GPPR Podcast Editor Eleazar Weissman (MPP ’23) speaks with Connecticut State Senator and Georgetown alum, William Haskell. As Connecticut’s youngest state senator, Senator Haskell offers insight into how he decided to run for state office after graduating from Georgetown University in 2018. He offers a rich perspective on what shaped his legislative agenda on issues such as criminal justice reform and the importance of state and local political involvement.
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[Episode Start]
Hi, my name is Eleazar Weissman, and I am a senior podcast editor for the Georgetown Public Policy Review. Last semester I had the pleasure of interviewing Connecticut State Senator and Georgetown alum, William Haskell. In our conversation, we discussed his experience running for the state senate and then representing the perspectives of a younger generation of voters on several issues such as criminal justice reform. Senator Haskell offers a rich perspective on the process of getting involved in politics which may serve as a source of guidance for those who want to initiate change. For these reasons, I hope that you enjoy the following episode.
Eleazar Weissman: Kick off with a little bit about yourself and I think that would be great.
Will Haskell: Sure, well I’m super excited to be speaking with you today. My name is Will Haskell. I graduated from Georgetown in 2018. And from my Nevils dorm room, I decided to do something a little bit unusual and that’s run for the state senate in my hometown of Westport, Connecticut.
Haskell: The incumbent State Senator had been in office for longer than I’ve been alive and, we had a lot of really substantive policy disagreements. She was somebody who had fought against paid family and medical leave. You know I grew up with a single working mom who had to go back to work two weeks after I was born. She’s somebody who said that we went too far on regulating guns when I thought we hadn’t gone far enough.
Haskell: Anyways I could go on and on, but I was pretty surprised, pretty demoralized, that nobody else was running against this longtime incumbent. Sure, I knew it was going to be challenging, but I think whether you’re a Democrat or Republican, just about everybody oughta believe that our democracy functions best when incumbents are held accountable. You know when their constituents hold their feet to the fire. So, I hired my college roommate to be my campaign manager and the day after graduation we packed up our bags and moved back to Connecticut, bought a bunk bed at Ikea on the way, and started knocking on doors that afternoon.
Haskell: It’s been an adventure ever since. I’m now in my second term in the State Senate and have loved every minute of serving in the legislature and I recently wrote a book trying to encourage other young people to make that same leap of faith and not just show up at the ballot. But hopefully show up on the ballot as well.
Weissman: Thank you again for coming here to speak to me. I just wanted to ask you whether in your experience in the Senate, representing a younger generation. Do you feel like this has led you to have a different perspective than many of your colleagues, especially on issues like criminal justice reform?
Haskell: Sure, so I think that the promise of representative democracy is that every perspective gets a seat at the table. That’s why we fight so hard to elect more women into public office. It’s why we need more people of color to run and win a seat at the table where decisions are made. And it’s also frankly why we need every generation to be represented in the halls of power. And right now, unfortunately, whether it’s your local town hall or the State Capitol or the Congress of the United States, every single day decisions are made about what the next 10, 20, 100 years of American life will look like. And by and large, those decisions are made without any input from the stakeholders in that future.
Haskell: I think that’s really scary not because our generation has all the ideas, but we have a lot of ideas and different ideas and different perspectives. We know what it’s like to participate in school shooter drills, so we fight loudly for stronger gun violence prevention. We know that climate change isn’t an academic problem but poses a real existential threat to our ability to lead happy and healthy lives. So, we fight like hell for stronger environmental regulations and to your point on criminal justice reform, we have a different way of thinking about crime and punishment than maybe our parents and our grandparents. We’ve seen the disastrous effects of mass incarceration and how they haven’t ultimately made our community or country safer. So, we’re interested in more compassionate, more innovative, more rehabilitative approaches, and that’s been something I’ve been really honored to work on as a member of the Judiciary Committee.
Weissman: I was wondering if you could explain some of your accomplishments in terms of legislation?
Haskell: Absolutely, so what I’m most proud of accomplishing in the legislature is a new law that establishes free community college in Connecticut so that every young person can afford to pursue a degree. College isn’t necessarily for everybody, but whether or not you are able to pursue that dream shouldn’t be determined by the amount of savings in your bank account or in your parent’s bank account.
Haskell: I think everybody should be able to decide when they graduate high school, whether they want to go right into a job, whether they want to get some skills at a trade school, whether or not they want to pursue a degree at their local community college. And I’m really proud that over 7,000 students have already participated in that program.
