With proven business leader experience and a passion for public service, Bruce Wilson, Jr., believes he has the expertise and energy to bring value as District 12's next state senator. Wilson's work with Madison Board of Education (BOE) sparked a "mid-life passion" for public service and furthered his desire to deliver the best outcome for those he represents.

Wilson said he wants to legislate to bring change, leading to better opportunities for all. He said he'll work to help employers keep existing jobs here and make it easier for new businesses to start and create new jobs.

The Republican candidate faces Democrat Ted Kennedy, Jr., on Nov. 4 for a seat left open by retiring State Senator Ed Meyer (D).

The Madison resident and Hand High School alumnus (1982) announced his candidacy shortly after his opponent's announcement made national headlines.

"I was raised to embrace challenges, and it has served me well in life," said Wilson, adding that he hopes the race helps increase poll turnout.

"Quite frankly, if it becomes an effective way to engage voters, then how is that bad? Voting is one of those core requirements, and we all have busy lives and we all have reasons for missing elections here, but we all need to aspire to be better at that. We all need to try."

Numerous hours going door-to-door has confirmed Wilson's reasons for running.

"We have hit thousands of doors-at this point, we're way over 100 miles walked. It's been the most enjoyable part of the campaign for me so far-meeting people, listening to their concerns, and realizing all of the things that are bothering me are aligned with what I'm hearing from folks at the door."

The State Economy

Most concerns come as "no surprise.

"It's taxes, its jobs, it's the economy, and they're all wrapped up in the same general malaise. I think people are realizing they're all related. What's interesting for me is they're starting to associate the General Assembly, more than the governor, with this problem. So they're recognizing the General Assembly is really the critical factor in issues around spending and policy."

Wilson and his wife, Elizabeth, Madison residents since 1992, raised three children attending public schools as he rose through a Connecticut medical manufacturing company (1991 to 2013) becoming CEO (2007 to '11) before the company was sold at the end of 2011.

"I oversaw the company's turnaround from a loss to the greatest growth in the history of the company, in both sales and employee hiring. I understand the challenges of small business in Connecticut as an employee, employer, and business owner from this experience," Wilson notes on his website,

www.wilson4senate.com.

Connecticut's reputation as business-unfriendly is real and needs to change, Wilson said.

"Having experience firsthand as a business leader, I can appreciate the need and the importance of government as partner with business. In business, we talk about tail winds and head winds. We have good examples of states providing tail winds for their businesses in their state taxes, [and] to their credit those states recognize Connecticut businesses face a significant headwind and are actively trying to poach our employers away-and doing it with some success. So the good news is we can be that for our businesses; the bad news is we need to change our perspective on how we look at businesses."

He said this cramping of business growth is fueling Connecticut's aging demographic.

"That's probably the biggest indicator that our economic policies just aren't working. It's not because there are more seniors moving here-it's because more of our young people are moving away because of no opportunity, and it's changing the mix. My kids-23, 21, and 17-I look at the horizon and say, 'What's there for them?' And I don't see it the way I saw it when I was starting my family and my career in Connecticut."

As for seniors, Wilson said many are being taxed away.

"I certainly appreciate the constraints seniors have. My parents, who lived in Connecticut for years and years, finally changed their residence to Florida as so many of our seniors are doing, and it was because they just simply couldn't justify the expense of living in Connecticut. It was stealing their wealth, essentially."

Small businesses are the "back bone" of Connecticut's economy and need better state support. Wilson cites helping a District 12 specialty garage owner seeking state assistance to transition from a one-man operation.

"And when I started to help him and I was coming at it from a business perspective, I came to appreciate how little there are in resources for those guys. This is somebody who's successfully built up his business to the point where it's bigger than him and he wants to make that next step. He would be hiring two or three skilled mechanics-those are good jobs in the state, those are foundational jobs. I think for me, it goes back to the manufacturing roots. Manufacturing companies employ so many different kinds of people. And they typically start very small."

State support needs be honed for best return on investment.

"I think of it in terms of investment in a very traditional sense. Every penny, every ounce of energy the state invests in a business, the state needs to have returned back to it in some meaningful way. We also need to look at the regulations and say, 'Are these adding value to the state?' I worry sometimes we get into the habit of creating government for the sake of creating government. We see a bad actor, whether an individual or business, and then we rush to backfill legislation to prevent anything like that ever happening again, and it stifles individuals, it stifles business. Sometimes, our need to react quickly overrides our need to react sensibly."

On Education

Wilson said the state rushed to adopt Common Core standards.

"I'm very concerned and outright against this implementation of Common Core. We hear these stories about how it was so quickly adopted by the states. What we usually don't hear is the federal government said if you don't adopt something like this…of course there was a choice of one…then you're not going to be eligible for the federal money you're already getting. So it wasn't new federal money on the table; it was existing federal money. So what did states do? They adopted it."

Wilson's investigated Common Core since joining the BOE in 2013 and becoming Policy Committee chair.

"We hear the imperative for Common Core is our relatively poor showing in international testing and because of that we are at risk as an economic power. If you look at [standards testing] from day one, which goes back now to the '70s, I believe…we've never done well in those tests. If you compare our economic growth during that same period, they're completely divergent. So our performance has been fairly flat…in the middle of the pack, but economically, we've just left the rest of the world behind. So this correlation used to create the imperative, I just don't buy."

Wilson disagrees with tying educator evaluations to testing and one-size-fits-all standards.

"Attacking teacher professionalism, attacking standards, those are easy solutions to a hard problem. I don't think anybody would look at Guilford and say that district needs help-[that] they're not doing a good job. I look at Guilford and say they are consistently one of the highest-ranked schools in the country and the state, and they do it with almost no money. Madison is the same way. We look at dollar spent per child, [which] is as low as anything in the state, and we look at quality of education coming out of these districts; it's consistently high. Money isn't necessarily the answer.

"Why do Guilford and Madison and towns like that have more success? It has to do with the community. It's a community dynamic," he continued. "I can't tell you how we create that community dynamic in Hartford or Bridgeport or New Haven or in Miami, Florida, for that matter. What I can tell you is there is no one single answer that will work for Hartford and New Haven and Miami and Guilford."

He adds it's not too late to roll back Common Core.

"Other states are doing it as we speak. We're not fully implemented as a state. As a state, we have very good standards so if we fell back to where we were, we really wouldn't be falling back, at most we would be falling sideways-falling into a set of standards that are probably just as good. Our dilemma in education is not a standards problem. It's effectively teaching to a demographic of students that have so many other things going on in their lives that it's hard for them to learn. We talk about what are the enabling factors? Coming to school with a full stomach-that would be a big thing. The children whose parents are children themselves-that's a disadvantage for them coming into school. Common Core doesn't do anything to address that."

The Environment

A scientist by training appointed to Madison's Rockland Preserve Commission in 2008, Wilson recognizes there's a "level of vigilance" required to protect open space and make decisions affecting the environment and energy use.

"We need to make sure we're balancing all of our needs and making our decisions based in good science, not emotion. And I think there is room for all of these perspectives to be heard."

Wilson said he has the "passion and energy and the free time" to make an impact in Hartford.

"I can bring value to this community...I really see this as an obligation to pay a debt. This is a community that allowed me to be successful, and I worked hard and I had opportunity, and I certainly had things go my way, so I didn't do it alone. Nonetheless, I was successful here. I worry the same opportunities that were available for me are not there for our young people. And if I, as somebody who has the time and the passion, doesn't step up and try, then who's going to?"