Connecticut’s Favorite Son — Recapping Senator Joe Lieberman’s life of public service

Besides the race for President, another key battle that is capturing the attention of Democrats and Republican pundits this election season is taking place right here in Connecticut, where Congressman Chris Murphy and businesswoman Linda McMahon are fighting to become the nutmeg state’s next Senator. The winner, of course, will have tall boots to fill: those of Connecticut’s senior Senator Joe Lieberman, who is retiring at the end of this, his fourth term.  And so, as the campaign continued to heat up in  its final weeks, we stepped out of the political kitchen for just a moment for a look back at the remarkable career of one of Connecticut’s favorite sons.

Pre-Senate

1942  Joseph Isadore Lieberman is born in Stamford on February 24, the son of Marcia (Manger) and Henry Lieberman

1962-1964 While a political science and economics major at Yale University, Lieberman serves as chairman of the Yale Daily News

1963  Serves as a summer intern for Connecticut Senator Abraham Ribicoff; Participates in Martin Luther King’s March on Washington, and leads a group of Yale classmates to Mississippi to help register black voters

1964 Graduates from Yale University – the first person in his family to graduate from college

1967 Graduates from Yale Law School and joins the New Haven-based law firm of Wiggin & Dana LLP

1970 Elected to the Connecticut state senate for New Haven

1974-1980 Serves as Connecticut state senate Majority Leader

1980 Loses his bid to represent Connecticut’s 3rd Congressional District in the House

1980-1982 Returns to private legal practice

1983-1988 Serves as Connecticut Attorney General

1988 Elected to the Senate, defeating Republican incumbent Lowell P. Weicker Jr.

1989 Sworn into the United States Senate

First Term: 1989-1994

1990 Establishes himself as an environmental champion and spearheads improvements to the Clean Air Act; Introduces and secures establishment of Connecticut’s first National Park unit at Weir Farm in Wilton; Introduces and secures passage of the Long Island Sound Improvement Act, establishing a Long Island Sound office at the EPA; Introduces and passes legislation quadrupling the size of the Stewart McKinney National Wildlife Refuge, extending it along the Connecticut coast

1991 Lieberman is one of only ten Democrats to co-sponsor the resolution authorizing military force during the Persian Gulf War; Introduces and secures passage of legislation creating the Silvio Conte National Fish and Wildlife Refuge, which extends the entire length of the Connecticut River

1993 Leads the charge to reverse legislation that would have closed the submarine base in Groton, and fights for the continuation of Groton’s specialized submarine Seawolf Program, which was at risk of being canceled;

Holds hearings on violence in video games; plays an integral role in the establishment of a rating system, and restricting sales of mature games to minors; Proposes alternative health care legislation to counter that of the Clinton Administration; Secures the designation of the Upper Farmington River as Connecticut’s first Wild and Scenic River

1994 Co-authors legislation to create charter school programs in Washington, D.C.

1994-2000 Serves as chairman of the Democratic Leadership Council, promoting moderate policies within the Democratic Party

Second Term: 1994-2000

1994 Re-elected with biggest landslide victory of his career, receiving 67 percent of the vote in Connecticut

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