NewCanaanite.com recently received the following endorsement letter(s). We will publish them through Oct. 26.
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To the Editor:
This November, voters in the 125th District have an easy choice: reelect State Representative Tom O’Dea.
Tom has served us in Hartford since 2013 and previously served on the New Canaan Town Council. That experience matters. As Deputy House Republican Leader, he is in the room for negotiations on nearly every major bill. He regularly works with the Speaker, the Majority Leader, and the Governor’s office. A well-meaning newcomer, however, would start at the back of the line. Tom already has the relationships and credibility to deliver results for our towns.
His record shows it. Tom helped pass the law allowing first responders to administer Narcan, which has saved countless lives across Connecticut. He helped pass the bipartisan 2017 budget, which created the fiscal guardrails now credited with balancing our budget and reducing state debt. On housing, he won passage of an amendment, signed by the governor, that gives towns credit for building more housing than the law requires. It is a practical fix that rewards communities that do their part while respecting local decision-making. He has also secured state funding for local bridge repairs and supported ending Connecticut’s decades-old moratorium on new nuclear power, a step toward lowering our energy bills.
What sets Tom apart is the way he works. He listens first. He focuses on local issues rather than national talking points and has earned respect across the aisle. That is why he has often run with broad support from Democrats, Republicans, and unaffiliated voters alike. In a time of loud politics, Tom is steady, thoughtful, and effective.
Real challenges lie ahead: protecting local zoning control, easing the tax burden on seniors, and lowering electricity costs. These are exactly the issues where experience and trust across party lines make the difference.
Tom O’Dea has served the 125th District for 14 years and, after redistricting, has included parts of Stamford and Darien for the last four years. Please join me in voting for his re-election on November 3.
Sincerely,
Cristina A. Ross
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To the Editor,
As a resident of New Canaan, I am writing to enthusiastically support Meredith Tobitsch for State Representative in the 125th House District.
We need a proactive, dedicated leader in Hartford who will fiercely protect our community, turn promises into results, and focus on the kitchen-table issues that matter most to local families. Her campaign priorities directly reflect the real-world experiences she shares with us as a fellow neighbor and a mother raising two daughters in our town.
Meredith’s vision for Connecticut focuses on lowering our cost of living, slashing energy bills, and ensuring affordable, accessible childcare for working parents. Beyond these platform promises, she has a proven track record of tangible action in early childhood development and schooling right here in our community. She has served on the Board of Directors for the New Canaan Community Preschool and worked on the Early Childhood Education Grant Review Team for the New Canaan Community Foundation to direct vital funding across Fairfield County. Furthermore, her professional background as an Organizing Director at Families for Excellent Schools highlights her long-standing commitment to collaborating with parents to champion public education funding and equitable school access.
Meredith does not just talk about building inclusive, family-friendly spaces—she delivers them. As co-chair of the Friends of Waveney Playground, she helped lead the effort to raise $900,000 to construct an all-abilities playground in New Canaan. In Hartford, I trust her to bring this exact same determination to the state level, fighting for state-level family investments and supporting critical legislative efforts to cap childcare costs, fund special education, and support early childhood educators. Our district deserves a fresh, dependable voice who brings people together and understands our values. Current state leaders, including State Representative Lucy Dathan, have already highlighted Meredith’s unique ability to keep us all pulling in the same direction. I encourage my neighbors to join me in voting for a proven leader we can believe in by casting their ballot for Meredith Tobitsch.
Susan B. Edmands
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In this time of hyper-partisanship it seems almost unthinkable that a long time Democratic voter would cross party lines this November. Yet that is what I intend to do with my vote for Joe Kelly for CT State Senate in District 36 this fall. I believe that in this environment in CT we need to put our support behind leaders who have shown a real ability to work with all groups and to just get things done. We want results based on what makes sense, not based on what party proposed the idea.
Joe has already shown that he can convert the skills he developed in a long and successful business career to solving problems for people. As a very active member of Greenwich’s local government he has taken a leading role in the areas of Education, Budget and Tax matters as well making sure that complex local building projects get completed in an accountable and efficient manner.
