Politics & Government
Going from town to city
After three years of running for office in Brookfield, Republican Austin Monteiro is seeking a legislative seat in Danbury
By Scott Benjamin
DANBURY – In three and a half years he made a name for himself in Brookfield Republican circles.
Now he has returned to The Hat City; more specifically, to the legislative district where he grew up; the one with the Uncle Sam statue; where he graduated a couple of decades ago from Immaculate High School, when it was more expensive than it was to attend than Western Connecticut State University (WCSU).
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He then matriculated to WCSU, which has a midtown campus that is a hop, skip and a jump outside the 110th state House District.
Austin Monteiro, the Republican nominee in that legislative district, says he had opportunities to attend schools with Division I golf programs. But he said he wasn’t ready to live away from home, so he attended WCSU. During that time its midtown campus was growing in leaps and bounds.
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He thought he might transfer after two years, but he stayed, got a bachelor’s degree from the noted Nathan Ancell School of Business and embarked upon a career in real estate and fitness training.
Danbury and Brookfield are just a running distance apart.
However, he says canvassing in the 110th District is different than what he experienced in the suburban town that is bordered by lakes Candlewood and Lillinonah.
“In Brookfield, I was invited into a lot of homes,” said Monteiro, who within the last three years ran for first selectman and a seat on the Board of Education there.
“In Danbury, there are a lot of conversations on the front step, which I essentially consider the same thing,” he remarked.
He said the Danbury homes also are closer together and he can canvass more voters in less time on his electric scooter. He has visited more than 1,000 of them.
“My district is bigger than Brookfield,” he said in an interview with Patch.com. The 110th District has, according Ballotpedia, 23,896 residents. Wikipedia reports that Brookfield has 17,728 people.
The current Democratic incumbent, Bob Godfrey, was initially elected in 1988 and is the deputy speaker pro tempore. He was an aide at the State Capitol and a vice president with the Greater Danbury Chamber of Commerce before he was initially elected to the seat.
Monteiro said that he is the first Republican candidate in the 110th District in a long time to “qualify” for the Citizens Election Program, which has been in operation since the 2008 election.
“The Danbury dream has gone away,” Monteiro said. “People rent apartments instead of buying homes and acquiring equity.”
He said the 110th District has a lot of apartment complexes and some residents struggle to pay $2,100 a month for a studio unit.
Metro Danbury is the only one of Connecticut’s nine labor markets that has recaptured all the jobs lost in the 2008 recession.
Yet, Monteiro said the district “does not have enough high-paying jobs” and it has “one of the lower household incomes in all of Connecticut’s 151 House districts.”
Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz (D-Middletown) told Patch.com earlier this year that the state needs 100,000 more housing units.
However, Monteiro said there are reports that Connecticut has 113,000 illegal immigrants.
“That is the correlation that I am seeing,” said Monteiro. “Our goal should be not to be a sanctuary state.”
He said that he estimates that 95 percent of the illegal immigrants in Danbury reside in the 110th District.
“We don’t have the capacity to address that,” said Monteiro.
Four years ago, Monteiro hadn’t even become an alternate member of the Brookfield Republican Town Committee.
Since then, he has run as a petitioning candidate for first selectman of Brookfield, finishing third; was an ally for Brookfield Republican former First Selectman Tara Carr; unsuccessfully sought a seat on the Brookfield Board of Education; was elected vice chairman of the Brookfield Republican Town Committee last winter; moved to Danbury a short time later and this spring captured the GOP nomination in the 110th District which has been controlled by the Democrats since at least the early 1970s.
Although they were political rivals just three years ago in the race for first selectman, Carr, who currently serves as an Other Selectman in Brookfield, has become one of Monteiro’s biggest advocates.
In an e-mail statement, she stated: “Because Austin is the type of person that gives a voice to the disenfranchised, the meek, and those that are concerned about problems in the government he is able to rally strong attendance and support at different town meetings with boards and commissions on issues that otherwise perhaps would go unnoticed but that are extremely important to citizens.”
Monteiro said that while campaigning the issues he hears most frequently are public safety and their “Eversource bill,” which has surged this summer.
On public safety, he said in recent months there has been a shooting, a kidnapping and arrests for cocaine use in the 110th District.
Regarding the increase in electricity charges, Monteiro said that he supports the call by the Republican state House and Senate members to hold a special session to address the surge in electricity charges.
Among other things, Monteiro said the state should eliminate the public benefits charges in the electric bills and also use some of the unspent federal funding from the pandemic to pay down some of the costs associated with the electric bills that weren’t paid during the pandemic when Gov. Ned Lamont imposed a moratorium for some needy users.
Godfrey said the Republicans have not produced a bill for a special session.
