Matt Lesser

State Senator

Matt Lesser

Deputy Majority Leader

Your Independent Voice

January 30, 2019

Sen. Lesser Joins Unanimous Vote in Favor of Diverse Panel of Superior Court Judges

State Senator Matt Lesser (D-Middletown) today joined a unanimous and bipartisan vote to reappoint four ethnically and politically diverse judges to another eight-year term on the Connecticut Superior Court.

Sen. Lesser voted today to reappoint:

  • Democrat Mohammad Nawaz Wahla of Glastonbury, who retired as a major after 20 years in the Pakistan Army. He received law degrees from the University of Punjab in 1974, the University of Texas at Austin in 1991 and the University of Houston in 1998, and formed his own law firm, Wahla & Associates, in 1999.
  • Republican Hunchu Kwak of West Hartford, a native of Korea and a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and the University of Connecticut School of Law
  • Democrat John M. Newson, of Brooklyn, a former public defender and lifetime member of the NAACP who graduated from the University of Rhode Island and the Western New England College School of Law.
  • Republican Lisa Kelly Morgan of Wethersfield. She is a graduate of Villanova University and the UConn School of Law and is the former head of her own law firm, Ruben, Morgan & Horan.

“Today we have reappointed a qualified, diverse group of judges,” said Sen. Lesser. “I’m proud to vote for a bipartisan, diverse group of judges whose knowledge, experience and fairness will continue to be an asset to the state.”

About Sen. Lesser: Sen. Lesser was first elected in 2018 to represent the ninth Senate District which consists of Cromwell, Middletown, Newington, Rocky Hill and Wethersfield. Prior to being elected to the State Senate, he was a State Representative for the city of Middletown. He has been a principle author of Connecticut’s Student Loan Bill of Rights, the first in the nation, a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing waste and a major workplace safety law later adapted as a national standard. He has been honored by the Connecticut chapter of the AARP and has been named a champion by the Connecticut League of Conservation Voters.