Seeking votes, coaching Pop Warner

By Scott Benjamin

BROOKFIELD – The state Senate Republican leader has a back-to-school haircut, is dressed in shorts and a football shirt as though he plays for the Westchester Crusaders of the Atlantic Coast Football League.

He must be about to enter the film room to watch game video of Bridgeport Jets cornerback John Dockery defending a 12-yard square-out pattern.

Maybe if he demonstrates gridiron panache, he could make the taxi squad for the Dallas Cowboys.

Stephen Harding is an assistant coach for his son, Carter’s, 7-U Pop Warner football team,

A generation ago, Harding played wide receiver for Brookfield High School, wearing number 80.

That number was not available for the Pop Warner squad - so Carter, who just turned eight and is a wide receiver and defensive back - took number 2.

“He loves Derek Jeter and I love Derek Jeter,” Harding explained.

Practices started in July, about the time that the Giants began two-a-days in East Rutherford.

It began as two nights a week; now it is Monday through Thursday night.

Harding says when he has a free weeknight he is canvassing in the 30^th District, which stretches through 18 municipalities from Brookfield to Salisbury. He is regularly greeting voters at their homes on the weekends.

Harding faces Aaron Zimmer, the former Brookfield Democratic Town Committee chairman, in the November 3 election

The last time the Democrats won the seat, Fran Tarkenton was playing for the Vikings.

Along with New Milford Mayor Pete Bass, state Rep. Bill Buckbee (R-67) of New Milford and state Department of Transportation (DOT) Commissioner Garrett Eucalitto, Harding is seeking to secure funds to install a traffic light near the Willow Springs condominium complex in New Milford, where making a left turn is more difficult than engineering a successful two-minute drill against Seattle’s “The Dark Side” defense.

“There have been too many fatalities, too many serious accidents on that roadway,” lamented Harding.

He said he hopes to secure funds during the 2027 session of the General Assembly to install the traffic light.

Harding said the Dot has reported a traffic light “is necessary there” but the steps havenot been taken to finance it.

He said if the funds are approved before the General Assembly adjourns its session in June, he believes the traffic light could be installed before the end of 2027.

The expanded Route 7 went under construction in 2002 and was completed in 2008. It has significantly increased traffic volume.

In Brookfield, Harding collected petition signatures on August 19 at the Still River Greenway near Emporium Plaza to request another public hearing by the state Department of Energy and Environmental (DEEP) on the $272 million expansion of the Iroquois Natural Gas compressor station near High Meadow Lane.

Residents have organized to stop the expansion since they contend it would emit pollutants in the air and pose danger to neighbors and to the nearby Whisconier Middle School.

A public hearing was held earlier this year and Brookfield First Selectman Steve Dunn had said this spring that he anticipated the decision on the Iroquois application would be made before the end of summer.

However, since then the DEEP has delayed action until at least t his fall. Harding, Dunn and the other two members of the Board of Selectmen were among those who had testified against the expansion.

The proposal for initial compressor station was made in 2001 and the current station was completed and in operation by 2010.

Zimmer criticized Harding in a news release for using the petition drive at the Still River Greenway as a photo opportunity since he publicly announced that he would be at the greenway only 30 minutes before hand.

Zimmer also claimed that Harding wrote later that he had obtained enough signatures from his trip to the greenway to force a public hearing. However, Zimmer indicated that the Brookfield Democrats and the group opposing the expansion had already accomplished that objective.

Harding said he is “confident” that following the petition drive that the DEEP will schedule another hearing.

Republican gubernatorial nominee Ryan Fazio, the state senator from Greenwich, has proposed trimming hundreds of state mandates on municipalities.

The other prong to his plan is to then limit municipal property tax increases to two percent or the current rate of inflation. Those provisions could be overridden by a supermajority vote of residents in the municipality.

Why not just slash mandates and let the municipalities determine what the tax mill rate should be?

“Sen. Fazio wants to ensure that the money gets returned to the taxpayers,” Harding explained. He said most of the municipalities in the 30^th District are “smart” in how they develop their budgets.

Zimmer said that approach could “blow a hole” in municipal budgets. Brookfield, for example, has over the years placed more money in the budget for road repairs, reaching the point several years ago where it no longer bonds from those expenses.

Brookfield also has increased its fund balance. Five years ago Democrat Frist Selectman Steve Dunn said the credit rating agencies were recommending a 15 percent fund balance to reach the AAA rating that Brookfield had. More recently he said they are seeking an 18 to 20 percent fund balance.

Harding said he believes that most municipalities can continue to finance quality kindergarten through 12^th grade education and still limit their property tax increases.

He noted that The Wall Street Journal has reported that Connecticut has the fourth highest property tax rate in the country.

Zimmer said he supports Gov. Ned Lamont’s (D-Greenwich) plan to consider having the state fully fund special education costs in the school districts, which would lower property tax increases.

Lamont is seeking a third term in the November 3 election.

U.S. Rep. Jack Auchincloss (D-MA) has said the most trusted official sin government are the municipal leaders.

