Current Republican Selectman Will Rodgers and running mate Jeff Capeci are hoping to secure the local GOP's endorsement, as well as the majority of support from local voters as they continue campaigning for respective first selectman and Board of Selectmen posts.

But no matter the outcome following a planned July 24 Republican caucus, Mr Rodgers, a longtime resident, decorated military veteran, and attorney, believes his leadership experience and long history of service to not only his community, but to the country, will help him carry the day on Election Day, November 7.

During an extended conversation with The Newtown Bee exactly one month ahead of the caucus, Mr Rodgers said he is aggressively seeking out one-on-one opportunities to interact with and listen to the local constituents he is currently serving as selectman, and had previously served during six terms on the Legislative Council - three as chairman.

He is also making a targeted push to appeal to local registered Republicans who can play a key role as he ramps up his campaign toward an anticipated primary this September.

At this stage of the campaign, and since First Selectman Pat Llodra has decided to not seek another term, it appears that Mr Rodgers will be facing current Republican Legislative Council Chair Mary Ann Jacob and Board of Education member Andrew Clure in both the upcoming GOP caucus, and in what could be a historic September 12 primary - the likes of which Newtown has not seen in decades.

The winner of the primary will presumably face Democrat Dan Rosenthal and his running mate Maureen Crick Owen, who both recently received the unanimous endorsement of their party, and who appear to be facing no opposition as they head toward a July 20 party caucus.

"Our campaign is percolating along reaching out to voters for at least this first part of the exercise," Mr Rodgers said, referring to his lead-up to the caucus and likely eventual primary. "All registered Republicans have a right to participate in the caucus, but I'd rather have a venue that experience dictates more Republicans tend to participate in. We're out to win the caucus, but we would not rule out a primary run if we do not prevail."

Mr Rodgers said he is forming a campaign platform mindful of a combination of issues, from longtime concerns about balancing quality of life services available now to the community, and the local taxpayer dollars needed to pay for them - to future issues including the likely reduction or elimination of municipal grants from Hartford, and potentially polarizing local capital projects from the community center/senior center to new police headquarters to budgeting for the costly demolition of unusable buildings at Fairfield Hills.

"I think specific issues that rise out of cyclical or long-term concerns will be the ones we have more of a focus on," he said. "I understand certain issues are very sexy, so to speak, because they have big constituencies behind them. And certain politicians sniff opportunities to get votes and [aspire] to make a difference. Given that I've been part of the administration for the past eight years, it would be hard to argue for wholesale changes in cyclical stuff. We now do have the sea change of reduced state aid, and that will require changes to the normal way of doing business - I would say that is our chief focus."

Looking toward the gyrations going on today in Washington, Mr Rodgers admits he is concerned, particularly about the growing population of over 50 residents who will probably need to devote substantially more of their earned income to pay for health care or health care insurance in the coming years.

"Health care is one of those things where we have tended to say national politics has little to do with local politics. But here is an example," he said. "As health care gets more restrictive, everybody will be on the contraction side. That could translate to states picking up part of that burden, which in our case seems extremely unlikely, or it will have a direct effect on local taxpayers."

But since local taxes are predominantly targeted for underwriting local services, Mr Rodgers pointed out that Newtown will need to be as efficient as possible in providing those local services.

"Yes, we're going to have to save dollars versus dimes, because dimes aren't going to cut it," he said. "That means we are going to have to look at regionalization of some services where appropriate, maybe even some limited privatization of services to save some more dollars versus dimes."

Mr Rodgers said that he will roll out ideas for ways to better utilize regionalize and privatize as his campaign moves toward November.

"I will have specific plans to discuss a little bit closer to the general election, but even more important, if I prevail [in November] I will already have those plans in place to accomplish that regionalization or privatization initiative from an executive/administrative position. It will likely start very early in the process and involve a new way of budgeting."

Military Experience Counts

Mr Rodgers sees the combination of his military and civilian work as an attorney as being an advantage over that of any potential opponents, but he does not downplay the leadership opportunities he embraced as he graduated through the ranks of the Marine Corps and Marine Corps Reserve to retire as a "full bird colonel" several years ago following a nonlegal billet in Iraq.

"I do think I have the kind of leadership experience that comes with military service," he said. "And having served in both commanding and executive officer roles I'm used to a chain of command; I'm used to protecting my people - in this case town employees; and I know I've fostered a good relationship with them and that relationship will continue. That said, there's no worry that I'll start treating people like military subordinates."

