Rep. Anne Hughes (D) seeks reelection as State Representative in the 135^th General Assembly district, which encompasses Weston, Redding, and part of Easton.

Accomplishments

In an interview, Rep. Hughes said she is proud of delivering to constituents on healthcare, championing legislation to cap the price of insulin, and making a discount prescription drug card available to everyone in the state regardless of income. She said the latter was made possible by price negotiations in concert with four other states. “This is something the federal government should do,” she said. “But we are doing it in Connecticut.”

Where the federal administration is “following Connecticut’s lead,” said Ms. Hughes, is on “erasing medical debt and removing it from credit scores,” measures that passed in General Assembly’s current term.

“We also look at what other states are doing successfully and ask, does this make sense for Connecticut?”

Rep. Hughes said she and colleagues in a reproductive justice caucus “anticipated the Dobbs decision” that overturned Roe v. Wade and passed legislation to codify women’s reproductive healthcare and in vitro fertilization rights, and to protect providers from legal action taken by other states.

Ms. Hughes said that from the time she was first elected in 2019, she and others in the Democratic House majority had “worked hard to pass transformative legislation,” including paid family and medical leave and tying the long-flat minimum wage to the consumer price index. “These were smart, proactive policy wins,” she said.

“These things aren’t easy, even with our large majority,” said Rep. Hughes. “We had to galvanize a determination that these issues are critically important. I’m proud of the legislation, but I’m also proud of reading the room, of figuring out the landscape of possibility.”

Disappointments

Rep. Hughes rues the failure of legislation to create a public option that would allow citizens to buy into the state employee health insurance plan. “Even the governor was for it,” she said. “But then Cigna threatened to leave, and it was gone.”

She said she is “dismayed that we couldn’t pass a medical aid in dying bill, and really, really frustrated with our sweeping inaction on climate change. The climate crisis is here.”

Absentee voting, gun safety

Rep. Hughes supports the proposed amendment to the State Constitution to allow no-excuse absentee voting. She said requiring an excuse to vote absentee is “a relic.”

On gun safety, Ms. Hughes said Connecticut “is a leader on gun safety” but illegal guns still flow in because “there is no national plan.” But what is “really scary,” she said, is the prospect that “this Supreme Court” could rule that states must apply a principle of reciprocity where, for example, a Tennessee resident visiting Connecticut would be subject to Tennessee’s largely absent gun safety laws, not those of Connecticut.

“Naturally,” she said, “the reciprocity would only apply to gun rights. Not to things like reproductive health. The prospect of a national abortion ban before we have an assault weapons ban tells you everything you need to know about what this Supreme Court is out to do.”

Utilities, housing

Discussing the pocketbook impact of a spike in electricity bills, Rep. Hughes did not appear to be a fan of Eversource. The rate increase is due to a decision by the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA), over the objection of its chair, to increase the public benefits portion of electric bills for only ten months so Eversource can recoup bills that went unpaid during the shutoff moratorium. The public benefits section also provides assistance to residents in financial distress, and a large portion is a legacy decision to keep the Millstone nuclear plant running.

“I’m all for regulating public utilities,” said Rep. Hughes. “But Eversource is a for-profit company that was deregulated years ago. How’s that working out for us?” For now, she said, “we’re stuck with the high cost” to keep Millstone running, the result of a deal to “contract-purchase energy at a certain rate that wasn’t spread out to our partner states in New England.”

On housing, Rep. Hughes said the legislature “didn’t really pass anything” in this year’s short session. She said “local zoning boards would scream” if the state tried to mandate affordable housing, a prospect that appears to have diminished in likelihood. She said she is pleased that Weston, Redding and Easton were all on time submitting affordable housing plans to the state.

“So let’s move those plans forward,” said Rep. Hughes. “The state stands ready with resources, funding, and capacity grants.”