politician

Ralph Nader, consumer advocate and former presidential candidate, was born and raised in Winsted, Connecticut. He graduated from Princeton University in 1955 and from Harvard Law School in 1958. Mr. Nader has been a grassroots advocate and writer for over four decades. He first came into the public's eye in 1965 with his book, Unsafe at Any Speed, which exposed the life-threatening, designed-in flaws of General Motors' Chevrolet Corvair. Thanks to his efforts, automobiles are required to have standard safety features such as seat belts and airbags. Mr. Nader has also been on the forefront of promoting consumer protection, clean air, and food and drug safety. He has also established numerous non-profit organizations such as Public Citizen and Public Interest Research Group (PIRG). Mr. Nader continues to work towards grassroots-based reform. In his latest book, Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us, Mr. Nader writes a humorous, fictional account of a turn of events in 2006 when Warren Buffet decides to lead a team of the wealthiest Americans to remedy the nation's ills with realistic solutions. Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us is available in stores and online. More information is available at http://onlythesuperrich.org/.

Courtesy of Ralph Nader: A Biography by Patricia Cronin Marcello, An Unreasonable Man (2006)

Denise Merrill graduated from the University of Connecticut before serving Mansfield, Storrs and Chaplin as a representative since 1992. She is currently the Majority Leader of the House of Representatives. Merrill is actively involved in issues of higher and lower education, including chairing a legislative task force on education technology and spearheading the School Readiness and the Early Reading Success legislation in 1997 and 1998. For her work on these issues she was recognized by the Connecticut Library Association, the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education, and the Connecticut Education Association. In 1995, she passed the "UConn 2000", a $1 billion program to refurbish and rebuild the campus of the University of Connecticut. In 2005 she was named by the National Conference of State Legislatures as Co-Chair of their Blue Ribbon Commission on Higher Education, a national panel of legislators formed to make recommendations regarding affordability and access to higher education. Representative Merrill was appointed to the National Conference of State Legislatures Executive Committee in 2006, and also serves as a Co-chair of the Appropriations Committee.