Rep . Larson seeks his sixth term in the U . S . Congress , where he is Vice Chair of the Democratic Caucus . He sits on the Ways and Means Committee and formerly served on the Armed Services and Science committees and as Ranking Minority Member of the House Administration Committee .

He is founder and co-chair of the House Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Coalition . He is well known for holding local forums throughout his district on issues of concern to constituents .

Born in East Hartford , he graduated Central CT State University and taught high school history and was a coach , before becoming an owner of Larson & Lysik Insurance Co . He served on the East Hartford BOE and the Town Council , then spent 12 yearsin the state Senate , 8 of them as Senate President Pro Tempore .

The congressman said : “ There is a dual responsibility as a member of Congress . The primary job , I think , is to educate the public with respect to the critical issues that they face . They elect youto vote for the bridges and the infrastructure and balance the budget , but when issues of importance come up , they expect youto inform them and to hold yourselfout to them in terms of explaining what’s going on . I’m committed to preserving Social Security and Medicare and securing a true prescription drug benefit for seniors , and I’ve introduced legislation to allow the federal government to directly negotiate lower drug prices for more than 40 million Medicare beneficiaries . I have opposed the policies of preemption and unilateralism and the war in Iraq and have focused my concerns on the threats of terrorism , protecting the homeland and supporting first responders . I’ve visited Iraq five times , most recently in May , and I do vigorously support our troops . I believe that an Obama win in November will take the country in a better direction . ”

Congressman Larson and his wife Leslie have three children , Carolyn , Laura and Raymond , and they are lifelong residents of East Hartford .

Joseph B . Visconti was born in Hartford and currently lives in West Hartford , where he is a member of the Town Council , patron of the arts and a community activist . He serves on the council’s Community Planning and Development Committee and is the council liaison to the Board of Education . He has an Associate’s Degree in Telecommunications from the University of Hartford , and he owns a general contracting company specializing in commercial renovations and repairs . He is a founding member and chair of Disabilities & Possibilities and received an Emmy award for a related television production . He is also a New York trained actor .

Visconti is a member of the West Hartford Taxpayers Association , a board member of West Hartford Vision and a founding member of Save the Center , which provided information to residents about the Blue Back Square development .

Mr . Visconti said : “ You can take a party and rebuild it , and that’s what will happen if we win the presidency . I am running because youget possessed , obsessed and driven by public service , the fact that youneed to do something and then yougo into the political world , which is close to being a used car salesman or a home improvement contractor – which , by the way , I am . Once youdecide to run for office at any level , something happens to youand youstart to look at things differently . We are going through a change in America on a lot of fronts . The message for me is balance , and things seem to go one way or the other , with greed and self interest taking over . Temptations are too great for those who get into power . It gets right down to the will of the people When elected officials are bought , people don’t learn the right way . Representative government is under siege right now . There has been an abuse of power , and there is a credibility gap . It is scary to see how fragile our democracy is . ”

Mr . Visconti resides in West Hartford with his three children , Joey , Gabriella and Michael . LARSON ( D ) The House has adopted “ pay-go” standards , but the Senate has failed to do so . You have to live within yourmeans , and youhave to pay for those items that youdecide are essential for the health and well being of the country . No family can do what the federal government does , and that is put off the budget , run up the costs and at the same decide youare going to tax and spend . For the past 8 years, this administration has borrowed and spent . As Cong . Tanner from Tennessee said in questioning Sec . Paulson in front of our Ways and Means Committee , “ If tomorrow China were to invade Taiwan , we would have to borrow money from China to fight and defend Taiwan . ” We must return to regulation , oversight and review , but if youhave an executive that can veto , or out of pure arrogance choose not to conform to either subpoenas to the congress or rules that we are insisting on and not enforce existing regulations , well then youend up in the kind of situation that we have now . VISCONTI ( R ) You can’t fix a house with a broken hammer . Congress is broken and there needs to be term limits – that doesn’t mean one term , maybe three or four – but some kind of timetable so youknow when youare going to enter the government and when youare going to leave it . You need to control congress before youcan control spending . Eliminate special interest PAC money . That doesn’t mean youcan’t have PAC organizations that endorse , but that they just can’t put their money in , because the spoils system has been going on forever in America . Homeowners and renters should receive a tax write off for heating , cooling and electric bills . If they were filing single with $ 78 , 000 income or up to $ 131 , 000 for married couples , they will receive a tax write off for 100 percent . I think there should be college loan deductions , and would propose up to a $ 2 , 500 deduction on credit cards . Those three things right now in our market would definitely reduce revenue to the government . The thing is to keep more money at home and not give it to [ congress ] to spend . LARSON ( D ) What we had was not a question of facing real estate sub prime issues , even though that is how it all began , and it became an investor crisis in terms of 401 Ks and pension issues , but what it really was is a credit crisis . Sec . Paulson dropped a $ 700 billion problem at the doorstep of Congress with no paper and no plan and then walked away . What we argued for was no golden parachutes , tough compensation with respect to businesses that actually participate in the program , strict accountability and an oversight board that’s transparent , that the board is appointed by members of the House and Senate to provide necessary oversight , and that there is a claw back provision , because Paulson’s proposal is to buy back troubled assets . The leaders agree that we should work on this bi-partisanly . There should be an inspector general in the commodities futures market . The mortgage issue is very important , but local bankers inform me the community banks are solid and capable of loaning . Increasing the FDIC limit to $ 250 , 000 helps small businesses VISCONTI ( R ) The answer is in the constitution , which they forgot about when they nationalized the banks . It has been forgotten , and that’s why the people have been forgotten . I don’t think we should send the FBI into institutions like we’ve done and then send billions of dollars at the same time . It’s like bank robbers going in , and yousend the police in , and youlet them come out with the money . Now the public owns parts of the banks it may not be able to get loans from . The whole regulatory process has to be overhauled . They took the firewalls down between banking and investment insurance , and then when it didn’t change the regulation , they ripped out the sprinkler system , so like a condo complex , the fire just spreads . This is very important now that we have international money owning most of our country and our banks being owned by the taxpayer , who can’t get loans in the same banks . This comes as a warning , we will not be defending the constitution or the American people through this regulatory process without transparency .