​ Zimmer leaps into race for 107th District state House seat

By Scott Benjamin

BROOKFIELD – In Gotham it is difficult to get recognized in between the subways, taxi cabs and skyscrapers unless you are starring in “The Heart Of Rock And Roll” on Broadway, have a regular Monday night table at Rao’s or are playing center field for the Yankees.

When it came to political outreach, “The best I could do is attend a rally with 10,000 people,” said Aaron Zimmer, the former Brookfield Democratic Town Committee (DTC) chairman who moved to Connecticut three years ago from Astoria, Queens. He owns a record label and two retail businesses in New York City.

“Moving to a small town you can make change based on individual effort,” Zimmer remarked. “The role of chairman can, if you let it, become a full-time job.”

He is sitting in a 500-square-foot commercial space that until a year ago housed the local Chamber of Commerce.

Some Brookfield DTC members initially questioned why the local party should spend the money to have a permanent headquarters.

But now, nearly a year after the grand opening, they say they couldn’t live without it.

Shannon Riley, who recently succeeded Zimmer as the Brookfield DTC chairman, said, “Aaron secured donations from people who believed in our work. [It is] a permanent space where we can gather to meet with residents, meet with each other and meet with like-minded people. It changed the way that we saw ourselves as a DTC.”

He also established a podcast, created digital marketing, helped record campaign web videos and even posted lawn signs stating that there were Republicans who supported the Dunn-Belden Democratic ticket for the Board of Selectmen.

Under Zimmer’s direction, the Democrats, who had been routed in the 2021 municipal election, rebounded in 2023, sweeping their slate into office, featuring former First Selectman Steve Dunn at the top of the ticket.

Zimmer said when he became DTC chairman nearly two years ago there were only 12 active members. At the caucus this last January to elect DTC members for the new two-year term, the party approved a slate of 26 members plus alternates.

“We’ve built some momentum,” Zimmer commented. “We’ve brought some new people in.”

Zimmer didn’t seek another term as Brookfield DTC chairman so he could run for the Democratic nomination in the handsome section of Connecticut – the 107th state House District – a seat that encompasses all of Brookfield, the Stony Hill section of Bethel and a slice of northern Newtown. The nominating convention will be held May 15 at the Brookfield DTC headquarters.

Zimmer said now there is a roster of enthusiastic volunteers and he began canvassing the week of April 22.

The Democrats have not prevailed in the 107th District since 1974 when Bethel attorney James Mannion took the seat as Democrat Ella Grasso scored a landslide win for her first term as governor.

Over the last 58 years, the voters have elected Brookfield Republicans M. Jodi Rell, who became lieutenant governor and then governor; Fran Collins, who was minority leader and then the speaker of the House; Stephen Harding, who is now the GOP leader in the state Senate; Dave Smith, who made a bid to be the GOP caucus leader; David Scribner - who served for nearly 16 years, the longest of anyone since the district was established - and was a prime author of the graduated licensing program that was established for young drivers; and Scott Santa-Maria, a Bethel police officer who was a point person on public safety issues in the General Assembly and noted for being pragmatic to the point where he developed an independence from then-Gov. John Rowland, who also was a Republican.

The latest in the succession of Republicans to be elected is Marty Foncello, who defeated Democrat Phoebe Holmes, a member of the Brookfield Zoning Commission, two years ago when it was an open seat after Harding announced he was running for the state Senate.

Foncello, who had retired from his full-time job, served as Brookfield’s first selectman from 1999 to 2003. He moved to Brookfield even before Rell was the state representative. He is on former First Selectman Tara Carr’s list of admired elected officials and his military service has been recognized among the veterans displayed in the trophy case in the town hall.

Not only that, he graduated from Boston College – class of 1974 – the same one as famed sportswriter Mike Lupica, who became the youngest sports columnist in New York City history and proceeded to write that Yankees owner George Steinbrenner was a “lout” and “a miserable slug.”

Former state Sen. Jamie McLaughlin (R-32), who used to live in Brookfield, once said that when his successor Lou DeLuca of Woodbury took office, he had retired from full-time work, his children were adults and he embraced the opportunity of being in the General Assembly with the zest of being in his first semester of college.

Brookfield Republican Town Committee (RTC) Vice Chairman Austin Monteiro said it has been that same way for Foncello.

“At this point in life Marty can focus all of his efforts on representing the 107th District,” Monteiro said.

Monteiro, who ran as a petitioning candidate for first selectman in 2021, noted that Foncello serves on the Education and the Appropriations Committees, which “are probably the two biggest committees to be on.”

He added that Foncello co-sponsored a property tax exemption for military veterans with a service-related disability that was recently approved in the state House.

However, Matt Grimes, who ran for the Republican nomination for first selectman last year, said that Foncello’s performance has not matched that of his recent predecessors in the district.

“He’s not an outstanding state representative,” said Grimes, who was elected to the Board of Education in 2001 on the Republican ticket when Foncello captured his second term as first selectman, but who did not have Foncello’s endorsement in last September’s GOP primary against Carr.

Remarked Grimes, “He’s the oldest member of the Republican caucus. He is very late in his time to be in the state House. You can’t point to anything very effective that he has done in the last year and a half. He doesn’t have signature issues the way that Steve Harding did as the state rep., and certainly not like David Scribner did.”

“I think that people think that Steve Harding is still the state representative,” said Grimes. “I heard that a lot when I was campaigning.”

Patch.com placed voice-mail messages to Foncello on April 28 and April 29. He apparently did not make a return message to offer comments.

The district voting profile is 30.1 percent Republican, 25.21 percent Democrat, 43.03 percent unaffiliated and 1.59 percent minor parties, according to figures provided by Zimmer.

