Fairfield Candidate Profile: Brian Farnen For State Rep

FAIRFIELD, CT — On Tuesday, voters in the 132nd legislative district will cast their ballots in a special election to replace former state representative Brenda Kupchick, who stepped down from the post when she was elected first selectwoman in November.

Fairfield Patch asked candidates to answer questions about their campaigns and will continue covering the race through Election Day.

Brian Farnen is a Republican who has served on the Representative Town Meeting since 2011 and was the deputy majority leader in 2016 and 2017. He works as general counsel and chief legal officer for the Connecticut Green Bank. He and his wife have two children, ages 10 and 8.

Candidate responses appear as they were received and have not been edited by Patch staff.

The single most pressing issue facing District 132 is _______, and this is what I intend to do about it.

Connecticut’s most pressing issue is a lack of job growth and a stagnant economy that has led to higher taxes on working families and businesses. While the rest of the U.S. has recovered from the Great Recession, Connecticut is still struggling. As a result, people and businesses are moving out of Connecticut at an alarming rate. This has led to higher taxes on the businesses and residents that remain here. I will be focused on structural spending reform, lowering the regulatory burden on Connecticut’s small businesses, and ensuring we put aside more funds to pay down our unfunded liabilities instead of kicking the can down the road to our children and our children’s children.

Only when we show our businesses and residents that we are serious about reform will they be serious about growing and staying in Connecticut. With a healthier state economy, we can lower the crushing tax burden on all of us.

What are the critical differences between you and the other candidate seeking this post?

I have a proven track record of working across the political aisle while my opponent’s career as a professional political consultant and operative would push us more into a culture of greater political polarization in this country — and away from what is needed most now: compromise and bipartisanship. We need independent voices in Hartford, not professional party operatives who are beholden to politicians, not people.

As a Republican working in the green energy sector, I work with people across the political spectrum every day to find common solutions and compromise for the greater good. While serving in leadership on the Representative Town Meeting, I worked across the party aisle to cut spending while always protecting education funding. My opponent will follow lockstep with the majority one party rule in Hartford that has been detrimental for our state.

List other issues that define your campaign platform:

The other issues that define my campaign platform are improving our infrastructure, education and government reform.

Infrastructure

Much of Connecticut’s infrastructure is beyond its intended life and in need of repair or replacement. Investing in infrastructure will foster opportunities for our economy to grow and approve the quality of life of our citizens. My main priority is rail between New Haven and New York City and our highways. We need to prioritize infrastructure in Fairfield County as we are the economic engine for the entire state. For every dollar Fairfield sends to Hartford, we get pennies back. Instead of just being the pocketbook for the rest of the state, I will advocate that we receive our proper share of funding so we are given the tools to succeed as a region. Before we even consider tolls, we need to adopt structural spending reforms first. Otherwise, we will just enable the majority party that controls both the Legislature and the Governorship to continue to tax and spend, raid the state’s Transportation Fund and use it for non-transportation purposes.

To summarize my plan to improve our infrastructure, we should leverage (i) low-cost Federal transportation funding, (ii) adopt structural spending reforms, including using the Special Transportation Fund as it was originally intended, (iii) improve efficiency at the CT Department of Transportation, and (iv) advocate that projects in Fairfield County are prioritized by requiring that any project’s economic return be a part of the state’s analysis.

Education

As a parent of two children in public school, a PTA Executive Board Member and an Adjunct Professor at UCONN, education is a main priority. Reduced funding to Fairfield has become a constant under the majority party in Hartford. I will advocate for Fairfield’s fair share of state funding. Leaders of the majority party have also proposed forcing school districts to consolidate with neighboring cities. The majority party currently controls the Governorship and both the House and Senate and have a large enough majority to pass forced regionalization. I will fight against any forced regionalization proposal and protect the local control of Fairfield’s education system.

Government Reform

Connecticut needs government reform because Hartford like Washington D.C. is broken. To address the size of government, conflicts of interest, the influence of lobbyists and career politicians, we need term limits for the state legislature and more competitive legislative districts that are drawn away from political influence so the politicians are not picking the voters, the voters are picking the politicians.

Fill Pile

As the former Environmental, Health and Safety attorney for Sikorsky Aircraft's global operations and my strong relationship with the CT Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, I am ready on day one to help Fairfield as its State Representative get the support and resources needed to remediate the contamination that occurred on our public property. I am proud of my record on the RTM as a vocal critic of the mismanagement at the fill pile and was an early proponent of a tougher litigation strategy against Julian Enterprise.

What accomplishments in your past would you cite as evidence you can handle this job?

Being awarded the best in-house attorney in Connecticut by the CT Law Tribune last year for my work at the CT Green Bank (Green Bank). The Green Bank is the first of its kind in the U.S. and continues to be a leader in green financing innovation across the globe. Established through bipartisan support in July of 2011, the green bank model demonstrates how public funds can be better directed in ways that mobilize private investment to create good paying jobs in CT and lower the energy burden.

Additionally, being from a working class family growing up in the Naugatuck Valley before coming to Fairfield, I am proud to be the first generation that graduated from college and then going on to earn both my law degree and M.B.A in 3 ½ years while working.

The best advice ever shared with me was …

My father and mother always told me to work hard, be modest and family first.

What else would you like voters to know about yourself and your positions?

I am running because our state is hurting. Too many people are leaving the state because it is not affordable or there is less opportunity here than in other states. With two children, my hope as a parent is that they do well in school, go to college and selfishly stay in the community that my wife Kimberly and I have invested in. To encourage the next generation to stay in Connecticut, we need to make Connecticut more affordable, lower taxes and create better economic opportunities. It is time for Hartford to stop kicking our problems down the road and be more fiscally responsible. These will be guiding principles and focus if elected.