It's a Looney World. You're Just Living In It

It took three decades. Suddenly Martin Looney was able to shepherd ambitious ideas into new laws—and have the governor’s office help him, not stand in the way.

Pot decriminalization. Paid sick days for service workers. In-state tuition for undocumented workers’ children. A state earned income tax credit for the working poor. Stricter rules for eyewitness identification of suspected crooks. ...

For years Looney (pictured) pushed for those ideas with his fellow state lawmakers from New Haven at the Capitol in Hartford.

For years Republican governors stopped those from becoming law.

Then, for the first time in 20 years, a Democratic governor took office this year. As majority leader of the state Senate, Looney was able to shepherd these and a long list of other backed-up bills to passage, and then see Gov. Dannel P. Malloy sign them.

It was the most satisfying state legislative year Looney has had since New Haveners first elected him to the state House of Representatives in 1980, then the state Senate in 1992.

“It was the the best and most productive session I can recall,” Looney said over coffee at the Long Wharf Greek Olive, a week after the session concluded. “A lot of things we were working on for a long time, we were able to get past the goal line.”

A self-effacing figure by nature, Looney, whh’s 62, hesitates to draw attention to himself. He noted that many others pushed this year’s bounty of bills past the goal line line, too, including New Haven colleagues such as “The Two Tonis”—state Sen. Toni Harp and state Rep. Toni Walker, who co-chaired the powerful Appropriations Committee—and grassroots activists interested in specific legislation. (he made a point of naming each New Haven legislator and a bill he or she championed.)

“I’ve never quite seen the [New Haven] delegation work with such shared purpose and such an aggressive agenda,” observed Mayor John DeStefano. “I think they were as effective as any group I have worked with in my 28 years with the city. They did a great job. You saw a real group of leaders emerge.”

For Looney the cascade of legislative victories was particularly sweet, and the longest time in coming: No one else in the legislature has served longer than Looney. (He and Wallingford State Rep. Mary Mushinsky are tied for most years in office.) As majority leader, he was responsible for making sure legislation made past opposition maneuvers and scheduling roadblocks.

And for more than a decade he watched Republican Gov. John Rowland, then M. Jodi Rell, thwart his top-priority proposals.

Last year he made an influential endorsement of Dan Malloy before the Democratic gubernatorial primary; Malloy committed to supporting many of Looney’s key projects, and Looney allies helped assemble a vote-pulling operation that put Malloy over the top in both the primary and the general election.

And in this year’s legislative session, the world changed.

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