GOP Endorses Llodra,

Rodgers For Top Of Ticket

By John Voket

Referring to their chosen candidates as “experienced local lawmakers and community advocates,” the Republican Town Committee (RTC) Wednesday unanimously endorsed Councilwoman Patricia Llodra to be the party’s First Selectman candidate, and current Legislative Council Chairman Will Rodgers as her running mate for the Board of Selectman.

The announcement came before a packed RTC headquarters, and was greeted with applause from attendees who know or have worked with the local political volunteers for many years.

In a statement to The Bee, Ms Llodra, who chairs the council’s high-profile education and recently formed communications subcommittees, and serves on the ordinance as well as the municipal and schools facilities ad-hoc committee, said she wants to help Newtown determine “what kind of community we want to be, and how we are going to work together to realize it.”

“I am proud and excited to be the Republican nominee for first selectman of Newtown,” Ms Llodra said. “I have the knowledge, skills, and disposition to be an effective and positive leader of this community, a community that has been my home for near 40 years.

 “We face challenges in Newtown,” Ms Llodra acknowledged. “I believe that the economic duress we are suffering will eventually ease, hopefully in the near-term.” As that is happening, she said, “Newtown needs to be poised to move forward executing the policies and practices which will best serve the needs of all our citizens.”

A release from the RTC points to Ms Llodra’s passion for public service, which includes a six-year tenure on Newtown’s Board of Education.

“A lifetime educator, administrator, published educational author and leader, Pat currently serves as assistant executive director of the Connecticut Association of Schools, where she directs a statewide leadership development initiative,” according to the RTC release. Ms Llodra has also been the recipient of civic and professional honors, including the 2001 Connecticut High School Principal of the Year Award, and the 2000 and 2003 Connecticut Association of Schools Citation Awards.

Mr Rodgers has served on the council since 1996, most of that tenure as chairman. He took a six-month break to serve a voluntary tour of duty in Iraq, for which he received the Bronze Star, one of the highest wartime military honors for his service to the Marine Corps.

Mr Rodgers, who holds the rank of colonel in the Marine Corps Reserve, said he volunteered to serve in the Iraq conflict to take the place of a younger officer in his stateside unit who had young children.

Prior to his service on the council, Mr Rodgers was picked as the first noneducator to chair the Middle Gate Site Based Management Committee, and was the first appointee to the committee without children in the school system. He is a practicing attorney and has also served the community as chairman of the Ordinance Committee, Hattertown Historic District Commission, and as a member of the Ad Hoc Elderly Tax Relief Committee and as trustee to the Newtown Historical Society.

He ran unsuccessfully for the 106th District statehouse seat in 2008.

Former Newtown selectman and RTC Chairman Bill Brimmer commented in the release that “even though Will has been a very public figure over the past several years, there is so much more about him that folks don’t know, as opposed to what they think they do know.”

Mr Brimmer pointed to Mr Rodgers’ leadership on the council, which he said has led the group to “some of the most unlikely compromises by being one of the Council’s ‘centrists,’ especially when it has come to hard issues.”

“He has the ability to bring a pretty argumentative group to consensus consistently, while never taking credit for the exhaustive efforts he puts into the process and the lengths he goes to ensure all sides have their say,” Mr Brimmer concluded. “He takes his chairman’s responsibilities very seriously yet, he’s so incredibly humble and will even ‘pass the gavel’ when it’s time to speak his own mind.”

Upon receiving the nomination, Mr Rodgers said he was excited about the opportunity, and reverted to military terminology saying, “I’ve been the CO for so long, I’m looking forward to serving as the XO for a change.” He was referring to commanding officer and executive officer in relating to his current service as council chair, versus his aspiring to become a member of the Board of Selectmen.

Mr Rodgers said he was looking forward to new challenges, and believes the kind of support he would bring to his running mate Ms Llodra will be “complementary.”

“I think given our individual skill sets, which are both somewhat unique, we’ll be able to handle issues that face Newtown more comprehensively,” Mr Rodgers said.

In accepting the Republican nomination, Ms Llodra said she was proud to stand with Mr Rodgers as her running mate.

“I look forward to the campaign as an opportunity to clearly identify the challenges our community is facing, and to rally the town around approaches that help move us into the future,” she said. “I have great confidence that I am the right leader to guide this effort. “

The GOP news comes several weeks after local Democrats announced the teaming of former selectman Gary Fetzer and Councilman Joe Hemingway as the party’s choice for first selectman and Board of Selectmen, respectively.

 At press time, no candidate announcements have been forthcoming from the local Independent Party or any other minor party or petitioning contenders.

Updates on local political developments are posted as they happen at newtownbee.com.