Haskell: With regard to criminal justice reform, I’m proud of a few things that I was able to work on. Along with my colleagues, I fought for clean slate legislation, which essentially erases the criminal record of those who have served their time in. Look, serving in prison shouldn’t be a life sentence. More than 90% of folks who are sent to prison in Connecticut are eventually slated to return to society, and we know that when they do, they disproportionately face discrimination when it comes to finding a job, finding a place to live, even going back to school and getting that degree.
Haskell: That dream can often be hampered by the fact that they have a criminal record. So, in order to help returning citizens get a new lease on life, in order to help them become productive members of society. To be crass, in order to help them become taxpayers and entrepreneurs in our community. Well, we believe that after they’ve served their time and after they’ve remained crime free for a number of years, that their criminal record should be erased. This is something that Connecticut wasn’t the first to do.
Haskell: And if you look at the other states that decided to pursue this sort of criminal justice reform, it’s actually a lot of conservative states as well. There were a lot of leaders on the right, like Grover Norquist who spoke up and said our system of incarceration and then perpetual discrimination, even after they’ve served their time, that doesn’t make any sense. That’s neither compassionate, nor logical, nor beneficial to society. So Clean Slate was something I’m really proud of, and then we also worked to make prison telecommunications free.
Haskell: Connecticut had some of the most expensive prison phone calls in the country and I remember sitting with my colleagues on the Judiciary Committee and learning for the very first time, in the course of a public hearing that families were going into debt just in order to keep in touch with their loved ones. Once again, this isn’t just a policy that lacks compassion, it lacks good common sense. If you’re not keeping in touch with your loved ones during your time of incarceration, then, when you get out of prison, you’re not going to have a network of supportive family and friends to live with, to fall back on, to help you find your feet.
Haskell: Unfortunately, that contributes to our cycle of recidivism. So, we wanted to do something to make it easier for families to keep in touch with their loved one and that’s why we went to the other end of the spectrum. We went from one of the most expensive states to make that phone call to actually a state where it’s free to call your loved one.
Weissman: Coming into the Senate, you know, you’re young and you’re forming your opinions of the world. Is there anything that being a senator that gave you a unique perspective on many of these issues?
Haskell: Well, I would say that running for office is – it’s essentially a free education, right? When you go out and knock doors, you learn about issues that you never really thought about before. I, like a lot of candidates, was motivated to run for office by three or four issues. Three or four things that really mattered to me. Three or four things where I really disagreed with my opponent.
Haskell: And then you get out on the campaign trail, and you start knocking on a few thousand doors and you ask everybody, the same question what’s, the most important issue for you? And from some people you hear about the things that you already knew about – the things that already motivated you. But from most people you hear about things that you have no idea how to fix. You had no idea they were even a problem. Sometimes they’re small things like the school bus isn’t arriving on time or the mail isn’t being delivered. Sometimes they’re big things like they’re worried about nuclear war and the president’s habits on Twitter. But the joy of serving in state government is finding those issues in between, where the state actually can make an appreciable difference in people’s lives.
Haskell: And then after you are elected, you have the chance to actually go back to some of those doors you knocked on to help those ideas become bills and then fight to make those bills laws. And even have the opportunity to fill some of the potholes that people pointed out at the end of their driveway. So being a state senator taught me a lot about the community where I’d grown up, where I was now charged with speaking on behalf of 100,000 people. The biggest job of state senators is to listen and that listening can’t just happen on the campaign trail. After you’re elected, when you serve on six committees, and you participate in public hearings, you vote on about 500 bills. There’s no way that you’re going to be the expert on every issue. You become an effective legislator by learning from others, figuring out what experiences you don’t necessarily have, and then speaking up loudly when you think your voice contributes something that’s currently missing from the conversation.
Weissman: In respect to a criminal justice reform, when you were here on campus, you mentioned that you had the opportunity to visit some Connecticut prisons and I thought this was a very unique and interesting position. So, I wanted to hear a little bit more about that, if you would.
Haskell: Absolutely. I remember getting a drink with a legislator, who had served many, many years ago. He’s a leader on criminal justice reform issues. And he said, “Will, you know now that you’re elected to the State Senate, if you call up the Department of Corrections, they’ll let you walk around any incarceration facility that you’d like. As a member of the Judiciary Committee, it’s an act of oversight for you to go and visit these facilities and that’s not an opportunity afforded to the public.
