I was surprised, when North Stonington Selectman Nicholas Mullane, a Republican, announced he is running for the House district in the General Assembly representing his hometown, that his opponent suggested he might be too old.

At least that's how I heard the remarks Democrat Diana Urban made to two different reporters upon learning of Mullane's joining the race.

I'm surprised, the reporters reported Urban as saying, because the job in Hartford is so grueling.

Earth to Rep. Urban: That sure sounds like ageism, the kind of thing we send lawmakers to Hartford to write laws to stop.

What else could it mean? Was she suggesting he's lazy?

Also, I think some legislators do work hard, more than what you might expect for what is classified as a part-time job.

But grueling? We know some who hardly turned up at all last term, except to vote.

I asked Mullane what he thought about the comment when I met him this week.

He acknowledged it seemed to him to be a comment on his age, but I couldn't draw him into any specific criticisms of his opponent.

Indeed, Mullane, who ran the town of North Stonington for some 28 years as its first selectman, seems to want to take a high road in this campaign, criticizing only broadly the Democrats' agenda in Hartford.

In the course of our long conversation about what made him run against Urban, he cited many of his frustrations in running a small town in a state with policies he doesn't agree with.

His specific complaints run the gamut from unfunded mandates imposed on town governments to the cost of police services for a small town like North Stonington that relies on resident state troopers.

He is frustrated with the one-party rule that stifles debate in the General Assembly and leads to policies and laws that protect special interests like unions.

The state's liberal pension policies, allowing overtime to be counted toward pension calculations and appointing unqualified lawmakers to big jobs to enhance their pensions, are some of the issues that especially rankle him.

In general, he believes the state is not business friendly — a problem he says he sees up close from his border town, where Rhode Island seems much more successful in luring and keeping businesses.

The state of Connecticut, he says, should do as well as North Stonington, with its balanced budgets and healthy reserve fund, in managing its resources and obligations.

In all, Mullane seems to have a full docket of issues to bring to a debate with his opponent, a debate both candidates say they relish.

I was glad to see Mullane move to stay involved with the future fate of the town he has tended so well all these years.

His later terms as first selectman followed years when he served part-time as chief executive of the town, while pursuing a career in contract management at Electric Boat.

He grew up in Groton, the son of a submariner who settled here after his Navy career.

Mullane and his wife still live in a remote corner of the rural town of North Stonington, a wooded enclave where he follows what animals have been through his garden at night by checking tracks and where the only light in the sky at night is a distant glow from Foxwoods.

I think of Mullane's legacy as first selectman as a leader in the town's success in keeping Foxwoods' development at bay, even as it grew into the most successful casino in the world.

He was one of the town leaders from communities surrounding the new casino who fought efforts by the Mashantucket Pequots to expand their reservation, which would have shrunk the towns.

North Stonington also was successful in those years of casino growth to minimize the impact on the rural town, resisting efforts to widen or rezone Route 2 from Interstate 95 to the reservation.

Indeed, all these years later, the biggest impact Foxwoods has on little North Stonington may be the glow at night over the surrounding rural landscape.

As for his opponent's worries about the grueling workload in Hartford, Mullane strikes me as fully prepared.

I hope I am as energetic and engaged as he is at 77, which isn't that far off.

And I hope no one suggests then that I am too old to take on a new job.

This is the opinion of David Collins.

d.collins@theday.com