State Rep. Jenn Leeper's Leadership on the UI Monopoles is on the Record

A recent letter to the editor supporting Democratic State Representative Jenn Leeper's re-election outlined four reasons why the writer would vote for her again. One reason was her leadership on fighting the United Illuminating monopole plan. He said that, from his perspective, she was the first elected official to get in front of the issue and question UI's plan.

Rep. Leeper's opponent, Republican Emily Hau, published a point by point rebuttal to that letter meant to undermine the demonstrated leadership Rep. Leeper has shown as an elected official.

Rep. Leeper's involvement in sounding the alarm and speaking with residents goes back to Spring 2023. In her legislative newsletter, she first mentioned the UI monopole plan on April 17, 2023, again on July 21, and then filed testimony on the official PURA docket on August 15, as well as another newsletter on Aug. 17 and a social media post on August 18, 2023. Mrs. Hau gets the timeline completely wrong claiming she did nothing until Oct. 20th. For someone who claims to read the fine print, she seems to miss quite a few details. (https://mcusercontent.com/d5ebe2531c17a98b4479a09e7/files/3fc913ff-d63b-c54a-c133-8b6133399c6e/Representative_Leeper_United_Illuminating_Docket_No._516_Testimony.pdf)

In the newsletter and post, Rep. Leeper asks people to read the proposal closely and consider submitting written testimony to the Siting Council opposing it. She highlights the issues she has with the proposal, specifically the new utility easements, and temporary easements that would result in cutting 6.5 acres of trees, and asks residents to support moving the transmission lines underground.

Rep. Leeper has always worked hand-in-hand with the neighbors and put their efforts at the center of her remarks. They have all worked together to protect our community from this destructive project, which was reinforced by the letter recently submitted in support of Rep. Leeper by the co-founders of SNETI, the organization fighting UI's application.

Ms. Hau claims she "reads the fine print," and that no one has disputed any "facts" she's published. Ms. Hau has a persistent habit of extrapolating an entire story that fits her narrative from a single data point. She either conveniently ignores other relevant facts or is oblivious to them, which is inconvenient when her only promise to the people she wants to serve is that she "reads the fine print."

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