Tuesday’s candidate debate at Town Hall, organized and hosted by the League of Women Voters Greenwich, started with the candidates for State Senate in the 36th district, which includes Greenwich and parts of both Stamford and New Canaan.
Questions mirrored those from the Round Hill Association debate last week, but with much more time for responses.
Longtime LWV moderator Kay Maxwell and GHS senior Zara Haque took turns asking the questions.
State Senator Ryan Fazio (R-36) and his opponent, Democratic candidate Nick Simmons. Oct 15, 2024 Photo: Leslie Yager
Affordability and Cost of Living
Fazio said the cost of living was too high in Connecticut, and forced families and seniors to make impossible decisions.
“Because of years of mistaken policies, Connecticut suffers the second highest taxes in the country, the third highest energy rates in the country, and healthcare costs that go up far too much every year.”
He said every session he was in the Senate he had introduced at least two dozen comprehensive proposals to cut taxes, energy costs and healthcare costs.
“I have a comprehensive tax reform plan that would reduce income taxes by $2,000 for the average family in our district and finance it by broadening the tax base, eliminating special interest deductions and loopholes in the tax code, limiting spending growth, extending those fiscal guardrails that Democratic leadership in the House and Senate want to get rid of, and limiting debt issuance.”
He said the state also needed a property tax cap and electric bills needed to be cut.
“My six point proposal would eliminate that public benefits tax from your electric bill that costs you over $500 per year,” he added.
Further, he said he had worked across the aisle to reduce health care costs.
“I have a proposal with 3 Democrats and 2 Republicans that would reform certificate of need laws,” he said. “In other states it’s been tried. It’s reduced healthcare costs by four to 10% and improved access.”
Mr. Simmons agreed that the cost of living had become unaffordable for families Connecticut, including housing, electric rates and tax burden.
“There are numerous things we should be doing in Hartford to make it easier for families to get by. We haven’t even talked about child care or insurance cost for flooding,” he said.
“I would cut numerous taxes like the car tax,” he added. “We can cut the gift tax. We can cut the estate cost. If we do that we can bring back some of our highest earners and contributors to the budget overall.”
Have Any Gun Safety Regulations Gone Too Far?
Mr. Simmons said he and Mr. Simmons disagreed on gun safety.
He said he’d been teaching middle school math in Harlem when Sandy Hook massacre took place and recalled looking around the classroom to see where he would take a bullet for his students.
“Sandy Hook should have changed everything, forever for all public leaders,” he said. “I was proud of working in the Governor’s office when he introduced and got passed one of the nation’s most comprehensive gun safety bills.”
He said the bill was so celebrated that President Biden came to Hartford the bill signing.
“My opponent didn’t just vote against that bill. He participated in a filibuster that lasted until 4:00am against that bill, introducing 14 amendments to reduce guns safety outcomes in Connecticut.”
Simmons suggested Fazio worked to weaken gun storage laws, when 62% of all gun shootings in the country happen because of weak gun storage situations and weaken red flag laws.
“It’s unconscionable my opponent would vote against that bill,” he said.
“The vote is one thing, but if you wanted to come here and have a debate about a belief in the second amendment, and that the governor went to far, let’s do it. That’s not what he’s doing. It’s unconscionable,” Simmons said. “He’s sending mailers to every donor in the district saying he is the bipartisan leader on gun safety in Hartford. It’s wrong. It’s immoral. Stand behind your votes.”
Fazio said Simmons was running one of the most negative and deceptive campaign’s in the town’s history.
“Connecticut has probably the second or third strongest guns safety laws in the country. I not only support those laws,” he said. “If they do not enforce them, they aren’t enforced worth the paper they are written on. Only the criminals are the ones who are not coming out from the thumb of those gun safety laws.”
“I never participated in a filibuster,” Fazio continued. “I spoke on the Senate floor that night, simply introducing three amendments that would strengthen that gun law. It would provide a state support system for School Resources Officers, which studies show do increase student and faculty safety, and reintroduce policies like consent searches that have taken hundreds of illegal guns off the street in Connecticut. My opponent opposes state support for SROs and opposes giving police the tools to take hundreds of guns off the street.”
He said Simmons opposed strong criminal justice laws that punish people who commit crimes.
Fazio said he supported enforcing the longstanding assault weapons ban in Connecticut, but that yet more needed to be done to increase gun safety.
