Income tax cuts. Stopping scheduled cuts to public school funding. Reducing barriers to patient care.
These are some of the accomplishments Connecticut State Senator Jeff Gordon (R) pointed to when I asked him what he was most proud of during his first term representing Connecticut’s 35th district, which includes Stafford. A Woodstock resident and a doctor who specializes in hematology and oncology, on January 10, 2024, Gordon hopped on a Zoom call with the Stafford Free Press to talk about his upcoming campaign for re-election. Yes, after little more than a year in office (Gordon was elected in November of 2022 in a close race against Democrat Lisa Thomas), it’s already time to think about re-election.
After years serving on Woodstock’s Planning and Zoning Commission, Gordon says running for state senate was a “natural progression” and an “opportunity to continue working with people and advocating for the towns in northeastern Connecticut.” Now, he says, he believes “strongly that it’s not what you do but how you do it.” He emphasizes that he likes to get out to all of the towns in the 35th district, listen to people, and learn how to better advocate for them.
Of course, in a democracy, no one gets all of what they want, and that’s as true for state senators as it is for the people they serve. “There’s still a lot more work to do,” said Gordon. For him, that means focusing on “trying to make Connecticut more affordable for more people.” To that end, Gordon says tax policy, rules and regulations that businesses pass the cost of on to customers, and energy costs are all things he still wants to address. Gordon was a vocal opponent to a recent proposal to phase out new gas-powered cars by 2035. While the bill’s opponents eventually won, it wasn’t a universally popular position.
Additionally, he says he wants to see what else the state can do to support public education, which he points out helps towns because towns have to pay for education via property taxes. Stafford residents know how school funding and budgets in general have been a hot-button issue in recent years, but in Gordon’s hometown of Woodstock Prop 46 made the budget process just as contentious. Gordon says there were other budget areas he thought the state could pull from to help fund public schools.
He also says crime is on his constituents’ minds – though statistics say crime in Connecticut declined. Nonetheless, he says he was frustrated to not be able to stop the legislature from doing things to “limit things police officers and law enforcement can do” and “weakening some of the criminal accountability and judicial rules and laws.”He says this does not help public safety.
In May, CTMirror reported the House voted to advance a bill that would “deem an admission, confession or statement to police inadmissible or involuntary if it was obtained through deception or coercive interrogation tactics, such as depriving a person of their physical or mental health needs, or using or threatening physical force, the unlawful arrest of another individual or imposing unlawful penalties on the person under interrogation or another person.” Legal experts – and true crime aficionados – will know that the Innocence Project and others consider these kinds of tactics responsible for false confessions and are already illegal in other countries. According to CTMirror, “eight out of 31 wrongful convictions in Connecticut, or 23%, documented by the National Registry of Exonerations involved a false confession, with the most recent conviction happening in 2018.”
Going forward, Gordon says he also wants to “continue to fight all of our individual rights,” including parental and medical freedoms. “I continue to advocate against government taking over making decisions for towns about land use, which is planning and zoning,” he says. “I believe the people of Connecticut know best what’s best for their own towns.”
Though Gordon did not specifically mention any examples during our conversation, the 8-30g CGS statute, which dates back to the 1980s, has been front and center lately. House Republicans tried to amend 8-30g in January of 2023. The statute is a tool used to create more affordable housing in towns where exclusionary zoning practices tend to limit its development. In Stafford, the statute allowed Bluebird Construction to squeeze more units into the redevelopment of the Borough School building than would have otherwise been permitted per the zoning regulations.
A 2021 study about zoning discrimination looked at a cross-section of towns and cities in Connecticut, including Woodstock. It mentioned several ways to address housing affordability from the Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities, which included eliminating zoning bans on multifamily housing and accessory dwelling units (ADUs) as well as excessive requirements for lot size, setback, height, parking, and density. Gordon says that as Chair of Woodstock’s Planning and Zoning, he rewrote many of the regulations to try and make the building process less burdensome. According to Gordon’s website, “Woodstock’s Planning & Zoning Commission approved at its December 2nd, 2021, meeting a proposal I authored to improve the meaningful use of accessory apartments that can be built as part of or on the same lot as a single family house. More and more people are looking into accessory apartments as a way to have elder parents or adult children live on premises without having to go through the added expense and challenge of buying or building a new house.”
He would also like to remind his constituents that as a doctor, he is uniquely positioned to help deal with some of the issues facing the region, like hospital closures or, in Stafford’s case, Johnson Memorial Hospital trying to eliminate its in-patient birthing center.
As of this writing, no challengers have announced they will be running against Gordon for the seat.*
While Gordon expects to announce “office hours” in Stafford soon, the details have yet to be finalized. However, tonight, January 11, 2024, Gordon will be partaking in a Facebook live event with First Selectman Bill Morrison. The event is only visible to members of the Stafford Springs Discussion Page, but if you join the group, you can watch the event and submit questions.
*Since this article was originally published, Merry C. Garrett has announced her candidacy for the 35th District Senate Seat.
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