FAIRFIELD – The first selectman special election has started to heat up ahead of a debate planned for Wednesday, Jan. 14. The election will take place on Feb. 3.
The League of Women Voters of Fairfield will conduct First Selectman Candidates Night at 7:15 p.m. at the Board of Education Room at 501 Kings Highway E. It will be the second debate this week as the Fairfield Rotary Club sponsored a public forum today from 11:45 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Gaelic-American Club, 74 Beach Road.
Somewhat controversial statements and ads both for and against the incumbent Christine Vitale, a Democrat, and state Sen. Tony Hwang, a Republican, were posted on social media and emailed to registered voters.
Hwang, a longtime state representative and senator, decided to challenge Vitale shortly after she was installed as first selectman following Bill Gerber’s death in last summer. As allowed under the town charter, Hwang filed a petition calling for the special election.
In a recent email to constituents and registered voters, Hwang brought up the recent Fairfield revaluation as an issue that intimated Vitale was to blame for higher property values and higher taxes.
Hwang: Wake-up call
With a headline that stated: “Fairfield’s Revaluation Is a Wake-Up Call on Taxes and Spending: Your property values went up, but your taxes don’t have to,” Hwang called for a “course correction.”
In the mailing, Hwang calls the state-mandated property revaluation “long-delayed,” when it is done every five years as mandated by the state. He calls for “smart economic development that rebalances the tax base.”
He goes on to write that when residential assessments spike, the only responsible response is to control spending. “If we don’t, Fairfield becomes less affordable, families leave, and speculative high-density development moves in to chase a hot market, changing the character of our neighborhoods,” he wrote.
Granted, the 2026 town budget hasn’t even been drawn up yet.
The mailing also attacks Vitale (and Gerber) for “mismanagement” of town finances. “We simply cannot afford mismanagement or preventable financial mistakes,” he wrote.
“Recent years have brought troubling signs:
- An unauthorized six-figure vehicle purchase,
- Internal audits flagging breakdowns in purchasing controls,
- Heavy reliance on bonding not just for real capital needs, but to mask the true impact of spending on taxpayers.”
He also criticized the Vitale administration for allowing the finance department to be “hollowed out.” “No organization -public or private – can go through that kind of disruption without serious risk,” he wrote.
Herbst: Hwang unfit to run
Then, former Trumbull First Selectman and gubernatorial candidate Tim Herbst, a Republican, wrote an open letter attacking Hwang’s candidacy.
“I have been a Republican my entire life, casting my first ballot in 1998. I am not endorsing the Democratic candidate for First Selectman of Fairfield. But I am compelled to speak plainly about why the Republican candidate, Tony Hwang, is unfit to serve in this role. “This judgment is not ideological. It is based on experience.
“I first met and worked with Tony Hwang in 2008, when I helped manage his successful campaign for State Representative in the 134th District, representing Trumbull and Fairfield. In the Obama wave election of 2008, Tony Hwang won because Trumbull put him over the top. The following year, when I ran for First Selectman of Trumbull, he offered no assistance—political, financial, or otherwise. His absence was conspicuous. The first time I encountered him during that campaign was on election night, at my victory party.
That pattern — engagement when personally beneficial, disengagement when it is not — has been consistent throughout his public career. Tony Hwang does not financially support other Republican candidates, nor does he meaningfully assist those on his own team.
He treats public office like a personal branding exercise, routinely appearing at public events wearing clothing emblazoned with his own name, as if he were promoting a personal clothing line. It may seem like a small thing, but it perfectly captures a larger problem: for him, it is always about the spotlight.”
