Andover CT Democratic Town Committee

14/06/2026

Great news: our grant was approved!

Connecticut's landmark Clean Elections Program keeps big money and special interests out of our elections, and I couldn't be prouder to be participating. Particularly grateful to all of our local supporters who stepped up to help.

Onwards!

08/05/2026

On the last day of the 2026 legislative session, Steve Weir killed a bill. Not by voting against it — that would have required him to defend a position. He just ran out the clock until the session ended and the bill died. Senate Bill 274 was the legislative response to the Concierge Apartments disaster in Rocky Hill, where thousands of tenants were displaced because a Los Angeles private equity firm let their building rot. The bill would have raised penalties on landlords with repeat fire and building code violations, and required out-of-state apartment owners to register with the towns where their buildings sit. It had passed the Senate. It had cleared committee unanimously. Steve made sure it never got a House vote.

There's a reason he worked so hard to kill it. Steve sits on the board of the Connecticut Apartment Association — the trade group representing apartment owners. He owns commercial real estate through a private LLC, appraised at over $1.6 million. On the floor that day, defending his obstruction, he described himself as "a service provider to apartments." None of this appears on his official biography. He has spent four legislative sessions voting against virtually every contested tenant-protection bill — discriminatory housing enforcement, rent-increase notices, mobile home park residents' rights, housing-code-violation liens — while telling voters he supports "easing regulations." The May 6 maneuver wasn't an aberration. It was the apex of a pattern. The full sourced record is at andoverct.info/reports/weir-businesses/.

Ellen Paul is running to replace him. She grew up in Eastern Connecticut, raised two daughters here in public school, served as an aide to Congressman Joe Courtney, ran the East Hampton Public Library, and now leads the Connecticut Library Consortium — where she helped pass the law protecting Connecticut libraries from book bans. That is a record of public service. Steve's record, on housing, is a record of private business management dressed up as legislation. The 55th District deserves a representative who shows up for the towns that elected her, not one who runs out the clock for an out-of-state lobby. Learn more at ellenforstaterep.com.

05/05/2026

I've put together a detailed analysis of the preschool program's finances using public sources — the town audit, BOE monthly reports, the published collective bargaining agreements, and CT Department of Education data. Full report: http://andoverct.info/reports/aes/preschool-funding/

Short version:

The program costs the town roughly $92,000 per year on the operating ledger, once employee benefits are loaded in. But federal and state law require the district to provide special education to children ages 3–6 with disabilities whether the preschool exists or not — and meeting that mandate without an in-house program would cost roughly $200,000 per year. Given that, the preschool actually saves Andover taxpayers around $108,000 per year, or about $77 per household.

On the out-of-town question: Andover residents have priority at every step of enrollment. Out-of-town families pay full tuition and effectively subsidize the program rather than the other way around.

Report compiled May 2, 2026, for use in town deliberations on the financial role of the Andover Elementary School preschool program. Revenue figures for the most recently completed fiscal year are drawn directly from the FY 2024–25 Andover audit (filed with the Connecticut Office of Policy and Man...