Candidate Resumes Campaign Canvassing

Pictured above: Sean Grace (at right) campaigning door to door with a volunteer on May 6 Photo from Sean Grace for Senate Facebook page

The Sean Grace for Senate Campaign has decided to resume canvassing in Woodbridge. The decision is in response to assurances from town officials that the grassroots campaign is welcome in their town.

The campaign had previously suspended campaigning because of an incident involving policeon Tuesday. Bethwood Patch broke the story on July 4.

Mr. Grace posted the following announcement on his Facebook page on Thursday afternoon:

Our campaign is moving forward from the unfortunate events of two days ago, when a team of our campaign volunteers was stopped and followed by Woodbridge Police. Since then, we have received assurances from Woodbridge First Selectman Beth Heller and Woodbridge Town Attorney Gerald Weiner that our grassroots campaign is welcome in their community.

To be perfectly clear, door-to-door political campaigning is not soliciting and is protected by the First Amendment and a strong series of Supreme Court precedents. After identifying themselves to law enforcement as political campaign canvassers, our volunteers should have been completely free to continue door knocking.

We have knocked on thousands of doors as a campaign so far, without any prior interactions with law enforcement. Hopefully, it is just a coincidence that our only canvassing team stopped by police included a person of color, but history, our experience, and common sense suggest otherwise.

As of today, we are recommencing our canvassing efforts in Woodbridge. And we expect our diverse team to be welcomed.