Mark Stewart Greenstein

Mark Stewart Greenstein was born in Hartford, Connecticut. He earned a bachelor's degree from Dartmouth College in 1986. His career experience includes working as a educator and business owner. He has been affiliated with Beth David Synagogue.[2]

U.S. House California District 44

Mark Stewart Greenstein did not complete [the profile publisher]'s 2026 Candidate Connection survey.

U.S. House Connecticut District 1

Mark Stewart Greenstein did not complete [the profile publisher]'s 2026 Candidate Connection survey.

Mark Stewart Greenstein did not complete [the profile publisher]'s 2024 Candidate Connection survey.

Campaign website

Stewart Greenstein’s campaign website stated the following:

Athletics

Athletics is the most enjoyable topic among the 30 issues! Expect to see here short pieces on:

Who should be training for college (or even professional) sports.

How parents should and should not be involved in their child's sport.

The fairness of recruiting athletes above scholars.

State support for UConn Athletics.

Tom Brady.

Good athletics as training for good academics.

Good athletics as a model for good civics.

Athletics involves very serious issues for individuals and society, but I'll occasionally add my take on:

My favorite athletes

and

If I were the Commissioner

and

Why I like Certain NFL and MLB Teams,

and

How Candidate Mark Stewart proposes to return the Whalers to CT.

Budget

Connecticut's budget is in the control of the General Assembly. A Governor can implore legislators, a governor can persuade voters, a governor wields a veto, and a governor may practice selective enforcement. I will use all four of these tools to rein in wayward spending.

I, Mark Stewart, am the candidate with the most severe spending reduction proposals. The more our deficits grow, the more my candidacy strengthens. The more our legislators and bureaucrats fail to be straightforward, the more voters are emboldened to throw them out, whatever their pedigree.

I am also the only candidate who expects to give voters their tax money back. With a good General Assembly in place, Connecticut will abolish the income tax. And with good negotiation with the Federal Treasury Department (yes, this is one Democrat who believes working WITH Trump-Pence is good for Connecticut) we will let CT residents pay only a small portion of their federal income tax.

A governor can also exercise good budgeting of his own office. I am pledged to trimming my budget by 20% per year. I also believe the governor's office, like some other state offices, can EARN MONEY for the state. As a tiny example, I will rent out some Governor's mansion bedrooms to tourists (a contingency page is already up on AirBnB) and let the state keep the revenue.

With two exceptions, a state legislature should be budgeting like a family. Our General Assembly has allowed horrible budgeting for the past 35 years. It has foisted liability on younger generations, which is immoral. This will not happen on my watch.

With this governor's resolve, I expect businesses will be attracted to Connecticut. That ITSELF will help our budgeting. But I do not incorporate this speculation into rosy-scenario budgeting.

The Charity Smorgasbord

Mr. Stewart's proposed Year One Budget reduces spending by over $4 Billion. All of the reductions can, and many should, be made up privately. This shows a choice-oriented method, gives a possible taxpayer example, and concludes with objections and responses.

Civics

Mark Stewart is a candidate bringing Civics to the forefront. His campaign invokes civic virtue almost as much as it invokes government policy. That's because Mr. Stewart would prefer to remove many policies from the government realm and return them to individuals and private organizations.

Government can't practice virtue as well as individuals. Government can't teach virtue as well as pastors, parents, rabbis, and private counselors. That's because the most well-meaning, selfless people within government service are inevitably part of a political process that dilutes their ideals. Whatever an individual wants or needs, the bureaucrats want and need it less. The bureaucrat typically has to compromise to get some instead of none.

Individuals do not have to compromise. Single families and private groups get more done, better, than legislatures and bureaucrats. We need to frame debates on how to return more power to the individuals and private groups, and remove power from those who cannot completely enact our best interests.

