At a late-morning press conference Tuesday, Feb. 15, Wilton resident Kim Healy officially announced her campaign for state representative. She will run for the newly created 42nd District seat representing all of Wilton and parts of New Canaan and Ridgefield.

As GOOD Morning Wilton reported Tuesday morning, Healy, a Republican, filed paperwork one day before to register her candidate committee and formalize her campaign.

Healy said she was motivated to run by what she called “out of touch politicians” and mandates from Hartford that she believes take away local control, as well as a state government “more focused on partisanship instead of breaking away from the status quo.”

“I believe that we deserve better. I believe that we don’t have to settle for this dysfunction and a legislature that doesn’t seem to be working for us. And I want a Connecticut where businesses can thrive. Families can make their own decisions for their children, where young people, like I have, can find their careers and be able to contribute to our state. And where seniors, like my neighbor next door, wants to be able to stay and to retire. And basically I want better for all of us,” she said.

She added that she “…will always put Wilton, New Canaan and Ridgefield, not party politics, first.”

Among her top priorities, Healy identified local control and decision making over zoning and education. She spoke to one of the current hot-button topics in Wilton when she said she believed “parents, not politicians, know what’s best for their own children.”

“The pandemic has been really hard on our children. And I will concentrate on making sure that the state doesn’t interfere with our local decision making about our kids, whether it’s about their education or their health,” Healy said.

As part of her stance for local control, Healy said she’d “work to amend — or even hopefully repeal — [Connecticut’s] 8-30g affordable housing statute.

“There is a nationwide movement to eliminate single family zoning. I am a firm believer that the government was designed to protect our property rights and not to take them away,” Healy said.

She also listed “increased crime in our area,” support for police officers, and “affordability of life in Connecticut,” adding, “I am a CPA. I have the background and the experience to understand and question state spending and make it more efficient and responsible.”

Healy, who was elected to Wilton’s Board of Selectmen in November 2021, said she intends to keep her seat as a BOS member if elected to the CT state legislature.

House Minority Leader Vincent Candelora introduced Healy and pledge his support of her.

“Having somebody step forward like Kim Healy, who has a background in accounting and a CPA, who sort of has that good fiscal steward ingrained in her system,” Candelora said. “And what is so great about Kim as well is we are not talking about an entrenched politician running for office. This is somebody who really grew out through the ranks of providing community service, not just from a public official standpoint, but is using her skills as a CPA to volunteer her time with AARP, for working on the local library board, such an important fabric of our community is our libraries and helping to promote that type of education.”

This story will be updated with additional details from the press conference.