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Aaron Bowman, the Republican State Rep candidate for Connecticut's 54th district in Mansfield, picked up his election signs on Monday last week, and eagerly started planting the signs the next day.
But by Wednesday, when Bowman was driving through his district, he noticed a rental property where one of his yard signs had been burned -- quite a task considering the plastic material used in the sign -- and even had tire marks on one side where the sign had apparently been driven over, too.
Bowman said he's never seen anyone do anything like that before.
Perhaps that's just because it's his first time running for office.
Or perhaps it's a just sign of the current political environment.
Or the fact that Bowman's local Republican Town Committee (RTC) wasn't exactly supportive of his campaign out of concern that Bowman was "too outspoken." Then again, many of those same "Republicans" on the RTC are afraid to publicly support President Donald Trump.
Bowan describes himself as an Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass republican. He wants to expand the party's values and not erode them, and get back to the foundational principles of what it means to be a Republican.
This is the first time in a quite while that Mansfield has even had a Republican candidate willing to challenge incumbent State Rep. Gregg Haddad, a democrat who seems to be more focused on the green agenda and UConn students and less concerned with the real issues facing full-time Mansfield residents.
Note that Mansfield's population is around 25,000, and nearly half of that is due to UConn.
In fact, this year the UConn Storrs bookstore will serve as an early voting polling location to make it even easier for students to vote, even though it was already pretty easy to walk to Town Hall to vote.
The Next Gen Elections program, funded through a federal grant and operated by the Secretary of the State’s office, will train and pay college students to become poll workers and moderators. This is the first time a program like this has ever been implemented.
Bowman wonders how the state and university are going to ensure the rules are set forth to ensure a free election with a polling location inside the bookstore.
He's not the only one concerned about the plans to target students in this election.
In addition to ensuring free and fair elections, Bowman says safety is also top of mind for many in the town, especially considering rising crime rates, though he cautions that not a lot of crime is not being publicized. In fact, just a few weeks ago, the town saw an armed robbery, not the normal affair for an area known for its farms.
The culture wars are also alive and well in Mansfield, a town that used a Connecticut Department Of Children & Families Enhancement Grant to fund a Pride celebration that featured an all-ages drag queen story time and pushed books that normalize transgenderism to young children.
As part of the pride celebration, the town of Mansfield passed out pride flags at Town Hall, the Community Center, the Senior Center, the public Library and the Nash-Zimmer Transportation Center, and even raised a Pride flag over Town Hall.
Bowman, a disabled veteran, said he requested a PTSD awareness flag to be raised over Town Hall to shine a spotlight on a crippling condition that affects veterans, police officers, fire fighters, medical workers, people traumatized from sexual assault, and many more.
But his request was rejected.
That probably shouldn't be a surprise for a town that used taxpayer money to hand out pride flags for pride month, but declined to purchase American flags to pass out on Flag Day in the very same month.
It's a good thing Bowman was there with Council Member Brian Coleman because they passed out American flags to citizens in the community center and senior center on Flag Day. Bowman thinks it's time for the town to adopt a formal flag policy that restricts the flags flown over town hall to the American flag, the Connecticut flag and military remembrance flags.
Bowman said that affordable housing is another major issue facing his community.
"It's unaffordable to live here now," lamented Bowman who wants to make Connecticut affordable again.
You can learn more about Bowman's campaign on his website and follow him on social media.
