Has early voting changed the dynamics of Brookfield elections?

By Scott Benjamin

BROOKFIELD – Is it capturing the early birds – the ones who set their alarm clocks for 4:57 a.m., would shudder to be one minute late for a neighborhood WIFFLE BALL game and mark their iPhone calendar to remember when the tickets go on sale for the John Fogerty concert at Planet Hollywood - that generates the ballots that not only gets the worms but produces the election victory?

Brookfield Republican leaders say Democrat First Selectman Steve Dunn took a fifth non-consecutive term by garnering a 500-vote advantage over Republican challenger Karl Hinger over the 14 days that ballots were cast before the November 4 Election Day.

“Early voting is definitely an area that they succeeded in,” Hinger said of the Democrats. “Focusing on early voting will be of serious importance for us.”

However, Brookfield Democratic Town Committee Chairman Shannon Riley said the results would have been the same regardless of early voting, which was initiated in Connecticut in 2024. This was the first municipal election under the system.

Brookfield Republican Party Chairman Bobby Guarino said, “I think every candidate on our ticket prevailed in each of the three voting districts” in the November 4 Election Day balloting.

Riley countered that the votes all count the same regardless of when they were cast. She said that it is not a case that the Democrats had a huge third round clubhouse lead and now have to devise a formula to get more of their likely supporters out on Election Day.

Former Brookfield Democratic Town Committee Chairman Aaron Zimmer said, “Democrats tend to embrace early voting more than Republicans, generally speaking. There always has been a reluctance among Republicans toward early voting, absentee voting, and that is not the case for Democrats.”

Zimmer explained, “I think Republicans tend to tell people that with absentee voting and early voting there is a higher likelihood of fraud a higher likelihood of malfeasance.”

Said Hinger, “I think Republicans, in general, prefer to vote on election day. I don’t think it is unique to Brookfield. It is happening across the country.”

Guarino commented, “I think the moral to the story is: How do we shape our messaging to get more people out to vote? How do we educate more people to come out to vote, because it is even more important in the municipal cycles than the presidential cycles.”

The Democratic candidate for first selectman has prevailed in seven of the last nine elections in Brookfield.

However, Brookfield Republican leaders also think that national issues were partly responsible for Dunn annexing 53.2 percent of the vote.

It is curious, state Rep. Amy Morrin Bello (D-28) has said, for example, that when she was mayor of Wethersfield it took her two hours to get out of the supermarket because so many constituents wanted to speak with her.

Voters don’t have that same access to the president. Yet, the turnout in the presidential years is much higher. Plus, the results of a presidential election can influence the local municipal campaign in the following year.

Brookfield Republican Vacancy Committee Chairman Stephen Harding Sr. said, “I think it was national issues in this last municipal election . I think it is what we ourselves saw four years ago after Trump lost and more Republicans came out to vote in the 2021 municipal election. “Those national issues get voters out that usually don’t go to the polls in a municipal election.”

For example, there have been multiple “No Kings” rallies near the intersection of Candlewood Lake Road and Federal Road protesting the Trump Administration.

Harding Sr. added, “It happened all over Connecticut, and in Brookfield I think the Republicans held their own. We took three of the four positions on the Board of Finance and two of the three positions on the Board of Education.”

Elected to the Zoning Board of Appeals, Liam Enea captured 3,214 votes – which he indicated is apparently the most ever for a municipal candidate in Brookfield.

Enea said another factor in the results was that, “I think Steve Dunn had an advantage with incumbency. He is not a radical person. I think that appealed to moderates and unaffiliated voters. I think the unaffiliated voters determined the election.”

Zimmer said, “I think that people trust Steve.”

The Democrats have had a permanent headquarters since May 2023. Party members have said it has made a large difference since they have become better acquainted and formed work teams. They also have posted “Republicans For Dunn/Belden” signs during the last two municipal elections at the homes of GOP members who are voting for Dunn and Bob Belden, an unaffiliated voter and former Republican, who has been elected twice to a seat on the Board of Selectmen as Dunn’s running mate.

The respective town committees will soon caucus to elect their members for the next term, which will start in March.

The Democrats will caucus on Tuesday, January 6, in the party’s headquarters at 499 Federal Road.

Riley said she believes she has “done a good job” since succeeding Zimmer in March 2024 and “would like to run for another term” as chairman when officers are elected in March.

She said the party had a large corps of volunteers canvassing during the municipal election, including high school students who were not yet old enough to be registered to vote.

Zimmer opted to remain on the Democratic Town Committee but not seek another term as chairman in 2024 as he launched an ambitious campaign traveling by motor scooter to canvass voters in his bid to unseat Republican state Rep. Marty Foncello of Brookfield in the 107th state House District. Foncello, a former first selectman, captured a second term.

