent incidents generally in schools and the way they work in schools like GHS have been fantastic.”

Mr. Simmons said he felt badly for this generation of high school students who live more massive school shootings.

“I think it’s a tragedy and I think we should be doing everything we can to  address the root cause of why those happen an get back to a place where we rarely have to do  an active shooter drill.”

Simmons mentioned the importance of safe storage  laws.

“Sixty-two percent of all school shootings happen when a gun isn’t properly stored in the house. Unfortunately this happened in Georgia earlier this year with a school shooting when a young, very troubled young person had access to guns throughout the house: AR15s, assault rifles. We have to enforce and pass safe storage laws.”

Second, Mr. Simmons talked about red flag laws.

“If somebody exhibits a red flag – that they might be at risk of a shooting, that empowers police to take those guns away from those individuals. Even this year in Connecticut there have been numerous students who have been saying on SnapChat and elsewhere that they’re going to shoot up their school. Those are red flags, and we have laws now that empower police to take guns away from those young people and their families.”

Mr. Simmons disagreed with Mr. Fazio about School Resource Officers.

“They don’t hurt, but they are far down the list on what will most prevent school shootings.”

Polarizing Political Discourse and Divisive Rhetoric

Mr. Fazio said, “Every time you turn on TV people are at each other’s throats. It’s not acceptable behavior if you’re a little kid, and certainly not if you’re an adult, and certainly not if you purport to be a leader. We should criticize ideas before we criticize people and groups of people.”

He said he was fortunate to have been surrounded by smart students and teachers at GHS who were “left of center” compared to his “right of center.”

“You might be able to learn something from someone who disagrees with you. If you only surround yourself by people who agree with you, we are never going to learn anything. We always have to give grace to others. We’re all human. We’re all fallible. We need to see each other as human beings, as children of God. We cannot solely see each other as political opponents or enemies.”

“Your ideas can change,” he continued. “We need a more constructive and substantive discourse in our politics, starting locally and in the state.”

Mr. Simmons said he favored rank Choice Voting as an innovative voting method that offered an alternative to Democrat versus Republican.

He said currently candidates were incentivized to just get 51% of the votes.

“That’s a margin where you just get one side as pissed off as you can against the other side,” he said. “But ranked choice voting encourages coalitions where you can end up getting 60% to 70%, and if you want that coalition you can’t be that rude to the other side.”

“Now 80% of each side sees the other side as a threat to the country.  That’s a level of vitriol and distrust that is not just sad, but really unproductive and scary for the future of our country, if we can’t come together and see ourselves as one people trying to solve collective problems and bring out the best of us.”

He said SnapChat, TikTok and Instagram operate with algorithms that are motivated by money: “by keeping your eyeballs attached to the screen.”

“The most powerful source of attention is outrage, so they are going to be feeding you negativity and things that will make you mad and outraged at the other side,” he said.

Ballot Question: No Excuse Absentee Voting for All Registered Voters

Mr. Fazio said he did not support the ballot question.

“I crossed party lines last year to vote for the 14-day early voting implementation in CT. I thought it was reasonable. It makes voting more accessible, but not unreasonably early. And it doesn’t have security problems because it is in person. I’ve also crossed party lines to increase the number of excuses for using absentee ballots. However, in addition to having  almost any excuse to use absentee ballots, and having 14 days of early in-person voting, adding no excuse absentee ballot voting on top of that, when we have major security concerns in CT that have resulted in nationwide scandal and attention paid to CT is unwise.”

“There are people who have been arrested in Bridgeport and in Stamford for absentee ballot fraud and ballot harvesting. That is a violation of other people’s rights to the ballot. That is a serious violation of our democracy. There needs to be balance here.”

Mr. Simmons said he supported the amendment.

“Connecticut has been in the dark ages on voter ballot access,” Simmons said. “Mail in voting has been a system used in Ruby Red Arizona in the 90s, in Colorado….In Florida, 53% of voters vote by mail, including Donald Trump. In California about 90% of people vote by mail. It’s an absolute convenience.”

“You are more likely to be hit by lightening than to find somebody who has committed serious voter fraud,” Simmons added.

