Ridgefield is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. Situated in the foothills of the Berkshire Mountains, the 300-year-old community had a population of 24,638 at the 2010 census. The town center, which was formerly a borough, is defined by the U.S. Census Bureau as a census-designated place.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 35.0 square miles (91 km²), of which 34.4 square miles (89 km²) is land and 0.5 square miles (1.3 km²), or 1.52%, is water. The town is bordered by the towns of North Salem and Lewisboro in Westchester County, New York to the west, Danbury to the north, Wilton to the south and Redding to the east.

The town has a Metro-North Railroad station called Branchville in the Branchville corner of town. The CDP corresponding to the town center covers a total area of 6.4 square miles (17 km²), of which 0.16% is water. Other locales within the town include Titicus on Route 116 just north of the village; Ridgebury in the northern section of town; Scotland, which is south of Ridgebury; Farmingville, located northeast and east of the town center; Limestone, located northeast of the town center; Flat Rock, located south of the town center; and Florida, located just north of Branchville.

Connecticut (ⁱ/kəˈnɛtɨkət/) is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south (with which it shares a water boundary in Long Island Sound).

Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately bisects the state. Its capital city is Hartford. Much of southern and western Connecticut (along with the majority of the state's population) is part of the New York metropolitan area; three of Connecticut's eight counties are statistically included in the New York City combined statistical area, the same area is widely referred to as the Tri-State area. Connecticut's center of population is in Cheshire, New Haven County, which is also located within the Tri-State area.

Connecticut is the 3rd least extensive, the 29th most populous, and 4th most densely populated of the 50 United States. Called the Constitution State, Nutmeg State, and "The Land of Steady Habits", Connecticut was influential in the development of the federal government of the United States.

Rudy Marconi (born June 7, 1948) is the first selectman of Ridgefield, Connecticut, and exploratory candidate for governor of Connecticut. First elected as first selectman in 1999, he is currently serving his fifth term.

Born and raised in Ridgefield, Connecticut, Marconi is the grandson of first-generation Italian immigrants who settled in Ridgefield. In high school, Marconi was a three-letter athlete, leading his high school’s football, basketball, and baseball teams. Marconi attended the Nichols College of Business Administration, where he earned his BBA in 1971.

Marconi is married to the former Peggy Loomis and has four children and one grandchild. He was previously married which ended in divorce.

After graduation, Marconi worked for 15 years in the paper and printing industry in both Boston and Long Island. In 1986, Marconi returned to Ridgefield and joined Nano Marconi, Inc., the family contracting company, where he worked until 1999.

In 1989, Marconi was elected to Ridgefield’s Planning and Zoning Commission, on which he served until 1993. Ridgefield subsequently elected Marconi to its Board of Selectmen in 1993, where he served for two two-year terms. In 1997, Marconi ran for the office of first selectman, but was narrowly defeated by Republican Abe Morelli. Between 1997 and 1999, Marconi served as the chairman of Ridgefield’s Democratic Town Committee. In 1999, Marconi again campaigned for the office of First Selectman against Morelli, and won, the first Democrat to beat a Republican incumbent in the majority Republican town in half a century. Marconi is currently serving his fifth term as Ridgefield’s first selectman. Due to a 2007 change in the town charter, it is a four-year term.