By Scott Benjamin
BROOKFIELD –Around the corner from the dining area - near the framed photos of the UConn women’s and men’s basketball players - hang two T-shirts from 2024 announcing the 40th anniversary of “The Great Round One.”
A News-Times story on the wall shows that Bagelman opened in 1984 – when Bruce Springsteen and Courtney Cox danced on stage in the MTV video.
The first was on Mill Plain Road – the west side of Danbury, which was starting to emerge as a major commercial corridor following the construction of Interstae-84 into New York state.
Julie Kerton is chairman of Brookfield’s Board of Assessment Appeals, having initially been elected to that body in 2017. She is a real estate associate and recently entered the race for the Democratic nomination in the 107th state House District, which encompasses Brookfield, the stony Hill section of Bethel and the Hawleyville section of Newtown.
It is expected that Kerton will face two-term Republican incumbent Marty Foncello, the former Brookfield first selectman, in the November 3 election. The Democrats will hold their nominating convention in May.
Kerton moved to Danbury about 40 years ago – not long after the first “Great Round One” opened. She has lived in Brookfield for 35 years.
Former U.S. Rep. Jim Maloney (D-5) of Danbury has said that when you enlarge a road or build one nearby over time there will be more commercial development.
Super Route 7 was constructed in the 1970s near the southern corridor of Federal Road.
Now there are four Bagelman outlets – including the one near the Candlewood Lake Road intersection of Federal Road in Brookfield, where there are 70,000 vehicle trips daily.
“I can remember when Stew Leonard’s was just a tent,” Kerton remarked about the “World’s Largest Dairy Story” located on Federal Road in Danbury just beyond the Brookfield border.
Kerton said that not only is their major shopping within a 10-minute drive from anywhere in Brookfield, but the retail development has lowered the residential property tax burden.
“I appreciate Costco,” Kerton said of the big box store along the southern corridor of Federal Road.
The 2.1-mile Route 7 bypass, which opened in November 2009, has transformed the 198-acre Brookfield Town Center near the Four Corners intersection of Federal Road.
What has emerged is the New England-style pedestrian-friendly central business district that Democratic former First Selectman Ken Keller envisioned nearly 40 years ago.
Kerton shares the concerns that has been expressed by other Brookfield municipal officials that the housing development in Brookfield Town Center has been too much too fast.
However, she added, “We can’t be anti-development. What was there before wasn’t very attractive.”
Residents flock to the stores at Brookfield Village and Emporium Plaza and over the last 10 years streetscape has been constructed with more to come. A generation ago that area was most noted to traffic congestion during the rush hours and most of the motorists seldom stopped for gas or a blueberry muffin.
But Kerton said Brookfield continues to have a country feel.
“One of the things I like about it is that we have green space,” she remarked. “It hasn’t become [developed] like Westchester County,” where she grew up.
Kerton said the typical house in Brookfield is selling for $550,000, “which is considerable.”
She said the high prices are partly the result of limited supply.
Is that because Connecticut continues to have a revolutionary feel? It is a small state with a lot of land that is not available for housing or economic development.
“I think a lot of it has to do with people staying where they are,” said Kerton. “It is difficult to step up to the next realm.”
Former New York Times economics columnist Peter Coy recently wrote about the mortgage lock on Substack.
He stated, “Many homeowners are still sitting on mortgages with interest rates below 4 percent, even below 3 percent, dating back to the ultra-low-rate Covid era. They don’t want to sell and buy somewhere else because that would require taking on a new mortgage rate above 6 percent.”
Kerton said she would have supported the state housing legislation that Gov. Ned Lamont (D-Greenwich) signed in November 2025
Ginny Monk of CT Mirror stated, “requires towns to create housing growth plans, changes minimum off-street parking requirements, expands fair rent commissions and incentivizes towns to take steps to allow more housing, among other measures.”
Kerton said the state bill won’t usurp local control.
However, the state established the Affordable Housing Appeals Act in 1989. If a municipality didn’t meet the affordable housing threshold then there was an avenue for developers to offer that housing and possibly circumvent municipal zoning regulations.
More than a generation later, there is still a lack of affordable housing in Connecticut.
Kerton remarked, “People were not willing to have that type of housing in their neighborhood.”
President Donald Trump, a Republican, has suggested having 50-year mortgages.
Kerton said that wouldn’t necessarily put more young couples in Colonials.
“I don’t think a lot of what he says makes sense,” she said of the president.
Perhaps the most notable change in Brookfield over the last 10 years has been the surge in apartment complexes in Brookfield Town Center.
The General Assembly is now considering a cap on rent increases.
Jane Park wrote in Ct Mirror that , “A limited rent cap is a policy that prohibits landlords from increasing rent on residential properties under certain circumstances. States like California, Oregon, New York and New Jersey already enforce statewide rent control laws that cap rent increases at 5%.“
Kerton commented, “I think that is fair. I don’t think it can continue on this trajectory.”
State Sen. Ryan Fazio (R-36) of Greenwich, who is seeking the GOP gubernatorial nomination, said, “In the long run, rant caps will reduce the supply of housing and contribute to an increase in the cost of housing.”
In their 2025 book, “Abundance,” Derek Thompson and Ezra Klein recommended increased construction of factory-based modular housing.
Kerton said that is “probably not” an option in the 107th District “because of the zoning laws.”
Brookfield Democratic Town Committee Chairman Shannon Riley serves with Kerton on the municipal Board of Assessment Appeals.