The beauty is that free markets and minimal regulations have proven themselves to bring us more goods, more services, better health, and higher prosperity than governments ever will. This part of Mark's Civic efforts is an as EDUCATOR. He routinely speaks with student groups to elaborate in areas of economics, civics and ethics in ways their school-teachers often can't.

Mark's campaign thus has National implication in the realm of civics. People in other states need to pay attention to what the Stewart for Liberty campaign is expounding.

Crime

Crime affects us all, even those who are not direct victims. Criminality toward our neighbors means we have to protect against becoming the next victim. The threat of crime engenders unease.

Connecticut is fortunate to be in the lower third of violent crime reports (15th of 50). But the government should be working to lower it still. Even Vermont, Maine, Virginia, and Wyoming (#s 1, 2, 3, an 4) should not be smug if there are preventable violent crimes within their borders. Protecting public safety is a basic function of government, the most important function according to classical liberalism.

For every reported criminal activity, there is a multiple above that that go unreported. For every reported criminal act, there are some criminal attempts that are thwarted. We should be working to deter all attempts.

Deterrence without becoming a police state is a delicate balance. I err on the side of deterrence. My balancing is to use good citizens more often to help the police. "If you see something, say something" is wise. Police can use the extra eyes an ears that good citizenry provide.

Deterrence includes protecting against cyber-crime. I'm the candidate who would spend MORE money on active-duty State Police, including a cyber-crime institute. We will detect impersonators, root out fraudsters, and recoup stolen sums, even if it means going across state lines to "out-of-state" banks.

The videos here will eventually build to important discussions on confinement, deterrence, rehabilitation, and restitution.

Education

The only two specific constitutional duties laid out in the Connecticut Constitution involve education: that there shall always be public funding of elementary and secondary education, and that there shall be a system of higher education, including UConn. This elevation is both good and bad.

The Good: it prioritizes in one of the most important areas of life.

The Bad: it can lead to complacency in education - that if the state government is funding and administering education we can rely on it to be good education.

The way to have the Good without the Bad is to make private education the model. The State-run schools become both leaders and back-stops; they follow some of the better private school practices, and they lead where the expertise of state employees can show all a better way.

State funding and state ideas can elevate education to leadership in many areas. Because the state may be behind certain research funding, we can attract more dollars from out-of-state. Because the state can provide education-to-work opportunities, we can attract more families to settle here for their K-12 students, and more university students to enroll here.

My method for attracting more families is "First 500". This school-choice, "bottom-up" support for schools, via vouchers, makes it REALLY appealing for families:

no top-down command and control;

no common core - it's our choice;

minimal bureaucracy;

maximized learning.

Not only will more families happily make their homes here, first 500 will attract very good teachers too. Market forces give us the best computers, clothing, phones, and foods. With the market back in education, we'll have the best for our students.

Environment

Protecting our environment is one of the few areas for which I would increase state spending. Environmental protection is properly in the state's orbit because individuals can't enforce their own property rights to clean air and clean water without the state's help.

The state can also be a forceful "driver" of environmental improvements nationwide. Connecticut can commit to buying a good new product in bulk -- spurring better research and lower prices. This is improved fourfold if we are cooperating regionally with other New England states, and twelvefold if cooperating with New York and New Jersey. We share the same North Atlantic Ocean, and adjacent airspace, so regional cooperation makes great sense.

Good environmental science deserves to be strengthened. My office will try hard to budget for better testing and better remediation. We will help fund firms that show promising clean technologies. We can help draw talented young scientists and engineers to the state to work on air and water quality.

We must stay wary though. Many good organizations that are concerned about the environment get hijacked by bad science and bad politics. The environmental movement at the national level has been overrun by Marxists. These people use "the environment" as a sledgehammer against small business and small property owners. They even put a harness on food production, and their national policies make food prices unnecessarily high, especially hurting poor people. These Marxists delay construction needlessly; they derail good projects.

