Biography

Elissa Wright is serving her second term as state representative from Groton’s 41st District.  She is the vice chair of the Banks Committee and serves on the Finance, Revenue & Bonding and Judiciary Committees.

On the local level, Elissa has been active in town government and the community for many years – most recently as a member of the Groton Town Council from 2001 through 2006, where she fought for responsible budgeting, property tax relief for homeowners, more transparency in town government, and long-term protection of town-owned open space lands.

She has served on the Board of Education, where she advocated a summer school, a family resource center and fiscal oversight and accountability.  As a member of the Representative Town Meeting, she worked hard for approval and construction of the present town library.  She has served on a Charter Revision Commission, and was for many years secretary of the Oversight Committee of the Jabez Smith House, a historic house museum owned by the town.

Wright has focused on property tax reform to achieve a better balance between the state and local tax systems and relieve the property tax burden on homeowners.  She strongly supports recognition and preservation of our unique historic and natural heritage, and was active in establishing Haley Farm as a state park and Bluff Point as a coastal reserve; in securing Groton’s successful $8 million bond referendum for significant open space land acquisitions; and in preserving the Branford House, a Gilded Age museum at UConn’s Avery Point campus, and a significant portion of the campus from privatization.

Elissa has been involved in local civic matters from an early age and lives in the Village of Noank, where she grew up in a family with a long tradition of dedicated public service.  Her father, the late Mortimer Wright, was elected state representative in 1971, and for many years served as chairman of the Groton Democratic Town Committee.

An attorney, Elissa was previously a law clerk to Connecticut Supreme Court Justice Ellen Ash Peters, and an editor of the Connecticut Law Review.  She served as a legislative aide in the House Majority Office for then Speaker James Kennelly and Majority Leader William A. O’Neill, later Governor of Connecticut.

A graduate of UConn Law School, Elissa holds a master of laws degree (LL.M.) in taxation from New York University Law School, and B.A. and M.A. from Connecticut College.

Her son, Matthew Hemond, is an Assistant District Attorney for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.  Her daughter, Elizabeth Hemond, is a graduate student in biology at Northeastern University.