Haskell: So, I got pretty excited, and I started a tour of visiting all sorts of incarceration facilities in Connecticut. I visited MacDougall-Walker. I visited York Correctional Institute. I visited a correctional institute that was dedicated just to young people to see what it’s like to, you know, turn 16 behind bars, to learn geometry and algebra in a classroom that operates inside a Detention Center, to try to check out books from a library that restricts what you’re allowed to read because of, I think, nonsensical regulations on prison libraries, and what resources are available to those who want to learn and better themselves and prepare for life outside of incarceration.
Haskell: All that to say that I learned a ton from these visits. A lot of those lessons actually ended up influencing the work that I did in the legislature. For example, I fought unsuccessfully to make sure that every person who was incarcerated is housed in a cell that’s air conditioned. That may prompt a lot of people roll their eyes, right? They might say I live without air conditioning. I know that I grew up in a house without air conditioning.
Haskell: So not everybody has access to air conditioning, but on really hot days, what my family, and I would do to cool down – take a shower, open a window, take a walk, pour a glass of ice water. Those opportunities they’re not available to somebody who’s sitting in a concrete cell. And with global temperatures rising, we’ve actually seen across the country a whole host of health problems and even deaths associated with the housing of incarcerated people in cells that aren’t air conditioned.
Haskell: So, when I went on a hot August day and toured Bridgeport’s Corrections Institute and walked those very sweaty corridors and saw folks sitting in their cell, just you know sweltering in the heat. It opened my eyes about the fact that you know overheating in incarceration settings, that’s not just a problem in Texas, and Alabama, and California, and Arizona. It’s becoming a problem in Connecticut, whether we like it or not.
Haskell: So, I went back to the legislature and tried to change that. I haven’t had success on that front, yet, but I can point to some other examples where we were actually able to make a change based on the lessons I learned from those visits.
Weissman: Yeah, for sure. I’d love to hear more about what’s next on the agenda in that respect.
Haskell: Sure, well, I serve as the Senate Chairman of the Transportation Committee, and one thing that we’ve heard a lot in recent months is that there’s a supply chain crisis exacerbated by the lack of truck drivers. It’s super hard for massive trucking companies and local businesses alike to find folks who have their CDL, their commercial driver’s license.
Haskell: Meanwhile, we know that a huge percentage of folks who were incarcerated and returning back to society end up back behind bars just a few years later, because they’re not able to find a job. And therefore they fall back into a cycle of poverty and perhaps crime. Unfortunately, they’re stuck in this vicious self-perpetuating cycle of being unable to successfully reassimilate into productive society. So, it got me thinking about how we could bridge those two problems.
Haskell: I actually spoke with a corrections officer at one facility, who told me that, you know, one reason that they see the same faces again and again is folks get out and they don’t have a driver’s license so they can’t get to a job.
Haskell: Then it got me thinking about how we could partner with the trucking industry, just to you know address two birds with one stone. Now we have legislation before the transportation committee that would ensure every incarcerated person who is within six months of completing their term of incarceration. In other words, they’ve got six months left to go until they will be released. They can now study and earn their commercial learner’s permit while behind bars. Now a commercial learner’s permit, it’s not a commercial driver’s license because they have to still do some road hours and some testing when they get out. But it is a really laborious, challenging, written test that they have to pass, and now they have a chance to study and to take that test, while they’re behind bars.
Haskell: That means that, once they get out, they’ll qualify immediately for an apprenticeship, often a paid apprenticeship. And few weeks later, once they are in that commercial driver’s license they’ll be in a career field that often earns 60, 70, even $80,000 as a starting salary, because of the supply chain crisis. So, this is a real opportunity to help folks get back on their feet. It’s been such a joy collaborating with the Department of Corrections, with the Department of Motor Vehicles, with the trucking industry, with the business organizations. All of which are eager to see this bill pass. I hope that by the end of the month this legislation will have made it through both the House and Senate and be signed into law by Governor Lamont. It made it out of our transportation committee with bipartisan support and that’s something I’m really proud of.
Weissman: That’s incredible. I was wondering if you could maybe share your perspective on what strategies someone who’s in school or somebody who might just be very busy with their job could get involved on these issues that they’re passionate about?
Haskell: Yeah, I love that question. So, like many Georgetown students, I see folks on my Instagram feed telling me to call Joe Biden or to call Joe Manchin or leave a voicemail for Mitch McConnell and I’ve done that. You don’t reach them, obviously. Best case scenario, you get a very polite intern who listens to you for maybe 30 seconds or two minutes.
