State Senator Andrew Maynard

Senator Andrew Maynard is serving his first term in the Connecticut General Assembly, representing the 18th Senatorial District towns of Griswold, Groton, North Stonington, Plainfield, Preston, Sterling, Stonington, and Voluntown. First elected in November 2006, he is currently the Senate Chair of the legislature's Select Committee on Veterans' Affairs, vice chair of the Environment Committee, and sits on the Appropriations, General Law and Program Review & Investigations Committees.

No stranger to public service, Senator Maynard has been active in his local government affairs for the past ten years. He served as Stonington's Borough Warden for eight years, leading the town as its chief elected official.

He previously served as vice chair of the Southeastern Connecticut Council of Governments and chaired the council's Legislative Committee. He was also a member of the Sub Base Realignment Coalition, the Governor's Commission on Economic Diversification, and the Southeastern Connecticut Water Authority Advisory Board.

Senator Maynard is a board member of the Southeastern Connecticut Affordable Housing Alliance, nonprofit organization working to increase the supply of affordable housing in the region. He co-chairs the 10-Year Plan to End Homelessness in Southeastern Connecticut, is an active member of the Stonington Community Center's Board of Governors, and serves on the Board of Trustees for the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Scholarship Trust Fund of Greater New London. He is also a member of the Connecticut Cruise Ship Task Force and the Connecticut Seafood Council.

During the 2007 legislative session, Senator Maynard played a key role in the General Assembly's creation of a state Office of Military Affairs. The office was designed to help coordinate local and state efforts and to strengthen the Groton sub base against federal base realignment and closure, or BRAC. The office will also aid in enhancing the quality of life of military personnel and their families.

Senator Maynard worked to fast-track legislation to prohibit protesters from demonstrating less than 100 yards away from military funerals. He also worked to create additional state benefits for veterans, including a measure to preserve benefits for state employees serving oversees and at the Mexican border and legislation to allow all Army reservists, current and former members of the National Guard, and all honorably discharged to take a day of unpaid leave on Veterans' Day, November 11.

As a member of the Environment Committee, Senator Maynard cosponsored legislation to create a state Farmland Preservation Advisory Board to assist with the identification and purchase of development rights and other efforts to preserve agricultural land. The measure also called for the state Bond Commission to twice a year hold a vote on a $5,000,000 bond for farmland preservation, an area of open space conservation that is historically under funded.

Senator Maynard also cosponsored legislation to create an earned income tax credit to provide property tax relief to low-income families and was a proponent of measures to increase Medicaid reimbursements to hospitals and physicians and to expand the HUSKY health care program for uninsured children.

Senator Maynard attended St. Bernard High School in Uncasville and earned his bachelors' degree from Connecticut College in New London. He currently lives in Stonington.