What’s the matter with Guilford? BOE member Jennifer Baldwin objects to candidate knocking on her door.

Diversity of thought and the exercise of free speech rights are under siege in the tony shoreline town. More proof of the assault on traditional rights came in an overheated Facebook post by Jennifer Baldwin, an independent member of the town’s board of education.

Baldwin took offense at a candidate placing a door hanger on her door. Baldwin’s Facebook post expresses alarm that a candidate would knock on the door of a home with his opponent’s sign on the lawn. Most candidates know that a lawn sign does not mean everyone in a household is committed to the candidate displayed on the lawn. It is possible, even in 2022, for most people to live in a household with people who do not cast identical ballots.

Richard DiNardo is the candidate who is the target of Baldwin’s scorn and suspicion. His response–also on Facebook–expressed bafflement at Baldwin’s fury in his own bemused Facebook post. He’s the Republican nominee in the 98th House District and faces Democrat Moira Rader on Tuesday for the open seat. Rader, who serves on the board of education with Baldwin, won the Democratic primary for the nomination in the House District, which includes Guilford and part of Branford.

Baldwin is the Independent party nominee for state treasurer. In addition, she is an assistant public defender in New London. She strikes some discordant notes in her Facebook screed for a public defender. Calling the police because a candidate knocked on your door? Most public defenders would roll their eyes in contempt at such nonsense. Baldwin is confused as to “what intimidation looks like.” By any reasonable standard, it does not look like a candidate leaving a piece of campaign literature on a door. Instead, it looks like a Facebook post in which the writer announces she will be contacting “the police to issue a no trespassing order.”

The most alarming Baldwin bit comes at the end where Baldwin reveals a taste for 21st cruelty. “[P]lease shame him.” It is unhinged. Public defenders are often seek prosecutors and judges to act with restraint and mercy in viewing criminal defendants. Baldwin appears unfamiliar with those virtues.

Poor Rob Hotaling.

Published November 4, 2022.