Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but they aren’t allowed to speak opinions as if they are fact.
Letter to the Editor in Good Morning Wilton today that raised my ire:
I’ve always been concerned, but not outright alarmed about the damage our legislature might do to our beautiful town, because Gail Lavielle was watching our back. She always alerts us when legislation really threatens Wilton: school regionalization, state control of zoning, pushdown of teachers’ pension costs. But without her, Wilton will desperately need a representative who constantly watches out for our town. The Democratic candidate for the seat is too occupied with pushing her national party’s agenda to care about being our watchdog. [My challenger], an independent thinker, is however pushing no agenda except our interests. I trust her to put Wilton first.
Sincerely,
Roger Van Brussel
MY COMMENT:
Mr. Van Brussel, I take exception to your statement “The Democratic candidate for the seat is too occupied with pushing her national party’s agenda to care about being our watchdog.” To my knowledge, we’ve never met and I believe it is one thing to write why you favor a candidate and quite different to bash another with the air of fact, when based solely on your opinion.
I would love to have a discourse on the national party agenda you think I favor that would harm Wilton’s interests. When schools were threatened in 2019, I attended many community events to learn more like many of you and then I had many conversations with Norwalkers and Wiltonians, unifying and coordinating both in our displeasure of the bills. I attend public events at the Wilton Library because I think libraries are the cornerstone of the community and I am always interested in learning new things. I have attended P&Z meetings because I was interested in Mike Wrynn’s approach to development when he took over the role. I attended the meetings about Aquarion, once again united with Norwalkers, to stop their request to pump a million gallons a day from Wilton. When Senator Anwar’s draft zoning bill was made publicly available, I read the entire thing and went to work collaborating with P&Z leaders throughout Fairfield County because a win would be to get the draft off the table vs. fighting it later. I do these things quietly, without fanfare, and often avoid the lens of the cameras. Because I have attended countless gatherings in Wilton, I have learned what matters to Wiltonians.
I have never seen my challenger at any of these gatherings.
