Richard Blumenthal
Encyclopedia
Richard Blumenthal is the junior United States Senator
from Connecticut
and a member of the Democratic Party
. Previously, he served as Attorney General of Connecticut
.
Born in Brooklyn, New York, Blumenthal is a graduate of Harvard College
, where he was editorial chairman of The Harvard Crimson
. He studied for a year at Cambridge University in England
before attending Yale Law School
, where he was editor-in-chief of the Yale Law Journal
. While at Yale, he was classmates with future President Bill Clinton
and future Secretary of State
Hillary Rodham Clinton
. From 1970 to 1976 Blumenthal served in the United States Marine Corps Reserve
, where he earned the rank of sergeant
.
After college Blumenthal served as administrative assistant and law clerk for several Washington
figures. From 1977 to 1981 he was United States Attorney
for the District of Connecticut
. In the early 1980s he worked in private law, including volunteer counsel for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. He served in the Connecticut House of Representatives
from 1984 to 1987, when he was elected to the Connecticut Senate
. He was elected state Attorney General in 1990, and served for twenty years. During this period he was frequently speculated as a contender for Governor of Connecticut, but he never pursued the office.
Blumenthal announced his 2010 run for U.S. Senate after Democratic incumbent Chris Dodd announced his retirement. He faced professional wrestling
magnate Linda McMahon
in the general election, winning by a 12-point margin with 55 percent of the vote. On January 5, 2011 he was sworn in and took seats on the Senate Armed Services
; Judiciary
; Aging
; and Health, Education, Labor and Pensions
Committees.
with an A.B. magna cum laude and was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. As an undergraduate, he was editorial chairman of The Harvard Crimson
. Blumenthal was a summer intern reporter for The Washington Post
in the London Bureau. Blumenthal was also selected for a Fiske Fellowship that allowed him to study at Cambridge University, Cambridge England for one year after graduation from Harvard College.
He received his J.D.
from Yale Law School
, where he was editor-in-chief of the Yale Law Journal
. While at Yale, he was classmates with future President Bill Clinton
and future Secretary of State
Hillary Rodham Clinton
. One of his co-editors on the Yale Law Journal was future United States Secretary of Labor
Robert Reich
. His brother, David Blumenthal, is a recognized health policy expert and is Chairman of the Commonwealth Fund Commission on a High Performance Health System.
. He studied administration. He was discharged honorably six years later, with the rank of sergeant
.
, as aide to Daniel P. Moynihan when Moynihan was Assistant to President Richard Nixon
, and as a law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Harry A. Blackmun. At age 31, he became United States Attorney
for the District of Connecticut
, serving from 1977 to 1981, and as the chief federal prosecutor of that state successfully prosecuted many major cases involving drug traffickers, organized crime
, white collar criminals
, civil rights violators, consumer fraud, and environmental pollution. From 1981 to 1986, he was a volunteer counsel for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.
Before he became Attorney General, Blumenthal was a partner in the law firm of Cummings & Lockwood, and subsequently in the law firm of Silver, Golub & Sandak. In December 1982, while still at Cummings & Lockwood, he created and chaired the Citizens Crime Commission of Connecticut, a private, non-profit organization. In 1984, when he was 38, Blumenthal was elected to the Connecticut House of Representatives
, representing the 145th district. In 1987, he won a special election to fill a vacancy in the 27th District of the Connecticut Senate
, at the age of 41. Blumenthal resided in Stamford, Connecticut
.
In the 1980s, Blumenthal testified in the State Legislature in favor of abolishing Connecticut’s death penalty statute. He did so after representing Florida death row inmate Joseph Green Brown, who had been wrongly convicted. Blumenthal succeeded in staving off the Brown’s execution just 15 hours before it was scheduled to take place.
.
petitioned the United States Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) to address interstate air pollution problems created from Midwest and southeastern sources. The petition was filed in accordance with Section 126 of the Clean Air Act
, which allows a United States state to request pollution reductions from out-of-state sources that contribute significantly to its air quality problems.
In 2003, Blumenthal and the Attorneys General of 8 other states (New York, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Vermont) filed a federal lawsuit against the Bush Administration for "endangering air quality by gutting a critical component of the federal Clean Air Act". The suit alleged that changes in the Act would have exempted thousands of industrial air pollution sources from the Act’s New Source Review provision and that the new rules and regulations would lead to an increase in air pollution.
expenses related to smoking. In 1998, the tobacco companies reached a $246 billion national settlement, giving the 46 states involved 25 years of reimbursement payments. Connecticut's share of the settlement was estimated at about $3.6 billion.
In December 2007, Blumenthal filed suit against RJ Reynolds alleging that a 2007 Camel advertising spread in Rolling Stone magazine used cartoons in violation of the master tobacco settlement, which prohibited the use of cartoons in cigarette advertising because they entice children and teenagers to smoke. The company paid the state of Connecticut $150,000 to settle the lawsuit and agreed to end the advertising campaign in question.