Our good instincts to live healthier lives cannot be subverted by those whose overarching goal is bring down established institutions. Out General Assembly and our evaluators within DEEP need to stick with good science, and to be grounded in helping humanity.

Fair Taxation

Ultimately, it is the General Assembly that decides the mix of revenue sources. A Governor can suggest, implore, threaten, and cajole General Assembly members, but ultimately their majorities are what we must settle on.

A Governor Mark Stewart has one overarching tax policy: we recoup what we spend almost immediately. Short of a WWII-like emergency, if state spending rises by 1.5% in 2019, we MUST collect the difference in 2020. We do not run budget deficits. That causes planning to go awry and increases borrowing costs.

The remaining forms of taxation are all negotiable. My preference is for user fees instead of income taxes. Thus I would:

abolish the state income tax

reduce the corporate income tax

reduce the sales tax

reduce "sin" taxes, and

reduce the travel and tourism tax.

Now, these reductions can only come with massive reductions in spending. Elsewhere I discuss what's needed, including replacing state individual welfare with private welfare and never paying a dime for new pensions.

Should this combination fall short, then I believe in user fees for roads, and gradually working in user fees for non-school activities taking place at school sites. I also have the expectation that the CT Lottery can add nearly $500M annually to the General Fund from out-of-state sales. Remember, we will see an abundance of revenue from sales taxation on online purchases, whether or not North Dakota v. Quill is overturned.

How to Fix the CT Budget. From Crisis to Democratic Elegance

Following the November 2018 election, a December referendum and General Assembly approval, Connecticut will become the first state to return welfare to a private function. The plan takes three years and coincides with the state personal income tax going to zero. The continuing welfare function is known as "PSY-OPS".

For Businesses

America's splendor owes greatly to its embrace of business. Nations that restrict business grow haltingly, if at all. Nations whose governments try to extract too much from their successful businesspeople lose them, their inventiveness, and their diligence.

This nation, and this state, should never lose sight of need for robust business. At the government level, that generally means getting out of the way. State government has to protect safety; beyond that, it should restrict with extreme deference to freedom. That means bargaining contracts, health care policies, hiring policies, retirement policies, and discrimination policies should be left to employees and employers in a beautiful cauldron called "The Free Market".

Yes, even employment discrimination. There are very few "crackers" left in Connecticut. If they are still so stupid as to not want to employ racial minorities, fine. Let them them lose their talents; and let them lose angry customers, minority and majority, to more enlightened competitors. Let the few misogynist employers who might still be left in CT also suffer the consequences of their stupidity.

Connecticut has been hurt by overzealous regulation. Connecticut's entrepreneurial class has been stifled by needless forms, unnecessary intrusions, restrictive regulations, and fear of law suits. Our legislators at times regulate the small to protect the powerful. That explains requiring 500 hours of hair styling school before a young woman can open a braiding business; it explains high barriers for a business to self-insure, and it explains why no small homeowner or farmer can become a solar energy generator (and thereby earn money on her property and reduce neighbors' utility bills.).

The state can be a good collaborator with business. In transportation and environmental hazard remediation the state has to. In education, it should. My largest expansion of state services to business is "First 500", so contractors can be building, shaping, and administering to schools. In incubating talent, the state would be wise to help our businesses more. We have loads of talented youngsters who will do innovative work for a variety of companies; we need to assure that regulations don't stymie their hiring or their continued training.

Signifcant Savings For Families

The most significant savings I can give to families is also the most American. Connecticut families that don’t make demands on the Federal government for the unconstitutional services it provides, are excused from paying 90% of the cost.

The 10% can be considered a tithe, or the price of “leaving us alone”. It’s a necessary price for the freedom we are about to receive. With it, families will keep 90% of the tax money that goes to activities they don’t use and will not use.

