I like Jen Leeper. I like Cristin McCarthy Vahey. We all know they are on the wrong side of the big buildings infestation, but they have been dedicated public servants for a long time. Across the aisle, I am especially horrified that Tony Hwang (and David Becker and Kathryn Braun — all GOP) have been the targets of amateurish smear campaigns. After all these years working on your behalf, Tony didn’t deserve what we saw this election. So what that he doesn’t miss a photo op. That means he’s out there, working with community groups. All of them in different ways are the victims of a rapacious machine built around the upstate construction cabal and Democratic Party Central. It is not Obama’s Blue party in this state. Dems are told what to support or they will be, as they say, “primaried out.”

Their salaries of $43,000+ is half of what economists call a living wage. We all need income; it’s kept artificially low to make them susceptible to the Party and its access to funds, committee assignments, junkets, campaign contributions from remote sources, etc. If we paid everyone $120,000 and insisted they could take no outside money or payments in kind, but instead fully represent Fairfield with independence, that is what we want. And if they don’t, we fire them by not re-electing them. But it’s OUR choice whether to rehire them, not a distant politico’s.

This town has been through a lot of collective trauma. And, honestly, we have more of the tunnel to go through. But as The Osmonds sang, One bad apple don’t spoil the whole bunch, (girl). The vast majority of our elected officials, and thousands of government healthcare, education, law enforcement, and health & human services professionals, are true angels on earth. They are walking the walk every day, protecting us and helping those less fortunate. When we free ourselves from the golden-domed octopus of Hartford, with a tentacle in 169 towns, they are the ones who will lead Fairfield to a new era of equality and harmony.

She was castigated for it, but the greatest presidential debate answer ever was when candidate Marianne Williamson said that she would meet dark forces with the “politics of love”. John Lennon sang the same thing: All you need is love.

— Matthew Hallock, Fairfield, CT. 2/3/26 (day after Groundhog Day. The rerun is over!)