Letter: Former First Selectman Peter Tesei In Support Of Leora Levy

The following letter was submitted to Patch by former Greenwich First Selectman Peter Tesei

To The Editor:

On August 9th, Connecticut Republicans are eligible to vote in a primary election to choose a nominee to compete in the November election to be one of our two United States Senators. There are three candidates seeking to be the Republican candidate. One candidate has distinguished herself as a mother, pioneering business woman, community leader and Republican party activist at the local, state and federal level. This candidate is Leora Levy.

During my 12- year tenure as Greenwich’s First Selectman (2007-2019), I had the opportunity to nominate and appoint hundreds of citizens to serve on various Town boards and commissions. Leora Levy stands out as one of the most effective leaders I appointed and collaborated. Leora sets clear goals, partners well with peers and achieves outcomes. From her tenure as Board Co-Chair at the Bruce Museum where she evaluated and implemented changes to the governance structure and set forth planning for the museum's future expansion to raising private funds to build a modern and compliant animal control facility through a non-profit “Shelter Our Strays”. Her fundraising prowess resulted in raising funds in excess of what was needed for the construction and today in 2022, Leora still chairs the Board that approves the expenditure of these funds which go to care for the well-being of these vulnerable animals. The shelter was built and opened in 2009.

As a member of the Selectmen’s Nomination Advisory Committee, Leora identified members of the community to serve on close to a dozen volunteer boards that govern aspects of Town government. She knows how to identify individual skill sets and energize them to serve for the benefit of the greater community.

Leora’s leadership at the Republican National Committee has benefited the CTGOP as she secured RNC funding to resuscitate the CTGOP finances. She has been on the front -line fundraising and campaigning for Republicans at the local, state and national level. And the new RNC Engagement Center in New Britain is the direct result of her work at the RNC as the National Committeewoman from Connecticut.

Leora’s background as a young child whose family fled Cuba’s Fidel Castro’s tyrannical regime is the primary reason she has been in “the arena” serving her Town, State and Country. She values freedom and our right as Americans to live in a free society. Through her life experience, Leora can truly identify with President Ronald Reagan when he said “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.”

Leora will be a United States Senator who will champion our freedoms, restore the balance of power between our local, state and Federal government and address the economic catastrophe that is being heaped on us and future generations by the reckless one-party run government in Washington.

For our future, join me in voting for Leora Levy on August 9th.

— Peter J. Tesei