Contacting voters through multiple platforms

By Scott Benjamin

BROOKFIELD – With their campaign manager, Brian McGovern, videotaping, First Selectman Steve Dunn and Other Selectman Bob Belden, his running mate, stride across a walkway adjacent to a house with striking architecture, a well-manicured lawn and birds chirping from the trees on a sunny, seasonably warm Labor Day weekend afternoon.

The setting is different than in Brookfield Town Center – within running distance - where there is excavation equipment and the construction crews for the multi-family housing projects arrive before sunrise on weekday mornings not far from the new signal lights at Emporium Plaza, where the Food Emporium supermarket is slated to open in weeks and boost traffic through that corridor.

Dunn and Belden have just left a campaign flier with a written note for a voter on the list posted on their iPhones.

They are former corporate executives who joined forces two years ago and headed a ticket that returned the Democrats to power in Brookfield municipal government. On November 4 they will face Republican candidates Karl Hinger – for first selectman – and Alan Donnelly – for Other Selectman.

Dunn is running for his fifth non-consecutive term as first selectman and Belden, an unaffiliated voter who formerly chaired the Board of Finance and the Board of Education, is seeking his second term as a selectman.

Moments earlier, Belden had said that McGovern works for a living as a project manager, which entails “the perfect skills to manage a campaign.”

“He seems to be able to do any task,” added Dunn.

Campaign videographer is a prime one. The footage will be posted on Facebook and Instagram.

“The best way to get feedback from residents is to meet them in person and have them tell you exactly how they feel,” Dunn remarked.

However, fewer of them answer their door bells.

Dunn said there are now more homes with ring-phone video connected to their doorbells and people don’t greet you if they don’t recognize you.

“We see it across the town,” he related. “Many residents ask me not to allow people to knock door-to-door. And we’ve raised the cost of permits to as high as allowed by law, because people don’t want strangers knocking on their doors.”

Perhaps it is sad that candidates have fewer opportunities to speak face-to-face with the people who elect them.

“It is,” said Dunn.

U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Hartford) has said that when he initially ran for the state House in 1998 against a 14-year Republican incumbent in Southington he visited some homes up to four times. During his first tour some voters said, “You’re not going to win, but you have my vote.” By the end of the second tour there were enough voters that uttered that phrase that he was going to win.

Murphy has said he stood outside the 75-foot zone at the polling precincts on election day, and a number of voters recognized him and said, “You came to my house.” Not one of them said, “I’m voting for you because of your position on tax policy.”

“You need to find other ways to communicate with people,” said Dunn, who has been canvassing neighborhoods since his first run for office a decade ago.

To supplement the canvassing, Dunn explained, “We’re using social media, text messages, video.” They also have scheduled meet and greet sessions.

“On video, if you don’t get your point across in 30 seconds, people are moving to the next subject,” Dunn commented.

As former University of New Mexico women’s golf coach John Speary once said, “The human mind is not conditioned to do things for long periods of time.”

Dunn said that residents indicate that, “The biggest concern we see is the rate of growth in multi-family housing. It is a legitimate concern.”

Early last year he took steps to place a moratorium on multi-family housing applications in the 198-acre Brookfield Town Center. It will be in place through December 2026.

He said some of the multi-family projects under construction were approved “many years ago. The developers are just starting to build them.”

“It is time to take a step back,” explained Dunn. “I have to do what our residents want. It has been too much, too fast. Those buildings will be there for a hundred years.”

He said that there has been about $40 million in construction - residential and commercial combined - in Brookfield Town Center over the last 10 years. The town also has added multiple streetscape projects.

Under first selectmen Bill Davidson (2009-2013), Bill Tinsley (2013-2015) and the early months of Dunn’s initial tenure (2015-2021) they used the phrase, “The chicken and the egg” about generating housing and retail development in Brookfield Town Center.

Developers for retail outlets wanted more housing in the district before they would make a commitment and the firms that considered constructing housing were waiting for more retail activity. None of them were sure that Brookfield Town Center would thrive.

Remarked Dunn, “I think that is the reason that Mr. Tinsley gave Brookfield Village a tax incentive. The buildings there were dilapidated.”

“[The developers for] Brookfield Village took a risk by developing those properties and building high-end apartments there,” he commented. “It could have collapsed on them, because there was the possibility back then that no one wanted to live there.”

Ironically, a decade later, residents are worried that there has been too much development in that New England-style central business district.

Dunn said that following the opening of the 2.1-mile Route 7 bypass in November 2009, the traffic flow at the Four Corners declined from an estimated 30,000 cars per day to 8,000.

He said in the ensuing years some residents by second nature avoided the Four Corners because they had been used to the congestion during the peak rush hours and difficulty in making a left-hand turn.

Dunn said now there probably is about 17,000 vehicle trips through the Four Corners daily, a figure that will increase with the opening of Food Emporium within weeks.

He commented, “The residential areas [outside Brookfield Town Center] have pretty much stayed the same.” He said there probably have been fewer than 200 single-family homes built in Brookfield over the last 20 years.

Brookfield has an ad-hoc committee studying how to increase the police facilities, which are now located at the headquarters on Silvermine Road, and another panel trying to determine the future use of the site where the former Center Elementary School (CES) stands on Route 133.

Dunn said that he will propose that the town hire a permanent part-time planner or a consulting firm to provide planning services to address how to best house the 15 municipal departments, police and community service facilities and the present library on Whisconier Road.

