I submitted the following letter to the Verona Press Letter to the Editor section today. It has not been printed yet, but I wanted to share it all with you as well.
Mike Bare’s Experience Sets Him Apart
For anyone who has followed my escapades on the City Council, you know that I am very passionate about affordable housing and mental health care. I am also a person who is constantly questioning why we do things the way we do and if there is a better way.
Democrat Mike Bare handles my questions and challenges with grace and a vast knowledge of how and why things are done the way they are and what we need to do to change them in the best possible way. He has taken our local concerns and put them into real action at the state level.
In my time on the City Council, Mike has worked tirelessly to not just recognize and acknowledge issues but to move forward on help and solid solutions. Mike Bare is the lead author of an increase to the Homestead Credit, which helps people pay their rent or mortgage, including helping our seniors find safe apartments to rent or helping them stay in their homes.
On the Housing Committee and in the full Assembly, he led the fight against a Republican attempt to criminalize homelessness and take away funding from our state’s critical homeless services. These kinds of discriminatory policies destroy beneficial programs and make it more difficult for organizations to help improve living conditions for everyone. Mike didn’t just speak out against this legislation, he put together an amendment to remove the destructive pieces of that bill and replace them with proven, data-driven programs to help people get and stay housed.
Mike Bare also worked with Democrats and Republicans on all sides to not only get a half-billion dollar investment in workforce housing, but also successfully amended the bills to be sure this new housing will be safe of lead, mold, and other hazards. Mike knows that we don’t just want a place to live for the hard-working employees in our district, we want safe and healthy housing for everyone.
Housing is not the only critical issue facing our community that I feel very passionate about. Fighting for improved access to healthcare in all forms is also very high on my list. In my last meeting with Mike Bare, I brought up a frustrating experience I had trying to help coordinate a therapist appointment for someone traveling out of state for a funeral. It was a horrible time for them when they really needed the support of their therapist. Because they were traveling outside of the state, they were not allowed to meet with their therapist. Mike took my concerns seriously, immediately began talking with me about the policies at play in the situation, and worked with me to start brainstorming ideas for new bills he and his team can work on to enact policy changes that could make a real difference in mental health care for people during difficult times.
And then there is abortion. We must have a candidate that unequivocally stands for safe and legal access to abortion. Denying access to abortion is literally killing people in this nation or forcing them to take dangerous med flights to other states in order to receive this life-saving procedure. Mike never hesitates to loudly and clearly state his support for repealing the archaic and cruel abortion ban in this state and ensuring that health care, including abortion, is a human right accessible to everyone.
We all know that the government moves slowly, but Mike has the expertise, relationships, and drive needed to push it forward. We can’t lose him.
In this primary, we are so lucky to have two great Democratic candidates to choose from for our Assembly district. I wish we could have that in all of our primary races. The difference between the candidates for me is that Nasra Wehelie has experience at a city level only, whereas Mike Bare has the policy knowledge and working relationships at the town/city, county, and state levels. I would love to see Nasra move up to the County level and begin to build the wider base and network that the State Assembly level demands. Mike Bare can hit the ground running and continue fighting for us with the voracity he has already shown us in his last term. Most of all, the best thing about Mike is that he always brings hope and a direction for change into every frustrating and difficult situation I put before him. I’m actually excited to vote for State Representative Mike Bare for our Assembly representative on August 13th (in-person absentee voting begins on July 30th!), and I can’t wait to see what he gets done next.
Beth Tucker Long, Verona City Council representative for District 4