For fifth consecutive time, Democrats nominate Dunn

By Scott Benjamin

BROOKFIELD – Steve Dunn, a former investment banker who entered politics as a novice eight years ago, captured the Democratic nomination for first selectman for the fifth consecutive municipal election cycle with a running mate who spent most of his life as a Republican.

Dunn, who served as first selectman for six years, was nominated unanimously Monday night during the caucus at Democratic Party headquarters. His running mate for a seat as one of the Other Selectmen on the three-member board is Bob Belden, the current Board of Education chairman.

Belden has said that he became an unaffiliated voter shortly after the 2020 presidential campaign as a result of the national Republican Party’s objections to the results of the election.

“Bob takes a non-partisan approach to issues and he already has been a huge help to our campaign,” Dunn said in an interview with Patch.com.

It appears the Republican nomination will be determined in a September primary between first-term incumbent Tara Carr – who defeated Dunn in 2021 by 218 votes – and former Board of Education Chairman Matt Grimes.

Carr has been endorsed by the Republican Town Committee and defeated Grimes 171 to 126 votes at last week’s Republican Party caucus.

Grimes will have to collect petition signatures from at least five percent of the registered Republicans in Brookfield and submit them by August 9 to force the primary.

Dunn said that although the Republicans will likely generate more media coverage over the next seven weeks as the primary goes forward, the Democrats will immediately increase their activity through canvassing, phone calls and social media posts.

Democratic Town Committee Chairman Aaron Zimmer said that since the grand opening of the party headquarters on May 30, much of the party’s time has been devoted to “planning” and “plotting strategy.”

Dunn said that the goal is to raise $35,000 to $40,000 by the November 7 election, an increase over the $25,000 to $30,000 range from the most recent elections.

He noted that Grimes already has raised about $16,000.

Carr, Grimes and Dunn all have endorsed upgrading the facilities for the municipal police by either expanding the current headquarters on Silvermine Road, which has been in operation since the mid-1980s, or building a new facility. All three candidates have said the current operation is insufficient.

Dunn said that he would be the best at making that project a reality, since, for example, he got approval at referendum and was in office when construction began on the Candlewood Lake Elementary School.

“I think I have the most experience in building projects and managing budgets,” he explained.

He criticized Carr for not taking prompt action on getting an upgraded communications system for the local emergency personnel. He said the “actual contract sat on her desk for four months.”

However, in an e-mail statement to Patch.com in June, Carr wrote, "As far as my campaign promises, within the first few months I delivered on several of them, most notably the 6 million dollar town wide communication system upgrade and distribution of ARPA funds. The former Mr. Dunn had 3 terms to accomplish and got nowhere and the latter Mr. Dunn sat on and put into committee while businesses and individuals suffering from the sharp economic downturn triggered by COVID needed it urgently."

The expansion of the police facilities will likely be the next major capital project. Dunn said due to the current bond debt, any project will probably not proceed until at least 2026.

Carr’s Twitter account was suspended this last February following posts that she made regarding the Chinese balloon that was hovering over the United States.

Dunn said that if Carr wins the primary it will be “a big part of the campaign. You have to question her ability to make good decisions.”

In a February 22 prepared statement, shortly after her Twitter account was suspended, Carr wrote, "Unfortunately, some on the fringe of the political spectrum, who are more interested in engaging in vitriolic statements and fabricating their own truths, rather than intelligent discourse, took these comments out of context and made ridiculous and false assertions that somehow, I was promoting violence against our nation’s President. This is a complete lie.”

Why did the Democrats not hold their caucus in one of the local schools, and instead convened in a small retail space? Could that have inhibited some party members from attending?

In an interview with Patch.com, Zimmer said that was “a fair point.”

"We had a pretty good idea about what sort of numbers our caucus would draw," he said. " We knew headquarters would be tight, but doable. It’s the nucleus of our party so we want to use it whenever we can, particularly when an event like a caucus might draw in some Democrats that we don’t know. We want to show them that they have a home. You can’t do that at the middle school."

"For the next caucus, we’ll probably need a larger space, and you can bet I’m hustling to bring more Dems to this process," remarked Zimmer. "But for this time around, Headquarters was just right."

However, the Democrats only had a fraction of the 297 voters that attended the Republican caucus.

Zimmer noted that the Democrats completed their caucus in 25 minutes and the Republicans didn’t have a certified result until nearly two days after their caucus.

There had been a miscalculation of the vote totals for first selectman at the GOP caucus last Thursday night and the ballots were sealed and again counted a day later before the results were publicly announced on Saturday.