Departing Council Member Hailed As A Crusader For Common Sense

By Steve Bigham

Karen Blawie, the three-term member of Newtown’s Legislative Council, once called the “conscience of the council,” will step down later this month, leaving behind a legacy of leadership, courage and an abundance of laughs. As one fellow council member pointed out, they just don’t make them like Karen Blawie anymore.

Mrs Blawie, 42, opted not to run again earlier this year to spend more time with her family, which includes husband John and children Jackson, 11, Brendan, 7, and Mark Kay, 4. Her term runs out at the end of the month.

“I have learned that you can do everything, but when you try to do everything, you don’t do anything very well. I believe that my family is most important. And that’s what I want to do well,” she said during an interview with The Bee Tuesday.

Her fellow council members say the Republican’s presence will be sorely missed. Her conservative, common sense approach made her invaluable, and her ability to face the town’s toughest issues head-on made her a leader among leaders. Honest and sincere in her convictions, she had the respect of even those who disagreed with her. Council members agreed that you always knew where you stood with Karen Blawie.

“Karen was a tremendous asset to not only the town, but to the council. Her no-nonsense, clear thinking approach often enlightened me,” noted John Kortze, who chairs the council’s finance committee, of which Karen was a member.

Mr Kortze said he was amazed at how, with children in the school system, Mrs Blawie was able to make the decisions that she thought were right and best for town, but may not have been most popular with her circle of friends – fellow parents of school children. (She became the first council member to give birth while in office.)

Mrs Blawie, who resides on Walnut Tree Hill Road, is now a full-time mom, but she spent 10 years commuting back and forth to New York where she ran the New York City office for Athens College in Greece.

“Karen was always able to get to the heart of an issue,” Mr Kortze said. “She’s an amazing woman. She gives so much time of herself. I think she’s super woman.”

This fun-loving, nurturing “superwoman” grew up in Lynchburg, Virginia, where her parents still live. She graduated from the University of Virginia and later married a “Yankee,” whom she calls the smartest man she ever met. A prosecutor, John Blawie now heads up the state’s economic crime unit at the state attorney’s office. These days, his hours are much longer, which was one reason Mrs Blawie opted to step down.

Mrs Blawie joined the council in 1994, replacing Peg Daley.

“I consider it a privilege to have had the opportunity to serve on the council,” she said.

Selectman Bill Brimmer met Mrs Blawie while commuting to New York City. He also served with her on the council, as well as the Republican Town Committee.

“The thing about Karen was I always felt she was the conscience of the Legislative Council. She always came up with the probing questions that got to the heart of the matter,” he said. “She would ask the questions that made the most sense. She got people really thinking about it.”

Mr Brimmer predicts she’ll be back.

“Never say never,” is Mrs Blawie’s response. “I have enjoyed it. I will miss it. When you’re on the Legislative Council, you understand everything that’s going on in town. It makes life in your home town more interesting.”

Karen Blawie also brought vision to the council. As a key member of the finance committee, she suggested that the pending purchase of Fairfield Hills be placed on the town’s Capital Improvement Plan (CIP). Her concerns about future spending prompted her to create a detailed list of possible future expenditures, which eventually became known as “The Blawie List.”

Today, Mrs Blawie continues to support town purchase of the 186-acre campus of the former state mental health institution. She is a member of the Fairfield Hills advisory committee, which is expected to recommend town purchase next month.

“I felt early on that we need to plan for the purchase of Fairfield Hills, and I believe we should purchase it,” she said. “I do not believe we have to have town-wide consensus on the use of the property before we should purchase the property.”

One hundred years from now, she predicts, they will put up a monument at Fairfield Hills saying, “Thank goodness the town fathers decided to purchase this. It was the smartest decision this town ever made.”

Longtime council member Melissa Pilchard respected Mrs Blawie for having the courage to speak her mind. “She is a very conservative spender at a time when that’s not popular. She has the ability to decide what was really needed as opposed to what was really wanted, and that’s not easy,” Mrs Pilchard said.

“It was very hard for her as a room mother, with three children, to vote to reduce the school budget. She was the one who had to go into school and face parents and teachers,” Mr Pilchard added. “She didn’t oppose it, but she was pragmatic in that she could say ‘yes we need it, but we can’t afford it this year.’”

Mrs Blawie said she never really had to face the music when it came to unhappy school parents. “It would be rare that a fellow mom would come up to me and say, ‘I believe the schools should get more,’” she said. “More said, ‘thank goodness someone said enough is enough and more money does not mean a better education.’”

Mrs Pilchard called it a thrill to see a woman with such a good mind put it to political use.

“I’m not a rocket scientist, but I think I’m a common sense person, and I try to exercise that on a daily basis. I try to teach it to my children,” she said.

Mrs Blawie will be honored at a “going away” party with fellow departing council members Ed Lucas and Lisa Schwartz next Wednesday, November 17.