Politics & Government
Edelson says Interstate-84 traffic is top issue with voters
Former Southbury first selectman tries to become first Democrat to prevail in 69th state House district in more than a century
By Scott Benjamin
SOUTHBURY – About 60 years ago the Eisenhower Interstate System turned quiet, rural Southbury into a bustling suburb.
No longer were there more horses in the pastures than cars on the roads. With easier access, Southbury was not only in metro Waterbury but also became part of metro Danbury.
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During the 1970s Southbury’s population grew by 80.3 percent - more per capita than any of the Connecticut’s 169 municipalities, partly because it had access to Exits 13-16 on Interstate-84 (I-84).
Without the interstate, Heritage Village – the largest retirement community in Connecticut – Southbury Plaza and Main Street South might never have come to fruition.
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Ed Edelson moved to Southbury in 2004 and served as its first selectman from 2011 to 2015.
He is now the Democratic candidate in the 69th state House District – which includes most of Southbury, a slice of New Milford – which has experienced a higher volume of traffic with the widening of Route 7 over the last 20 years. The district also has all of Roxbury and Bridgewater, which each value land preservation more than economic development.
Bridgewater has a preserve donated by Gov. Ned Lamont (D-Greenwich), who has owned land there for nearly 20 years, and in Roxbury there is one donated by famed actor Walter Matthau a former long-time resident.
Edelson said the “number one issue” among voters is the traffic congestion from Exit 16, near the Middlebury border going west to the New York state line just beyond Danbury.
He said the 2021 Biden infrastructure package – the largest federal commitment to road construction since the Eisenhower administration - has made some improvements to the interchanges, such as the area near Exit 14, but it hasn’t relieved congestion on the main artery.
For years Connecticut has had too many cars and too few lanes. In 2015, then-Gov. Dannel Malloy (D-Essex) recommended that the state spend $100 billion on improvements over 30 years.
Malloy ordered a $10 million study on tolls in 2018 and in February 2019, Lamont, his immediate successor, introduced a tolls proposal for cars and trucks.
Soon after, anti-toll rallies were held across Connecticut. Lamont revised his plan to only toll trucks.
In February 2020, Lamont withdrew his package after he saw it wouldn’t be approved by the General Assembly.
State Rep. Josh Elliott (D-88) of Hamden, who is considered a future candidate for governor, told Patch.com earlier this year that, “I still think that at some point, tolls are a necessity. It is not a matter of ‘if,’ it is a matter of ‘when.’ “
Are tolls a way to widen Interstate-84 from Southbury westward?
Edelson said, “From what I know, I would have supported tolls as a way to generate money for highways. Tolls confined to people out of state who are just traveling Connecticut and using our roads.”
“I think the technology is there to do that,” Edelson added in an interview with Patch.com. “[It] would be legally difficult. [We should] take a very hard look at that.”
Edelson faces Southbury five-term Selectman Jason Buchsbaum, a Republican, in the November 5 election. Buchsbaum said he drives daily on I-84 westbound to his law office in Danbury. He said there is congestion, but opposes imposing tolls.
Buchsbaum said that voters tell him that “affordability” and “public safety” are their two biggest concerns.
It has been an ambitious campaign.
Republican Cindy Harrison of Southbury, an accountant, announced last fall that she would not seek a third term
Democrat Jeff Desmarais of Watertown, who is running for the third time in the 32nd state Senate District, said that Edelson, who entered the state House race shortly after Harrison’s announcement, has assembled an impressive array of position papers and published letters to the editor on issues.
Southbury Democratic Town Committee Chairman Michael Carrington said Edelson has compiled an extensive list of A-list endorsements and has met with legislators at the State Capitol to gain insight into issues.
“I think if Ed is elected, he is going to make it a full-time job and devote a lot of time to constituents,” said Carrington.
Buchsbaum secured the Republican nomination in a lop-sided primary win in August over Roxbury Board of Finance Chairman Ed Cady.
Jason Van Stone, vice chairman of the Southbury Republican Town Committee and a selectman, said Buchsbaum’s campaign has been actively interacting with voters since April.
“It gave the Buchsbaum campaign an opportunity to find itself early and become a well-oiled machine,” he said.
Edelson has two Ivy League degrees – a bachelor’s in Engineering from Cornell and a master’s in Public Administration from the John Kennedy School at Harvard.
Steve Bigham of the Waterbury Republican reported on Edelson’s formal announcement last December, stating that Edelson “presided over the town’s first Democratic majority on the Board of Selectmen. He also was the first Democrat to be re-elected as first selectman in town.”
Bigham added that a victory by Edelson would be the first for a Democrat in the 69th District in more than a century and the first by a resident at Southbury’s Heritage Village – the largest retirement community in Connecticut.
Van Stone said with the influx of more Democrats in recent years the political profile of the 69th District has gone from “solid red” to “light red, dark purple.”
He added that the voters are “very intelligent” and “very involved,” and that particularly in the municipal elections they will vote “more for the person than the party.”