Lastly, he added that he had the support of the Stamford Police Association and the Fraternal Order of Police in CT.
Simmons said he was disappointed in Mr. Fazio’s gaslighting.
“We need steadfast champions who will always stand up and be a champion for gun safety,” he said. “Don’t take my word for it. Ryan has an ‘F’ from CT Against Gun Violence. He is endorsed by one of the most pro right-wing gun groups in the entire state. He just made up a bunch of things about my positions without a shred of evidence. I’m not making this personal. I’m talking about your votes. You had the opportunity to vote on the most comprehensive gun safety bill.”
“You voted for all 14 amendments that weakened guns safety laws in Connecticut. You talk about crime and wanting to get guns off the street. That bill proposed capping the number of guns an individual can buy in a year at 36. Why would anyone need 36 guns a year? They go out on the black market and sell them on the streets. A gun bought in bulk is 64% more likely to be used in a crime.”
Simmons said he would like to see that bulk number lowered significantly and noted he had been endorsed by six guns safety groups.
Fazio said the state government drops or dismisses roughly 75% of all gun charges.
“That is wrong,” he said. “We shouldn’t be paroling people who kill innocent victims. We shouldn’t have expedited parole for people committing gun crimes.”
State Senator Ryan Fazio (R-36) and his opponent, Democratic candidate Nick Simmons. Oct 15, 2024 Photo: Leslie Yager
Abortion Access
State Senate candidates were asked about 5414, the Reproductive Freedom Defense Act that protects abortion seekers and providers from out-of-state lawsuits and expands eligibility to perform first trimester aspiration abortions and medication abortions to include advanced nurse practitioners, nurse midwives, and physician assistants.
The candidates had a heated back and forth.
Simmons said, “After the Dobbs decision which eliminated of Roe v Wade we started seeing crazy things from other states. Texas not only started enforcing their ban on abortion, but they passed a vigilante law, which meant that anyone with any information about a woman leaving the state of Texas could give that information to authorities and that information would help those authorities prosecute throw them in jail.”
“So states like Connecticut said that’s insane. If you come here, not a doctor or anyone else should be able to share that information with a state seeking it. It’s called the Safe Haven law. I think that’s the moral and absolutely right thing to do, as well as expanding care.”
“Ryan voted against that bill,” Simmons said.
As for 17 Democrats who also voted against that bill, and Republicans voting to favor the bill, Simmons said, “I think we should be judging Ryan objectively on the experts.”
“We should all agree that the NIH Division of Women’s Health, Planned Parenthood and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists are the clinical experts on whether these procedures are safe. They all adamantly supported it.”
“You and I – with no clinical experience – should not be saying we know more than them,” Simmons said.
Simmons said that in 2018 Fazio wrote an op-ed published in The Federalist that the national right to abortion and Roe V Wade was “offensive to the rule of law.”
“Then he voted against the Reproductive Freedom Defense Act. Combined, all together, the record doesn’t look great. It’s really troubling to me, that’s one of the reasons I’m running,” Simmons said.
Fazio said he supported keeping abortion legal in Connecticut, and would do more to expand access to oral contraceptives.
“I co-authored and passed a new law that will expand access to oral contraceptives in Connecticut,” he said. “It makes Connecticut one of 15 or 20 states in the country that have passed this tried-and-true program to increase access, for women, especially low income women in rural areas, to contraception.”
As for his vote against the Reproductive Freedom Defense Act, he said it was out of concern that the standard of care would be lowered by expanding who could provide the procedures.
“Like many complex regulatory issues, I could be wrong in the long run, and I am open to that possibility, but the evidence at that point made me concerned it would undermine health and safety,” Fazio said, adding that six independent medical organizations testified during public hearings, including the CT State Medical Society, who were critical of the bill.
As for the Texas law, he said under the constitution and state law, Connecticut would never extradite someone for following the law in Connecticut.
“The Texas law was crap. It was a terrible law,” Fazio added. “My opponent should stop lying about my record and scaring the general public that something is at risk when it isn’t.”
“Do you believe in a national law on abortion?” Mr. Simmons asked Mr. Fazio. “You always say, ‘abortion in Connecticut.'”
“Yeah,” Fazio said.
“I’m not lying about your record,” Simmons said. “You wrote in 2018 that Roe was ‘offensive to the law,’ and you voted against the Reproductive Freedom Defense Act. In 2021 a pro-life group in CT said, ‘We believe in his heart Ryan is pro life, so we do endorse him.’ I’m just laying out the facts.”
