The legacy of CT’s Joe Lieberman always included his time in New Haven
Christopher Keating
Hartford Courant
March 30, 2024
Former U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman is being remembered as a national figure who always returned home to his roots in Connecticut.
A Stamford native who moved to New Haven, Lieberman developed numerous political and personal friendships through a long career that he said included 15 campaigns in Connecticut.
He is best known for his winning campaigns and serving 24 years in the U.S. Senate as he became a national figure who was the Democratic vice presidential nominee in 2000. But he also lost numerous times, including being defeated by Bill O’Neill for lieutenant governor at the Democratic state convention in 1978 and then by Republican Larry DeNardis in a race for Congress in the New Haven area during Ronald Reagan’s landslide in 1980.
But Lieberman, who died Wednesday following a fall at his New York City apartment, always had another chapter in politics.
“He was always thinking about what the folks back home needed,” said Matthew J. Hennessy, a former member of Lieberman’s U.S. Senate staff who worked on his campaigns for Senate, vice president, and president. “This was a guy who was always keeping his eye on his constituents. He was known as an international figure, but he was constantly coming back to Connecticut.”
In New Haven, Lieberman started building a political base more than 50 years ago with support from Irish, Italian, and Jewish voters.
“He was very attuned to what an urban coalition meant,” Hennessy said.
One of those key Irish supporters was Martin Dunleavy, a longtime union official and political activist who spent more than 20 years on the Democratic National Committee. He said he first met Lieberman when he was 12 years old when Lieberman had graduated from Yale Law School and was serving as the co-chairman of Robert F. Kennedy’s 1968 campaign for president.
Dunleavy lived only about five blocks away from Lieberman in New Haven’s Westville neighborhood.
“He was my state senator,” Dunleavy recalled. “My mom and I volunteered for his campaign against Ed Marcus [in 1970]. His synagogue was across the street from my house.”
As a tradition, Lieberman always showed up at Dunleavy’s house on election day as one of his stops — and that continued in November 2000 when Lieberman returned to New Haven while running for vice president. The problem, though, was Dunleavy was working in Pennsylvania on election day on the Gore-Lieberman campaign and was not home. Instead, his cousin, David, was living in the house at the time and was stunned when he looked out the window.
“It’s Joe Lieberman with the national press corps,” Dunleavy recalled. “He said, ‘David, I wouldn’t feel lucky unless I dropped off these bagels.’ It was a tradition.”
Former state Rep. Stephen Dargan, a West Haven Democrat, said that Lieberman always received major support from “the Irish mob of Westville” that included Dunleavy, Probate Judge Jack Keyes, and attorney Nicholas E. Neeley, among others.
Dargan remembers seeing Lieberman in New Haven on a very busy election day in 2000 as he returned to his hometown to vote at Edgewood School in Westville before heading back out.
“He was getting back on the plane to go to Tennessee to see Gore,” Dargan said.
While he did not live in Westville, longtime state Sen. Martin Looney represented a Senate district that stretched into the neighborhood. He worked for decades on behalf of Lieberman with fellow city residents.
“Vinnie Mauro, Sr. was instrumental in helping Lieberman make a comeback in 1982 for attorney general,” Looney recalled. “Six years later in 1988, Vinnie Mauro, Sr. saw it was a great opportunity to run for statewide office against Weicker. [Lieberman] started off as the underdog.”
Decades later, his son, Vinnie Mauro, Jr., was asked by the Lieberman family to serve as a pallbearer at Lieberman’s funeral in Stamford.
Former U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman died March 27 in New York City. Here, he stands with President George W. Bush and Hillary Rodham Clinton at a reception honoring the 2003 college national champions, which included the UConn women's basketball team.
While he always had support back in Connecticut, Lieberman made a name for himself on the national stage. He was offered jobs on both sides of the aisle.
Despite his voting record with Democrats on core domestic issues like gun control, abortion rights, tax increases, the environment and gay rights, Lieberman also took a series of high-profile positions on national security that won favor with Republicans.
His transformation allowed the former Democratic vice presidential nominee to field secret inquiries for jobs with the Bush administration, Lieberman said. Not long after Bush won his second term over Lieberman’s Yale classmate, John Kerry, Lieberman came close to joining Bush’s administration.
“Should I say this?” Lieberman said aloud during an interview with The Hartford Courant upon his departure from the Senate. “I don’t know if I’ve said it before. I should have saved this for my book.”
“Twice I was asked if I would consider — I was not offered, and that’s very important to say — at the end of the first Bush administration, after he had been reelected [in 2004],” Lieberman said, “I was asked whether I would consider accepting the position of ambassador to the United Nations.”
Lieberman spoke with various top Bush advisers, including chief of staff Andrew Card and national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, about the position before he finally decided to remain in the Senate.
Not long after, Lieberman said Card called again, asking him about being homeland security chief on short notice. Would he consider replacing Bernie Kerik of New York, who had run into major controversy in December 2004 after being nominated?
“If you’re asked by a president, when the focus of my life has been public service,” Lieberman said, “you really have to give it the most serious consideration — and I did give the U.N. ambassadorship serious consideration … but ultimately I decided I wanted to continue working in the Senate.”
Former Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman was under consideration to be FBI director to succeed the fired James Comey. Here, Lieberman, a No Labels co-chairman, introduces Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump to speak at a No Labels convention in 2015 in Manchester, New Hampshire.
Even after leaving Washington, Lieberman was considered by Republican Donald J. Trump for a position as FBI director. Lieberman, who was 75 at the time, was interviewed by Trump at the White House as speculation mounted that he would be nominated for the position to replace the fired James Comey.
“Just being thought of for this position was a great honor because of my enormous respect for the men and women of the FBI and the critical and courageous work they do in protecting the American people from criminals and terrorists, and upholding our finest values,” Lieberman wrote in a letter to Trump.
But Lieberman eventually withdrew his name, saying he wanted to avoid any potential conflict of interest because one of his New York City law firm colleagues represented Trump.
A lifelong Democrat who began his public life as a 1960s anti-war activist, Lieberman had many political twists and turns over a span of 40 years.
His friends say he took a hard right turn after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and his support of Republican George W. Bush’s entrance into the Iraq War led to a challenge from Greenwich anti-war activist Ned Lamont in the 2006 U.S. Senate primary. Lieberman lost the primary as liberal Democrats flocked to Lamont, but Lieberman won the general election with the support of Republicans.
Lieberman went a step further right when he supported Republican John McCain over Democrat Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential race. Some Democrats wanted to strip him of his chairmanship of the Homeland Security Committee after he backed McCain, but with support from Democratic leader Harry Reid, Lieberman kept his chairmanship.
He eventually decided not to seek reelection in 2012 and stepped away from the Senate in January 2013.
Lieberman worked part time at the bipartisan “No Labels” political movement among his multiple interests, including defense and national security issues. He said he spent about half of his time working at a New York City law firm, “which helps me to be generous to my children and grandchildren.”
Christopher Keating can be reached at ckeating@courant.com