Riley said Kerton is “a good listener” who “considers all sides of the issue.”
The Democrats have not captured the 107th state House district since the sequin disco party animal t-shirts went on the market.
Bethel attorney James Mannion prevailed in 1974, serving one term.
State House Deputy Speaker Bob Godfrey (D-110) of Danbury said the Democrats hold a better than two to one majority in the lower chamber partly because they have been winning seats that had been Republican strongholds since I-95 began broadcasting from the stone house on Federal Road.
Godfrey said that this year, “National issues are eclipsing state and local issues. People are not talking about reproductive rights, gun responsibility or the education cost formula It is about the war in Iran, tariffs, the economy and the Epstein files.”
Matt Grimes, who ran for the Republican nomination for Brookfield first selectman in 2023, said that over the last decade, the GOP has not done as well in Connecticut when Trump is not on the ballot. He said the president helps attract Republican-leaning voters to the polls when he is running for president.
Seventy-one percent of the voters in the 107th District live in Brookfield.
In 2024, former Brookfield Democratic Town Committee Chairman Aaron Zimmer won in the Bethel portion of the district and the Newtown portion.
Overall, he took 47.4 percent of the vote in 2024 – the best showing for a Democrat in years.
Zimmer remarked, “In all three districts in Brookfield, we got stopped. I was most disappointed about losing District II, because we worked so hard in that district and it is the district I live in.”
Grimes said that in any race in Brookfield, the Democratic candidate has to prevail in District II. He commented that a Republican candidate needs to win District I. Grimes said that Brookfield’s District III is more of a bellwether.
Zimmer said, “I think Bethel and Brookfield will be Julie’s for the taking. The focus will have to be on Brookfield.”
Grimes said that he is “surprised” that Zimmer isn’t running again in the 107th District and instead is seeking the Democratic nomination in the 30th state Senate District, where he will face state Senate Republican Leader Stephen Harding.
Patch.com left voice-mail messages for Foncello on Monday, April 13, Wednesday, April 15, and Friday, April 17 seeking comment for this story. They apparently were not returned.
State Senate Republican Leader Stephen Harding (R-30) of Brookfield preceded Foncello in representing the 107th District.
He said his successor has been “very engaged with what is going on in the community. He has been a supporter of veterans issues. He has been a strong supporter of fiscal responsibility and on zoning issues.,”
Brookfield Town Clerk Phoebe Holmes said the local Democrats are better prepared to prevail in the 107th District than in 2022 when she challenged Foncello.
She said the Brookfield Democrats have had a permanent town committee headquarters for three years at 499 Federal Road and there is a larger corps of volunteers canvassing homes.
Kerton said her prime campaign theme will be “to take some of the burden off” local property taxes.
“Maybe more [state[ dollars for” Education Cost Sharing,” she explained.
Lamont recently appointed a commission to study education funding.
“Inflation is off the charts,” Kerton declared.
Kerton said that young adults who grew up in Brookfield, such as her son and daughter, can’t afford to stay in town.
When she arrived in the area about 40 years ago, the United States was experiencing the Great Moderation.
Retired Washington Post economics columnist Robert Samuelson wrote in 2014 that, “There were only two historically short and mild recessions (1990-91 and 2001). The stock market boomed. Consumer spending and home-buying rose. Unemployment trended down; in 2006 and 2007, it averaged 4.6 percent.”
Generation Z and the younger Millennials grew up through the Great Recession, the pandemic and recently the highest rates of inflation since the early 1980s.
Lamont has proposed a $200 per taxpayer rebate to take effect in October.
Said Kerton, “A $200 rebate is not great.”
However, Kerton said that some of the more ambitious tax cutting programs are probably unrealistic if the state is going to continue to have a robust rainy-day fund and continue to pay down its pension debt.
For example, in February the Republican state senators unveiled a $1.5 billion tax cut plan.
CT Mirror’s John Moritz and Keith Phaneuf wrote that the GOP senators “proposal marks a huge departure for the Senate Republican Caucus, which has staunchly supported aggressive budget caps that have forced massive surpluses since their enactment in 2017.”
Kerton exclaimed, “I think it can be a lot of talk.”
Resources
Interview with Julie Kerton, Patch.com, on Monday, April 13, 2026.
Phone interview with Arron Zimmer, Patch.com, on Wednesday , April 8, 2026.
Phone interview with Shannon Riley, Patch.com, on Friday, April 10, 2026.
Phone interview with Matt Grimes, Patch.com, on Thursday, April 9, 2026.
Phone interview with Phoebe Holmes, Patch.com, on Tuesday, April 7, 2026.
Phone interview with Bob Godfrey, Patch.com, on Monday, April 6, 2026.
Interview with Ryan Fazio, Patch.com, on Friday, April 17, 2026.
E-mail interviews with Julie Kerton, Patch.com.
Phone interview with Stephen Harding, Patch.com, on Thursday, April 23, 2026.
https://ctmirror.org/2026/04/06/rent-cap-ct-ned-lamont/
https://ctmirror.org/2026/02/10/senate-gop-pitches-deep-cuts-to-cts-tax-and-electric-bills/
https://ctmirror.org/2026/04/16/pressed-for-immediate-aid-lamont-launches-study-on-education/
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#label/Personal/FMfcgzQgLPPlLGzQDGnslpRfKsnxtjNv
Derek Thompson, Ezra Klein, “Abundance,” Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster, 2025.
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