Easton Republican Town Committee Newsletter - August 2023

CHAIRMAN'S UPDATE

August is a time of great community in Easton, with the Fireman’s Carnival, the CFE Farm Tour, the EMS Car Show, and many other events that bring the town together as one.

But, as August (and sadly, summer) winds down, a new year of sorts begins in town: children return to school, our local farms’ bounties turn towards apples and pumpkins, and campaign season begins as we head towards November.

It’s a new year for me, as well, as I assume many of the duties of leading the ERTC to support Wendy & Kristi’s campaign for the Board of Selectmen. Wendy and Kristi have been invaluable resources and leaders for the RTC and our town for a long time, and we’re in good hands on all fronts!

Our profile this month is Darrell Harris, who, as our Voter Engagement Chair and a member of the Nominating Committee, has played a vital role every aspect of our campaign so far and will do so through November and beyond.

As the “new year” begins, we hope you will join us as we go door-knocking, phone-banking, and attending events to spread the word about how our slate is committed to Putting Easton First. It’s not just a slogan, it’s a way of life, and in the case of campaign season, the more the merrier!

Putting Easton First isn’t just a slogan, it’s a way of life. Among our 18 candidates, there are 13 incumbants including four currently in Town Hall led by Kristi Sogofsky, a three-term Selectman who has served since 2018.

As for our five non-incumbents, they may not be currently in office, but are anything but ‘new’ to town affairs in their realms:

 - Mark Mulvaney, candidate for Board of Finance, served on the Brookfield Board of Finance prior to moving to Easton, and was also a long-term member of the Brookfield RTC and Vice Chair of the Inland Wetlands Commission.

 - Adam Dunsby, candidate for ER9 Board of Education, is a former member of the Easton Board of Education who more notably served three terms as Easton’s First Selectman, and one term as our State Representative from the 135th District.

 - Darin Bershefsky, fellow ER9 Board of Education candidate, is a BSN/RN with experience as a Health Sciences teacher at the high school level and, prior to moving to Easton, was heavily involved in programs at the high school level to curb substance abuse issues in the community.

 - Anthony Battaglia, candidate for Constable, is a third-generation Easton resident and Barlow grad, whose father, Vincent, is a multiple-term member of the Board of Police Commissioners. The ERTC’s only current father-son duo will soon become a grandfather-father duo, with a fourth generation Battaglia due in December.

 - Ticket-topper Wendy Bowditch, our First Selectman candidate, has served Easton for nearly three decades as a member of the Insurance Commission, Board of Finance, Advisory Board for the Senior Center, and EMS Building Committee. She has also served multiple terms as RTC Chair, spent seven years as the elected Town Treasurer, and is currently the Treasurer of Easton Fire District 1.

Our unofficial campaign kick-off is this year’s Red, White, & Blue Dinner at Tashua Knolls on Friday, Sept. 8. We hope to see you there and out on the campaign trail.

SPOTLIGHT ON:

Darrell Harris, RTC Member, Voter Engagement and Nominications Committee

Imagine growing up without a backyard, only to find yourself fighting to maintain the one you have now – with kindness and a packed Kindle - guiding the way.

This only begins to describe RTC Member Darrell Harris, who grew up in a housing project in The Bronx (btw, ‘The’ is part of the official name of the borough) called Marble Hill, just outside of Riverdale. Darrell graduated from Bronx Science and attended Yale. One of his brothers went to Yale, too. He became a schoolteacher to give back to the community.

Darrell has chosen a slightly different path.

Darrell left Yale early to work on Wall Street and partake in the New York art and nightclub scene during the 80s. Darrell describes himself as a life-long learner, whose main hobby is reading everything he can get his hands on.

“My Kindle has over 600 books on it. My secret shame is that I accumulate books much faster than I can read them,” he said.

Darrell “loves” politics but has grown tired of the goings-on in Washington. He wants to make a difference and thinks there is no better place to do so than “in his own backyard”.

