Submitted by Sandy Litvack on behalf of Greenwich Voices For Democracy
For almost two decades the people living in the 149th District of Connecticut were represented in the Connecticut House by Livvy Floren, a Republican, who while not representing the view of every voter in the 149th, had her finger on the pulse of her more moderate, mainstream District. The District, which includes a section of Greenwich and the northern part of Stamford,has never been made up of extremists, which is why the moderate Ms. Floren was so popular.
But, in 2020 Representative Floren announced she would not run for reelection. In a close vote, the District turned to Kim Fiorello, believing she would continue the Floren legacy. That, time has shown, was a wrong turn! District 149 is now represented by a legislator with extreme views on a number of critical issues. Most importantly, those views are out of sync with the District, and do not represent who we are or what most of us believe. In addition,
they are, simply stated, WRONG.
Ms. Fiorello’s extreme positions on key issues have been noted by many of her constituents. In recent letters to the editor published in the Greenwich Time, Stamford Advocate and Greenwich Free Press, residents of the 149th have voiced their concerns regarding many of Ms. Fiorello’s actions during this legislative session including her sponsorship of a voter suppression ID law; her support for a bill requiring minors to notify a parent before having an abortion; her sponsorship of a bill that would require minors to be tried in adult court for car theft; her vote against tax relief for commuters working from home; and her anti-vaccine stance.
It would appear, however, that the concerns of her moderate mainstream constituents have had little or no impact on Ms. Fiorello’s approach to governing on behalf of her District. Since the time of those votes, in the past several weeks alone Representative Fiorello has:
• Voted against H.B.6355, a revision to CT’s Red Flag law that closes critical loopholes in the current legislation by preventing at-risk persons from acquiring a gun; allowing family members to petition the court for an extreme risk protection order; and requiring a court hearing to determine that the individual is no longer at risk before returning the firearms.
• Voted against Jennifers’ Law, which defines coercive control as domestic violence in civil cases and prioritizes children’s safety in custody disputes.
• Voted against HB06657, a bill concerning human trafficking.
• Voted against SB01019, a clean slate law, that would allow erasure of certain misdemeanor and felony convictions, giving people who have repaid their debt to society an opportunity to gain employment and rebuild their lives.
• Voted against SB972 which would stop price gouging for phone calls by prisoners.
Recently, Ms. Fiorello has also complained about bills that attempt to use legislation to help create racial equity. (Note that many of Fiorello’s NO votes on the Judiciary Committee have been on bills that will were designed to significantly improve circumstances in Black and Brown communities.) Additionally, in a recent Facebook post she seems especially aggravated by legislation that she considers to be too long (anything more than a few pages), regardless of its purpose or content. It appears that Ms. Fiorello believes that the only bills worthy of a YES vote are those that are punitive, do not address larger societal issues, and are preferably very short.
This is not the representation our District needs or deserves. By completely disregarding the mainstream views of the majority of her constituents, Kim Fiorello continues to prove that she is WRONG for District 149.