By Jude Toohey
Orange Republican Town Committee
Jude Toohey
September has come to an end. As I write these thoughts on the month ahead, our Country Fair is also wrapping up for 2026. While Sunday was a washout, Saturday was outstanding. The crowds, the music, neighbors coming and going. It was a perfect day.
There’s something special about walking through the fairgrounds, talking with our neighbors, our police officers and the volunteers who keep these events running every year. The food was excellent once again, with something special and interesting in every stand. It’s a special weekend for an exceptional town. We are truly blessed in Orange.
I look forward to the cooler days and the simple joys the coming season brings. With those days, however, also comes our elections. We are approaching one of the most important elections of our time. Some may call that hyperbolic, but we are at a crossroads as a state.
This November our task is clear: vote for the change Connecticut needs. We have lived under a one-party supermajority for years. Gerrymandering has helped lock in that imbalance. While some are content with how the state is run, one-party control means there is no meaningful check or balance.
Look at what was passed in 2025 and 2026. On too many issues our state representatives and senator seemed to stop listening to large parts of the communities they were elected to serve. Votes on housing, immigration enforcement limits, AI and privacy rules and other measures often broke along party lines.
HB 8002, signed by Gov. Ned Lamont in November 2025 after an earlier version failed, requires municipalities to create housing growth plans, eliminates most minimum off-street parking requirements for smaller developments and incentivizes certain multi-family zoning. These changes raise real questions about local control and the character of our towns. Please review the bill yourself, ask questions, and do your own fact-checking before Election Day.
The homeschool notification rules generated significant controversy during public hearings this year, though the actual requirements phase in around 2028.
The new automated license plate reader restrictions in Public Act 26-14 (from SB 397, the “Democracy and Government Accountability” bill) take effect Oct. 1. They sharply limit how long data can be kept, restrict sharing mainly to neighboring states under strict conditions and prohibit using the technology for immigration enforcement, investigations related to reproductive or gender-affirming care, First Amendment activity or monitoring people based on race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, citizenship, nationality, income and similar categories.
Supporters see these as privacy protections. Critics, myself included, see them as one more example of rules that constrain law enforcement and apply unevenly, treating some groups differently than the rest of us who simply want clear, consistent enforcement of the law.
Each of these measures affects our towns, our police departments’ ability to do their jobs, and the principle that the law should apply equally. If we are all citizens of Connecticut, our elected officials should represent all of us, not only selected priorities.
As we move into October, I ask you to consider the effects of prolonged one-party control: the steady expansion of state mandates and the loss of local decision-making. Help restore balance so Connecticut can again be the strong, well-governed state it had been.
Anyone wishing to join the Orange Republican Town Committee or simply help out can contact the secretary at ortc.secretary@gmail.com or chairman at ortc.chairman@gmail.com.
Jude Toohey is the vice chair of the Orange Republican Town Committee.