While Connecticut’s Second House District only overlaps several Dodgingtown and Hattertown neighborhoods near the western border of Newtown, both its one-term Republican incumbent Will Duff, and repeat Democratic challenger Raghib Allie-Brennan believe they have an obligation to every resident across all four communities they are poised to serve in Hartford for the next two years.

Voters in Newtown’s section of the Second District are seeing a rematch of the 2016 race between Duff, a seasoned local business person who was among Bethel’s youngest selectmen when he first sought elected office in his early 20s, and Allie-Brennan, who similarly became active in the Bethel Democratic Town Committee straight out of college in 2013.

Their 2016 contest was among the state’s tightest House races, with Rep Duff narrowly edging out Mr Allie-Brennan by 282 votes to win the seat. Both candidates recently sat down with The Newtown Bee to talk about their aspirations and how they each might contribute to getting Connecticut’s fiscal affairs back on track while responding to the needs of residents across the diverse Second District.

According to his biography, Rep Duff was elected to Bethel’s Board of Tax Review while still in college. Two years later, he was nominated to serve as a town selectman, where he helped affect the first tax freeze for property owners and co-authored the Bethel Ethics Code.

More recently, he served on Bethel’s Board of Education. Prior to his election to state office, Rep Duff was a member of the Fairfield County Sheriff Department and served Bethel as a constable.

He remains co-owner of a family mailing business in downtown and is a double lung transplant survivor after having suffered with cyctic fibrosis since birth.

During his first term in Hartford, Rep Duff served on the Higher Education and Employment Advancement, Banking and Energy, and Technology Committees. He said his first term in the statehouse has been very fulfilling and demanded, “hard work in an environment that was not easy to work in.”

At the same time, Rep Duff has seen happenings at the national level trickle down to affect and influence politics in his own home town and district.

“The national circus has really complicated local politics and made it unrecognizable,” he said. “The main thing for me, it means being a good citizen, a good community servant, a good neighbor — the guy everybody knows in town, and the guy people know they can go to for help. Every elected leader needs to keep reminding everybody that we are local. We’re in the community together, and I’ve been a big part of things going on in the four communities of the Second District over the past two years. But I was active in those communities for many years before getting elected, from organizing events to doing things like putting the sauce on the sausage and peppers at community festivals.”

Rep Duff said in the most recent session that he was proud to stand with his legislative colleagues opposing the sweeping cuts to state aid that impacted education and municipal services.

“That was important because when funds get cut to schools, I saw as a Board of Education member that the programs that tend to get cut are the ones that certain kids tend to need the most,” he said.

Rep Duff said the most recent gathering of legislators who worked together closely and in bipartisan fashion to successfully overturn gubernatorial vetoes may have been a game changer in relation to the apparent long-standing political friction between Democrats and Republicans.

“I want to build bridges in order to better serve our communities and the state,” he said.

To further that effort, Rep Duff sought and secured a seat in the Black and Puerto Rican Caucus.

“The purpose of that was not just to pad my political resume,” Rep Duff said. “It gets me in the room with a lot of urban legislators where I can learn from their perspectives. I have a huge number of people of color in this district, and they need representation in this caucus. Once I was able to show them that I wasn’t some kind of enemy, I developed a good working relationship with a number of those Democratic legislators.”

No Rubber Stamp

Rep Duff recalled his earliest days in politics over three decades ago when “I thought I knew everything, and I ruffled some feathers.” But today, he said, he works to research and really understand the legislation being put in front of him, whether it comes from the GOP or the Democrats’ side of the aisle.

At the same time, Rep Duff said he refuses to be a rubber stamp, “So if you put something in front of me and expect me to vote in favor of it in five minutes, it’s probably going to be a No vote. I’m happy to let others celebrate voting Yes on a bad piece of legislation.”

On the other hand, if good ideas to help correct the fiscal trajectory of the state develop, Rep Duff said he will back that idea regardless of who put those ideas forth.

“Party doesn’t matter. There’s no way we can continue the spending at a rate we are at. Our economy is shrinking, and we need to work together turning that around,” he said.

Rep Duff said he has learned much by representing a constituency that ranges from urban residents of Danbury and parts of Bethel to those residing in the suburban and rural areas of Redding and Newtown.

