By Scott Benjamin
BETHEL – If you want to buy a house that was built before George Washington fought the Battle of Monongahela and has an antique door that tourists photograph, then come to the 32nd state Senate District.
Just be sure you can afford to shop Armani.
"There are some beautiful homes in historic areas and they're very expensive with rural towns having one- or two-acre zoning, if not more," says Matt Knickerbocker. After spending 13 years as Bethel's first selectman and another three years as the town administrator to the first selectman of Wilton, he is now the Democratic nominee in the 32nd District.
He said housing is a prime topic in the 12-town district, which stretches from Watertown to Bethel to Seymour and cuts across three countries.
"People are concerned about change," commented Knickerbocker. "They don't want too much development in their area."
They also say that recent college graduates and senior citizens living on fixed incomes "can't afford housing."
Last fall Gov. Ned Lamont (D-Greenwich) signed legislation that requires municipalities to create and submit housing growth goals and plans.
Knickerbocker said there probably won't be dramatic changes.
In Ohio developers are revered members of the community. Connecticut treasures open space.
Real estate associates say there aren't many large tracts of land available.
Knickerbocker said there may be additional higher-density housing, where permitted, and some former commercial space may be rezoned as residential.
Roxbury, in the Shepaug Valley section of the 32nd District, apparently has more land preserves than families.
Recently, Knickerbocker attended the Roxbury Land Trust's Save Our Rail Trail fundraiser and mostly chatted with authors and artists. The next night at the Watertown Block Party the dialogue focused on "schools and gun rights."
"It is an incredibly diverse district," he said.
However, the Democrats record in the 32nd District is in the same basement as the Hootin' Holler Rinky-Dinks.
They haven't won an election since 1891 -the year that they hung peach baskets in the gym at Springfield College and Dr. James Naismith invented basketball.
The Republican incumbent Eric Berthel of Watertown first was elected to the General Assembly as a state representative in 2014 and currently is the ranking GOP senator on three committees.
Through the years, the seat has been held by former GOP caucus leader Richard Bozzuto of Watertown, who was a candidate for the Republican nominations for governor and the U.S. Senate; and Lou DeLuca of Woodbury, who also served as leader of the Senate Republicans.
Voters have been complaining about their electric bills since before the Yo-Yo was invented.
Lamont has recently taken steps to reduce the Public Benefits charge and has called on the state Public Utility Regulatory Authority to be required to "consider ratepayer affordability in their decisions."
Knickerbocker said, "Connecticut is facing a growing demand. It is attracting new companies. Residential demand is going up with home electronics plus the number of people who are buying or renting electric vehicles. There is going to be an increasing demand for the foreseeable future."
"The governor has a very difficult job because when you add those factors together, it is very difficult to see how much savings they can squeeze out of that," exclaimed Knickerbocker. "But we have to do something."
State Sen. Ryan Fazio of Greenwich, the Republican gubernatorial nominee, has said he would eliminate the Public Benefits Charge on electric bills and during his first term in office would trim electric rates by 20 percent.
Declared Knickerbocker, "It is more of a political football than it is a real issue."
He explained that the money allocated to people on fixed incomes or are disabled and can't pay their electric bills is only a small portion of the Public Benefits Charge. He said "the biggest part' is "keeping nuclear power online at the Millstone plant. You have to have the reliability of nuclear. You cannot run the grid without it. That's why they call it a public benefit."
Thirty-five years ago the late Paul Tsongas - the former U.S. senator from Massachusetts who won the 1992 New Hampshire Democratic presidential primary, finishing in front of Bill Clinton - wrote, "Every nuclear power plant operating in the world today represents millions of barrels of oil not consumed."
Knickerbocker said that during his tenure as first selectman there were four major power outages that resulted from storms.
"You have to harden the infrastructure so it is more reliant," he asserted.
In an e-mail statement, Berthel wrote, "Thanks to years of Democratic Party failed energy policies, Connecticut families are already struggling with some of the highest electricity costs in the nation, and the public benefits charge on their electric bills only makes an affordability crisis worse.
"Connecticut needs to focus on making energy more affordable, more reliable, and more transparent, not continually adding charges that make it harder for families and businesses to live and operate here. The public benefits charge is more than another line on an electric bill. It is another example of how individual costs accumulate until Connecticut becomes simply too expensive for ordinary people," he added.
"Connecticut Democrats are trying in earnest to make voters believe that President Trump is solely responsible for our state being so unaffordable, despite the fact that Democrats have been in the majority and in control of the state government for decades," Berthel stated. "The facts support this and blaming President Trump is the biggest lie being told to voters this year.
"The problem is simple: consumers are forced to pay this charge every time they turn on the lights, heat their home, or run an appliance and the impact on household budgets is very real," he wrote.
"For working families, seniors living on fixed incomes, and small businesses trying to keep their doors open, every additional dollar on an electric bill matters" he stated. "Connecticut already has an extraordinarily high cost of living due to excessive gasoline taxes, sales taxes, property taxes and income taxes, among all the taxes collected. When government adds costs to electricity—the most basic of household necessities—it increases the cost of virtually everything else."
"High electric costs don't stop at the utility bill," asserted Berthel. "Businesses must pay to heat, cool, light, and operate their facilities. Those costs are ultimately reflected in the prices consumers pay for groceries, housing, services, and virtually every other product. For manufacturers and other energy-intensive businesses, high electricity costs can also make Connecticut less competitive with other states and discourage investment and job creation."
"If we are serious about making Connecticut more affordable, we have to start by lowering the cost of the necessities of everyday life—including electricity," he stated.
