STILL MOVING AND SHAKING

The towns that make up House District 20 – Eddington, Bradley, Clifton, Dedham, Holden and part of Brewer – may have thought it was their idea to elect Rep. Benjamin Pratt to his first term of state office last fall, but it turns out the Democrat’s success was predicted long ago.

An editorial printed in the Feb. 28, 1989, edition of The Register Citizen in Torrington, Conn., under the headline “A young mover and shaker” cast its vote nearly two decades before District 20 had a chance. It praised 9-year-old Ben Pratt for his environmental advocacy on behalf of bats, and against an insecticide that would kill them, after he persuaded state lawmakers to introduce a bill to ban the poison. The editorial concluded confidently “young Mr. Pratt is a force to be reckoned with and hopefully will be heard from again.”

With his grandmother, Suzanne Hastings of Warwick, R.I., maintaining Rep. Pratt’s old newspaper clips and sending copies to his impressed local newspaper, there was little chance it would be otherwise. Mrs. Hastings, says Rep. Pratt, “has been a cheerleader for me my whole life.” She is also politically active, he says, and like his parents encouraged him to write letters and contact local officials about issues.

“I certainly didn’t see myself as an elected official in my own right at this time in my life, but was thrilled and excited when the opportunity presented itself,” he says. “My hope is take what I have learned from my grandmother and the rest of my family and be a good representative for the folks in House District 20.”

We hope so, too. Meantime, a word of praise for grandmothers who enthusiastically serve as press agents for their grandchildren and for the odd editorial that knows a 9-year-old mover and shaker when it sees one.