While Scribner served between 1999 to early 2015 he did not have Democratic opposition in five of the nine elections. Harding did not have a Democratic opponent in 2016.

Grimes, a former Brookfield Republican Town Committee chairman, said that even though the Democrats have not captured the legislative seat since Kareem Abdul Jabbar was still playing for the Milwaukee Bucks, the 107th District has “become less reliably Republican” in recent elections.

“Joe Biden carried Brookfield in 2020,” Grimes commented. “That is the first time that had happened [for a Democratic presidential candidate] since 1964.”

Gov. Ned Lamont (D-Greenwich) garnered 48 percent of the vote in 2022.

Grimes said, “I don’t think a Democratic gubernatorial candidate has ever done that well in Brookfield.”

Part of that may be have been due to distaste for Republican former President Donald Trump.

Sacred Heart University professor Gary Rose, who has written several books on Connecticut politics, has said the “Trump factor” contributed to the Republicans losing in the 2018 midterm elections in Connecticut when all other signs pointed toward a “change election” year that would boost the GOP into the governorship and majorities in the General Assembly. Rose said that suburban women, who usually vote in equal numbers for the Republican and Democratic candidates, have voted at an increasing rate for the Democrats because of Trump.

In a 2020 story on the nearby 111th state House District race for an open seat, Mark Pazniokas of CT Mirror wrote that there wasn’t one Donald Trump lawn sign in the Ridgefield Republican headquarters.

“It goes without saying: The election of Donald J. Trump as the 45th president of the United States has been trouble for Republicans in places like Ridgefield, one of the affluent Fairfield County suburbs where GOP victories in state and federal races once were assured,” Pazniokas stated. “No longer.”

Now Trump is again the apparent Republican nominee.

Democratic State Central Committee Audrey Blondin of Goshen, who unsuccessfully ran for the state House seat 40 years ago in the 64th District in northern Litchfield County, said, “As a Democrat, if I was ever going to run for office again, this would be the year that I would do it. I think at minimum in Connecticut it will be 60 percent Biden and 40 percent Trump.”

Monteiro acknowledged that there are books being written on how nationally more voters are trending Republican, yet Connecticut is voting more Democrat.

In the Nutmeg State, the Democrats hold the governorship, all seven seats in Congress and majorities in both chambers of the General Assembly. The Republicans have not captured a gubernatorial election or a U.S. House race since 2006.

Monteiro said the Brookfield Republican Town Committee recently elected a new and younger leadership team and the party recently attracted at least 50 people to a fund-raising activity at Golf Ranch. He added that the Brookfield RTC will be “knocking on doors” for Foncello and the rest of the GOP slate.

Zimmer said in two weeks he raised enough money to qualify for a Citizens Election Program grant and promptly began knocking on doors through the district.

Riley commented, “It is the earliest that a candidate has every gotten on the ground.”

“He goes to all the town events,” she added. “He volunteers at the library with reading stories. He understands the need to connect with people in town.”

During an interview with Patch.com, Zimmer declined to provide detailed positions, for the time being, on some issues.

Said Monteiro, if you go to Zimmer’s campaign web site “There is not much there currently” on his policy positions. “That could change down the road.”

Zimmer did say that two of the most important concerns in the district are protecting the environment and preserving reproductive rights.

Regarding gun responsibility, Zimmer commented, “We have pretty good gun laws. “We’re a pretty safe state. But there is more work that we can do on guns.”

When asked which elected officials he most admires, he cited U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Hartford) at the top of the list for his “unwavering dedication to gun reform.” His admiration list also includes Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz (D-Middletown) and the local campaign volunteers.

Zimmer said he is not going to commit at this time on becoming a member, if elected, of the House Progressive Caucus, but he does agree with many of its positions.

He said he was “not sure” if he would have supported the state income tax reductions for the middle income and the lower income that were approved last year. Zimmer indicated that he hadn’t yet done much research on that issue.

However, he said taxes should be increased on the wealthy.

On another topic, Zimmer said he would have supported the 2.5 percent salary increases and bonus pay that the General Assembly recently approved for the state employees in a vote that was mostly along party lines.

Zimmer remarked, “As a small business owner, I wasn’t able to give myself a raise this year, but I did give my employees an increase. They have bills and families and deserve to be treated fairly. This deal was negotiated two years ago, and I’m surprised to see a few representatives go back on their word. People with families deserve the raises they’ve been promised.”

Resources:

Interview with Aaron Zimmer, Patch.com, Thursday, April 18, 2024.

E-mail interview with Aaron Zimmer, Patch.com, Wednesday, May 1, 2024.

Phone Interview with Audrey Blondin, Patch.com, Wednesday, April 24, 2024.

Phone interview with Shannon Riley, Patch.com, Sunday, April 28, 2024.

Phone interview with Matt Grimes, Patch.com, Sunday, April 28, 2024.

Phone Interview with Austin Monteiro, Patch.com, Tuesday, April 30, 2024.

https://ctmirror.org/2020/10/21/trump-demands-attention-from-suburban-voters-down-ballot-republicans-wish-he-wouldnt/

https://ctnewsjunkie.com/2024/04/23/house-approves-4-5-raise-for-state-employees/

https://patch.com/connecticut/brookfield/despite-meager-numbers-connecticut-gop-has-issues-run

https://patch.com/connecticut/brookfield/carr-says-town-should-evaluate-pay-boost-municipal-staff

The Emerging Populist Majority, Troy M. Olson and Gavin Wax, Bombadier Books, 2024.

Party Of The People, Patrick Ruffini, Simon & Schuster, 2023.