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The district is made up of New Canaan and Wilton. O’Dea is a member of the legislature’s Judiciary Committee, Environment Committee and Transportation Committee.
A lawyer for the law firm Halloran & Sage, O’Dea concentrates his practice in litigation concerning the transportation and trucking industry and the defense of claims involving catastrophic injuries.
O'Dea cites among the issues he's focused on is job growth, lowering taxes and cutting state spending by 20 percent.
From 1995 to 2004, O’Dea was appointed by the governor as a member of the Police Officers Standards and Training Council, which is responsible for overseeing all training certification of police officers in Connecticut. From 1997 to 2004, he served as a victim compensation commissioner within the state’s judicial branch, responsible for adjudicating claims brought by victims of crimes. In 2004, Gov. M. Jodi Rell appointed O’Dea to the Judicial Selection Commission, which is responsible for recommending the appointment and reappointment of judges.
He is a 1988 graduate of Providence College and in 1991 graduated from the Columbus School of Law at the Catholic University of America. He also attended the University of Fribourg in Switzerland in 1986-87.
David Bedell is the Green Party candidate running in the district.
He said his first priority would be to work on measures to fix the state's stagnant economy and says a green jobs and green loan program would put people back to work by insulating old buildings, retrofitting homes and schools with solar panels, and developing new industries for fuel cells, photovoltaics, wind turbines, biofuels, LED lighting, better batteries, and other clean energy technologies.
Bedell has been secretary of the Fairfield Chapter of the Connecticut Green Party since 2002 and also treasurer for the state party in 2012 and 2013.
He also is advocating:
- Establishing a Public State Bank for Connecticut modeled on the Bank of North Dakota
- Implementing educational standards that take into account local conditions and recognize students as individuals, not statistics.
- Equalizing education funding by relying more on state revenues, less on local property taxes
- Replacing the Connecticut Health Exchange with a single-payer plan to insure all state residents
- Closing Indian Point and Millstone nuclear plants and promoting sustainable energy
- Supporting mass transit and Smart Growth while containing sprawl and overbuilding
- Enabling all towns to implement Land Value Tax as an alternative to traditional property tax, which is currently permitted in only three Connecticut towns.
- Ending the drug war that imprisons youth and sparks gun violence.
There is no Democrat in the race for the 125th House District.
Part of New Canaan is also in House District 142, along with Norwalk. In that race, Democrat Andy Garfunkel and Republican Fred Wilms are running to fill the seat of retiring Republican Larry Cafero.
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