Re-elect Jennifer Leeper. She has a record of delivering for Fairfield, and importantly, of decency

To the Editor:

I met Jennifer Leeper when her son and my daughter were at daycare together. We were both working moms, and like a lot of us after Trump's first election, we were frightened about the country our children were going to inherit: the families torn apart at the border, the cruelty sold to us as strength, the sexism we were told to shrug off. I worried as if it were my full-time job. Jennifer did something much more brave: she actually left her job and ran for State Representative, so that Fairfield would have someone in Hartford who would stand up for us. Prior to 2016, I was admittedly naive to how important local politics really are. Now I know it's one of the most important safeguards for a country with volatile leadership in place.

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Since then, she's had some major wins. She brought more than $15 million in state funding home to Fairfield and, additionally, a 75% reimbursement rate for the Dwight Elementary renovation. She led the passage of the pause of the racial imbalance law, preventing school redistricting that would have displaced our kids from their neighborhood schools. She helped write the law that ended property taxes for our 100%-disabled veterans. And she did it with decency, and without ever making it about herself.

Now let's talk about her opponent. Emily Hau, the Republican candidate, does do her homework as she regularly asserts. It is seemingly with a strong assist from AI, though she takes the credit as her own. But Emily is, first and foremost, a critic. She has a great deal to say about what she doesn't like, and far less about what she'd build. But being a sharp critic and being an effective representative are not the same job. Fairfield doesn't just need someone to read the contracts and tell us what went wrong after the fact. It needs someone who can bring funding home, build coalitions and deliver. When the next budget crosses a desk in Hartford, I don't just want it read. I want Fairfield to win the vote.

Beyond their records, character is on the ballot too, at least it is for me. In an increasingly toxic political climate, Jennifer Leeper has kept her dignity, even when she's been treated with open hostility. Her opponent, Republican Emily Hau, has too often been the one handing out that hostility. This spring, in a Fairfield Facebook thread about local development, Emily wrote of the Democratic officials she disagreed with: "it kind of makes me wonder if they all have brain tumors." A neighbor said she should be ashamed for making a joke "in light of another human being's tragic and untimely death." Fairfield lost its First Selectman, Bill Gerber, to a brain tumor the year before. Challenged, Hau didn't apologize. She doubled down, calling it "an honest concern." That's just one example of many, and I'll let that speak for itself, but from where I stand, whatever our politics, some lines we should not cross.

I've known Jennifer for years. I believe she has the character and the experience to do right by Fairfield and Southport. This November 3rd, I'm proud to vote to re-elect her, and I hope you'll stand with me.