“Since going to Hartford, I’ve been going to Board of Ed meetings and Planning & Zoning meetings, just so I can continue to hear and stay up to speed on what these communities are going through,” he said.

One issue Rep Duff is hearing a lot about is the loophole that allows predatory developers to “run roughshod over local zoning laws,” regarding the creation of multi-unit housing that is often labeled as partially “affordable,” but is still out of financial reach for many of his constituents.

“The statute on affordable housing has to be changed to include all sources of affordable housing. If we’re going to give predatory developers a loophole to get around local zoning laws, they should make that housing affordable,” Rep Duff said. “I don’t know about you, but on a state rep’s salary, I cannot afford any of those units. The formula has to be fixed regarding these new developments.”

The first term lawmaker said he is seeing a demographic shift in his district with a lot of new residents relocating from more affluent communities and much larger homes in lower Fairfield County and New York, but at the same time, his constituents continue to represent a highly diverse range of economic capacity.

“Some of the challenges come when new residents contact me about getting more services, while complaining about how high taxes are,” Rep Duff said. “How are we going to pay for more services without raising taxes?”

If reelected in November, Rep Duff said he will return to Hartford with the same can-do, albeit low-key, attitude that favors listening and learning over “trying to make myself the object of everybody’s attention.”

“When I go to Hartford, I go around to meetings talking to and working with everybody on both sides of the aisle and all the commissioners, no matter who appointed them, on behalf of the people of Newtown,” he said. “The money Newtown taxpayers give the state, especially when it comes to educational spending, they deserve to get back. Newtown’s students are as entitled to receive a good education as students in Hartford and Bridgeport.”

Rep Duff said he believes he has the experience and temperament to get things done in Hartford over the next two years, and he wants to do everything he can to continue promoting good working relationships across the aisle.

Doubling Down After Defeat

As one of three children, Mr Allie-Brennan grew up in Bethel after his family relocated from Queens, N.Y. Mr Allie-Brennan graduated from Bethel High School and attended Marymount Manhattan College, where he developed a keen interest in policy and wanting to make real change.

After graduation, Mr Allie-Brennan was elected to Bethel Democratic Town Committee, worked on First Selectman Matt Knickerbocker’s 2013 reelection campaign, and was elected to the Inland Wetlands Commission.

Since then, he has worked for several Democratic members of Congress — as a district aide assistant for Congresswomen Elizabeth Esty and Alma Adams from North Carolina, where he managed a portfolio of issues from energy and environmental issues to LGBT rights and advised the congresswoman on several controversial issues ranging from gun safety to the Syrian refugee crisis.

The aspiring statesman also interned for Congressman Cedric Richmond’s office, where he got a firsthand look at how the fed was responding to the Katrina disaster in Richmond’s Second District of New Orleans.

Since his unsuccessful run for the legislature in 2016, his biography states that Mr Allie-Brennan has stepped up his efforts and commitment to his community, finding new ways to engage in important causes.

He is an active board member for three Connecticut organizations: the Connecticut League of Conservation Voters, Triangle Community Center in Norwalk, and Vice President of the HERO Project which brings awareness and resources to the opioid epidemic in the Danbury area. He also lends his support to organizations and causes in other parts of the state, including Action Together CT, which espouses to mobilize, amplify, and educate Connecticut residents to support causes aligned with American ideals of equity, opportunity, and justice for all.

In addition to his extensive community and organizational commitments, Mr Allie-Brennan is employed helping small businesses secure grants and loans from the Department of Economic and Community Development at the firm Pastore & Dailey LLC in Stamford.

“After I lost, I didn’t just go away,” he said. “I doubled down and really got into working with a number of groups that serve, and since the spring, I’ve knocked on over 7,000 doors trying to learn more about what people will need from me once I get to Hartford.

“The biggest issue facing Connecticut today is the state budget crisis. But at the end of the day, people want a representative that’s going to go to the Capital and do the right thing and who is in it for the right reasons,” Mr Allie-Brennan said. “I don’t want to be a roadblock in Hartford, whether the election goes red or blue. I want to work with whomever I can to get the job done. I may have a ‘D’ in front of my name to designate my political affiliation, but it’s the District and the people in it that will be my primary focus. It’s about local focus and giving the people someone who will be a true representative for them.”

