This is a printer-friendly version of an article from Zip06.com.

Austin Coco Plans to Bridge Two-Party Divide

Is youth an asset in politics? Twenty-one-year-old Austin Coco of Clinton thinks so. A participant in both his high school and college political clubs, Coco is running on the Libertarian ticket for state representative in the 35th District. Coco thinks that not being a member of either of the two major parties will help him get new ideas through, introduce compromise, and cut through bureaucratic red tape.

“I’m not going to be beholden to either major party,” he said. “I can pass legislation and work with both sides for the benefit of the state agenda.”

Coco is a senior studying marine biology and political science at the University of New England in Maine. He believes that both of his majors are relevant, the first because he’s been taught to evaluate sources and to admit when he’s wrong—plus he’s familiar with the scientific issues that face the shoreline.

“I think that a very important thing to bring into politics is the ability to admit when you’re wrong, and be critical of information and take the bias into account,” he remarked.

Coco is in favor of decriminalizing marijuana and reducing standardized testing in schools. With regard to the state budget crisis, he plans to increase tax revenue by encouraging more businesses to move into the state.

“I think part of the solution to the budgetary issue is increasing business by diversifying our businesses in Connecticut and make it easier to start businesses,” he said. “I think we could increase the volume of businesses and diversify the businesses in our state. I think that’s part of the solution that is often overlooked in Hartford.”

Another of Coco’s goals is to introduce ranked-choice voting, a system in which voters can rank their choices on a ballot in terms of preference.

“I would push ranked-choice voting as one of the bigger issues, just so we can get real discussion and real choices that represent all of the state, not just half of the state,” he said. “I think it would be much more representative of our democracy. With almost half of the state [residents] registered as unaffiliated and maybe a little over half being affiliated with Democrats or Republicans, it’s very difficult to say we have a representative democracy with only two parties being represented. It would hopefully get all kinds of different ideas put through in Hartford because you’d have multiple parties represented. With the two-party system I don’t feel there’s going to be a fundamental change.”

Beyond the ability to compromise that he hopes to introduce as a third party candidate, Coco is hoping to make Libertarian ideals about autonomy more visible to Connecticut voters.

“I really wanted to start a discussion first off on some of these more Libertarian ideas in which you have personal freedom and you can be fiscally responsible without sacrificing personal freedom,” he commented.

At heart, he wants to see change come to Connecticut’s election system, both so that it represents the voters more accurately and also works to benefit the state rather than its parties.

“I feel like fundamentally neither party is being held accountable to Connecticut,” Coco said. “Now is not the time for more philosophical ‘No’ votes—it’s time to come together and actually reduce the tax burden and reduce the deficits and I don’t see either party doing that. I feel the two parties are more concerned about their own agendas rather than politics that help the State of Connecticut.”