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State Senator Judith Freedman - Ridgefield Magazine Article (This article does not constitute an endorsement of Sen. Freedman by Ridgefield Magazine)

“Running for Political Office was never on the front burner,” says our woman in Hartford, State Senator Judith G. Freedman. A former elementary-school teacher, Freedman admits, “I got into it quite by accident when my husband Samuel, an attorney, agreed to be the Republican nominee in the 1972 race for the Connecticut House of Representatives. I knew nothing about running an election campaign, but we recruited my mother and her friends and sat in this dining room stuffing envelopes—and he won.”

That same year Judith gave birth to Martha, who was later diagnosed as “mentally retarded.” Freedman found herself running all over the state looking for the special services Martha needed. After Martha’s public-school experiences, Freedman trumpeted her dissatisfaction with the lack of an appropriate education for handicapped students. “When you have a mouth as I have,” she says, “people take notice and say, ‘Why don’t you run for office?’” Freedman took the advice and was elected to the Westport Board of Education.

In 1986, the 26th district (Ridgefield, Wilton, Weston, Westport, and New Canaan) State Senate seat was open. Freedman won in the six-candidate field by 99 votes. Her cause, she says, was opposition to building Super 7. “That’s how I got elected, and I’ve worked hard to keep my constituency happy on this issue.”

Freedman, who is the Chief Deputy Republican Leader and the ranking member of the Select Joint Committee on Children, believes strongly in the transformative power of education. Her campaign to increase public spending for preschool programs, her key role in the creation of public charter schools, and other initiatives have been recognized with awards from the state’s boards of education, teachers, and library associations.

Prompted by the state’s high-school dropout rate, she worked on legislation raising the age to 18 before a student is allowed to withdraw from school. “If we can get them to finish their high-school education,” she explains, “we might stand a better chance of making productive citizens of them.”

And what if a 16- or 17-year-old does get into trouble? Freedman helped secure approval of a bill that allows certain offenses (excluding serious felonies) to remain in juvenile court “because some 16- and 17-year-old kids do dumb things for which they are punished as adults and don’t come out any better, probably worse. The judicial system should treat them as the children they still are and help them make the life changes they need in order to become responsible adults.”

A teacher at heart, Freedman issues report cards evaluating the General Assembly’s performance. The last session, for example, she gave the lawmakers an “A” for passing Jessica’s Law (increasing the punishment for sex offenders), an “F” on budget (for lack of action by the deadline), and an “Incomplete” on gasoline zone pricing (because the House failed to take an action on a bill passed by the Senate preventing gasoline distributors from charging higher prices in more affluent towns).

What issues need action in the next session? “The state has to come up with a better way of educational financing,” Freedman says, “so that we have some real accountability—and I’m not talking about test scores. Right now the money isn’t necessarily spent on education; a municipality puts the money in its general fund and can spend it on anything it wants. We need to attach strings.”

Freedman also wants the state to come up with a long-term plan to award tax credits to homeowners and businesses that make energy-efficiency improvements and to companies that produce renewable-energy products. To her colleagues who oppose such credits as too costly, Freedman responds, “You have to weigh budget concerns against what our state will look like in the future.”

When asked if she ever dissents from the positions taken by the state’s Republican majority, the 11-term senator laughs and replies, “Oh yes, many times. I believe in protecting women. I don’t understand my party when it comes to choice on abortion. It’s a personal right, a privacy right.” Her support of embryonic-stem-cell research has been another point of disagreement.

What are Freedman’s constituents most concerned about these days? After the murderous home invasion in Cheshire, many people contacted the senator to express their anger and fear. “It’s scary,” acknowledges Freedman, who recently had a security system installed in her colonial home on a quiet, wooded lane in Westport. “Parents are afraid to leave children alone in their own backyards. They feel insecure. When I was growing up in Fairfield, I was free to roam. That kind of independence for kids is gone now. But let’s not allow fear to keep us from living joyful and productive lives.”

“Things do work out in the long run,” says the 68-year-old senator. “I learned to be an optimist at the age of nineteen, after my father died. It was a terrible blow for the family. My mom got a job and finished putting me and my brother through college. She set a prime example of how to look forward and move forward.”

Freedman still finds strength and inspiration from family—from her husband Samuel, “who understands the job because he’s been there,” and from 35-year-old Martha, who was recently diagnosed as autistic and lives with two other women in a group home. “We have learned from her,” says Freedman, “and we are blessed by that. I keep thinking she could have been someone else’s child, and God only knows what would have happened. We are able to give her what she needs, and she’s given us back so much more. She’s a lesson in love.”