Looney: Make Each Campaign Count

by Paul Bass

New Haven’s Martin Looney has parting advice for the next generation of political candidates as well as for his fellow Baby Boomers holding on to elected office.

The quick version: Think hard about whether you can make a difference (or still make a difference).

Looney, who is 77, knows something about running for office and making laws. He’s retiring after serving 46 years in the Connecticut legislature, a state record he shares with Wallingford State Rep. Mary Mushinsky (who’s also retiring). Looney just finished his 12th year as president pro tempore of the State Senate, also a record.

He closed out the session leveraging his clout to deliver an extra $23 million in aid that enabled New Haven to avoid disastrous budget cuts. He’s now taking victory laps as an old-school lawmaker trusted and respected by colleagues in both parties, most recently at a special session called to honor his service.

Looney decided to step down at a time when fellow veteran Democrats, including U.S. Rep. John Larson (77), State Rep. Pat Dillon (77) and U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro (83) face intraparty campaign challenges based on calls for generational change.

The time was right to step down while he felt at the top of his game, Looney said in a conversation Thursday on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven.” 

“I feel good now, better than I did 10 years ago” when he needed to receive a kidney transplant, Looney said. “If I ran another time, I would be 80 by the end of the next term. At some point it’s better to leave before people start thinking that you’ve lost a step.”

That said, Looney did not argue that others his age should necessarily step down to make way for new talent. It’s important to judge each person on whether they retain the ability to do the job well, he said. For instance, he noted DeLauro continues to play a leadership role in Washington that produces a windfall of money for Greater New Haven, and she’s in line to return as the powerful Appropriations Committee chair if Democrats regain control of the U.S. House of Representatives.

He singled out mandatory term limits as a bad idea. Term limits kick out many effective legislators just as they’re accruing more experience and knowledge, he argued. When he served as president of the board of the State Legislative Leaders Foundation, he discovered a “big difference” in the quality of senators from states with and without term limits.

“They should do an honest self-assessment,” he advised his fellow Boomers (and pre-Boomers) considering whether to continue running for office. “‘Am I here only because I’m here? Or am I still contributing something? Am I still learning something, and doing something new?”

People in top legislative positions also need to assess how much they’re able to support their colleagues: “A good leader has to be more like a savvy point guard than somebody who’s scoring all the points himself, because you have to help set up your members to do things that well, so they will look good in their own districts when they’re running for reelection.”

He had advice as well for young people considering taking on older incumbents, as Looney himself did as a 1975 Fair Haven alder candidate: “You have to be realistic and assess: Why are you running? Is it just your own ambition? Or do you really think that you can contribute something better than the person that’s there currently is doing and has had a chance to do, if they’ve been there a long time.

“Then, when you get there, I think you need to, you need to select certain mentors, people who can really guide you” the way former state legislators Irv Stolberg, Richard Tulisano, and Ernie Abate mentored a young State Rep. Looney in the 1980s.

Don’t run if you expect to make immediate fundamental change, Looney further advised.

It took him years to build a legislative coalition, for instance, to increase ongoing reimbursement for untaxable property to cities like New Haven through the state’s  Payments in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) system. He gradually convinced enough cities and towns that it would be in their financial interest to support a three-tiered version of that program that would add reimbursements to more communities

Similarly, he and fellow legislators spent years chipping away at the inequities built into the original version of the state income tax in 1991, which at first lowered the tax burden for the ultra-wealthy at the expense of the working and middle classes.

Similarly it took years finally to bump up the state minimum hourly wage from $10.10 to $15 then peg future increases to inflation; and to abolish the death penalty and legalize recreational cannabis.

“I had someone one time come to see me asking my advice about running for the legislature,” Looney said. “She said, ‘I want to make transformational change. I want to make it happen now.’ And I said, ‘Well, you should probably not run for legislative office, because if you won’t succeed, it’ll probably make you miserable, and you’ll make other people miserable at the same time. …

“Legislative bodies are inherently incrementalist. We move, advance an issue, keep trying to advance it a piece at a time.”

Looney is retiring just from the legislature, not fully retiring. He plans to continue practicing law with former Probate Judge Jack Keyes and teaching at Quinnipac University and University of New Haven. He also plans to remain active supporting Democratic candidates for elected office, of all ages, most immediately helping to help add a seat or two to the party’s current 25-11 State Senate majority. Looking ahead to 2028’s presidential contest, Coach Looney tapped Connecticut U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker as his early preferences to head the Democratic ticket.

Click on the below video to watch the full valedictory interview with State Senate President Pro Tem Martin Looney on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven.” Click here to subscribe or here to listen to other episodes of “Dateline New Haven.”