Zimmer said, “No comment,” when asked if he plans to run again for the state House seat.

Brookfield has been the main population base in the 107th District since 1972 and no Democrat has won the seat since the late James Mannion, an attorney from Bethel, was elected in 1974.

Republicans will caucus Thursday, January 8, at 7 p.m. in Whisconier Middle School.

Jim Sutherland, who served as Brookfield Republican Town Committee chairman from 1998 to 2000, once said that unlike Virginia – where he grew up, which has county government – in Connecticut, which has a municipal party system, an individual member of a town committee can “make a real difference” by whom they vote for to be on the municipal election slate.

Guarino said that about 75 percent of the current members are on the recommended Republican Town Committee slate and there are some new members, including a current law school student.

Guarino is on the slate, but commented that it is “less likely” than “more likely” that he will seek a second term as Republican Town Committee chairman, citing “time constraints” as a chief consideration.

He said that there “are more than a few” worthy candidates to become chairman.

Hinger and Harding Sr. said that Alan Donnelly - the former chairman of the Zoning Board of Appeals who was a candidate last fall for a seat on the Board of Selectman, finishing just three votes behind Hinger’s tally – will likely be a prime candidate for the position.

Said Donnelly, “I first want to t hank the voters that participated in November. If there is a vacancy for the chairmanship, I would seriously consider running for it if it appears the town committee members would support me.”

Hinger, Harding Sr. and Enea praised Guarino, who became chairman months after a bitter primary between Republican First Selectman Tara Carr and former Board of Education Chairman Matt Grimes. Carr won but then lost to Dunn in the November election. She served the next term as a member of the Board of Selectman.

They said that the party prepares for the 2026 state legislative races, it is in a better place now than it was a year ago.

Harding Sr., the father of state Senate Republican Leader Stephen Harding (R-30) of Brookfield, said Guarino encouraged Hinger, who is 31 and was serving at the time as vice chairman of the Zoning Board of Appeals, to seek the Republican nomination for first selectman and brought members from the two factions in the 2023 primary together to work as a team.

Guarino had not previously served on the Republican Town Committee.

Harding said the members of the committee had been impressed with Guarino’s performance when he ran for town treasurer in 2023, and thought that “he would help us since he is connected to a lot of younger families in town.”

Guarino said he sought input from a wide variety of Republicans.

“I think it is important to learn from the people who have been here for a while,” he explained. “To empower newer people to share their ideas and then try to execute those ideas and make sure that they feel heard and a part of everything.”

Guarino said that although Hinger lost to Dunn, he garnered a seat on the Board of Selectman and is a valued addition.

“He is an inclusive person and I think that he will be a great fixture in the town government for years to come,” Guarino added.

This last July, Austin Monteiro, who had started the current term as vice chairman of the Republican Town Committee before moving to Danbury to run for the state House in the 110th District, challenged Hinger for the nomination at the party caucus. Carr ran for a seat on the Board of Selectmen as Monteiro’s running mate. Her election as first selectman in 2021 marked the best results for a Republican candidate for that office since the late Jerry Murphy won a second term unopposed in 2005.

Hinger and Donnelly had been recommended in April by the Republican Town Committee.

Said Guarino, “I think there were some issues in the past that defined the decisions that were made going forward. We didn’t make decisions based on whose feelings might be hurt. We made decisions based on what would be best for Brookfield.”

“You don’t always end up going on the direction that you planned,” he explained. ”Tara always has been someone who had the best interests of Brookfield at heart. Austin clearly has something that he is trying to achieve and I hope that he finds a way to achieve it or at least finds a place where he belongs.”

Monteiro ran as a petitioning candidate for first selectman in 2021 and was on the GOP ticket for a seat on the Board of Education in 2023.

Said Guarino, “At the end of the day, we did it with respect. We didn’t go against them to find out what would happen at the caucus. It didn’t turn out that way, [Monteiro and Carr’s names were placed in consideration for nomination at the caucus] but we did not have primary. We’re in a better place because we treated them with respect throughout the process.”

However, in an e-mail message to Patch.com, Monteiro stated that he and Carr were mistreated by the Brookfield Republican Town Committee (BRTC).

“We were not shown any respect during the process at any time from the leadership of the party,” he wrote. “We were essentially pushed out, silenced and lied to for months from the interview process in March, during their campaigning for the caucus and post caucus in July ( I am still waiting on a voter list of who voted at the caucus which was never provided by the Chairman of the BRTC, so in reality we have no idea who voted that day.)”