FALL MIDTERMS WERE CONSEQUENTIAL FOR THE STATE AND FOR ITS COMMUNITY COLLEGE STUDENTS.

By Smith Bernard, Staff Writer & TAMARACK Secretary

Senate

Since the last Senate election in January 2021, the United States senate has been 50 Democrats and 50 Republicans. There were 3x senate races on the ballot and every single one of them were important to both the Democratic and Republican parties. One of 3x senate elections was here in Connecticut between Senator Richard Blumenthal and Leora Levy.

Senator Richard Blumenthal has been a senator from Connecticut since winning the 2010 senate election against the Republican

Linda McMahon, the former CEO of WWE and won re-election in 2016 against Republican state representative Dan Carter from Bethel, becoming the first candidate in Connecticut history to obtain over 1 million votes.

Before serving as a senator, Richard Blumenthal served as the Attorney General for over 20 years and often won lawsuits targeted against the tobacco industry.

The Republican challenger to Senator Blumenthal running to replace him was Leora Levy. Leora Levy is a former sugar trader born in Havana, Cuba. Leora Levy served as a representative to the Republican National Committee after serving as the finance chair of Bob Stefanowski’s 2018 governor campaign and as finance chair of the Connecticut Republican party. In 2019, Leora Levy was nominated by former President Trump to serve as the Ambassador to Chile, but was never given a vote by the Senate. In the Republican primary, Leora Levy was seen as the underdog against former state house minority leader Themis Klarides until former President Trump endorsed her 5 days before the primary. Leora

Levy has campaigned on closing the U.S border and her pro-life position on abortion.

Blumenthal wass the winner of the Senate election. He won by 14 percentage points or 170,000 votes out of 1.2 million votes casted. Democrats kept control of the Senate with at least 50 senate seats plus the vicepresident, Kamala Harris. Republicans will continue as the minority party in the Senate with at-least 49 senate seats. Georgia had the last Senate election on December 6th between pro-choice paster now Democrat senator Raphael Warnock and Republican former football player and father of tiktoker Christian Walker, Herschel Walker. (Mr. Warnock won).

Governor

The election for Governor of Connecticut was between Governor Ned Lamont, Republican challenger Bob Stefanowski and independent challenger Rob Hotaling. The election was mostly a rematch from the 2018 governor election between then businessmen Ned Lamont and Bob Stefanowski and now deceased lawyer Oz Griebel. Oz Griebel, a former republican ran for governor in 2018 with his own party labeled “The Griebel-Frank Party” and his main issue was reforming Connecticut elections to change to ranked choice voting which would allow voters to rank multiple candidates of an election by who you want more. The party endorsed Ned Lamont after he promised to bring a ranked choice voting bill to the legislature in 2023.

Governor Ned Lamont is focused on his support for the right to an abortion in Connecticut and the law passed earlier last year, protecting abortion in Connecticut. Republican challenger Bob Stefanowski focused on crime in Connecticut. His main proposal was to repeal parts of the police accountability bill passed in Connecticut in the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd. Specifically, Bob Stefanowski wanted to bring back qualified immunity (the protection of police officers from being sued which some argue stifles police from taking necessary risks if police officer’s personal assets are at risk), loosening standards for police to use fatal force like a weapon, and to bring back searches of property without a warrant, but with the consent of the property owner (As of now, a police officer cannot search your house without a warrant even if you consent). Robert Hotaling’s main issue was reforming elections in Connecticut. Rob Hotaling also supported ranked choice voting in Connecticut, wanted to expand primary elections to all registered voters regardless of party, and wanted to implement limits on how long a politician can serve in an office.

Ned Lamont won re-election to serve as Governor of Connecticut for four more years. Ned Lamont won by 12.5 percentage points or about 150,000 votes out of 1.2 million votes cast.

Connecticut Ballot Measure

On the Connecticut ballot was also a question asking the voters to change the Connecticut constitution to allow the Connecticut legislature to provide early voting. Connecticut is one of four states that don’t allow voters to vote at their polling location before election day. Most states allow voters to vote in person up to 2 weeks before election day because many potential voters have school or work on Election day. Opponents of the amendment argue that the amendment is too expensive to implement, and that the amendment is too broad, allowing the legislature to choose any amount of days for early voting.

The ballot measure passed by 20 percentage points, 120,000 more voters voted ‘yes’ to approve the amendment than opposed it.

