| Beth Bye | |
|---|---|
| Member of the Connecticut Senate from the 5th district |
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| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office January 2011 |
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| Preceded by | Jonathan Harris |
| Member of the Connecticut House of Representatives from the 19th district |
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| In office January 2007 – January 2011 |
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| Preceded by | Bob Farr |
| Succeeded by | Brian Becker |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Greenwich, Connecticut |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse(s) | Tracey Wilson |
| Residence | West Hartford, Connecticut |
Beth Bye is an American politician from Connecticut. A Democrat, she is a member of the Connecticut Senate representing the 5th district, which includes parts of Bloomfield and Farmington, all of Burlington and all of her hometown of West Hartford. She formerly served two terms in the Connecticut House of Representatives from 2007 to 2011.
A former Vice Chair of the West Hartford School Board, she was elected to the legislature in November 2006. She defeated Republican Barbara Carpenter, a member of the town council, by a margin of 57% to 43% and was therefore elected to succeed longtime Republican incumbent Bob Farr. Although the district had elected a Republican for the 26 years prior to her 2006 win, she nevertheless won re-election comfortably in 2008: Bye garnered 64% of the vote to her Republican opponent's 36%.[1]
In May 2010, shortly after Sen. Jonathan Harris (D-West Hartford) announced that he would not run for another term in the senate in order to seek the Democratic nomination for Secretary of the State, Bye declared her candidacy for his senate seat.[2][3] She won the Democratic nomination unopposed and easily prevailed against a Republican opponent. She took office as a state senator on January 5, 2011.
Bye is a long-time resident of West Hartford and was first elected to the school board in 2001. She is the former director of Trinity College Community Child Care and the School for Young Children at Saint Joseph College. Beth has been involved with the development of 3 preschool facilities since 2000: The School for Young Children in West Hartford, The Charter School for Young Children in Hartford and The Wintonbury Early Childhood Magnet School in Bloomfield.
Bye is an alumna of the University of New Hampshire where she earned B.A. and M.A. degrees in Child Development, specializing in child care research. She continues to conduct research about the impact of economic integration with Dr. Carlota Schechter. Their research was published on Early Childhood Research Quarterly in March 2007[4] and was featured in the newsletter of the National Institute for Early Education Research in July 2007.[5]
A lesbian, Bye married her partner Tracey Wilson on November 12, 2008. They were the first gay couple to be married in Connecticut.[6] Dr. Wilson is the West Hartford town historian and the couple live with their four children in West Hartford. Bye is one of two openly gay members of the Connecticut General Assembly, serving alongside Sen. Andrew M. Maynard (D-Stonington).[7] Bye had been the first member of the legislature to enter into a civil union. Her 2006 and 2008 campaigns won the backing of the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund.
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