Politics & Government
Democrat Zimmer scooters through neighborhoods in GOP stronghold
State House candidate says 'affordability' is top concern among voters in 107th state House District
By Scott Benjamin
BROOKFIELD – Gov. and Yankees fan Ned Lamont (D-Greenwich) has said that putting only hybrid plug-in and all-electric vehicles on Connecticut’s roads is “a must do” before Aaron Judge surpasses Barry Bonds and clouts his career record-breaking 763rd home run in 2035 into the upper deck in right field.
In the 107th state House District, Democratic candidate Aaron Zimmer of Brookfield is demonstrating how to travel along crooked roads without gas, or even four normal-sized tires and a sun roof.
Find out what's happening in Brookfieldfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Zimmer – the former Brookfield Democratic Town Committee chairman who has been praised for helping to engineer the party’s victories in the 2023 municipal elections - has been traveling through that town, northern Newtown and the Stony Hill section of Bethel on an electric scooter.
“It is fast. I can cover more ground in a shorter period of time,” he said in a phone interview with Patch.com.
Find out what's happening in Brookfieldfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Typically, candidates travel in a car by themselves or with a driver and have to enter and exit driveways or stop along the side of the road and walk to a series of homes.
Said Zimmer, “I’m not spending money on gas. It saves wear and tear on my car. It is a win-win for me.”
He started in April and although he declined to provide a figure on how many homes he has contacted, Zimmer said, “I try to canvass every day.”
He owns a record label and two retails stores in New York City and is at them periodically.
Brookfield Democratic First Selectman Steve Dunn said, “I haven’t seen anyone work this hard. He really wants the job. When I first ran for first selectman [in 2015] we didn’t start canvassing until August.”
Voters have not elected a Democrat in the district since 1974 – the year that Hank Aaron eclipsed Babe Ruth’s career home run mark.
Zimmer – who went to high school in Nebraska and lived in New York City before moving to Brookfield three years ago - faces first-term Republican state Rep. Marty Foncello in the November 5 election. Foncello served as Brookfield’s first selectman from 1999 to 2003 and has been lauded for appointing a new police leadership team and approving permanent shifts for the police officers, who until then had been working on a rotating shift schedule. His service in the U.,S. Army has been recognized in the trophy case at the town hall.
Lamont’s proposal to get an electric vehicle conversion by 2035 may be his most controversial proposal since February 2019, his first year in office, when he proposed tolls to pay for road improvements. After a year, he abandoned that plan when it didn’t generate enough support to go to formal votes in either chamber of the General Assembly.
State Senate Republican Leader Stephen Harding (R-30) of Brookfield told Patch.com last December that, “I was speaking with owners of electric cars, who love their cars, that were telling me that this was not pragmatic policy. That it was not possible. These were people without a political agenda.”
State Rep. Patrick Callahan (R-108) of New Fairfield recently told Patch.com that there is not enough charger capacity to address Lamont’s goal.
Callahan added that he expects the issue to surface again after the upcoming election. It has been simmering since at least last fall when Lamont withdrew his plan when it appeared there weren’t enough votes on the Regulations Review Committee to get it approved.
Zimmer acknowledged that there are challenges in erecting a sufficient grid for the electric cars.
“However, we’ve got to find a solution,” he exclaimed. “The world will move to EVs [electric vehicles]. It doesn’t make any sense for us to resist that.”
Zimmer said that as he scooters across the district, the biggest concern among voters is their “Eversource [electric] bill.”
He said that he expects that topic will be the subject of a special session of the General Assembly or at least the top priority when the regular session convenes on January 8.
In explaining the rate surge, Hartford Courant columnist Kevin Rennie, a former legislator, recently wrote, “The state entered into a decade-long deal to require Eversource and United Illuminating, the state’s largest utilities, to purchase significant amounts of power from the Millstone nuclear power plant in Waterford. The electricity the companies purchase from Millstone and then distribute to customers is often at a price far higher than what they would pay on the open energy market. We, the ratepayers, make up the difference.”
“That’s the way I see it,” Zimmer said regarding Rennie’s analysis of the contract, which will expire in 2029.
He said he agreed with Rennie that Lamont should fill the two appointments now vacant on the Public Utility Regulatory Authority (PURA), which votes on the utility rate increases.
“The more voices the better,” remarked Zimmer.
He said, in general, voters are concerned about the “affordability” of groceries, gas and college tuition.
Zimmer said that in Brookfield a number of residents say there are “too many housing complexes going up too quickly” in the 198-acre Brookfield Town Center.
He said that he hopes that elected officials can reach a middle ground.
“I understand that people are concerned about our town being overdeveloped,” said Zimmer. “But we have to do something about the housing problem in Connecticut.”
Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz (D-Middletown) recently said the state needs 100,000 additional units., She indicated that lack of space is partly responsible for 90,000 jobs that remain unfilled in Connecticut.
Democratic President Joe Biden carried the district four years ago and the Democrats have captured six of the last eight municipal elections.
Republican State Central Committee member John Morris of Litchfield acknowledged that after mostly electing Republicans, in recent times Brookfield’s voting patterns have changed. This is the district that elected such Republicans as former Gov. M. Jodi Rell and former state House Speaker Fran Collins, both of Brookfield.
However, Morris, who has served on the Republican State Central Committee for 33 years, predicted that factor won’t impact Foncello, who has lived in town since 1982.
“People vote for who they know and who they like and who they know is doing a good job,” Morris commented. “Marty checks all those boxes. I think having been a first selectman, he knows what the people in these small towns want.”
He said Foncello has had “a very successful first term,” noting that he supported the reduction in middle-class and lower-class income tax rates in 2023 and heralded legislation this year to provide a state income tax exemption for disabled military veterans.
Dunn said that since he began his second tenure as first selectman last December, he has had a good rapport with Foncello.
“He sends me an e-mail from time to time,” Dunn commented. “He visited the office once to speak with me. We get along fine.”
Regarding the election, Zimmer noted that the largest bloc of voters are the unaffiliated.
Wall Street Journal columnist Karl Rove – the former W. Bush White House political director – recently wrote that University of Missouri political scientist John R. Petrocik, who had done research on the subject, has said that the unaffiliated voters “without a tilt toward either party make up roughly 15 percent of the electorate.”
Rove indicated that many unaffiliated voters tend to vote regularly for one of the two major parties.
Zimmer agreed, saying, “That is sort of the fun part about unaffiliated voters, you never know what you’re going to get until you get talking to them.”
He said that enthusiasm for Democratic candidates has surged since Biden announced his decision on July 21 not to seek a second term and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris. He said her choice of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate has generated further support.
Zimmer added, “I’ve met a lot folks who weren’t sure about President Biden but couldn’t stand the thought of four more years of [Republican former President Donald] Trump. So with a strong ticket like Harris/Walz and all the enthusiasm and momentum that has come with it, I’m hopeful unaffiliated voters will lean our way.”
Resources:
Phone interview with Aaron Zimmer, Patch.com, on Tuesday, August 27, 2024.
Phone interview with John Morris, Patch.com, on Monday, August 26, 2024.
Phone interview with Steve Dunn, Patch.com, on Tuesday, August 27, 2024.
E-mail interview with Aaron Zimmer, Patch.com, on Wednesday, August 28, 2024.
https://patch.com/connecticut/brookfield/harding-contends-connecticut-better-position-ax-car-tax
https://patch.com/connecticut/brookfield/alumnus-callahan-says-wcsu-needs-money-overdue-repairs
https://patch.com/connecticut/brookfield/godfrey-says-he-impressed-alves-commitment-education