I and others have calculated the costs of the Federal government conducting its Constitutionally-authorized operations. The largest of these, by far, is defense. Annual expenses for the other powers delegated to the federal government, including coining money, providing border enforcement, naturalizing citizens, establishing post offices, operating the courts, regulating foreign commerce, and running the patent office collectively don’t equate to even 20% of the defense budget. All these operations PLUS defense sum to at most 26% percent of the budget.

The remaining 74% are social programs not authorized by the Constitution. This includes Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Obamacare, NLRB administration, NASA (except perhaps that related to space-based defense), ethanol programs, housing programs, nutrition programs, K-12 education, university education and all aspects of corporate welfare not related to defense or border enforcement.

This is the 74% that should not be funded involuntarily. Much of our Congress has felt otherwise for the last 80 years. But that is the nature of power: Congressmen like enlarged federal powers because enlargement gives them more clout, more likeability, and more ability to get re-elected. But the truth is that Congress is limited to the powers listed in Article I section 8. Supreme Court decisions from the 1930s onward to justify Congress overreach are themselves wayward. Those decisions can be revisited – we are not stuck with them permanently.

There are federal government benefits that are hard to avoid. It regulates the radio spectrum, air traffic, wireless phone transmissions, air quality, drainage, nuclear waste disposal, and some parts of highway maintenance. We owe the Feds for our use of these, even if they are unconstitutional. But their cost can be quantified and use can be approximated. These can be recouped by user fees. If the FCCs budget is $800,000,000 and there are 150,000,000 US households, a household’s cost of using the FCC’s regulated stations and radio spectrum is $5.33. If the Federal assistance to agriculture (also unconstitutional) is $2,000,000,000, a family’s share that uses domestic agriculture is $13.33.

Add the costs of the unconstitutional services you use. Most households will find this is under $4000. For the family using federal unconstitutional services at half this amount, it’s a mere $2000. Now add the constitutional share, approximately 24% of your current tax bill. Then add 10%. A family whose federal income tax is currently $50,000 would thus pay (.24 x $50,000) + $2000 = $14,800. Then you add 10% for the Feds’ tithe. Total Federal tax liability: $16,200. Prior liability was $50,000.

Now, with this big reduction, you are staying away from the Federal Government’s other benefits. You are not taking a boat out on Long Island Sound; you are not watching PBS; you are not attending federally funded museums, or if you do you are paying a surcharge for your entry. Same with National Parks: you don’t set foot in a National Park without paying a surcharge for that visit. Yes, we need to monitor freeloaders, but your tax-saving return comes with a permission to be electronically (but not intrusively) monitored.

“Three and Out” is Connecticut’s compliance with the Constitution, while keeping money with its own families, and ultimately supporting the federal government.

Here are the three requirements for being protected by Three And Out:

1.) Remove your substantial assets from the banking system. Connecticut’s armed forces can protect you from federal seizure of your real property and your person; we can’t protect against a wayward Treasury Department that doesn’t feel a 10% windfall is good enough freezing or seizing $ in your accounts. Switch to BitCoin or other Cryptocurrencies.

2.) Track your uses of Federal Services. The State Comptroller’s office will list activities and the proportionate share that is owing to the federal government.

3,)File your tax forms. This is not a system for staying outside the system; it is to work within the system.

For all workers whose federal income tax is withheld from each paycheck, the state will be negotiating to route these payments to the State’s Withholding office if not to you directly. Constitutionalists have favored direct payments ever since the 1940’s when FDR and a compliant Congress chose to withhold taxes from paychecks. Connecticut may be the only state in the Northeast with this mechanism, but many Southern state will be on board simultaneously. I look forward to your participation and to your keeping more of your assets.

For Children

Please see my piece in the "State / Federal" category for the single biggest enhancement I can give to children. That takes some Federal cooperation, but I am one Democrat willing, indeed eager, to work with DC. Whomever is in the White House and the various departments can help us make a better Connecticut.

Now....Connecticut is fortunate to have good, very good, and excellent teachers, devoted to their craft and often devoted to their students. I think we can do better still.