Knickerbocker has rejected Fazio's call for reducing state mandates on municipalities and capping the property tax hikes to two percent or the rate of inflation, unless a supermajority of town residents voted otherwise.
But what about just slashing the mandates and let the municipalities do what they want?
"Many mandates are very necessary," Knickerbocker said.
"The municipalities resent having new mandates that are not paid for by the state and having those costs pushed down on them," he commented.
The Blue-Ribbon Commission that Lamont appointed to study education costs should be presenting its report within months.
The governor has said perhaps the answer is to have the state pay for local special education costs, which would help curtail the mill rate.
"Absolutely," said Knickerbocker.
The national economy typically impacts everything down through how much of a budget increase the local Board of Education can get for the schools.
In the mid-1980s, the economy was climbing as the Federal Reserve Board under Chairman Paul Volcker took steps to lower the inflation rate. Republican former President Ronald Reagan's tax cuts and a boost in contracts for Connecticut's defense companies created a surge in Connecticut.
In contrast, Knickerbocker said he fears that when the General Assembly starts its regular session next January it will face challenges related to Republican President Donald Trump's trade tariffs and a rise in gasoline prices since Operation Epic Fury began last February.
Plus the federal budget deficit now exceeds $40 trillion. It has been 25 years since there was a federal budget surplus.
Knickerbocker contends that is partly because the top income tax rate, which was 70 percent when he graduated from high school in 1971 is now just 28 percent.
"We're generating billionaires and millionaires," he declared.
Knickerbocker commented that most notably, Trump's 2025 One Big Beautiful Bill has created voids in Medicaid and food programs.
"People needing assistance that they're not going to be able to get from the federal government," he explained.
Knickerbocker said with "economic storm clouds" the state may have to tap its record $4.5 billion rainy-day fund.
The state Senate Republicans have called for a multi-year salary freeze for state employees, saying that they have received excessive increases over the last six years.
"Absolutely not," Knickerbocker commented on the proposed wage freeze.
"You have to offer competitive salaries to get the right kind of people," he argued. "If there are regular salary increases it usually is because of a lack of increases and bench marks in the year before then."
He said, for example, when he became first selectman in 2009, Bethel's town planner was "grossly underpaid" compared to planners in towns of similar size.
Former Gov. Dannel Malloy (D-Essex) reduced the full-time work force by 13.1 percent while he served from 2011 to 2019. Can it be trimmed further with the availability of artificial intelligence?
Said Knickerbocker, "I think overall it will not have a big impact on the size of the state work force."
On a local topic, Knickerbocker said he opposes the proposed $272 million expansion of the Iroquois natural gas compressor station near High Meadow Lane in Brookfield, which some residents insist will pollute the air and pose danger to the neighbors and the students at nearby Whisconier Middle School.
He said he hopes that the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection will hold another public hearing this fall.
On another subject, he said he supports abolishing the state's minimum price standards for alcohol.
Critics have called it anti-consumer.
"The price should be whatever the market is," Knickerbocker exclaimed.
Malloy signed legislation to permit Sunday sales and later weeknight closing hours but failed to end minimum pricing.
Knickerbocker said he also supports allowing wine to be sold in the supermarkets.
'It is sold in supermarkets in many states," he asserted.
He said when Michigan made the conversion decades ago, the "wine shops diversified and started selling the higher-end wine. I didn't see a single store go out of business."
Knickerbocker did not endorse either state Rep. Josh Elliott (D-88) of Hamden or Lamont in recent Democratic gubernatorial primary, where Lamont carried 166 of Connecticut 169 municipalities.
"The campaign material that Lamont was sending to my home showed that he picked up some of the themes" that Elliott, who is considered one of the most progressive legislators, was supporting. "I think the Democrats are stronger than they ever have been."
Knickerbocker hails from Michigan and still visits family members near the Great Lakes.
Jim Bowden of MLB Network Radio said that Tigers General Manager Scott Harris deserves the highest grade at the recent trade deadline for securing a bundle of blue-chip prospects in the trades for Tarik Skubel and Casey Mize.
Does Knickerbocker agree?
"We'll see," he said.
The Tigers have two Hall of Fame managers: Jim Leyland and Sparky Anderson.
Who was better?
"Sparky," said Knickerbocker.
After all, Anderson has 425 more career victories than Leyland and was the first manger to in a World Series in both leagues.
What about Mayo Smith? There is a Mayo Smith Society, which was started in 1983 by three Michiganders who worked on Capitol Hill.
They have a newsletter and sponsor trips each year to Spring Training in Lakeland and to Comerica Park.
Mayo Smith guided the Tigers to the 1968 world championship.
Should Mayo be in the conversation?
"I don't know," commented Knickerbocker.
"I had fun times at Tiger Stadium growing up," he recalls. "I saw Al Kaline [the Hall of Fame outfielder] hit a home run that went over not only the fence but into the parking lot."
Resources:
Interview with Matt Knickerbocker, Patch.com, on Saturday, August 29, 2026.
Phone interview with Matt Knickerbocker, Patch.com, on Monday, August 31, 2026.
E-mail statement, Eric Berthel, on Thursday, September 3, 2026.
https://www.nedlamont.com/news/ned-lamont-proposes-sweeping-utility-reforms-to-lower-energy-costs-for-connecticut-families/
https://ryanfazio.com/reduce-electricity-bills-20/
https://ctmirror.org/2025/11/26/hb-8002-housing-bill-lamont-law/
https://ctnewsjunkie.com/2016/08/26/op-ed_getting_serious_about_liquor_justice/
https://ctmirror.org/2026/08/11/ct-gov-ned-lamont-defeats-josh-elliott-democratic-primary/
Paul Tsongas, "A Call To Economic Arms," 1991
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