Mr Rodgers said many military leaders with less experience have made extremely successful transitions to civilian, nonprofit, and political leadership. He has just been fortunate to be exposed to all of those areas in his career, and in retirement.

"I view the job of first selectman as one of a problem solver, a negotiator, a liaison between various parties while tackling specific tasks and problems," he said. "During my most recent deployment to Iraq, I was a liaison officer between US Aid and the Marine Corps dealing with the Iraqi people and bringing them assistance. The job was just negotiation, and many times I was in the middle of a three-way struggle between civilian government, military leadership, and the Iraqi government and peoples. And if you can mange to get yourself respected and become relevant to all parties involved, it's a lot harder to do than working with the local education leadership and the PTAs."

During that last regular tour of duty, Mr Rodgers also worked as an appellate judge for the Navy/Marine Corps Criminal Court of Appeals.

"Clearly you are making decisions based on different viewpoints in those situations, and it was not limited to military or criminal matters. We had jurisdiction over civilian and independent contract workers," he said. "But you'd be surprised at the number of nonmilitary cases that took up the bulk of my time."

In the course of his military service, Mr Rodgers said he had direct supervisory responsibility for a number of groups and organizations - some numbering as many as 75 to 100 people from leading platoons and companies in country to heading a military legal services office at the Pentagon.

Mr Rodgers said as a practicing attorney, the only attorney vying for a top spot on the ballot, he would be a "sophisticated user of legal services" on behalf of taxpayers.

"From time to time I've been able to provide targeted direction to our town attorneys, not to denigrate their skills and abilities at all," he said. "But it's absolutely a place where I could find opportunities for some savings - if only in the efficiency of doing what we must do. By and large, the town has to defend itself on many of the cases it's involved in. It's not about caving in and not fighting, it's about how efficiently we fight, and realizing when we have to cut our losses."

Mr Rodgers also realizes he has got to put himself in more situations where voters need to get to know him beyond the snapshots of time where they may have seen him working officially, where he may not have appeared as a warm and fuzzy type of personality.

"There are a lot of people who may only know me through one lens, through what they see me doing on the Board of Selectmen, and previously on the council," he said. "But I want to share with people that when I shifted from a leadership role on the council to the Board of Selectmen, I did that as a result of criticism about being a passionate young man on the rise - maybe even too strong a leader.

"I would do things like recess a public hearing if people were getting out of hand and not obeying the instruction of the chair. Or cutting off council members when they were trying to make the same point for the third time," he said. "As a statement of fact, within my party, there was some concern that Rodgers could only be a chief and not an Indian. That was interesting because of the many hats I had to wear in the military, where I had to serve in CO [commanding officer] roles as much as XO [executive officer] roles."

Get To Know Him

Mr Rodgers does recognize that a large number of new residents have come to Newtown since his days on the council, and many may only know him as First Selectman Llodra's running mate, or as a selectman, and never saw him in the leadership role he served on the council.

"I see it all as part of a rounding of experience," he said.

Many may be equally unaware of the leadership role he stepped into in the dark hours following Newtown's 12/14 tragedy, where he accepted a crucial position helping administer the localized fund that was hastily established between Newtown Savings Bank and the regional United Way agency.

"In regard to the foundation establishment, it was immediate and locally based," he said. "I'm firmly convinced that if those efforts didn't happen quickly, the control would have been at the state and federal level - which would have been problematic. The initial work of the foundation was to honor and consider donor intent. So we were faced with the job of honoring donor intent, maintaining community control, and infusing a degree of public participation and family participation in the process. I think we did a pretty good job. It was tough, sometimes thankless work, but it was important work."

Mr Rodgers recognizes that the important work of the Newtown Sandy Hook Family Foundation will continue, particularly as posttraumatic stress disorder continues to manifest among community members, responders, and, of course, the immediate survivors and those in closest proximity to the tragedy.

"The relevant aspect of that is this is going to continue for a long, long time," he said. "That's why we reached out to those in other disaster situations. And we learned that long after the governmental and professional/charitable support dries up, we're going to need to have someone standing with resources at the local level. I think we've positioned ourselves well for that."

In closing, Mr Rodgers said he and Mr Capeci hope to see an unprecedented turnout of fellow Republicans at the upcoming caucus and primary if it happens.

"I think we are the team who will be most true to Republican principles, and Newtown's recent practical experiences in handling the new challenges that are ahead of us," he said, "as well as the traditional ones."