Fairfield Candidate Criticized For Political Consulting Work

FAIRFIELD, CT — The Democrat candidate for state representative in Fairfield's upcoming special election is under fire from the head of the Republican Town Committee, who issued a news release Tuesday accusing the General Assembly hopeful of hiding her work as a political consultant.

Jennifer Leeper, who is seeking to represent Fairfield's 132nd District after previous state representative Brenda Kupchick was elected first selectwoman in November, is also a founding partner at 475 Consulting Group, a firm that works with Democrat candidates and committees.

The news release, distributed by Fairfield Republican committee Chairman James Millington, said Leeper "failed to disclose that she is a paid Democratic political operative."

"Jennifer Leeper is running a campaign calling for transparency and bipartisanship, yet she has failed to be transparent about herself and her company's mission is clearly partisan," Millington said in the news release.

Leeper's campaign materials do not mention her work with 475 Consulting, according to the news release.

"Failing to disclose her political consulting firm is disingenuous and misguided," Millington said in the news release.

Leeper, who is currently a member of the Fairfield Board of Education, denied Millington's accusations, and said 475 Consulting works with nonprofits and other organizations in addition to Democrat candidates. She added she has been on sabbatical from her company since she began her run for office, and said if she wins the Jan. 14 election, she will sell her shares of the firm to her business partner.

"I am regularly saying that I am a small business owner, so I'm not exactly sure what he's alluding to," Leeper said, adding that she started the consulting firm about a year ago and her campaign has focused mainly on her previous work in education and policy.

Leeper is facing Republican Representative Town Meeting member and Connecticut Green Bank attorney Brian Farnen in the special election.

In the news release, Millington also said 475 Consulting was paid more than $13,000 in the November 2019 election by the Fairfield Democratic Town Committee to re-elect embattled former First Selectman Mike Tetreau, who lost his bid for re-election after a corruption scandal rocked the town in August. Millington said the work Leeper's firm conducted for the Democratic committee involved minimizing the impact of that scandal, in which two town employees were charged with multiple felonies for mismanagement of the Fairfield fill pile and contamination was discovered at public sites across town.

Leeper called Millington's characterization of the work performed by her firm "grossly misrepresentational," and said Tetreau had his own campaign committee and that the town's Democratic organization works on campaigns for candidates seeking seats on municipal boards. She said 475 Consulting's work for the committee did not involve minimizing the fill pile controversy.