Newsletter Volume 3 • Number 20
Why won’t Fazio just defend his ideology, instead of misrepresenting it?
It’s not how Ryan Fazio’s stances align with MAGA that irks Nick Simmons the most. What really annoys Simmons is that Fazio misrepresents his own positions. Simmons called out Fazio for this during the Round Hill Association debate last week, and at a recent interview with this newsletter.
“Seventy percent of the district disagrees with his stand on important issues such as guns and women’s reproductive rights,” Simmons said. Fazio claims to support gun safety and reproductive rights, but that’s not how he voted.
Fazio voted against the 2023 Act Addressing Gun Violence, and CT’s Reproductive Freedom Defense Act in 2022. Yet, Simmons charged, Fazio sent out mailers “misrepresenting his record… with a degree of dishonesty that is beyond shock.” Moreover, “he’s refused to be clear and honest with how he feels about Donald Trump and the extremist views of his party.”
Who needs 36 guns a year?
One of the most moving moments of the debate was when Simmons mentioned 19-year old Nicole Melchionno, a Sandy Hook survivor who overheard the shooting of “all of her friends” in the classroom next door. “She can’t believe that someone 20 miles from Sandy Hook voted to weaken gun storage laws,” Simmons said.
The gun violence bill that Fazio voted against sought to address that problem because the majority of school shootings are committed with guns that were not properly secured. It also curbed the number of guns that can be bought in bulk, because handguns sold that way are much more likely to be used in a crime.
Yet Fazio took part in a Republican filibuster that attempted to stop the legislature from adopting a limit of three handgun purchases a month.
“He says he wants to be tough on crime,” Simmons said, “but why the hell would anyone need more than 36 guns a year, unless it’s to sell them on the black market?”
Fazio used his “political capital” poorly
Simmons also suggested that Fazio focused on the wrong priorities. For instance, Fazio filibustered the gun safety bill but “there’s little evidence he tried to fix our dire transportation and infrastructure needs,” Simmons said. Fazio should have invested “political capital” into securing money for that, since he serves on the General Assembly’s transportation committee.
Simmons says he would fight for money for an I-95 “bottleneck attack,” targeting one-dozen bottlenecks that slow travel down on the highway and Metro North Railroad.
Fazio misled on women’s rights
Simmons was particularly critical of how Fazio framed himself as a bipartisan leader on abortion rights. He quoted Fazio’s own words in an essay for The Federalist, that the right to abortion, Roe v Wade, “is offensive to the rule of law.” “He’s done things that are widely unpopular and he knows it and so he’s trying to cover his tracks in pretty shameless ways,” Simmons said.
Fazio mischaracterized the summer electricity spike
Although Simmons agreed with many of Fazio’s recommendations for addressing the rise in utility rates, he lambasted his opponent for misleading voters about the cause. About seventy-five percent of the spike was due to the Millstone power plant resurrection project, a Republican led-agreement that passed in 2017. While Fazio wishes to be a “trusted expert,” Simmons said, misleading the public prevents him from being “taken more seriously.”
Fazio didn’t defend his positions. “He was just lying.”
It wasn’t the debate Simmons expected. “I thought we were going to have a campaign where he was going to be standing up, defending his beliefs on these things,” whether it is abortion or the Second Amendment. “We could have had an ideological debate. But he didn’t do that. Instead he was just lying.”
Connecticut has adopted early voting!
It starts Monday, October 21st and runs through November 3rd, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily at Greenwich Town Hall. And yes, you can vote on the two weekends during the early voting period. Extended hours, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., are offered on October 29 and 31.
CT now joins 46 other states and Washington, DC in allowing all registered voters to vote in-person before Election Day. You can even register at the same time then immediately vote early at Town Hall.
Early voting helps make it easier for everyone to exercise their precious right to participate in our democracy. Vote early for our Row A candidates!
Why are you voting for Democrats this November?
Greenwich neighbors weigh in
“We’ve already seen what a Trump administration looks like. It’s not a partisan issue at this point. It’s about whether we want to keep having a democracy, or not.
— Donny Landis, Emily Lamont, Greenwich
Democratic Action Calendar
Volunteer.
Sign up to volunteer with the Greenwich Democrats this election season. There is so much you can do—adopt a lawn sign, sign up for a shift on election day, or knock doors. Sign up (above) or just drop in any day and get to work. We are open daily 10-6 p.m. (Sunday 12-6).
| Volume 3, Number 20 • October 17, 2024 |
| Paid for by the Greenwich Democratic Town Committee. |
| Greenwich Democratic Town Committee P.O. Box 126 Greenwich, CT 06836 |