I may not agree with Joe on every policy issue, but I have faith that he will listen to all views and will work hard to get to a reasonable solution. A voice of reason and compromise in today’s world is a rare item — we need people like Joe on both sides of the isle to help convince others in their party to come to the middle.
More than anything, I know that Joe is a great guy – he goes out of his way to help people – whether that means going out in a storm with a chain saw to clear a tree from an elderly neighbor’s driveway or pitching in to help devastated Rockaway Beach residents after the Hurricane. Joe has always been wiling to rollup his sleeves and focus on getting done what has to be done. That is a quality that we need in our government.
As I have said before, all of this is enough to convince me that Joe would serve us well in the CT Senate — he has the business background, the experience, but most of all a record of caring. He also happens to be a Republican. I can live with that.
James Mossman
Greenwich, CT
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To the Editor:
I have been thinking about what it takes for someone to be an effective state senator.
Among other prerequisites, state senators must understand budgets, legislative procedure and the process of building support to move proposals forward.
I think that last point is really important: one state senator alone cannot deliver results. Building support is essential. This requires building relationships with your fellow legislators, knowing their districts’ priorities, and finding common ground in order to gain their support to move a proposal forward.
One reason I am supporting Jill Oberlander is her ability to easily develop important relationships, a skill she has shown time and again in her years of public service.
She developed relationships with politicians and legislators across Connecticut during the four years she represented the 36th District on the Connecticut Democratic State Central Committee.
In Greenwich, in 2018 she was unanimously elected by her Democrat and Republican colleagues on the Board of Estimate and Taxation (BET) to become the first Democratic BET chair. She worked with all her BET colleagues and led the team in making difficult but thoughtful decisions for the community.
As the lone Democrat on the three-person Board of Selectmen during COVID, she worked across party lines on municipal operations, contracts, appointments and the town’s response to this incredible public emergency.
This wide range of public service roles has given Jill the experience with public budgets, government administration, and bipartisan deliberation and helped her develop important relationships throughout Connecticut politics.
She will arrive in Hartford ready to work for Greenwich, North Stamford, and New Canaan.
This is why I am supporting Jill Oberlander for State Senate for CT District 36.
Join me and vote for Jill Oberlander for State Senate.
Yours,
Peter Cruikshank
Cos Cob
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If there is one thing I’ve learned from serving in Greenwich government, it’s that most of the problems we deal with locally don’t come with a Republican solution or a Democratic solution. They come with a responsibility to sit down, listen to each other, and figure out what works.
That’s exactly what we did during my four years on the Greenwich Board of Education. The eight-member Board was evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats, and the first votes for Chairman ended in a 4-4 partisan deadlock. We eventually found a way forward, and I was elected Chairman unanimously, with Democrat Christina Downey serving as Vice Chair.
Moving forward together mattered to me because our schools had enough challenges without adding partisan politics. We were dealing with budgets, major construction projects, the aftermath of COVID, curriculum issues, and the everyday responsibility of educating thousands of Greenwich children. As Chairman, I wrote at the time that everyone needed a voice and that our job was to bring different perspectives to the table, make decisions, and then work together to carry them out.
That same approach is what I have tried to bring to the Board of Estimate and Taxation. I currently serve on the Budget Committee with members of both parties. The BET is evenly divided between six Democrats and six Republicans, and its responsibilities are substantial: preparing the Town budget, establishing the mill rate, and making decisions about how the town spends taxpayers’ money.
During this year’s budget process, I said my goal was to understand what each department actually needed and work from there. Members of both parties described the process as more cooperative and disciplined, and the full BET ultimately worked through the Town budget with unanimous votes on key actions.
Does that mean everyone agrees on everything? Of course not. They shouldn’t. Republicans and Democrats bring different priorities and different ideas to the table, and those differences can be significant at times. But disagreement doesn’t have to mean dysfunction.
To me, successful public service means getting something done after the debate is over. You listen, you make your case, you look for common ground, and sometimes you compromise. Then you decide and you move forward.
That has been my experience on the Board of Education and the BET. We have been able to disagree without treating one another as enemies, and we have gotten important work done because of it.
Connecticut could use more of that.
Joe Kelly
Greenwich
Joe Kelly is a candidate for the Connecticut State Senate, to represent the 36th District.