Our teachers are hampered by "Top Down" command-and-control dictates that prevent them from teaching as well as they might. We can free teachers to improve their work with "Bottom Up" choice, where they and the parents take full control. The teachers and parents will get an assist from administrators, but just a small one. A good administrator largely facilitates, meaning helps the teacher do her job better.

I'm the head of a private education firm, yet I take the "lowly" job of facilitating my teachers whenever I can inaugurate a first class. I'm the one wiping down their board, assuring good room temperature, lessening outside noise, assuring students have the right materials, assisting students if they are jumping online. For an after-school activities firm, I'm also a facilitator, a proud one, helping students get the most from their time with an energetic instructor.

The front line is the most important. That's how good businesses operate, and our schools should operate more like businesses.

As for pre-K learning "First 500" will engender a bevy of a private pre-school activities, at much reduced costs to parents. This includes "home-schooling-with socialization (a lack of socialization is typically the biggest fear among parents considering home schooling).

And as for children's lives outside of school walls, I lean towards the "free range" end. This state has not seen a kidnapping by a stranger in 63 years; responsible parents should not have to fear authorities coming down on them for "letting kids be kids".

For Families

For Seniors

For Teens

No governor in U.S. history has worked professionally with as many teens and parents as Mark Stewart Greenstein. As a test prep teacher, he has served in the classroom with over 2000 students. As an advisor on high school success and the college admissions process, he has counseled over 3000 families with teenagers.

Mark has developed courses of study, for the SAT, ACT, SSAT, and US History. His annotated classic novels are still in use by students wanting to improve their vocabulary while reading difficult literature. Mark created a BreakThrough reading course for middle and high school students, and he co-developed a "Study Skills" course for use by schools with their teenagers.

Mark helps assure parents that their students are on a good academic track, and gives suggestions where that track needs improvement.

A Governor Mark Stewart Greenstein can help assure much more. He would facilitate after-school enrichment in schools that currently close by 3pm. He would expand school-to-work internships with firms who become potential employers. He would encourage "safe sporting" so more teens are in healthful sports instead of lured into online gaming.

As for teens who are lured to worse (gambling, drugs, prostitution), Mark believes in more mentoring. But the big move needs to come from parents who will take their teens away from bad neighborhoods. Stewart's school and tax policies forthrightly encourage moves away from blighted areas to the salubrious communities that abound in Connecticut.

For The Devout

For The Devout

For Women

Few candidates in this nation, and very few in the Democrat Party, extol feminism as Mark Stewart.

Mr. Stewart has an overriding appreciation for women's dignity. This applies both morally an in government policy.

In policy, he would go after "deadbeat dads" for child support. He would fund, personally, a legal aid clinic and use office space in a portion of the Capitol to help harassed or displaced women.

He would help underpaid women, particularly single moms, who have a tremendous burden. And he would aid women who are starting businesses.

In the private realm, he can do little with a wayward General Assembly, but should they not protect the privacy and dignity of women in public restrooms against sauntering men, and girls in locker rooms from boys changing and showering with them those "progressive" assemblymen will face the largest public ire from any governor since Calvin Coolidge.

In BOTH realms, Mr. Stewart will elevate the status of Moms. Moms who raise our nation's children are our nation's greatest asset. Yet they are not paid for mothering. Indeed, in most business, they are penalized for taking time off to be good mothers.

A governor should not attempt to change private business policies by force. But he can be a role model. Mr. Stewart, in his private business, operates an office that is very work-friendly to moms. And his hiring gives a lift in status to those who have taken significant time in the "home work force" (i.e. stay-at-home moms). Mr. Stewart pledges the same as governor. He would allow telecommuting by competent employees to flourish. He would set regular work hours to coincide with school hours so state workers with children can be there for them when dismissed from school. At least 80% of his first Appointees will be women.

For Workers

The state government needs to protect those who work. Unfortunately, the state of Connecticut has become a financial predator of those who work and those who WANT to work.

