Klarides-Ditria Seeks To Build On Record With Third Term

SEYMOUR — Every year, State Rep. Nicole Klarides-Ditria discusses politics and legislation at Lauralton Hall, where she works, with the school’s Youth and Government club. In their discussions this year, one club member asked Klarides-Ditria about medical amnesty laws for alcohol.

https://www.medicalamnesty.org/

That legislation — which encourages minors to seek medical assistance for alcohol poisoning without fear of prosecution — has been implemented in 29 other states.
​“I said ​‘That’s such a great idea! Do you mind if I use that? I’m going to try to pass that for real legislation and you can be part of it,’” Klarides-Ditria said.

Klarides-Ditria said she was planning to have the student come up and testify in the public hearing and speak on the floor of the state House with her if it passed. Those plans were postponed when COVID-19 struck Connecticut and ended the legislative session. Klarides-Ditria said items like that are ​‘unfinished business’ that are driving her campaign for re-election as representative of the 105th state General Assembly District.
Klarides-Ditria is running for a third term after first being elected in 2016. She said she ran in 2016 because she was frustrated with the way the state was moving: ​“I was frustrated with the majority party that in Connecticut keeps punishing our taxpayers and business owners by passing more tax increases year after year.”
​“I just thought enough is enough. I need to jump in and try to do my part to help fix all this,” she said.
In addition to being a legislator, Klarides-Ditria has worked as an athletic trainer at Lauralton Hall, a private Catholic high school in Milford, for 20 years. She credits her work as an athletic trainer in helping to reinforce her legislative work.
A top priority for Klarides-Ditria in her third term would be passing a bill that requires schools to establish emergency action plans (EAPs) for responding to a serious or potentially fatal sports-related injury.
One of her proudest accomplishments in the legislature was introducing and unanimously passing House Bill 7171, which expanded and updated the athletic trainers’ scope of practice. Klarides-Ditria also highlighted her work in passing other health related legislation including passing House Bill 5524 to increase penalties for the sale of fentanyl.
She said her proudest work overall in government was on the 2017 bipartisan budget. ​“That added borrowing and spending caps that we hadn’t had before so that was very important.”
Another of Klarides-Ditria’s top priorities was passing tax relief bills for veterans. ​“They’ve done so much for us and given so much for our country. I feel they need more and more from us every day,” she said.
This year Klarides-Ditria said she was planning to expand on legislation she helped pass on helping first responders with PTSD, which she plans to fight for again next year if reelected.
In recent weeks, Klarides-Ditria said she has been discussing police conduct with her husband, who is a detective with the Seymour Police Department, and other local law enforcement officers. Based on these conversations, she said she would vote in favor of banning chokeholds.

​“We’re here to listen. We need to do something because we need to change,” she said. ​“I don’t know what the black community is going through, but we’re here to listen because it affects black lives horribly and it has to stop.”

As for creating civilian review boards, Klarides-Ditria said she would want to know how the boards would be composed and would need to see specific wording and details. ​“I think it needs to be a discussion. It’s an open discussion for everything” she said.
Klarides-Ditria added that she’d be interested in creating legislation that encourages officers to intervene and stop other officers from using excessive force without the fear of punishment or chain of command. ​“If you’re a younger officer and you have a superior officer, you’re not supposed to question them and in these situations if you see something grossly wrong, you need to question it because it’s the right thing to do.”
When asked if she would support electronic highway tolls, Klarides-Ditria exclaimed ​“No!” Klarides-Ditria said she firmly believes tolls would be another government money grab from citizens. ​“You go down the street for a gallon of milk and it’s four and a half or five miles on the highway probably, and you’re going to have to hit a toll.”
​“We have this constitutional lockbox then, it’s a shiny lock on the front, but with a gaping hole in the back. There’s no guarantee that money from tolls would only go to our roads. Before that was guaranteed, there’s no way that I would even entertain a conversation about that.”
Responding to her Democrat opponent, Chris Bowen, who said Klarides-Ditria is too tethered to the Republican Party due to familial ties, Klarides-Ditria said she is proud of her history and family name. Klarides-Ditria was born and raised in Seymour. She said her parents and grandparents, who launched the family supermarket business, instilled a strong work ethic in her and in her sister, retiring state House Minority Leader Themis Klarides.
​“I’m not embarrassed that I come from a family who has a business in town. I’m proud of them and I’m proud of my name and that’s always served me well because I work very hard for everything that I do. It’s you’re work ethic and what people believe you’re going to do for them to make their lives better and I think that’s what the people of the 105th have trusted in me now for the last two terms.”