Harding agrees, saying, :”You see them every day,” Harding commented. “You see them in the supermarket. There is a familiarity. You see them as a mother or father as opposed to seeing them as a politician.”

“You have more voter buy-in on the decisions,” he remarked. “Those decisions at the local level are largely not policy decisions, they are managerial decisions. You’re managing budgets, you are managing departments. It is much more apolitical.”

Harding acknowledged that in some instances residents have property values that increase more in a year than the tax mill rate in some municipalities.

On another topic, Harding said he will continue to call for establishing an Office of Inspector General with a team of forensic auditors. Former Republican gubernatorial contenders John McKinney of Fairfield, 2014, and Tim Herbst of Trumbull, 2018, have said the federal Inspector General’s office has uncovered considerable waste and saved ta=payers money.

Greenwich billionaire Ray Dalio, the former president of the Westport-based Bridgewater Associates hedge fund, has said that the economy has entered an artificial intelligence bubble similar to the 2000 dot-com implosion.

“It is a growing technology,” Harding commented. “There are uses that are beyond what we could imagine a year ago. I can see why there is a huge investment in A.I. It is taking over various aspects of our lives.”

He said that artificial intelligence has benefitted small business start-ups.

“Individuals with less resources can more easily grow their businesses or start their businesses in ways that we could never imagined previously, and do it at a very low cost,” asserted Harding.

On a separate issue, he said that “most people like” early voting, which now is in its third year in Connecticut and most recently was utilized in the August 11 primaries.

“It is very convenient. A lot of voters have taken advantage of it,” Harding commented.

However, Harding said although he supports the “concept” of early voting, “I don’t support the 14 days. I think that is a large window for a municipality – especially the smaller ones – to tackle.”

He said Democratic and Republican registrar of voters have commented on “how difficult” it is to get poll workers for 14 days.

Regarding higher education, Dartmouth College President Sian Leah Beilock recently wrote that her school is “moving” toward guaranteeing a “paid internship or comparable experiential opportunity” for any student that requests one.

Harding said the Connecticut public colleges and universities should take a similar step.

“Most employees will tell you they learned far more in the field than in the classroom,” said Harding.

Erin Stewart, the former mayor of New Britain who also formerly served on the Connecticut Board of Regents, has said that are not enough professors in that system who teach online, which many students are requesting.

“That is a frustration,” Harding said. “Online is a really good option for students that are working at jobs or have families at home.”

“If you can’t recruit enough professors that are willing to go online then you should take a look at the hiring process,” Harding said.

Rob Friedman, a pitching analyst for ESPN’s ‘Sunday Night Baseball,’ wrote in his recent book, “Unhittable,” that pitchers have come to “dominate” major league baseball as pitching has been turned from an art into a science.

Remarked Harding, “It seems like any prospect is throwing over 97 miles an hour consistently. When I was a kid, it was one or two guys.”

He recalled that a generation ago Hall of Fame pitcher Greg Maddux had low velocity, was “crafty” and “painted the corners of the plate.”

Harding said the pitchers also dominated in the 1960s, “so maybe it is cyclical and the hitters will catch -on over time.”

He noted that there are still power hitters slugging 45 or more homers a year. Just four seasons ago the Yankees Aaron Judge set the American league record with 62 round-trippers.

But Harding lamented that the top batting average in either league isn’t much above .300. Years ago the batting champion had to hit well into .350 range.

In 2006 the major league average was .269 and now it has plunged to the low .240s.

The Cardinals’ Bob Gibson led the National League in 1968 with a 1.12 earned run average.

In 1969, following the Year of the Pitcher, Major League Baseball lowered the slope of the mound from 15 to 10 inches.

Should it be lowered further?

“I think it’s worth discussing,” Harding remarked.

What about shrinking the strike zone?

“I’m a traditionalist,” said Harding. “I don’t like the challenge rule for balls and strikes, although I don’t mind it on the baserunning.”

Should Major League Baseball convert to aluminum bats? The colleges start using them around the time that Rufus Featuring Chaka Khan started climbing the charts.

“Not if people want to live,” said Harding. “Those guys have so much power in the major leagues. I question them being used at the collegiate level. It is dangerous. In the major leagues it would be scary.”

Resources:

Interview with Stephen Harding, Patch.com, on Wednesday, August 19, 2026.

E-mail interview with Stephen Harding, Patch.com, on Thursday, August 20, 2026.

Phone interview with Aaron Zimmer, Patch.com, on Saturday, August 22, 2026.

Aaron Zimmer news release, Monday, August 17, 2026.

Rob Friedman, “Unhittable,” Harper, 2026.

https://fortune.com/2026/08/04/ray-dalio-ai-bubble-1929-2000-ipos-wealth-is-not-money/

https://patch.com/connecticut/brookfield/lamont-points-record-sound-fiscal-judgment

https://patch.com/connecticut/brookfield/fazio-proposed-permanent-tax-cuts

https://patch.com/connecticut/brookfield/managing-public-operations