As he knocks on doors, Mr Allie-Brennan said he is hearing about the challenges more and more Second District constituents are facing paying escalating property taxes.

“And Newtown wants to be sure it’s receiving its fair share of education funding,” he said. “Right now, that system is broken, so we need to be sure we get that ECS formula fixed.”

Mr Allie-Brennan made supporting commonsense gun laws a substantial platform during his 2016 run for state office, and he is finding that this year, even voters he meets who claim to be conservative are looking for gun rights reforms.

“This year, we’ve got the issues of ghost guns and guns that can be created through 3D printing,” he observed. “But I respect the rights of responsible gun owners. I used to shoot guns with my grandpa, so I’m not against people having guns; I just want to see commonsense legislation get stronger.”

Regarding retooling the state’s Education Cost Sharing (ECS) formula, Mr Allie-Brennan said he is not happy about the differences between allocations going to the more urban community of Danbury, versus the three other communities of the Second District.

“The current system is not fair in the way it treats Newtown, Bethel, and Redding,” he said. “Just because they are more affluent, doesn’t mean the state should take most of their educational allocations and send them to the bigger cities. Then it just shifts more financial burden onto the local property taxpayers.”

Grappling With A Budget Crisis

So the real work Mr Allie-Brennan said he needs to do in Hartford involves taking care of the state’s budget crisis.

“You can’t cut your way out of the deficit we’re facing,” he said. “People say we have a spending problem, but we also need to look at ways to increase the revenue coming in.”

One of the areas the statehouse challenger identified to further reduce spending is in prisons and corrections.

“Our prison population is continuing to go down, so we need to look at further cuts in proportion to that,” he said. “But it’s not one party’s job or one party’s solution. So I’m excited at the prospect of going to Hartford and working with both Democrats and Republicans to find new solutions. The one thing I think everybody is tired of is the status quo.”

In regard to developing new revenue streams, Mr Allie-Brennan said while tolls may not be the silver bullet to fix the budget crisis, he is willing to discuss and may support limited tolling of commercial vehicles that cross through Connecticut on its state highways.

“We want to make sure that people from Newtown who work across the border in New York aren’t seeing the state try to balance its budget on their backs by subjecting them to tolls when they go to and come home from work every day,” he said. “If it is determined to be legal, I think tolling out-of-state trucks is practical because I think it’s those trucks that do the most damage to Connecticut’s highways.”

On the subject of transportation, Mr Allie-Brennan said he also favors the strongest protections to Connecticut’s Transportation Lock Box.

“And I know there is a generational divide on it, but we should begin having the conversation about legalizing marijuana. It should be up to the people, not the political leaders who are simply opposed to it. It’s happening around us in Massachusetts, and New York and Rhode Island are looking into it.”

As a supporter and participant with the HERO Project, which is working to educate and mitigate the state’s opioid epidemic, Mr Allie-Brennan said he would first need to be sure that legalizing marijuana would not further contribute to that public health crisis.

“I think what we’re seeing is the use of medical marijuana to wean people off opioids,” he said. “We should look to states where it is already legal, like Colorado, and follow their lead as we begin to have this conversation.”

Paid family and medical leave is another issue constituents are talking about.

“I know some say it will be a huge burden on small businesses, but if you have a small business, having your employees paying into the program will help offset the costs,” Mr Allie-Brennan said.

The challenger believes that looking at making state agencies more efficient can also be a benefit because in many cases, it will make those agencies more capable of providing user- and taxpayer-friendly service.

With his strong background in environmental advocacy and energy policy, Mr Allie-Brennan said if elected, he would ask to serve on the legislature’s Energy Committee.

“I think we should be investing more in green energy production,” he said, “and making sure we’re supporting bio-fuel technology and development.”

Regarding state unions, Mr Allie-Brennan hears a lot of people suggesting that union members are not paying their fair share of benefit costs.

“When it comes to existing agreements [with state unions], we should honor them whether we like them or not. The unions are not for re-opening negotiations to the agreements made under this governor, and I don’t think that renegotiating union agreements will fix the state budget crisis,” Mr Allie-Brennan said. “We need to focus on maybe restructuring agreements when negotiations come due, but for now, we need to concentrate on other areas to cut and developing new revenue streams.”

Learn more about Raghib Allie-Brennan by clicking here. Learn more about Rep Will Duff by clicking here.