So far, we have profiled three 2019 elections to watch in New England: the NH special election for state representative (won earlier this month by the Republican), the Greenwich, CT first selectman race, and the Manchester NH mayor’s race. Today, we select our fourth election to watch: the First Selectman race in Fairfield, CT.
Fairfield, CT is an interesting community to watch. The active party registration is quite close: 11,858 Democrats, 10,688 Republicans, and 15,070 Independents. In addition, historical races have been quite close. Fairfield has a four year term for its First Selectman and in 2015 the incumbent First Selectman Michael Tetreau scored a narrow win over his Republican challenger, Chris Tymniak, by a vote of 8048 to 7275 but in the race for Selectman, the Republican candidate Laurie McArdle edged the Democrat Sheila Marmion. For comparison, in the Presidential election in 2016, Fairfield voted decisively for Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump by a 57% to 38% margin. In short, Fairfield is a highly competitive town but leans slightly Democratic.
With the incumbent First Selectman Michael Tetreau running for a third term, the Democrats are a clear favorite. However, the Republicans have put forward a strong candidate, State Representative Brenda Kupchick. Kupchick grew up in Fairfield, is a local business owner, and has served in local government (Representative Town Meeting) as well as state government. The local news has also been dominated by public corruption charges stemming from allegations that there was illegal dumping at the town public works yard that has contaminated local areas. In September, Tetreau and the existing Republican selectman got into what The Patch described as a board of selectman meeting that was dominated by “hostility, accusations” over the contamination. In addition, Fairfield has been hit hard by the loss of General Electric and other businesses.
We will be looking to see if Kupchick can unseat Tetreau. We believe that Tetreau is the favorite, but this election will be a competitive race which will be worth watching and offers Republicans a chance for an upset.
NewEnglandPolitics.com 