Reason with me. People who work are already giving to society. We produce goods and services that others want. We sell them at or below the price others are willing to pay. (Subordinate workers are no different from their employers here - we all sell our skills at or below the price of willing buyers). So when the state saps the income of workers and their employers, it hurts EVERYONE.

Remember, there's no such thing as public schools, retirements, welfare, or charitable foundations without good work first. So here are elements I as governor would do to protect good work.

stop regulating employers oppressively

allow workers who want overtime to work it unconstrained

stop extracting Medicare premiums from young workers

give workers FULL choice in health & retirement benefits

end the marriage penalty

Then there's the indirect action, such as encouraging workplace accommodations for pregnant, elderly, or partly disabled workers, encouraging organizations to enlist young retirees who still want to work part time, and encouraging telecommuting for "stay-home moms" who can still be effective employees and even managers.

The state should be limited in its commands, but a good governor can still be a voice for suasion in employee-employer relations. In the name of Connecticut, and in the name of Capitalism, which made Connecticut great, THIS would-be-governor is all in for imploring robust, safe, work.

One Governor Candidate's Take on State Unions:

In Connecticut, many labor unions are like families. Their members look out for one another at work; their members share "watering holes" after work; their families get together on weekends.

Artificial "families" are sentimentally nice. Doing business with them is akin to "buying American": at the margins, I choose to stay "in the family, support America, and support American unionists

For Young Adults

Young Adults face tough financial circumstances nationwide. The millennial generation is the first group EVER to expect their finances will be worse than those of their parents. If there truly were a "depression index". the current group of 20 - 29 year olds is probably worse off than any prior cohort since the 1860s, when many 20 - 29 year olds were being drafted to fight a bloody war.

Here is what I as governor expect to do for young workers in Connecticut.

1) I will extricate you from Obamacare / Medicare. Young healthy adults are financially raped by high premiums that should be shouldered by older people, who incur more medical expenses. Yet when YOU get sick, you face the same high deductibles. Your relatively low income makes you harder pressed to pay your share of the bill.

2) You will be relieved of the full federal tax burden. More than others, young adults can most easily take advantage of "Conscientious Tax Objector" status. You trust Bitcoin more than any generation; you can keep your soft assets there. I will protect your hard assets.

3) Our abolishing state income taxes helps YOU the most. Generally, young adults have the fewest deductions - no dependents, no mortgage payments yet. Older people with the same income almost always pay less in taxes. This evens the playing field for you.

4) Your share of road use fees will lessen. You don't drive as much. You use your time productively on public transport (It's we older people who are stuck talking to wierdos while you get work done on your devices.) In an era where single drivers will be paying for road use, you will only be paying a small share.

5) To the extent I have sway over federal policy, I will champion student loan forgiveness in return for communal work. This is the exception to my credo of individual responsibility. But a) you were lied to by adults who assured you that a degree in Bulgarian poetry was just fine, and b) you took on these loans when you were all of 17.

6) I will employ many of you. You who are good at quantitative calculations, programming, data analysis, and trend assessment will have jobs in CT's Cyber Crime Detection institute. Careers here can rival those on Wall Street (because SAVING investors money is more valuable than earning investors money). And you do good for the world by helping rid us of cyber-thieves.

Hang in there. At least ONE candidate is in your corner.

Fun & Entertainment

Fun & Entertainment

Healthcare

We must extricate ourselves from the oppressiveness of ACA and Medicare. They foist on us a lack of choice, higher premiums, higher deductibles, and government "death panels". Connecticut citizens should have complete choice, as we have for most other aspects of the economy: people see transparent prices, pay for what they want, and choose the professionals to service them.

ACA even affects non-health areas badly: Obamacare mandates that those who work more than 30 hours a week for a single firm be given expensive health care benefits, whether they want them or not. To get back the old 40 – 50 hour week, workers now have t