Harding to seek second term in 30th State Senate District

By Scott Benjamin

State Sen. Stephen Harding (R-30) has announced that he will seek a second term in a district that has only elected Republicans since 1980.

Harding of Brookfield will formally kick-off his campaign at the Housatonic River Brewery in New Milford on Thursday, February 1, from 6 to 9 p.m.

His political career started just over 10 years ago when he was elected to the Brookfield Board of Education. He was initially elected to the General Assembly in a February 2015 special election in the 107th state House District.

Two years ago he defeated Eva Bermudez Zimmerman of New Milford - a former candidate for the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor - in the largest state Senate district in Connecticut. The 30th District includes 18 municipalities and stretches from Brookfield to Salisbury.

The Democrats have not captured the seat since the 1978 election when Litchfield attorney Joe Ruggiero prevailed. Since then, Dell Eads of Kent held the seat from 1981 to 2001; Andrew Roraback of Goshen from 2001 -2013; Clark Chapin of New Milford from 2013-2017; and Craig Miner of Litchfield from 2017 to 2023.

Kent Democratic Town Committee Chairman Patricia Oris indicated in a voice-mail message to Patch.com that the candidate committee that she chairs will meet later this month to further discuss their prospective contenders for the November 5 election.

The Democrats currently hold a 24-12 advantage in the state Senate. Following the 2016 election the chamber was even at 18-all.

Last year, Harding supported the reduction in the state income tax rates from five percent to 4.5 percent for the middle class and from three percent to two percent that was approved overwhelmingly in the General Assembly.

“When you’re providing close to a billion dollars in tax relief, actually significant tax relief to the middle class you’re going to support it,” Harding remarked. last year.

He recently told Patch.com that since Connecticut has a budget surplus the state is in a better position to eliminate the car tax. However, he said that it it unlikely that will happen in 2024 since municipal elected officials will likely raise objections because of fears of losing revenue. Harding said he hopes that state officials will work on a solution to provide an alternate source of revenue to the municipalities to offset the revenue that has been generated from the car tax.

Harding supported the fiscal guard rails that were established in 2017. He has said that they are partly responsible for the recent budget surpluses. He has said that he was pleased that the 2017 contract with the state employee collective bargaining units put the new hires into a hybrid system for their pensions, although he has said he would have preferred that a direct contributions plan had been adopted for those new hires.

Harding also recently told Patch.com that he supports efforts by Gov. New Lamont (D-Greenwich) to use left-over federal funds from the pandemic to help attract and retain public school teachers. He has said that his wife, Kelly, a teacher at New Milford's Sarah Noble Intermediate School, and other educators have told him that there are concerns on whether there will be enough teachers over the coming years.

A campaign news release stated that Harding is addressing keeping the maternity ward open at Sharon Hospital and improving infrastructure in the district.

Resources:

https://patch.com/connecticut/...

https://patch.com/connecticut/...

Harding campaign news release, Tuesday, January 16, 2024.

Voice-mail message, Patricia Oris, Patch.com, Tuesday, January 16, 2024.