He said nearby towns of similar size – Bethel, Newtown and Ridgefield – have planners. He added that it would be similar to hiring a consultant to develop the updated Plan of Conservation & Development.

Donnelly has said that the decisions on the future of the police facilities and the former CES site don’t require hiring a planner.

Dunn disagreed, saying, “Let’s make sure that we do it right. These projects and how to best utilize space for the various town departments is so involved and there are so many details in them that you do need help.”

“What if each of the ad-hoc committees wants to put projects at Center Elementary School,” he remarked. “I don’t think the first selectman could or should make decisions on how to use those buildings. I think there has to be a conversation with the whole town.”

On another topic, in August, the selectmen tabled action on establishing a Fire/Emergency Medical Services Commission after dozens of emergency personnel attended a public hearing and some of their leaders asked the board to give them up to 90 days to review the proposal.

During the hearing, Hinger said the proposal creates “another layer of bureaucracy” and could result in “double taxation.”

Dunn said a 400-page study of municipal operations recommended the establishment of a Fire/EMS Commission and the ad-hoc committee, which Belden serves on, had been meeting since early 2024.

Dunn said that the commission would help ensure that the fire and EMS services would have ongoing support from the municipal government regardless of who is serving in office. The panel would consist of two members from the fire companies and three residents not affiliated with the fire department or EMS services.

He said he believes that the reason for hesitance in enacting the commission is partly due to “miscommunication,” and once the members of the fire companies and EMS learn more about the proposal they will support it.

On another topic, Hinger criticized Dunn for not keeping the municipal Energy Advisory Board apprised about the solar energy project for Brookfield High School, Whisconier Middle School and Candlewood Lake Elementary School that was approved on August 28 by the selectmen.

In a letter, dated August 14, the members of the Energy Advisory Board stated that they had received “no updates for months” on developments and were not told that there would be presentations to the Board of Selectmen and then the Board of Finance during the first two weeks of August.

Hinger stated in an e-mail message, “We need to properly analyze our options in every town matter and ensure those involved are consulted. This is an area the Dunn administration repeatedly lacks and one that our administration will be dedicated to improving.”

The Energy Advisory Board members wrote that they had thought that the solar project was not going forward because of changes related to Republican President Donald Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill. They also questioned some of cost figures provided by the consultant, Titan Energy, based in Hartford.

Dunn said that Henry Pietras, the chairman of the Energy Advisory Board, met with the municipal purchasing agent and then told Dunn a short time later that he was having difficulty getting his members together.

“We will involve them as much as they want to be involved,” Dunn commented.

Dunn said that Titan Energy “is the best consultant in the state.”

On another topic, Dunn said he is pleased that the Capital Committee has been made a permanent panel.

The Capital Committee was initially established about nine years ago and has helped the municipal government develop a more detailed 10-year capital plan.

Dunn said when he was initially elected as first selectman in 2015 there were $5,000 items that were being bonded and now that figure has risen to $200,000. He said his aim is to elevate it to $1 million..

After being nominated at the Democratic caucus on July 16, Dunn said that by contacting voters during the municipal election the local party could defend the values of “honest” and “civility” that are being destroyed “at the national level.”

In a more recent interview, he explained, “I’d like to keep the national chaos out of Brookfield. If people use a national overview in a local town, that could happen.”

The late Louis Koenig, the New York University presidential scholar, advocated for a strong presidency, arguing that too often the White House is hamstrung by Congress.

Has Trump stepped beyond being a strong president?

“Trump has taken on powers that were never meant to be presidential powers,” Dunn said. He pointed to, among other things, the large number of executive orders that Trump has issued and his attempts to intimidate the members of the Federal Reserve Board.

This particular weekend Dunn and his wife, Cassie, were caring for their 16-month-old grandson who is starting to learn how to talk.

He said it has brought back memories from decades earlier as their four children were toddlers.

How has Brookfield changed since Dunn and his family arrived in 1983?

Remarked Dunn, “I think the biggest changes have been along Federal Road. When we moved here, Federal Road where Caldor’s was to Raymour & Flanigan was a two-lane road to the Four Corners [intersection].”

“The Zoning Commission said this is going to be our commercial district, and it has grown exponentially,” he said. “If I had my druthers, it wouldn’t have gone that way. I’m not big on the big developments there – Costco and B.J.’s Wholesale and the furniture stores”

Dunn added, “That is just my personal view. But on the other side, we have to recognize that these buildings and projects bring in millions of dollars in taxes, which means that the residents pay lower taxes.”

He commented, “Smaller towns, like Bridgewater and Roxbury, that really have little commercial development, the cost per property is much higher than in Brookfield. It is a balancing act.”

Resources:

Canvassing coverage with Steve Dunn and Bob Belden, Patch.com on Saturday, August 30, 2025.

Interview with Steve Dunn, Patch.com, on Saturday, August 30, 2025.

Interview with Karl Hinger, Patch.com, on Wednesday, August 27, 2025.

Interview with Alan Donnelly, Patch.com, on Saturday, August 23, 2025.

https://www.amazon.com/Chief-Executive-Louis-W-Koenig/dp/0155031767

https://patch.com/connecticut/brookfield/democrats-nominate-dunn-sixth-consecutive-time

John Speary interview, The Newtown Bee, July, 1989.

Chris Murphy talk at Western Connecticut State University, November 2008.

Karl Hinger e-mail message, Patch.com, on Wednesday, August 27, 2025.