Sue Hatfield and William Tong are the candidates for Connecticut State Attorney General

Responses from William Tong

Harassment

There are ongoing issues of discrimination and harassment in the STEM fields (e.g.: Faculty with a history of misconduct honored at Yale - https://goo.gl/RdBTLF and https://goo.gl/Pvvnwb). Recent findings from the National Academies (https://goo.gl/B6jd2d) suggests that harassment of women in academia is second only to the rates experienced by women in the US military. Connecticut boasts a number of large, prominent universities, including Yale and UConn, as well as high profile military bases, including the Coast Guard Academy and Naval Submarine Base New London.

What have you done or plan to do to address these issues should you be elected?

How have you or will you ensure that CT women have the protections in place that they need, as well as an avenue for reporting and prosecuting offenders?

Harassment and disparate treatment in the workplace is unacceptable. As Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, I have consistently sought to raise and pass bills to strengthen protections in the workplace and at home for women. For example, I was a strong supporter of the Times Up Act last session. Although the bill did not become law, I fully supported its goals of making it easier to report sexual harassment and sexual assault, along with doing away with statute of limitations for crimes such a rape.

As Attorney General, I will continue my commitment to supporting women and fighting against discrimination and harassment. I have called for the creation of a Civil Rights Unit within the Office of the AG, which would strengthen and expand the work currently being done by CHRO to root out instances of discrimination, including discrimination based on sex, gender and sexual orientation. I will also continue to lend legal advice and counsel to the Legislature, executive agencies and the new administration, as we bolster reporting systems within government and strengthen our laws against discrimination and harassment. The Attorney General does not have prosecutorial powers, as criminal jurisdiction lies with the Chief State’s Attorney and the State’s Attorneys – but the Attorney General can play the crucial role of opining on the legality of changes to our laws and ensuring that justice can be pursued on behalf of victims.

Finally, the Office of the Attorney General provides legal counsel to the state’s public colleges and universities. Despite attempts by the Trump Administration to weaken Department of Education Office of Civil Rights investigations of sexual harassment and assault, I will advise our state’s higher education institutions on how to maintain protections for our students.

Inclusivity

Numerous studies show the benefits gained from organizations building equity and inclusion in their workforce (https://goo.gl/YEMyeK). Lack of inclusivity and equity is an issue particularly in STEM fields and in politics. Connecticut can be considered less inclusive than other states, especially when it comes to education, where many minority students attend largely homogenous schools (https://goo.gl/TYF4bA).

What have you done or what do you plan to do to address this issue?

What have you done or plan to do to attract a more inclusive workforce to Connecticut?

What have you done or plan to do to break down the barriers faced by people of color to pursue higher education and access fair wage positions?

As the son of Chinese immigrants, and the first Chinese American elected to the Connecticut General Assembly, I know firsthand what it means to be a minority in a school, in the workplace, and definitely within politics. This is why I have consistently fought for more equitable funding of education throughout the state, supported the goals of Sheff, and supported making higher education both affordable and accessible to all Connecticut residents, including Dreamers. As Attorney General, I will be tasked with representing the State in all litigation, so my role will change with respect to some of these issues as a matter of course. However, where given discretion and the ability to advise my client, I seek to make our state more just, integrated and inclusive.

Environmental Stewardship

Connecticut is prone to numerous environmental disasters including pollution, coastal flooding, blizzards, etc. These are predicted to be worsened by the impacts of shifts in Earth's climate patterns (https://goo.gl/PvZQik and https://goo.gl/AEtLb5). Connecticut was also ranked as having the worst air quality of states east of the Mississippi - Fairfield County was ranked the 19th most ozone polluted county in the nation and Hartford-West Hartford the most ozone polluted city - by the American Lung Association's 2018 State of the Air report.

What policies and actions will you take if you enter office to help safeguard our state?

What climate and energy policies do you support?

What have you done or plan to do to improve the air quality of our state?

In Connecticut, and especially in our shoreline communities, we know well about the costs of climate change; significant weather events put both lives and property in peril. Take for example Superstorm Sandy, which ravaged our coast, destroying homes, infrastructure and delicate eco-systems. As one of the three states to experience the height of the storm surge, we felt the brunt of the storm, which unfortunately, we cannot treat as an isolated incident. Climate change is real and more destructive storms will surely come. Consequently, since Superstorm Sandy, Connecticut has taken steps to protect against future disasters, from creating the nation’s first microgrid program to designating more shoreline forest as open space to create coastal buffers to investing in flood-prone areas.

