Running Diary

Bumped. George will be joining us for a live blog today at 1pm. Please stop by. --Mike

Greetings to the Future Majority!

My name is George Colli and I am honored to be introducing myself as the Democratic nominee to the Connecticut State Senate out of the 7th District. At 29, I am a lifelong resident of a district that consists of seven towns in North Central Connecticut (Enfield, Somers, Windsor Locks, East Granby, Windsor, Granby and my hometown - Suffield). It runs along the border of Massachusetts and is split by the Connecticut River.

I work in a family business as a realtor that includes a small town real estate office, commercial property management, and a restaurant. I graduated with a political science degree from Providence College in 2001 and worked my first year out of school as the Assistant Director of Admissions at my alma mater, Suffield Academy.

I became involved with my local Democratic town committee and several local, state and congressional campaigns over the past six years. It was the campaigns of two candidates in 2006 that inspired me to serve in elected office.

The first was Joe Courtney. Mr. Courtney, now Congressman Courtney, won the closest Congressional race in the country by a margin of 83 votes. He is the definition of a public servant and is an exception to the rule in showing that good people can finish first!

He was victorious by keeping the race about his future constituents and their needs. If there were ever a reminder that every vote counts, this race was it! Even more inspiring was the fact that this was a race that clearly was decided by a significantly higher number of young voters going to the polls. The University of Connecticut alone experienced an 800% performance increase over the prior off-year election. Even more interesting, his best precincts were the ones where college students were located. It was that moment when I realized the power of our generation’s voice.

The second race was that of Derek Donnelly for CT State Representative out of the 61st district. Mr. Donnelly was running against an incumbent who was first elected to the seat when he was three years old. The 61st is a heavily Republican district, one that had not been opposed in years. He ran a race that was both positive and tireless. He knocked on every door in our district and attended every meeting and event. By the time people started to pay attention, Derek had set up an organization of young and lifelong supporters alike that forced his opponent to pull out every stop she could. While he ended up about 200 votes short in the end, he showed that by having drive, energy and a positive platform voters will respond.

What I look forward to sharing with you is a regular diary, from today until Election Day, of the experiences I encounter along the campaign trail.In the five weeks since I received the nomination, I have listened to people in my district talk about the direction they would like to see our state go. I will be sharing these issues with you and would love to open up a debate as to how we can solve them. I am running a campaign based on responsiveness and accessibility. My goal is for my district to expect more out of its state senator.

What I look forward to learning from you is how our generation can continue to make an impact in our political process, in business and in our society as a whole. And, as we are a campaign driven by young people, I’d love to hear your best practices for getting even more young voters engaged in the process and participating.

Our generation is one of great courage, great intellect and great promise. I am optimistic for our future and look forward to giving you all a first hand look into how we are going to show that here in North Central Connecticut.