“Local control is the watchword of the moment right now. We’re a small town, and we can handle our business personally, face-to-face, much better than well-meaning bureaucrats dozens of miles away from where we live," he said. “The more we look to cede our agency to outside entities, the more we’ll find that we can wake up one day and realize that we look like just another cookie-cutter suburb, and not a vital farming and watershed community.”

Darrell describes Easton as the ‘hole in the donut’ of our immediate area. All the surrounding towns – Fairfield, Trumbull, Westport, Monroe and Newtown, with the possible exception of Weston - are quite developed in his view.

“I like the way Easton is right now and I want to preserve its rural nature,” he said. “Growing up in New York City, I never thought that I would – or could – get used to no streetlights and no honking horns. It took me about ten years to decompress from that environment to the one I now find myself in Easton, but I love the bucolic setting. My wife and son always wanted to live in a place like this.”

For Darrell, joining the RTC, and volunteering with the Nomination and Voter Engagement Committees, is his way of focusing on local control and important issues that are best for our area.

Put simply: “I find that Yes is the most important word in my personal vocabulary, and the RTC allows me to express my Yes very easily.”

Darrell is also a member of Easton’s EDIT Task Force and is an active volunteer with the Boy Scouts of America. He also volunteered on state-wide campaigns in 2022, including Tony Hwang’s re-election campaign and Bob Stefanowski’s gubernatorial run.

Favorite Movie/Book: I hate to have to pick only one! My favorite movie is Paddington 2 (not 1, and I’m not looking forward to 3), and my favorite book is usually the one I’m currently reading. Right now, that’s Power Failure: The Rise and Fall of an American Icon. It’s germane because it is about GE, the company that made such an impact in Fairfield County.

Bucket list Travel: I’ve been to every continent except Asia (and Antarctica – brr!), so I’d really like to go there. I want to take my family to England, and have them visit Argentina, which was my first grown-up trip outside the USA.

Personal Hero: Yvon Chouinard, the founder of Patagonia, is a personal hero of mine. We have different perspectives on the world, but he has sought to build a company that is a direct expression of his unique personality. I want to be the kind of person who makes an impact – successfully – on my own terms. On the other end of the spectrum, I really like the Apostle Paul. I find it amazing how only a handful of letters written by one guy 20 centuries ago can have such an impact on the world even to this day. He was also so insightful on human nature as well. . My fictional hero is Paddington Bear. That little guy’s superpower was being nice to everyone he met and improving their lives just by doing that.

Describe your perfect day: My wedding day was pretty close. Wake up early, have a great breakfast and lunch, get into a tuxedo to meet my bride at a luxury hotel before going to a party where we’re the main attraction, then have a wonderful party with all my friends and family, before retiring for the night. The only thing that can top that is another big party like that, this time with our son in attendance!

PUTTING EASTON FIRST

As we wrap up August and the summer season, it's officially campaign season!

Our focus this year is on Putting Easton First. You'll see it and hear it many times over the next two months.

We hope you'll share our commitment to the philosophy. It's about keeping control over what happens in our community, preserving what makes our town unique and focusing on the local matters that impact our kids, our seniors, our first responders and our neighbors.

Municipal elections are incredibly important and have a greater day-to-day impact on individuals than the national or even state elections. That's why it's important to be engaged and ultimately vote on November 7th. We plan to keep our attention on the local issues and not be distracted by state or national headlines.

We believe our town needs leaders who are more experienced and proactive in handling local matters. Some of the issues we will fight for include:

 - Preservation and protection of our watershed and land.  

 - Grant opportunities that support the character of Easton rather than seek to change it.  

 - Improved efficiencies within Town Hall.  

You will hear much more about these issues as the campaign unfolds.

Wendy & Kristi

ISSUES WATCH

Healthcare Costs Up, CT Companies Cut Jobs

“We’ve seen an entire decade of near double-digit increases every single year,” said Sen. Hwang. “Healthcare insurance is critical, but it is absolutely unaffordable, and the rates of increases are unsustainable, faster than even our high inflation rates we’ve experienced.”

https://www.ctinsider.com/business/article/aetna-cvs-health-cut-500-jobs-ct-18301057.php.