These pressing environmental and economic factors are precisely why as Attorney General, I will seek to have Connecticut follow the lead of Rhode Island Attorney General, Peter Kilmartin, in suing the world’s largest fossil fuel companies for hastening climate change. As AG Kilmartin has stated, it is time for the states to take on the Big Oil and the corporate polluters who are creating a detrimental impact to our economy, eco-systems and public health. Much like the groundbreaking lawsuits against Big Tobacco, this litigation seeks to hold these billion dollar corporations accountable for their knowing participation in creating societal harm and driving up costs to the state.

Immigration/Family Separations

We were particularly pained over the past months by the heart-wrenching situation of migrant children being separated from their parents with some of the children reportedly detained in our state. Some of our members are mothers of young children, and as scientists we are aware of an extensive body of research (https://goo.gl/yQrXNg) on how separating children from their parents can cause toxic stress and impair mental and physical development. 500 Women Scientists views this issue as representative of a larger immigration problem. Additionally, many Connecticut scientists are immigrants and have made significant contributions to U.S. excellence in research and development, and current immigration policies put this excellence and the well-being of immigrants at risk.

Tell us about steps you’ve taken or plan to take to reform our immigration system and guarantee human rights are protected.

What have you done or will you do to ensure protections for immigrants seeking visas to study and work in STEM fields in CT?

As you may know, if you have been watching this campaign over both the Primary and now the General Election, this issue is of the utmost importance to me – and not just because my opponent has gone on record as supporting Trump’s family separation policy. The issue of family separations – and of how immigrants are being vilified by federal government -is deeply personal for me. This is about my parents, my community, and everyone who comes to America seeking a better life for their family. I have always stood with immigrants, those documented and undocumented, in their quest for citizenship and ultimately, dignity. From leading the passage of and this year defending the TRUST Act, to repeatedly calling on the Trump Administration to stop its xenophobic and discriminatory policies, to breaking bread with the families in our state who are living fragmented lives while in sanctuary, I will always advocate for just immigration policies and practices. As Attorney General, I will seek every opportunity to oppose the federal government where it seeks to discriminate against immigrants, and to support the diversification of our state’s workforce.

Dreamers

Today, there's a generation of immigrants who have lived in the United States since childhood and only know this country as home, yet they do not have the opportunity to become U.S. citizens and fully join society. Through the DACA program, thousands of Dreamers were able to pursue studies in STEM and succeed in these fields.

What have you done or plan to do to provide a permanent solution for Dreamers?

What are your thoughts concerning proposed H.B. No. 6709, proposed S.B. No. 591, and proposed H.B. No. 7000 submitted in 2017 concerning sanctuary state status, establishing an immigrant bill of rights, and access to higher education funds for Dreamers?

I am a proud co-sponsor of the landmark state legislation passed in 2018 that allows undocumented students to access institutional financial aid (Public Act 18-2). This was a fight that I helped lead in years past – including co-sponsoring H.B. 7000 in 2017 -so it was especially meaningful to have this long awaited bill become law. DREAMERS deserve the right to pursue higher education, and I am proud that our state recognizes the importance of higher education for all.

The other two bills mentioned here did not make it far in the legislative process, but their topics are no less worthy. We need to provide access to education, health care and housing to all our state’s residents, and government should be play a role in those efforts. We also need to ensure that our immigrant communities do not have to live in a constant state of fear, and that is why I helped to write and led the passage of the TRUST Act. From a legal standpoint, allowing our municipal police forces the discretion to decline to do the work of ICE, is really what it means to create a “sanctuary state.” Our current Attorney General has stood up to the Trump Administration over its threats to strip federal dollars from our state over the TRUST Act, and I will vigorously continue defending our state’s right to protect immigrants.

Scientific Integrity

Politicians are disputing settled science and firing government scientists for political reasons.

How will you foster a culture that respects scientific evidence and protects scientists?

Can we count on your commitment to support stronger oversight of any efforts to cut science out of public protections and to oppose similar attempts?

Successful litigation often relies on the bedrock of scientific evidence. For example, in the climate change lawsuit I described in the answer above, it will be crucial to have fact-based, scientific explanations of how pollution is negatively impacting weather cycles and consequently state spending. Medical research will also play an important role in opioid litigation, where dosing, addiction and withdrawal must be clearly explained and documented. Connecticut’s scientific community is one of our greatest assets – both in the intellectual capital and economic growth it creates -and I look forward to partnering with you.