Carrington said, “It still tilts Republican, but it is a winnable district for a Democrat.”
Added Desmarais, “The Republicans do well in this area but I am not sure how conservative it is.”
On another topic, Southbury was one of the hardest hit municipalities from the August 18 floods. For example, the public library is still closed.
Edelson said that, if elected, he will aggressively work with the state Department of Transportation and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which has assembled an office in Southbury, and the federal Small Business Administration to ensure a full recovery from the devastation.
He praised the efforts of the first responders to the flooding.
Additionally, he said the General Assembly should address climate change.
“We know these climate events are going to happen with more regularity,” Edelson remarked. “We know the atmosphere has changed in the last 20 years. How do we prepare ourselves so that we are resilient.
Lamont has sought to get the fully gas-powered cars off the roads by 2035. His plan was pulled last fall before it could get to a vote by the General Assembly’s Program and Regulations Review Committee. Since then there has been talk of sending to the General Assembly.
State Rep. Patrick Callahan (R-108) of New Fairfield has said he expects the Democrats will make another effort to get the standards approved either in a special session after the November 5 election or during the 2025 regular session.
Edelson commented, “The transition is very complicated. We need to move away from a fuel-based economy. I think that is the long-term future that we have to strive for.”
However, he added that he is not sure if a 2035 deadline is realistic.
Southbury Training School, which opened in 1937 to serve special needs of residents from across the state, has gradually been ceded to the town.
Edelson said that during his tenure as first selectman part of the 1,700 acres was allocated for five farms with long-term leases.
Carrington said Edelson “knows more about the training school better than almost anybody”
Edelson said the next steps will be to address a proposal for 45 acres of affordable senior housing and then what to do with more than 70 existing buildings that have housed residents and staff and eventually will be phased out.
He said the decision should be formulated by a regional development authority -similar to the Capitol Region Development Authority in the Hartford area. He said that the proposed authority should have members from both Southbury and neighboring Roxbury.
On another subject, Edelson said that he opposes the call by the Republicans in the General Assembly for a special session regarding the increase in electric rates.
He said that he agreed with Hartford Courant columnist Kevin Rennie, who recently wrote that much of the surge relates to the 2017 agreement between the state and Dominion, which operates the nuclear reactor.
Rennie 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 difference between the locked in rate and the market rate accounts for more than 3/4 of the recent hike in costs,” Rennie stated.
Edelson remarked, “I haven’t seen that [the Republicans] have come forward with a responsible piece of legislation to address the problem.”
On a separate topic, Edelson praised Lamont for improving paying down Connecticut’s considerable pension debt. The 2018 report from the state Commission of Fiscal Stability and Economic Development stated the pensions for the state employees were only 29 percent funded, among the worst in the country. The state Comptroller’s office announced last year that they were 52 percent funded.
The governor has utilized surplus money to make additional payments to lower the debt.
Edelson says he is “not expert enough” to offer a specific plan on altering the fiscal guard rails, which were approved in 2017 and extended in 2023 for another five years. They include a spending cap and a volatility cap.
However, he said there should be a system in which the state would continue to reduce the pension debt and also steer more spending toward vital programs.
“I’m open to discussion about the guard rails,” Edelson said. “I don’t think we need to make wholesale changes. It is like the Clean Air Act. It is not one and done.”
On another issue, Edelson commented that he would have supported the salary and step increases for the state employees that the General Assembly approved on largely party-line votes this spring. Only nine House Republicans backed the increases.
CT Mirror budget reporter Keith Phaneuf has stated that for many employees the salary and step increases amounted to a combined 4.5 percent boost in pay.
Financial consultant-columnist Red Jahncke of Greenwich has stated that the recent increases have been higher than those in the private sector and has called on a wage freezer for state employees.
Remarked Edelson, “The biennial budget makes sense and that was part of the biennial budget. I believe that we need to pay competitive rates in the public sector and the private sector.”
What elected officials, past or present, does Edelson most admire?
It is a long list, but the first two that he mentioned were former presidents Bill Clinton – “for his ability to communicate” – and Ulysses S. Grant – who “tried to control the racial violence after the Civil War in the South.”
Resources:
Interview with Ed Edelson, Patch.com, on Sunday September 22, 2024.
Phone interview with Ed Edelson, Patch.com on Wednesday, October 2, 2024.
Phone interview with Jeff Desmarais, Patch.com on Monday, September 16, 2024.
Phone interview with Michael Carrington, Patch.com, on Tuesday, September 24, 2024,
Phone interview with Jason Buchsbaum, Patch.com, on Friday, October 4, 2024.
Phone interview with Jason Van Stone, Patch.com, on Sunday, October 6, 2024.
https://www.rep-am.com/localnews/2023/12/07/edelson-to-run-for-open-69th-seat/
https://ctmirror.org/2015/03/31/malloys-big-ask-find-100-billion-for-transportation/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southbury,_Connecticut
https://ctmirror.org/2020/02/19/truck-tolls-are-dead-or-theyre-not/
https://portal.ct.gov/governor...
