Letter: RTC Chair Calls on Voters 'to Look at the Facts'

To the Editor,

I could not help but to respond to recent letter’s to the editor trying to explain away Representative Fawcett’s poor attendance and attack Chris DeSanctis.

They claim Republicans are attacking Representative Kim Fawcett and distorting her record. This is not true. All the letters regarding Representative Fawcett have addressed her poor committee attendance while serving as a “full-time” representative. Her attendance and voting records are facts, not fiction. In 2011, Representative Fawcett attended 58 out of 96 committee meetings. Even worse, in 2012 Representative Fawcett attended only 38.5% of her committee meetings. Rep. Fawcett’s supporters will claim her attendance is because of conflicts in meetings being held at the same time. The public record shows two conflicts (02/23/12 at 10am and 02/16/12 at 10am where she was marked present at both).

Although she missed 53% of the meeting discussing the issues in 2011 and 2012, she did show up to vote! Representative Fawcett followed Governor Molloy’s lead and her Democratic leadership in voting with them 97% of the time in 2011 and 98% of the time in 2012. When you do not show up to hear the debate on the issues in committee, you are voting blind and that is what Representative Fawcett did 53% of the time.

What is worse of all is that Representative Fawcett has brutally attacked her opponent, Chris DeSanctis. She has called Chris DeSanctis that “Tea Party” endorsed candidate. She cites a letter from one person two years ago supporting DeSanctis as the basis of this claim. The fact is that Chris DeSanctis has been endorsed by many communities leaders we trust like Chris Shays, John McKinney, Brenda Kupchick and Tony Hwang to name a few. Fawcett has also made shocking claims that DeSanctis would gut education funding, destroy the teacher’s union, cut special education and stated he would cut funding to Fairfield.  She states evidence of this is on his website. Chris DeSanctis is a teacher who has dedicated his life to educating our children. These positions were never on his website and he certainly does not support them. 

I call on Fairfielders to look at the facts and not baseless claims made to scare voters. Representative Fawcett’s record is fact.  We can’t continue to follow the lead Governor Molloy and blindly support his policies as Representative Fawcett is on the record doing. We need a new direction, we need to restore checks and balances in Hartford and we need an independent voice in Hartford.  We need Chris DeSanctis.

James Millington

Fairfield