Nick Gauthier

I am a three-term member serving on the Waterford Representative Town Meeting (RTM). I am a Waterford native who was born, raised, and educated in Waterford’s Great Neck neighborhood. And I am a graduate of Waterford High School and the University of Connecticut.

I work in Waterford’s Senior Services Department and have long served as an activist, labor organizer, grassroots political organizer, and community organizer. I have proudly earned my Masters Degree in public administration.

• Public schools are the backbone of our community. I will protect school budgets to ensure safe, effective learning environments. I support manageable classrooms for teachers and paraprofessionals and school meals for all students.
• Workers deserve an even playing field. I will expand CT Paid Leave and Paid Sick Days. I will champion One Fair Wage legislation, and will protect union rights to collectively bargain for fair pay, benefits, and safe working conditions.
• Healthcare is a human right. I will vote to guarantee women’s reproductive freedoms and ensure unobstructed safe abortion services. I am determined to lower prescription costs, support home & facility care workers for seniors and disabled persons, and bring mental health resources to our district.

As your state Representative, I will provide robust constituent services, demand justice for all in our state’s laws, seek equity in our state’s budgets, deliver resources for needed public services, and support well-paid employment opportunities for people in Waterford, Montville, and Connecticut.

I look up to and follow the example of civil rights leader, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) co-founder, and Freedom Riders organizer, Diane Nash whose deep human empathy led her to put her own life on the line to make a better world for others who she did not know personally and were not even born yet.

Honesty.

My principled stance in favor of public financing of all elections and against the influence and big money and lobbyist dollars in our political system.

To represent the public and not corporations.

My first job after college was as a field organizer for Sen. Richard Blumenthal's first senate campaign.

Orange you glad I didn't say banana?

CT 'Fair Share' Amendment.

CT state building trades, CT AFL-CIO and affiliated unions, CT Sierra Club, Reproductive Equity Now, CT Working Families Party, CT Independent Party, Young Democrats of CT, College Democrats of CT

Education, Public Health, Labor, Environment

Budgets are moral documents.

We must pass Moral, responsible, and economically sound budgets which are not balanced on the backs of our working families and are not balanced by shifting burdens onto our towns.

The principle of austerity and the push for evermore austerity budgeting are some of the most dangerous, destabilizing, and destructive forces in our body politic today. From an economic perspective, across the board cuts for everyone but those at the very top of the wealth and income ladder during a time of economic strife only further constricts economic growth and halts investment precisely at a time when increased investment is desperately needed. From a political perspective, austerity for the 99% of us deepens the pain and suffering on our middle class and working families so significantly that it gives rise to destructive extremists on the fringes of politics and society.

I, Nick Gauthier, am a two-term Democratic Representative serving on the Waterford Representative Town Meeting (RTM). I am a Waterford native who was born, raised, and educated in Waterford’s Great Neck neighborhood. And a graduate of Waterford High School and the University of Connecticut.

I work in Waterford’s Senior Services Department and have long served as an activist, labor organizer, grassroots political organizer, and community organizer. I have proudly earned my Masters Degree in public administration.

-Two-term member serving on the Waterford Representative Town Meeting (RTM) -Works for Town of Waterford Senior Services Department -Labor organizer and advocate for Working Families -Master of Public Administration (MPA)

• As your state Representative, I, Nick Gauthier, will provide robust constituent services, demand justice for all in our state’s laws, seek equity in our state’s budgets, deliver state resources for our needed public services, and support well-paid employment opportunities for people in Waterford, Montville, and Connecticut.
• Emerging from the most tumultuous period experienced in most of our lives – a period in which the inequality gap between the wealthiest few and the rest of us grew tremendously, a period in which we have collectively experienced hardship and loss heretofore unimaginable and from which we are still struggling to recover – presents us a literal once-in-a-century opportunity to reimagine and rebuild a healthier state and nation with the empathy and understanding we have gained through our collective struggle.
• I have long served as an activist, labor organizer, grassroots political organizer, and community organizer, serving on the campaign of U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal and volunteering on the presidential campaign of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders.

PROTECTING PUBLIC EDUCATION
On the RTM, I protected our public school budgets against excessive cuts to ensure safe and effective learning environments for our students and manageable classrooms for teachers and staff.

SUPPORTING FAMILIES AND SENIORS
I will work to strengthen CT’s Paid Family and Medical Leave program and the child tax credit. I will bring state resources back to our district to support local mental health resources, childcare, and senior support services.

FIGHTING FOR WORKERS
I will champion PRO Act protections to Protect the Rights of workers to organize for safe working conditions, higher pay, and fair benefits.

ADVOCATING FOR TAX RELIEF
I will fight to end taxpayer-funded corporate subsidies. I will champion tax relief for working families and ensure that Connecticut state dollars are invested into Waterford and Montville.

PROTECTING REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH CARE
I will fight to protect women's health care and reproductive rights against the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States overturning the Roe and Casey precedents and from the ongoing extremist right-wing assaults spreading across our country!

— I fully support:

H.B. 5414: An Act Concerning Protections For Persons Receiving And Providing Reproductive Health Care Services In The State, which provides protections for persons receiving and providing reproductive health care services in our state.

I look up to and follow the example of civil rights leader, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) co-founder, and Freedom Riders organizer, Diane Nash whose deep human empathy led her to put her own life on the line to make a better world for others who she did not know personally and were not even born yet.

Campaign and Candidate Philosophy:

Emerging from the most tumultuous period experienced in most of our lives – a period in which the inequality gap between the wealthiest few and the rest of us grew tremendously, a period in which we have collectively experienced hardship and loss heretofore unimaginable and from which we are still struggling to recover – presents us a literal once-in-a-century opportunity to reimagine and rebuild a healthier state and nation with the empathy and understanding we have gained through our collective struggle.

For instance, we understand that affordable child care is as necessary as health care. And further, we understand that the heroes who expend themselves to do this foundational work – who we rely on to keep our children safe and keep our quality of life high – must be treated fairly by being paid much higher wages commensurate with the importance and difficulty of their work. The nurses and health care workers who take care of us when we are most in need and provide constant care for those who are most vulnerable must themselves be kept safe with proper staffing and safety regulations.

We need our elected representatives to engage in constituent services and write and pass competent legislation which serves all people in our district and in our state. The difference between being able to put food on our table, afford necessary medications, and provide care for our families and education for our children often relies on the decisions and actions (or, inactions) of our elected representatives.

As your state Representative, I, Nick Gauthier, will provide robust constituent services, demand justice for all in our state’s laws, seek equity in our state’s budgets, deliver state resources for our needed public services, and support well-paid employment opportunities for people in Waterford, Montville, and Connecticut.

My first job after college was working as a field organizer on U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal's 2010 campaign.