“This election is about trust. Sending out a mailer saying you are a bi-partisan leader on gun safety and bi-partisan leader on choice – I’m glad you’re clarifying your national position, but the facts aren’t always backing up these views.”
“We are a coin flip away from radical Republicans owning the Presidency, the Senate and the House and the Supreme court. Project 2025 is clear they want the attorney general to have a national abortion coordinator,” Simmons said. “That Attorney General in Texas could be the national attorney general. She is already filing claims to gathering data on women. We cannot have questions about someone’s record on choice in these critical times.”
Fazio said Simmons was fear-mongering, saying in mailers that he supported prosecuting women, or that he was dangerous or extremist.
“If you want to change policy, put it forward,” Fazio said. “You shouldn’t scare the public into thinking something that isn’t going to happen in Connecticut.”
Simmons said he was not fear mongering.
“The 2020 election when you were running you said, ‘I don’t need to talk about abortion. It’s already codified in ‘Roe v Wade.’ Look what happened two years later. These are real consequences,” Simmons said. “This is not fear mongering.”
Zara Haque from Greenwich High School helped moderate the debate. Oct 25, 2024 Photo: Leslie Yager
Congestion on I-95 Corridor
Fazio said Connecticut had one of the highest per-mile cost for roads and highways in the country.
“Part of the reason is because of onerous and costly state regulations including things like project labor agreements,” Fazio said. “That’s totally unreasonable. We have to reduce the costs to build more infrastructure. We should be prioritizing funding and efforts and policy on the economic engine of our state, which is Fairfield County.”
Fazio said the stretch of I95 from Greenwich to Stamford was essentially a local road, and that the on and off ramps in Stamford, where bottlenecks occur, should be elongated.
Simmons said he heard from parents during door knocking that this was one of their most pressing concerns.
“Ryan has a lot of passions up in Hartford, but this is not one of them. You talk about co-introducing, co-passing, threaten to filibuster. Where have you been on this? There is almost no record of you co-sponsoring or introducing a bonding bill to address this problem…We’re the most congested highway in America and at Central Middle School those kids are sitting in a crumbling school.”
“Huge hats off to our three Democratic state representatives in Hartford. You should have seen Hector Arzeno up in Hartford about CMS. Everybody knew up there that there was nothing else that was going to be prioritized except for getting that money.”
Simmons said if elected he would make the issue of congestion on I95 a top priority.
Fazio said when Mr. Simmons was Deputy Chief of Staff to Governor Lamont, the Dept of Transportation fell under the executive branch, and bonding commission was chaired and controlled by the head of the executive branch.
“When you had responsibility and direct cognizance over transportation issues and traffic in lower Fairfield County you didn’t do anything about it,” he said. “Let’s be real. I think we can improve the traffic issues on the margins. We just need to put our heads together.”
Simmons agreed with Fazio about elongating exits, fixing lights and expanding breakdown lanes on I95, but said it was not the role of the deputy chief of staff to get those projects done.
“There’s a budget process,” he said. “I can’t give Greenwich special treatment in that role. Your role is to fight like hell to get these things done.”
Closing Statements
Mr. Fazio talked about the “negativity and deception” of his opponent’s campaign.
“I’m proud of my bi-partisan leadership,” he said. “Co-authoring and passing six new laws to do everything from returning basic rights to planning and zoning to our municipalities, to expanding birth control access for women, and to strengthening oversight of our utilities to protect our consumers.”
“We cannot have 70% super majorities. If we have balance, we can bring people together to cut taxes for all families and reduce electricity bills. We can reform 8-30g and protect local control of zoning while finding bi-partisan solutions for our housing crisis.”
“I believe in the future of this district and this state. I believe that days in the future can brighter than ever before.”
Mr. Simmons agreed that the future was bright.
But, he said, “We disagree on some issues I find core to our values. You heard about gun safety and about choice. It’s one of the reasons I’m running. And, we’ve got to invest. If you look at the flood maps, in 15 years, Tod’s Point is almost underwater. We have schools to fix. We can’t have another CMS. We can fix I-95, we can absolutely do it.”
See also:
Fazio and Simmons Trade Barbs at Round Hill Association State Senate Debate
State Rep Candidates for 149th District Face Off at Round Hill Association Debate