LTE: Four Reasons To Re-Elect Jennifer Leeper, Fact-Checked

To The Editor:

Donald Hyman offered four reasons to re-elect Jennifer Leeper. Three of them fall apart on contact with the record.

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Start with the money. Mr. Hyman says Rep. Leeper "spearheaded" the budget package that sent Fairfield just under $1 million. She did not. That budget was negotiated by Gov. Lamont, Speaker Ritter, Majority Leader Rojas, Senate President Looney and the Appropriations co-chairs. Rep. Leeper was not in that room. She voted for it, along with 27 of the 48 House Republicans.

And the money is not what he says it is. Fairfield's $940,799 is one-time money out of the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan casino fund. Speaker Ritter said so plainly: "It's one time in nature." One check, one year, from the casinos. That is not delivering for Fairfield. That is passing along a windfall and taking a bow for it.

Then the Southport wharf. Mr. Hyman chaired the Harbor Management Commission, so he knows exactly how that $1,073,778 got here. The bonding request was built by Sen. Tony Hwang, ranking member of the Bonding Subcommittee, working with the Lamont administration and Mr. Hyman's own commission. Sen. Hwang is a Republican. Mr. Hyman wrote him out of a story he was standing in.

Same pattern on the monopoles. Mr. Hyman calls Rep. Leeper "the first elected official to get out in front." The docket says otherwise. A Fairfield residents' group filed for intervenor status on August 23, 2023. The town followed within days. The legislative delegation arrived on October 10, six weeks later, as a bipartisan coalition. Residents led. Our representative followed. There is nothing shameful about following. Just don't call it leading.

Now the part Mr. Hyman gets exactly backwards. He credits Rep. Leeper with the power to help "local communities set local policy for use of cell phones in public schools." She pushed a statewide bell-to-bell ban. It died in the Senate over one objection: it stripped the decision from local school boards. Given the choice between Hartford and Fairfield's own board, she chose Hartford.

He also lists the homeschool bill as an accomplishment. That law now requires Fairfield parents to declare their intent every year, appear in person to file the paperwork, and pass a background check to teach their own children. Rep. Leeper called it a "meaningful win." Ask a homeschooling family in this town whether it feels like one.

Twice on the same instinct. When Hartford and Fairfield disagreed, she went with Hartford. That is why I am running.

I will not pretend Rep. Leeper has done nothing. The increase to the education funding formula is real and it matters. But "she delivers" is a slogan, and a slogan is not a record. The 132nd deserves a representative who reads the fine print before she puts her name on it, and who knows the difference between a casino check and a commitment.

Emily Hau
Candidate for State Representative, 132nd District, Fairfield and Southport
emilyforfairfield.com