113th Congress: Elizabeth Esty, D-Conn. (5th District)

By Daniel Peake, CQ Staff

With Connecticut’s 5th District transitioning from a home for dozens of large manufacturing companies to a region dominated by a service sector economy, Elizabeth Esty is preparing a legislative agenda that would implement policies to help her constituents through these changes.

Not that they are going to see her in front of the camera much. Esty says she prefers to stay away from the limelight and do the hard work in the background. “It’s a good way to be effective,” she says.

Even though there are few manufacturing jobs in her district these days, Esty still plans to offer her support. She wants to fund educational and vocational training for workers that in previous generations would have been provided by employers to employees who dedicated their lives to a single company.

Esty faults the unintended consequences of government regulations, not necessarily the regulations themselves, as the biggest impediment to job creation, and says her experience working at the local level will allow her to “see the impact of well-intentioned legislation” and how it will affect her district.

Esty touts her time on the Connecticut House’s Energy and Technology Committee, her interest in renewable energy, and her desire to help her district transform into a modern industrial area as part of her desire to serve on the Energy and Commerce Committee. With hospitals being the largest employers in the 5th, Esty cites health care — another issue covered by the committee — as a policy strength.