Haskell: What I don’t see very often on social media is folks telling me to pick up the phone and call my state legislator. Call your state representative. Call your state senator. I’m not sure why I never see that. We just don’t direct even a fraction of the advocacy that we send towards Congress and Washington DC that we do towards our state capitols. But the truth of the matter is a lot of these issues, whether it’s college affordability or gun violence prevention or paid family medical leave or as we’ve been talking about today, criminal justice reform. Most of these issues are determined on the state level you look at our crisis of incarceration and most people in the United States, who are incarcerated are serving time in a state facility because of a violation of a state crime. If you care deeply about these issues, I really want to encourage you to take a look at what’s happening in your state government. You might be surprised, as I was, to find that the person speaking on your behalf doesn’t really share your values and beliefs.
Haskell: You might be surprised to learn that when you pick up the phone and call your state senator, you’ll reach us on our cell phone. You’re not going to get a polite intern and you’re going to get the legislator themselves. And if 5, 10, or 15 people pick up the phone and tell us that they’d like us to focus on an issue, well then that’s going to shape our agenda that day and that week and that month in the legislature. Just a handful of phone calls can make all the difference and I’ve seen this firsthand when my constituents decided to pick up the phone and encouraged me to take on a particular issue. That issue has become a priority, because that’s my job to hear that feedback and to act accordingly. All that’s to say that my advice to folks is get involved in what’s happening at the state and local level. I say that without judgment because I didn’t know who my state senator was for most of my life. I get that we all live busy lives and don’t have time to tune into both the White House press conference and what’s happening in our local state senate committee hearing.
Haskell: But I promise that you’ll be amazed to find out there’s a lot of interesting work happening at the state level and that just a little bit of advocacy goes a much longer way when you get involved with town ballot races and with candidates and politicians like myself who serve in that state level.
Weissman: Great. You know I really appreciate you speaking with me. I wanted to sort of mention that you have this amazing book, “100,000 First Bosses.” And I wanted to ask you, what’s next for you?
Haskell: Thanks for mentioning the book. I decided to write that because I wanted to give people a peek behind the curtain what it actually looks like to get your name on the ballot – the good, the bad, the funny, the ugly of running for office. What it feels like to be picked apart in a focus group how intimidating is to walk into the Senate chamber for the first time as a 22-year-old realizing that you don’t necessarily have all the answers.
Haskell: And ultimately, I hope that this book encourages other young people to pursue their own journey towards their own state house to dive into public service without hesitation that they’re too young or that they don’t look like everybody else in the room where decisions are made because that’s exactly why their voice is needed. That’s why we need them to step up and run for office. I’ve loved serving two terms in the state senate. It was an honor to be reelected by my community, but I’ve decided that why ultimately ran for office is because I thought change was good. It’s a valuable thing in government when new voices in different perspectives get to enter the caucus room or the committee hearing or the Senate Chamber itself.
Haskell: So, I’ve decided that I’ll be stepping back and I’m going to head to law school in New York City. I’m really excited about that next step. And in the meantime, I’m sure that whoever comes next in the state senate is sure to bring new ideas and different perspectives, probably a whole lot of better ideas. And I think that that change will ultimately be a wonderful thing for Connecticut and for the district that I currently represent despite the fact that I’m so sad to be stepping away from this job that I love.
Weissman: Again, I really appreciate you speaking with me and if there’s anything else?
Haskell: I just want to say one thing that if there are folks out there who maybe pick up the book and decide that they do want to run for state representative or Congress, I don’t necessarily have all the answers. I only know what it’s like to run for office in one tiny corner of one tiny state. But please reach out. I’m eager to be helpful. I actually recently started a political action committee that invests in young candidates who are working to flip districts from red to blue. I want to be helpful however I can. So don’t hesitate to be in touch and thank you so much for having me today. Hoya Saxa! I hope to see you on campus sometime soon.
Weissman: Thank you for listening to this episode of the Georgetown Public Policy Review Podcast. I hope that you enjoyed our conversation. If you would like to learn more about Senator Haskell’s experience, then you can read his book “100,000 First Bosses.” Available at a bookstore near you. To learn more about the Georgetown Public Policy Review, please visit: www.gppreview.com. This Eleazar Weissman and thanks again for tuning in.
[Episode End]
Established in 1995, the Georgetown Public Policy Review is the McCourt School of Public Policy’s nonpartisan, graduate student-run publication. Our mission is to provide an outlet for innovative new thinkers and established policymakers to offer perspectives on the politics and policies that shape our nation and our world.
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