Democratic incumbent Joe de la Cruz, a longtime sheet metal worker, is being challenged for the 41st House seat by Republican Kenneth Richards, who runs the Westerly Ambulance Corps. The 41st District comprises parts of Groton and New London.

De la Cruz, 47, of Groton, served for six years on the Groton Representative Town Meeting and three years on the Groton Town Council before running for state representative. He serves on the Energy and Technology, and Housing committees, and is vice chairman of the Insurance and Real Estate Committee. De la Cruz said his background impacts the decisions he makes in Hartford.

"I went up there as a person who's been in labor my whole life," said de la Cruz, who worked two jobs and climbed from welder to manager of Hillery Company, a custom metal fabrication shop.

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Richards, 35, of Groton, a self-described moderate Republican, said his emphasis is on controlling spending and on creating smaller government.

"Right now, we're seeing an explosion in spending," he said.

His taxes have gone up 18.9 percent in the last five years, he said, "because spending is out of control at the state level, at the local level."

"We need more of a voice of spending restraint, going through the budget line by line, seeing if there's a way to redo things, and starting to fund the (state employee) pensions that we're so heavily indebted to at this point," he added.

Richards is "very moderate" when it comes to social issues, an area where Connecticut has seen bipartisan support, he said.

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De la Cruz, who graduated high school and then went through the state's apprenticeship program for sheet metal workers, won his first term to the 41st District seat by defeating then-Republican incumbent Aundré Bumgardner. He ran on a platform of understanding the plight of struggling working families and addressing the opioid crisis.

He and his wife, Tammy, started the local nonprofit group Community Speaks Out, which helps people struggling with addiction to get treatment, after they found out their son Joey Gingerella had an addiction. Gingerella was killed about a month before de la Cruz was sworn in to office. On the first day of the 2017 legislative session, de la Cruz revealed a fresh tattoo of Gingerella.

"I felt I was able to move the needle a little bit even though we've obviously had more deaths than the previous year, making legislation move in the right direction," he said of opioid- and substance abuse-related legislation.

He was among a group of legislators who pushed for a bill, signed by the governor last June, to create a sober home registry monitored by the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, so families and those seeking treatment can check to see if a sober home is registered with the state. It also requires sober homes to have the opioid overdose-reversal drug Narcan on site, and requires residents to be trained on how to use it.

De la Cruz and Richards differ in their approaches to fixing the state's fiscal woes.

De la Cruz was in favor of ratifying a state employee concessions package deal passed by the General Assembly in July 2017 that was estimated to save about $1.2 billion over two years. Going forward, he said, tolls "are going to be part of the solution."

"Whether I get elected or not, in five to 10 years, Connecticut will have tolls," he said.

He argued that the state is not getting money from out-of-state drivers using its roads, and pointed to a backlog in transportation projects in need of funding.

Richards, who has an associate degree in liberal arts and is working on a bachelor's degree in business administration, said the state needs to start looking at regionalization, especially when it comes to education costs. He sees room for savings at the state Department of Motor Vehicles — pointing to a $25 million project to modernize its computer system — and the state Department of Children and Families, which is "top heavy" and could be reorganized to be more "efficient" and "leaner." He called tolls "another idea of regressive taxing in our state."

Both men said the state should continue to support submarine builder Electric Boat. The state this year announced an $83 million package for EB, which is planning a major expansion to its Groton campus, in exchange for the company adding jobs and spending hundreds of millions on capital improvements in Groton.

De la Cruz said the package was "different than giving a tax break to a company so they stay, it's growing a business together." He offered the caveat that the company he manages gets 70 percent of its business from EB, and "if you took away EB, the other 30 percent of our business wouldn't be here."

Richards said in addition to EB, there should be a focus on its suppliers and making it easier for small businesses in Connecticut. He also wants to look at business taxes and adjust them appropriately.

"Small business is what makes America. Amazon started out as a small business. Apple started as a small business," he said.

He said there needs to be a continued focus on job training programs and supporting the state's technical schools.

j.bergman@theday.com