Susan's Record

As Secretary of the State, Bysiewicz has fought for Connecticut families, veterans, seniors, and consumers. Bysiewicz's record includes:

CRACKING DOWN ON ILLEGAL BUSINESSES

With Richard Blumenthal, spearheaded the effort to crack down on out-of-state businesses operating illegally in Connecticut, which hurts our economy, threatens legitimate small businesses, and costs us jobs. In the last three years alone, their efforts resulted in the recovery of approximately $4 million in state revenue. In 2009, Secretary Bysiewicz won legislative approval to increase the penalties imposed on illegal businesses by over 80%.

PREVENTING IDENTITY THEFT

Safeguarded the privacy of Connecticut citizens by ensuring that confidential personal data within her agency is protected or altogether eliminated from the public domain. In particular, she won passage of a law to remove all social security numbers from voter registration rolls.

FINDING LOST POLICY HOLDERS

Located thousands of lost policy holders who were owed either stock or cash options from old life insurance policies that had long been thought lost. The program, which sought-out owners of lost life insurance policies written by John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Company, MetLife Insurance Company, and Prudential Insurance Company, led to more than 9,500 policy holders being located and hundreds of thousands of dollars being recovered for them.

STANDING UP FOR VICTIM'S RIGHTS

In 2004, Bysiewicz created the "Safe at Home/Address Confidentiality" program, which protects victims of domestic violence and sexual assault by keeping their addresses confidential.

HONORING VETERANS

Successfully fought the Bush Administration's efforts to ban voter registration at Veterans Administration (VA) Hospitals across the country. As Secretary of the State, she has honored World War II veterans across the Connecticut.

FIGHTING CORRUPTION

In response to the corruption scandels plagueing CT SB fought for and passed a bill that prevented those convicted of public corruption from receiving taxpayer-funded state pensions.

DEFENDING OUR ENVIRONMENT

Led the successful effort to ensure that a proposed National Guard training facility was located in an industrial park rather than in open space or farmland in Middletown and fought against the dangerous Broadwater Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) Terminal in Long Island Sound.

Throughout her tenure, Secretary Bysiewicz has transformed the Secretary of the State's office through the innovative use of technology. As a result, an unprecedented amount of public records and other information housed in her office is readily accessible on-line to all Connecticut citizens. She led the nation in implementing the CONCORD system to allow for searches of essential information about the more than 350,000 companies registered to do business in Connecticut. Bysiewicz also created the Connecticut Voter Registration System (CVRS) to streamline voter registration, protect voter rights, and prevent voter fraud. In 2006, Bysiewicz unveiled optical scan and IVS vote-by-phone voting technology for the citizens of Connecticut, bringing Connecticut into compliance with the Help America Vote Act (HAVA). This new technology provides a paper trail for every vote cast, allows those with disabilities the chance to vote privately and independently for the first time, and ensures the long-term security and reliability of Connecticut's elections.

With the emergence of new technology, Bysiewicz has worked to ensure that confidential personal data within her agency is appropriately protected or altogether eliminated from the public domain. Her groundbreaking effort to bring the CONCORD, CVRS, and other systems to the global community has resulted in national and state recognition for her leadership and commitment to expanding e-government.

As the state's business registrar, Secretary Bysiewicz has worked to enhance and provide efficient customer service to the business community. Recognizing that 90% of all the new jobs created in Connecticut in the last 10 years have been created by companies with 50 employees or less, Bysiewicz created the CTShowcase initiative which has successfully encouraged and supported the development of more small and minority-owned businesses.

Throughout her career in public service, Secretary Bysiewicz has been a tireless advocate for open, ethical, and accountable government on all levels. As a State Representative, she won passage of legislation that made Connecticut's lobbying and campaign finance disclosure laws among the strictest in the country. As Secretary, she has successfully fought for sweeping ethics reform and legislation that keeps special interest money out of Connecticut's elections.