Connecticut’s 5th Congressional District

According to census data, most Naugatuck Valley Community College students live in the 5th congressional district of Connecticut. The 5th district in Connecticut is also the most competitive congressional district in Connecticut and the results ended up as one of the closest in the country. Naugatuck Valley Community College Alumni and 2016 National Teacher of the Year, Jahana Hayes won a close election for a 3rd term in congress against former state senator George Logan from Ansonia (which is outside the 5th congressional district). George Logan, a black Guatemalan republican ran on trying to connect popular Democratic , Jahana Hayes, with unpopular president Joe Biden. Jahana Hayes ran on her voting record of supporting gun restrictions and codifying a right to an abortion into law.

Naugatuck Valley Community College Alumni Jahana Hayes won the election with 1,842 more votes than former state senator George Logan out of over 250,000 votes cast. Republicans, however, won a slight majority of seats in the House of Representatives and will now control the House of Representatives and we will likely see speaker Kevin McCarthy won the House Speakership after a protracted vote—it took 15 rounds.

To find out your representatives, go to https://www.cga.ct.gov/asp/menu/cgafindleg. asp and https://www.nytimes.com/ interactive/2022/11/08/us/elections/resultsconnecticut.html for the latest election results.

Editorial Staff

Jessica Carvalho Fernandes, Managing Editor

Eshwarie Roopnaraine

Smith Bernard

Dalmir Tupkusic

Kosmar Wills

Luis Garcia

Idris Sattar

Joan Lownds, ACE Columnist

Prof. Chris Rempfer, Faculty Advisor

Digital Arts Staff

Gregory Kashuba, Layout/Design Editor

Where we take a deeper dive on issues and topics, with a collection of articles and picture essays.

English 101 and Sociology 101 Students Collaborate on a Study and Discussion of Difference

The fall semester saw collaboration between Prof. Nikki McGary’s SOC 101 class and Prof. Chris Rempfer’s ENG 101 classes. The two classes explored DIFFERENCE, which in Sociology terms is known as the study of DEVIANCE— anything that exists in opposition to established norms.

The classes started their collaborative work by attending a panel discussion on book banning co-sponsored by the Social Justice Series and the NVCC Library. The panel was titled, “Why Can’t I Read This? The War Over Books, People, and Ideas.” It was part of the Social Justice Series’ year theme looking at “Bans, Buzzwords, and Bodies.”

The panel discussion explored the history of banned books and what is behind the current cultural and political movement of banning books. Prof. McGary facilitated the panel and panel consisted of the Library’s Jaime Hammond who covered the history of book banning, Prof. Rempfer who spoke about two of the most challenged books in the United States, Prof. Steve Parlato, who spoke about his experience with his Young Adult fiction books being ‘challenged,’ and Prof. Kathy Taylor, who spoke about the legal and constitutional implications of book banning (think: 1st Amendment violations).

Over the course of two class meetings, students explored the societal implications of what it means to exist outside of perceived societal norms. White boards recorded the discussion and provided the foundation for further exploration.

Prof. Rempfer’s ENG 101 students took their experience and applied it to a new ENG 101 course sequence Prof. Rempfer was developing: a TEXT and MEDIA Project that combined text requirements with the integration of visual, audio, and other media that reflected the vast array of sources 21st century students have at their disposal as they construct responses to course curriculum.

Students were asked to create a project using text and media that explored DIFFERENCE. They chose a lens through which to explore difference (lens= topic or issue). They then decided whether their project would be a digital paper or in digital slide format. The assignment required them to organize in three parts: (1) Present OBSERVATIONS (2) Explore the IMPLICATIONS of those observations (3) Pose questions to your audience in light of your Observations and Implications.

ENG 101 student and Tamarack writer, Smith Bernard, chose to explore how conspiracy theories, that peddle a different perspective on the truth than trusted entities and media organizations, not to mentioned most people’s view of the world, impact the idea of difference. He explored Flat Earth and Jewish conspiracy theories. To do so, he created a website. Quite the use of TEXT and MEDIA. Bernard’s website can be accessed by clicking on this link: https://sites.google.com/view/smithdifferenceproject/home

ENG 101 student, Ashlairy Lora explored “The Difference Between the Banning of Graffiti and the Celebration of Street Art.” Her astounding slide presentation can be found here: https://issuu.com/nvcctamarack/docs/text_and_ media_ashlairy_lora-2.pptx

Here’s a link to the Social Justice Series’ panel discussion on Book Banning: https://vimeo.com/752308012/2f8f906fa7