I have a lot of sympathy with the ideas and frustration of the Occupy movement. I absolutely agree with the sense that Wall Street has brought an economic calamity to the middle class and that no one has been held accountable.

One of the things I was hoping to do in the Secretary of the State's Office when I came was to provide businesses with more information about business opportunities in Connecticut. That's both to businesses that are here already and also to businesses that are not located here, but might be interested in coming.

There are two chief responsibilities of the Secretary's office. One is to run the elections in the State of Connecticut to make sure they run fairly and efficiently because the Secretary is the chief election official. The Secretary of the State is also the chief business registrar for the State of Connecticut.

I was brought up on a farm, and I've learned that every opportunity that I've had in my life has come from hard work and persistence.

We've been sitting at the compromise table for a long time. We're just waiting for that cold chair to be warmed up by the Republican leadership. They still have time to do the right thing and be responsible. They just seem to be moving further and further away from it.

Although I am a young leader, I actually came to it strangely quite late. I have a different perspective, partly because of my family, partly because of what I did for ten years: negotiating trade deals, working out in Central Asia doing assistance projects.

I grew up with Microsoft. I know the leadership of Microsoft.

You can't be a major company today without paying attention to celebrities. They are the leaders in beauty and fashion.