In April 2011, Blumenthal expressed support for the Food and Drug Administration
’s pledge to follow up on a report from the Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee
, which recommended that menthol cigarettes be removed from the marketplace to protect public health. Blumenthal stated that tobacco companies were using menthol cigarettes to target children and teen consumers and encourage them to smoke.
accusing the company of abusing its monopoly power to stifle competition. The suit, which centered on Microsoft's Windows 98
operating system and the company's contractual restrictions imposed on personal computer
manufacturers to tie the operating system to its Internet Explorer
browser, was eventually merged with a federal case brought by the United States Department of Justice
(DOJ) under Attorney General Janet Reno
.
A 2000 landmark federal court decision ruled that Microsoft had violated antitrust laws, and the court ordered that the company be broken up. In 2001, the federal appeals court agreed, but rather than breakup the company, sent the case to a new judge to hold hearings and determine appropriate remedies. Remedies were later proposed by Blumenthal and eight other attorneys general; these included requiring that Microsoft license an unbundled version of Windows in which middleware and operating system code were not commingled. In 2001, the Bush Administration's DOJ settled with Microsoft in an agreement criticized by many states and other industry experts as insufficient. In November 2002, a federal court ruling imposed those same remedies.
In August 2007, Blumenthal, along with five other states and the District of Columbia, filed a report alleging that the federal settlement with Microsoft, and court-imposed Microsoft remedies, had failed to adequately reduce Microsoft's monopoly.
helped to stop the hostile takeover of New Britain-based
Stanley Works
, a major Connecticut employer, by filing a lawsuit alleging that the move to reincorporate in Bermuda
based on a shareholder's vote of May 9 was "rife with voting irregularities." The agreement to temporarily halt the move was signed by New Britain Superior Court Judge Marshall Berger. On June 3 Blumenthal referred the matter to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for further investigation and on June 25 he testified before the U.S. House Committee on Ways and Means that "Long-time American corporations with operations in other countries can dodge tens of millions of dollars in federal taxes by the device of reincorporating in another country" by "simply [filing] incorporation papers in a country with friendly tax laws, open a post-office box and hold an annual meeting there" and that Stanley Works, along with "Cooper Industries
, Seagate Technologies, Ingersoll-Rand and PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting
, to name but a few, have also become pseudo-foreign corporations for the sole purpose of saving tax dollars." Blumenthal stated that "Corporations proposing to reincorporate to Bermuda, such as Stanley, often tell shareholders that there is no material difference in the law" but said that this was not the case and was misleading to their shareholders. In order to rectify this situation he championed the Corporate Patriot Enforcement Act to close tax loopholes.
the Village Academy, for serious financial mismanagement of the state-subsidized charitable organization. Citing common law, Blumenthal’s suit sought to recover money misspent and serious damages resulting from Barnes’s alleged breach of duty.
In a Connecticut Supreme Court
decision, Blumenthal v. Barnes (2002), a unanimous court determined that the state’s Attorney General could act using only the powers specifically authorized by the state legislature, and that since the Attorney General’s jurisdiction is defined by statute rather than common law, Blumenthal lacked the authority to cite common law as the basis for filing suit against Barnes. Despite this ruling, Blumenthal announced that he intended to pursue a separate 2000 lawsuit against the school's trustees filed on behalf of the State Department of Education.
Tom Reilly
, Rhode Island
Attorney General
Patrick C. Lynch
, and consumer advocates from Connecticut, Maine
, and New Hampshire
, opposed "the formation of a regional transmission organization (RTO) that would merge three Northeast and mid-Atlantic power operators, called Independent Service Operators (ISOs), into a single super-regional RTO." In a press release he is quoted as saying "This fatally flawed RTO proposal will raise rates, reduce accountability and reward market manipulation. It will increase the power and profits of transmission operators with an immediate $40 million price tag for consumers." The opposition was due to a report authored by Synapse Energy Economics, Inc., a Cambridge
-based energy consulting firm, which alleged that consumers would be worse off under the merger.
and the departures of Boston College, Miami, and Virginia Tech from the Big East. He led efforts by the Big East football schools (Virginia Tech, Rutgers, Pittsburgh, and West Virginia) in legal proceedings against the Atlantic Coast Conference
, the University of Miami and Boston College, accusing them of improper disclosure of confidential information and of conspiring to dismantle the Big East. According to Blumenthal, the case was pursued because "the future of the Big East Conference was at risk -- the stakes huge for both state taxpayers and the university's good name." The suits cost the schools involved $2.2 million in the first four months of litigation. The lawsuit against the ACC was initially dismissed on jurisdictional grounds but was subsequently refiled. A declaratory judgment by the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts exonerated Boston College
in the matter. Virginia Tech accepted an invitation from the ACC and withdrew from the suit to remove themselves from the awkward position of suing their new conference. An out-of-court settlement in the amount of $5 million was eventually reached, which included a $1 million exit fee that Boston College was required to pay the Big East under the league's constitution.
in Waterbury
and Cheshire
. The original contractor for the job, L.G. DeFelice, went out of business and it was later revealed that hundreds of storm drains has been improperly installed. Blumenthal subsequently announced lawsuits against L.G. DeFelice and the Maguire Group, the engineering firm that inspected the project. United States Fidelity & Guaranty, the insurer behind the performance bond for the Interstate-84 construction, agreed to pay $17.5 million to settle the claims. Under the terms of the agreement, the state of Connecticut retained the right to sue L.G. DeFelice for additional funds. In 2009, the bonding company agreed to pay an additional $4.6 million settlement, bringing the total award to $22.1 million ($30,000 more than the repair costs).
