Blog

The results are in! Thank you for the incredible community support and the opportunity to serve our corner of Brattleboro for another two years.

The results are in! Thank you for the incredible community support and the opportunity to serve our corner of Brattleboro for another two years.

These last few years have changed us and it is up to us to let those changes be towards progress. The pandemic taught us the power of effective government, the power of saying no, the power of sending resources directly to the people that need it. I’m committed to remembering these lessons as we enter the next biennium. Freedom is about more than making a living; it’s also about having time to show up for a neighbor, take a loved one to the doctor, attend a parent-teacher conference, retire in dignity, or attend a community meeting.

When we go all in for all of us, we can make this a place we’re proud to call home with the world-class schools, affordable healthcare and community services our families need.

Thank you for the incredible community support and the opportunity to serve our corner of Brattleboro for another two years.

These last few years have changed us and it is up to us to let those changes be towards progress. The pandemic taught us the power of effective government, the power of saying no, the power of sending resources directly to the people that need it. I’m committed to remembering these lessons as we enter the next biennium. Freedom is about more than making a living; it’s also about having time to show up for a neighbor, take a loved one to the doctor, attend a parent-teacher conference, retire in dignity, or attend a community meeting.

When we go all in for all of us, we can make this a place we’re proud to call home with the world-class schools, affordable healthcare and community services our families need.

I’m committed to this promise of good government and our collective project of deliberative democracy. I believe in taxes as more than a necessary evil but as the promise of this sharing of decisions and resources. I’m hoping to return to the Ways and Means committee in January. I care about revenues and taxes because they are how we can make sure everyone is contributing equitably to our communities. I know that we can do more than imagine a better future, we can fund one.

At a time of increasing divisiveness, of politics built on reactivity and scarcity, I’m committed to be a steady, curious presence. I commit to show up each day to ensure that no matter what we look like, where we come from, or how we make a living, that living and working in Brattleboro with our families can mean living a good life. Over the next months I need to hear from you. I need your perspective to do this well. I want us each to remember that we can write the rules and we make the future— we can ensure we have the resources to truly educate all of our kids and the services to truly support all of our families. But we need to work together to have a community that works for all of us. I need your help to get it done.

We can move from talking to doing. Together.

Our Delegation works together: meeting regularly, balancing each other's skills, and ensuring that we can focus our lens both broadly and deeply. Our new county delegation which includes two new state senators: Nader Hashim and Wendy Harrison, and two new wonderful new state representatives: Tristan Roberts and Heather Chase, will hold a series of full day meetings with community partners in December. If you are interested in being part of these meetings in either your professional or personal capacity, please let me know.

I will continue hosting weekly office hours via zoom, you can register here, and if you prefer to meet in-person, we’re hosting monthly meetings at the library on the second Saturday of the month at 10:30am with my fellow Brattleboro representatives, Tristan Toleno and Mollie Burke and State Senators, Nader Hashim and Wendy Harrison. I do hope you’ll join us on December 10th at 10:30am to kick off the season.

I’m also hoping for specific focused advice and support from you. In order to do this work as well as our community deserves, I would like to create a consultancy group or kitchen cabinet– working with folks with specific expertise in our community– farmers, builders, nurses, mental health specialists, parents, elders, and communication and event enthusiasts. I’m imagining that this would be a commitment of an hour or two per month and I promise to keep it interesting and accessible, please be in touch if you’re interested.

Please reach out any time, you can find all my contact information as well as sign up for my newsletter at emiliekornheiser.org

But as we work in the legislature to make government work for you, we are working under some of the same structural challenges that keep corporate interest in power all across this country. We have a citizen legislature. This makes it incredibly difficult to move policy that isn’t supported by a funded lobby: policy that isn’t one off, or can’t rally folks with easy talking points.

At a time of increasing divisiveness, of politics built on reactivity and scarcity, I’m committed to be a steady, curious presence. I commit to show up each day to ensure that no matter what we look like, where we come from, or how we make a living, that living and working in Brattleboro with our families can mean living a good life. Over the next months I need to hear from you. I need your perspective to do this well.

I want us each to remember that we can write the rules and we make the future— we can ensure we have the resources to truly educate all of our kids and the services to truly support all of our families. But we need to work together to have a community that works for all of us. I need your help to get it done.

We can move from talking to doing. Together.

Our Delegation works together: meeting regularly, balancing each other's skills, and ensuring that we can focus our lens both broadly and deeply. Our new county delegation which includes two new state senators: Nader Hashim and Wendy Harrison, and two new wonderful new state representatives: Tristan Roberts and Heather Chase, will hold a series of full day meetings with community partners in December. If you are interested in being part of these meetings in either your professional or personal capacity, please let me know.

I will continue hosting weekly office hours via zoom and am looking forward to also hosting monthly meetings at the library with my fellow Brattleboro representatives, Tristan Toleno and Mollie Burke. Please stay tuned for more details on these meetings. I do hope you’ll attend these meetings, to both hear what we’re doing but also to give your thoughts on our work.

I’m also hoping for specific focused advice and support from you. In order to do this work as well as our community deserves, I would like to create a consultancy group or kitchen cabinet– working with folks with specific expertise in our community– farmers, builders, nurses, mental health specialists, parents, elders, and communication and event enthusiasts. I’m imagining that this would be a commitment of an hour or two per month and I promise to keep it interesting and accessible.

And finally, the reason that I got elected– to actually get it done. My nextexplore upcoming policy proposals in greater detail but I want to be clear newsletter will go deep on some of my thinking for the upcoming session: what can we do to make this a community where people can make it work? I’m thinking family medical leave, affordable childcare, accessible housing, addressing our addiction and overdose crises, and continued work on climate change and human rights.

In such solidarity and gratitude to you, thank you for the faith in my work, and for all that we are going to do together!