Zimmer canvasses the 107th District

By Scott Benjamin

BROOKFIELD – For seven months he has worn a helmet while conducting about 6,000 house calls by motor scooter, which is quicker and less expensive than four tires on the road.

However, before he departs for his next canvassing excursion, state House candidate Aaron Zimmer (D-107) is wearing a New York Jets cap.

Why be affiliated with a franchise that hasn’t won a Super Bowl since January 12, 1969?

“When I moved to New York, I became a Jets fan,” said Zimmer, who is from Nebraska and moved from the Big Apple to Brookfield in 2021.

Has he received an endorsement from Joe Namath, the most famous Jet?

“I haven’t asked for it,” said Zimmer, who added that he didn’t know that Namath briefly lived in Fairfield in the late 1980s and through the years held his football camp at Quinnipiac University in Hamden and Western Connecticut State University in Danbury.

Even though the New England Patriots have been the most dominant franchise in the National Football League over the last generation, Zimmer said he sees “more Jets stuff in people’s yards.”

Broadway Joe made his name in Super Bowl III. Zimmer has quickly entered the Brookfield Democrats’ A-list. He became the local party chairman two years ago, raised money to establish a permanent headquarters a year ago, then helped craft a strategy that engineered a sweep of the municipal election ballot last November.

He straps on his helmet and takes off slightly before a small team of volunteers leave by cars to greet voters and distribute literature at other homes.

Said Zimmer, “It feels like it is making a difference. Some of these people I’ve seen two or three times so I feel like I’m getting to know them and they are getting to know me. The conversations are getting better each time.”

“Early voting is wonderful,” he added regarding the pre-election day balloting. “However, it creates a new challenge because we need to know if people have voted or not and if we should knock on their door. It requires updating data all the time.”

In the November 5 election, Zimmer faces first-term Republican incumbent Marty Foncello, also of Brookfield, who was the town’s first selectman from 1999 to 2003 and has been credited with making valuable changes in the police department during his tenure. He currently serves on the powerful Appropriations Committee and has been praised for his support for issues related to military veterans. Foncello served in the U.S. Army.

The district includes all of Brookfield, the Stony Hill section of Bethel and a slice of northern Newtown.

No Democrat has prevailed in the 107th District since Bethel attorney James Mannion in 1974.

Weeks ago, Zimmer sent an e-mail message to supporters stating that he was losing the lawn sign race as Foncello’s signs began dotting each neighborhood in the district.

“We’ve done okay,” Zimmer says now 13 days before the election. “My opponent still has a lot more out than we do,” partly because he has been in office for two years and has lawn signs from a previous campaign.

Zimmer’s campaign has caught the attention of the state Democratic party. Will Cromwell, a regional organizer for the House Democratic PAC, has been a regular at the Sunday morning campaign strategy meetings for at least a month.

Standing outside Brookfield Democratic Headquarters with a batch of campaign fliers in his hand, Democratic First Selectman Steve Dunn predicted Zimmer will capture the seat.

“No one has made more of an effort to reach out to our residents than Aaron,” he explained.

Patch.com contacted Foncello via e-mail on Thursday, October 17, and Thursday, October 24, about scheduling an interview regarding his campaign. He apparently did not reply to either message.

Zimmer said that, “Almost every conversation [with voters] is about affordability, People are worried about how they can afford groceries, their mortgage, health care and college.”

On Shamrock Drive, Jill Bongiorno said affordability is a concern. She said that taxes increase, however home values also have gone up.

She said that she is supportive of more commercial development in Brookfield as long as the town maintains its rural feel. With a son at Whisconier Middle School, the education system is a priority for her and she wants to have Federal Road paved.

Gov. Ned Lamont (D-Greenwich) and the General Assembly lowered the income tax rate for the middle income from five to 4.5 percent last year and for the lower income from three down to two percent. It was the biggest decrease in the income tax since 1995.

Is it time to lower the sales tax from 6.35 percent to 5.99 percent, as some legislators have suggested?

“I don’t have any thoughts on that at the moment,” said Zimmer.

To control college costs, should the schools offer more online classes?

Said Zimmer, “Online courses are great.”

Red Jahncke, the Greenwich financial investor-columnist, has state4d that the state employees over the last six years have had their salaries increased by 33 percent, compared to a national average of 23.5 percent in the private sector. Should there be a wage freeze on the salaries of the state employees?

“I would think that is the right move,” Zimmer commented. “If I should win this seat, if anyone was talking about a wage increase, I would probably resist that.”

In 2017, Connecticut’s minimum wage increased to $10.10 per hour. It is now $15,69 and will be boosted to $16,35 in January.

Former state Rep. David Scribner (R-107) of Brookfield, who held the seat from 1999 to 2015, said years ago that small business owners had told him that they usually hire fewer employees when the minimum wage increases.

Does there need to be a temporary freeze on the minimum wage?

Commented Zimmer, “I would hesitate to do that.” He said at the record label and small busine3sses that he owns in New York City he has “increased the margin enough” to maintain staff levels during economic downturns.

As she canvasses neighborhoods, former Brookfield Democratic Town Committee Chairman Laura Orban, who is Zimmer’s campaign manager, is wearing a “Roevember” T-shirt, making a reference to the historic 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision on the Roe v. Wade abortion access case.

Dunn told Patch.com in August that a majority of the voters in the district do not agree with Foncello’s comments on reproductive rights.

Trevor Ballantyne, of The News-Times of Danbury reported in October 2022 during Foncello’s first campaign for the seat, that he said that “the abortion issue” arrives in his conversations but “not that often,” adding that in those exchanges, he responds by pointing out that the right to an abortion is a “settled issue” already codified into Connecticut state law.

“There is nothing more that needs to be done on that issue in this time, it will not be brought up in the next session of the assembly and I am not introducing any legislation one way or the other on it,” Foncello said. “Normally when I tell people that, they seem to be pretty satisfied with the answer.”

After being asked if he supported a women’s right to choose an abortion, Foncello responded saying, there is no “yes or no to any issue,” before pointing out differences in cases involving rape, incest, or a threat to the mother’s health.

Still, he added, “it is no secret that I am a Roman Catholic and we tend to be opposed to it, and I am — I think there are other alternatives.”

Said Zimmer, “I’ve spoken to very few Democrats these last seven months. It’s mostly Republicans and unaffiliated voters and I can tell you that [Dunn] is correct” that voters do not agree with Foncello’s comments on reproductive rights.

Zimmer said voters also are worried about the increase in traffic accidents.

He said too often they have resulted from distracted driving.

“We’ve got to get those mobile devices out of people’s eyesight,” he said. “We need to get people to put their phones down.”

Resources:

Aaron Zimmer interview, Patch.com, on Sunday, October 27, 2024.

Steve Dunn interview, Patch.com, on Sunday, October 27, 2024.

Aaron Zimmer campaign canvassing, Patch.com, on Sunday, October 27, 2024.

Brookfield Journal story on David Scribner, 2008.

https://www.newstimes.com/news/article/Foncello-Holmes-107th-House-District-17486744.php

https://patch.com/connecticut/brookfield/voters-tell-harding-affordability-their-chief-concern

https://www.ctinsider.com/opinion/article/ct-age-freeze-lamoont-19819000.php

https://patch.com/connecticut/brookfield/buchsbaum-says-mccain-s-straight-talk-left-impression

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