Haddam Woman to Challenge Eileen Daily

Melissa Schlag, a Haddam-based small business owner, is running as a Green Party candidate for State Senate. According to a report in the Hartford Courant, Schlag gave her first interview Thursday at on the banks of the Connecticut River, not too far from the land she fought so hard to protect while leading the opposition during the controversy.

Schlag, according to the report, acknowledges that she faces an uphill battle in her campaign against a widely known and well-funded incumbent. As a third-party candidate, Schlag will be challenging current State Senator Eileen Daily (D-Westbrook).

Daily came under fire when she backed the plan for the state to swap a 17.8-acre parcel overlooking the Connecticut River in Haddam’s Tylerville village for an 87-acre piece of forestland in the Higganum section of town owned by the developers of the  at Goodspeed Landing in Haddam.

Daily had during the controversy that she “believes totally that this project is good for the state, good for Haddam and good for East Haddam.”

The plan had been previously rejected twice by state officials, but was later inserted into a conveyance bill at Daily’s request. The swap fell through this month when the developers of the deal because appraisals of the two properties involved showed that the state’s river land is worth significantly more than the Higganum forest land.

Daily is currently serving her 10th term in the 33rd district that includes the towns of Chester, Clinton, Colchester, Deep River, East Haddam, East Hampton, Essex, Haddam, Lyme Old Saybrook, Portland and Westbrook.

Schlag will need to collect signatures from 20% of voters in the last election, or 8,000 signatures, and raise $15,000 in campaign money, the Courant reported.