Politics & Government
Zimmer wants Brookfield Democrats to get more actively involved
Party chairman sets new course for local town committee
By Scott Benjamin
BROOKFIELD – What is the difference between living in FUN CITY and the 29th wealthiest municipality in The Land of Steady Habits?
“There is a mix of ideas [in Brookfield],” said Democratic Town Committee Chairman Aaron Zimmer, who was living in Astoria, Queens during the pandemic in 2020 and moved briefly to Pennsylvania before coming to Brookfield in 2021. year.
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“I didn’t know one Republican person in New York City,” he commented in an interview with Patch.com.
However, he said he discovered that in Brookfield, “The Republicans show up to everything.”
Find out what's happening in Brookfieldfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
It is not just that 29.71 percent of the voters in town are Republicans, compared to 25.12 percent registered Democrats. The biggest chunk are the unaffiliated voters at 43.36 percent.
The Republicans scored a clean sweep on the 2021 municipal election ballot. The 107th state House District – which includes all of Brookfield, making it the most important piece in the three-town component – has elected only Republicans since 1976. Brookfield Republican former First Selectman Marty Foncello prevailed in the November 8 election.
About a decade ago the Brookfield Republican Town Committee held periodic social events at Golf Quest, which often attracted candidates running for governor and Congress, and had a local cable television interview show. There was time in the 1990s and 2000s when the incumbent Republican first selectman would be challenged in a primary and the loser would continue running in the general election as a petitioning or third-party candidate.
Zimmer said the local Democrats need to improve their outreach.
He said that the recent campaign by Zoning Commission member Phoebe Holmes as the Democratic nominee in the 107th state House District is a prime example.
“She knocked on doors all day long for months and months,” Zimmer remarked. “She worked at a disadvantage because she did not have a lot of help. A lot of it fell on her shoulders, which is not a good way to win a campaign.”
“We have a [Democratic Town] committee that is less useful than it can or should be,” he said. “Everyone on the committee could have done more.”
Democratic Town Committee member Laura Orban, who preceded Zimmer as chairman, agreed.
“People need to understand that government is participatory,” she said in a phone interview with Patch.com.
Zimmer said the local party is already executing a plan to take it out of “hibernation” following the pandemic.
Shannon Riley - a teacher in Brewster, N.Y., who chairs the local Democratic Town Committee’s volunteer operation – is coordinating a Reading With Intent program in which residents read a book and then meet to discuss it. Zimmer said the first entry is “The Violence Inside Us,” U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy’s (D-Hartford) 2020 book on gun responsibility.
Zimmer said he has posted one podcast and hopes to develop a whole series of them.
Zimmer came to Brookfield with his wife, Nichole, and their two-and-half-year- old daughter, Winnie. He’s been playing musical instruments since his childhood and currently operates a record label and two retail businesses in New York City with eight employees. He commutes to the Big Apple about once every two weeks.
Orban, who stepped down as chairman to focus on campaign strategies for the party, said that the Democratic Town Committee members immediately recognized Zimmer’s leadership potential soon after he became a member this last April.
“Aaron has great organizational skills,” Holmes said in a phone interview with Patch.com. “He was a fabulous choice.”
Although outnumbered, the Democrats annexed the first selectman’s office in five of the six elections between 2009 and 2019.
Democrat Steve Dunn, a former vice president with J.P. Morgan Chase, was elected to three terms starting in 2015 - the first time in either party since 1999 that a first selectman had served more than two terms.
Some political observers believe that Dunn’s initial election was partly due to reservations among voters about Republican incumbent Bill Tinsley, who had experienced a controversial first term despite trying to hold the tax mill rate increase to zero.
Dunn, who currently serves as one of the other Selectmen on the three-member board said during that campaign that residents also were concerned about the emergence of A Brookfield Party, which he considered to be an offshoot of the local Republican Party. He said at the time that A Brookfield Party was trying to keep Democrats from obtaining seats through minority representation on municipal boards and commissions.
Dunn has been credited with helping get approval for the Candlewood Lake Elementary School which is scheduled to open in 2023 and initiating further development in Brookfield Village on Federal Road and at the Berkshire Corporate Park.
However, last fall Tara Carr, a Brookfield native who had served 25 years in the U.S. Army, defeated Dunn, taking 51.24 percent of the vote in a three-way race.
The Republicans waged an ambitious campaign in which large signs with Carr’s image and the words, “It’s Time For Tara” were posted.
“We got beat so badly, and they just didn’t see it coming,” Zimmer commented, noting that that analysis became more apparent for him last spring after he became a member of the local Democratic Town Committee.
“The committee members didn’t anticipate Steve or anyone else losing that election,” he explained.
There have been reports since at least 2018 that the Nutmeg State is undergoing a political identity change, particularly in the suburbs.
Look at Greenwich – the home of former Republican President George H.W. Bush. It was red for generations, turned purple, and now the Democrats have a slight registration edge. In November, Greenwich elected three Democratic state representatives. Or consider the Westport-Wilton area, where in 2018 Will Haskell became the first Democrat to capture the 26th District state Senate seat since 1970. In November Ceci Maher of Wilton made it three straight victories for the Democrats in that district.
However, the marquee Democratic names that win easily statewide, lose in Brookfield, including in the 2022 election the ticket of Gov. Ned Lamont (D-Greenwich) and Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz (D-Middletown), as well as U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Greenwich).
State Rep. Stephen Harding (R-107) wrote in an e-mail message: “Brookfield has been different than Greenwich and other parts of southern Fairfield County and has not undergone as much of a political identity change.”
During his speech at the Democrat’s election night headquarters in 2021 Dunn said Brookfield is still a “Republican town.”
Zimmer said the Democratic Town Committee already is making plans for the 2023 municipal election.
He said he believes that Carr, who took office in December 2021, has ambitions beyond the Brookfield municipal government.
Commented Zimmer, “I think Tara took an interest in politics to push her personal agenda. I think her hope is to use her role as first selectman as a stepping stone to higher office.”
Zimmer acknowledged that there is not anything wrong in doing that.
Hartford Courant political columnist Kevin Rennie praised Carr in his blog, Daily Ructions, in 2021: “If state Republicans are to emerge from the wilderness, they will need leaders like Carr.”
Longtime Republican State Central Committee member John Morris of Litchfield agreed, saying in a recent Patch.com interview that he thinks that Carr could move on to bigger things after she has been in office for at least three terms.
Nationally, New York Times columnists Maureen Dowd, Bret Stephens and Gail Collins have stated that Democratic President Joe Biden shouldn’t run for a second term in 2024 when he would be approaching 82 years of age, even though Dowd and Collins have praised several of his positions.
However, the sub headline to a recent New York Times story stated: “A stronger-than-expected midterm showing has quieted the party’s public hand-wringing about a re-election campaign for President Biden. But it hasn’t put those worries to rest.”
Zimmer said that Biden has a resume of accomplishments, including infrastructure funding, prescription drug pricing and climate change.
He added, “I would vote for Biden again.”
Resources:
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/28/us/politics/biden-2024.html
Aaron Zimmer interview, Patch.com, November 13, 2022.
Stephen Harding e-mail message, Patch.com, November 22, 2022
John Morris interview, Patch.com, November 26, 2022.
Laura Orban, phone interview, Patch.com, November 17, 2022.
Phoebe Holmes, phone interview, Patch.com, November 25, 2022.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/21/opinion/trump-biden-midterms-announcement.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/06/opinion/biden-re-election-2024.html
