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Tymniak’s speech, although short and far from a tell-all, was met with a standing ovation from more than 40 RTC members at the meeting. He was the only candidate from the Republican Party to announce his candidacy at the March 2 meeting.
“I am running for this office to try to give back to our great community, to the town I grew up in, to a place that offers a great quality of life and a way of life that we want to preserve for ourselves and for our children,” Tymniak said.
To win the seat, Tymniak will have to beat incumbent Michael Tetreau who has said publicly that he plans to run for a second full term in November but has not officially announced his bed.
Despite the difficulties of unseating an incumbent, Tymniak revealed Monday one of his key running points: tax cuts.
“The bottom line is that I believe in responsible budgeting,” Tymniak said. “And I believe we can make that happen and that is what I will fight for.”
While Tymniak’s experience is limited in Fairfield to his time on the RTM -- a two-term member who had one term cut short due to the birth of his youngest son -- he will be campaigning based on his professional work for the City of Ansonia.
As the city administrator for Ansonia, Tymniak said his assistance in “citywide operations” and instituting “best practices” helped to streamline the city budget and achieve a budget surplus for the first time in decades.
Although Ansonia’s population is only 19,000, compared with Fairfield’s more than 60,000 residents, Tymniak projected his confidence to make the translation from his currently line of work to Fairfield’s first selectman’s office.
“The proof is in the pudding,” he said. “Last year, our Republican majority on the [Representative Town Meeting] reduced the [Democratic] budget proposal and approved a final town budget with an increase of 1.96 percent, the lowest tax rate increase in over a decade.”
Tymniak is ahead of the game as the sole GOP candidate and with a month of fundraising already under his belt. According to a Daily Voice poll, 67 percent of respondents said they would “absolutely” support Tymniak’s bid for first selectman, with another 7 percent answering “probably” they would support.
In comparison, only 9 percent of respondents said they would opt to vote for a Democratic candidate.
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