“We don’t vote on ideas,” he said. “We vote on bills. I haven’t seen one from the Republicans.”
Hartford Courant columnist Kevin Rennie 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 difference between the locked in rate and the market rate accounts for more than 3/4 of the recent hike in costs,” he stated.
Godfrey said that he voted against the agreement with Dominion, which owns Millstone, in 2017.
“It was a bad agreement then,” Godfrey remarked. “It is a bad agreement now.”
Does Monteiro hear much comment from voters on the Donald Trump-J.D. Vance GOP presidential ticket? Trump easily won the primaries, selected the first Millennial to serve on a presidential ticket and is calling for an income tax exemption on tips collected by wait staff.
He said that “two or three people” have referenced Trump. He said they are mostly concerned about state and municipal issues.
“People are interested in the person instead of the party,” Monteiro explained.
On fiscal issues, Monteiro said he would support lowering the state sales tax from 6.35 to 5.99 percent.
Godfrey has told Patch.com in recent years that he would support taking that step if it was fiscally feasible.
Monteiro also said that he also wants to further lower income tax rates, which were trimmed in 2023 for the middle class and lower-income.
Godfrey supported the most recent reductions, which were the first for the income tax since the mid-1990’s.
On another topic, Monteiro graduated in 2005 from Western Connecticut State University during an era when the midtown campus added $100 million in construction in roughly a decade.
Eileen Fitzgerald of The News-Times of Danbury reported in 2009 that full-time enrollment had increased by 57 percent over the previous 10 years.
However, enrollment declined by 26.7 percent at WCSU from 2018 to 2023, according to Alex Putterman of CT Hearst. Godfrey has said that about two years ago, WCSU had almost depleted its financial reserves..
“There appears to be a lot of mismanagement from the administrative side of the school,” Monteiro said.
State Rep. Patrick Callahan (R-108) of New Fairfield, a 1989 WCSU graduate, has said university officials have indicated that they need a combined $80 million in repairs at the midtown and west side campuses.
“I think we need to do what it takes to bring WestConn back to what it was,” Monteiro commented. “There is no reason to close one campus or the other.”
On August 13, Godfrey faced a primary for the first time since 1988, prevailing with 74.1 percent of the vote over Melissa Santana, who reportedly objected to Godfrey’s opposition to the proposed charter school in Danbury.
In 2023, Godfrey told Patch.com that he was against taking $12 million in state funding away from the conventional schools for a program that will not be controlled by the Danbury Board of Education.
“I don’t like it when something is not accountable to elected officials,” he declared.
Republican former Danbury Mayor Dean Esposito stated in a 2023 news release that Gov. Ned Lamont (D-Greenwich) had included money for the proposed Danbury charter school in his proposed budget and it was up to the city’s legislative delegation to ensure that it was approved. The funding has not gone forward.
Godfrey was recently placed on the Connecticut Education Association’s (CEA) Honor Roll. He had a score of 92.5 with that group during the current term.
He has told Patch.com in recent years that the Danbury legislative delegation has been able to increase state funding for the city’s public schools. He has said there needs to be more funding for schools in the municipal budget.
During a talk at WCSU in 2013, then-Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton, a Republican, noted that he had taught social studies for 14 years at Danbury High School and then, more than a decade after becoming mayor, he was still a still a member of the CEA.
Boughton said he had toured two charter schools and the were getting amazing results. The students and teachers had a longer work week and the principal maintained a classroom and taught a class.
However, Godfrey has told Patch.com there have been charter schools that have gone out of business.
State Rep. Farley Santos (D-109) of Danbury told Patch.com in 2022 that while canvassing his district during the campaign that year he did not hear one voter ask him about the proposed charter school.
During his 2013 talk, Boughton said, “Whenever anybody tries to break the mold, the CEA has to step in and say, ‘We cannot have this.’ ”
Monteiro said, “I agree with Mark Boughton 100 percent.”
He added, “I’m pro-charter school. I’m for upgrading education.”
Resources:
Interview with Austin Monteiro, Patch.com, on Saturday, August 31, 2024.
Phone interview with Bob Godfrey, Patch.com, on Thursday, September 5, 2025.
E-mail statement from Tara Carr, Patch.com, on Wednesday, September 11, 2024.
https://patch.com/connecticut/brookfield/berthel-encouraged-efforts-recover-flooding
https://www.ctinsider.com/opin...
https://patch.com/connecticut/brookfield/godfrey-predicts-democrats-will-try-do-add-education
https://patch.com/connecticut/brookfield/alumnus-callahan-says-wcsu-needs-money-overdue-repairs
https://patch.com/connecticut/brookfield/berthel-encouraged-efforts-recover-flooding