“People have died to ensure that we can all get convenient access to the ballot. We shouldn’t be restricting it. We should be celebrating it. We should be getting our voter participation levels up to as high as they possibly can be. That’s democracy.”

Mr. Fazio used 30 seconds allowed for rebuttal to describe the right to vote as God-given and a constitutionally protected.

“It should be available to all. The differences we’re talking in regulations here will not change whether someone has access. Connecticut is in the top 10 for voter turnout, even with supposedly arcane access flaws. Greenwich had 83% voter turnout four years ago. We can balance these considerations so that we have security. Bridgeport cannot happen again.”

Mr. Simmons also took 30 seconds for rebuttal.

“The people who suffer most are in the lowest bracket of income level. They have the biggest  inconvenience on election day. Maybe they’re moving from one apartment to another. The United States ranks 30th on voter participation. Most countries are in the 80%s and 90%s. In the US, 62% is the record.”

“We have to do everything we can to encourage and open up ballot access in a safe way, which it is proven to be,” he added.

Suicide Prevention among Adolescence and Mental Health

Mr. Simmons said his heart broke for the current teens. He said as a former teacher and principal in Harlem, NY middle schools and high schools, and as senior advisor to president Biden on school reopening for the country during the pandemic, he worked on the deployment of American Rescue Plan dollars to help with that effort.

“The rates of depression for your generation are the highest they’ve ever been. I’m not going to explain to you why – you are experienced in why every day.”

“I’d want to do everything we can in the Senate to help – investing more in mental health resources. Investing more in internship or classes or experiences that you feel genuinely passionate about. Not everybody gets what we get here in Greenwich, so across the state providing a real cool experience or internship.”

Mr. Fazio said mental health was one of the most serious generational challenges facing the country.

“There are people in leadership in this country in the past five or seven years, from the technology industry to government, who have utterly failed this generation. It’s a shame. Let’s start from the symptoms again to the root causes. We need improved regulations to improve access to mental health care – easier to get licensed in CT as a social worker. Easier to expand access to care in Connecticut with the CON.”

Fazio talked about limiting student cell phone use in schools.

“We need smart phone and social media regulation. The first law I co-authored and passed in the Senate was to do interventions on smart phones during the school day,” Fazio said.

“There are things community can solve that the government can’t solve. Government can’t solve loneliness alone. We need a culture that is inclusive and focused on social bond and does not tolerate atomization.”

Mr. Simmons used his extra 30 seconds to invite the students to reach out to him or elected officials to tell them about what more can be done on mental health.

“We’d love to hear from you,” he said. “This is such an important issue. You’re on the ground seeing and experiencing things that make you happy or not. We’re going to be sharing our contact information.”

Closing Remarks

Mr. Simmons said while he and his opponent had disagreements on policy approaches, they didn’t see each other as the enemy.

“I want to be the first to say in front of all of you, an apology to Ryan. I think parts of this campaign got more negative than either of us would have liked. I think we can have disagreements, and that doesn’t mean we see us as each other’s enemy. I will gladly support Ryan if he wins and I believe he would do the same for me in the State Senate should I win.”

“It’s important to me – to both of us – that you get inspired to want to get involved in public service and in government. I had some great experiences in high school. It was here that I voted Barack Obama here in this precinct.”

Mr. Fazio, in his closing remarks, said that representing Greenwich had been the honor of a lifetime.

“It instills in me a sense of responsibility to do the job to the best of my ability – to represent everybody – whether they vote for me or they vote for someone else,” he said. “We need to bring people together in this country and in this state.”

“We need to solve problems, to create economic opportunity, to reduce the cost of living, to protect local democracy, and to make this country and this state a brighter place for the future. The future is yours as well. And you’ll be in these positions very soon.”

See also:

Fazio and Simmons Trade Barbs at Round Hill Association State Senate Debate

Oct 9, 2024

36th District State Senate Candidates Spar on Gun Safety, Abortion, Cost of Living, Taxes

Oct 16, 2024

State Rep Candidates for 149th District Face Off at Round Hill Association Debate

Oct 9, 2024