's (IDSA's) 2006 guidelines regarding the treatment of Lyme disease
. Responding to concerns from chronic Lyme disease advocacy groups, Blumenthal claimed the IDSA guidelines would "severely constrict choices and legitimate diagnosis and treatment options for patients." In 2008, Blumenthal ended the investigation after the IDSA agreed to conduct a review of the guidelines. In 2010, an eight-member independent review panel unanimously agreed that the original 2006 gudeline recommendations were "medically and scientifically justified" in the light of the evidence. The committee did not change any of the earlier recommendations but did alter some of the language in an executive summary of the findings. Blumenthal said he would review the final report.
contacts. Earlier that year, Blumenthal and attorneys general in at least five other states were involved in discussions with MySpace that resulted in the implementation of technological changes aimed at protecting children from pornography and child predators on the company’s website. At Blumenthal's urging, MySpace installed a link to free blocking software (“K9 Web Protection”); however, in May 2006, Blumenthal announced that the site had failed to make the program easy to find and that it was not clearly labeled. Blumenthal also urged MySpace to take further steps to safeguard children, including purging deep links to pornography and inappropriate material, tougher age verification, and banning users under 16.
Blumenthal was co-chair, along with North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper, of the State Attorney General Task Force on Social Networking. In 2008, the attorneys general commissioned the Internet Safety Technical Task Force report, which researched "ways to help squash the onslaught of sexual predators targeting younger social-networking clients".
Blumenthal's office subpoenaed MySpace for information about the number of registered sex offenders on its site. In 2009, MySpace revealed that over a 2-year span it had roughly 90,000 members who were registered sex offenders (nearly double what MySpace officials had originally estimated one year prior). Blumenthal accused MySpace of having "monstrously inadequate counter-measures" to prevent sex offenders from creating MySpace profiles.
Blumenthal and Cooper secured agreements from MySpace and Facebook
to push toward making their companies’ sites safer. Both sites implemented dozens of safeguards, including finding better ways to verify users' ages, banning convicted sex offenders from using the sites, and limiting the ability of older users to search members under 18.
Blumenthal worked with Craigslist and a group of 40 attorneys general to create new measures on the site designed to thwart ads for prostitution and other illegal sexual activities. In April 2009, Craigslist came under the scrutiny of law enforcement agencies following the arrest of Philip H. Markoff (aka the "Craigslist Killer
"), suspected of killing a 25-year-old masseuse he met through Craigslist at a Boston hotel. Blumenthal subsequently called for a series of specific measures to fight prostitution and pornography on Craigslist—including steep financial penalties for rule breaking, and incentives for reporting wrongdoing. Blumenthal claimed that "Craigslist has the means -- and moral obligation -- to stop the pimping and prostituting in plain sight."
Blumenthal, leading a coalition of 39 states, subpoenaed Craigslist in May 2010 as part of an investigation into whether the site was taking sufficient action to curb prostitution ads and whether it was profiting from them. Blumenthal stated that prostitution ads had remained on the site despite previous assurances that they would be removed. The subpoena sought documents related to the company's processes for reviewing potentially objectionable ads, as well as documents detailing the revenue gained from ads sold to the company's erotic services and adult services categories. In August 2010, Blumenthal called on the website to shut down the section permanently and take steps to eradicate prostitution ads from other parts of the site. Blumenthal also called on Congress to alter a landmark communications law (Communications Decency Act
) that Craigslist has cited in defense of the ads.
Following continued pressure, Craigslist removed the adult services sections from its U.S. sites in September 2010 and from its international sites in December 2010. Blumenthal called the company's decision a victory against sexual exploitation of women and children, and against human trafficking connected to prostitution.
Blumenthal and other state attorneys general reached a settlement with Craigslist on the issue; the settlement called for the company to charge people via credit card for any ads that were suggestive in nature so the person could be tracked down if they were determined to in fact be offering prostitution. However, Blumenthal remarked that subsequent to the settlement, the ads had continued to flourish using veiled code words.
(now owned by Bank of America
) for fraudulent business practices. The suit alleged that Countrywide pushed
consumers into "deceptive, unaffordable loans and workouts, and charged homeowners in default unjustified and excessive legal fees." According to Blumenthal, "Countrywide conned customers into loans that were clearly unaffordable and unsustainable, turning the American Dream of homeownership into a nightmare" and when consumers defaulted, "the company bullied them into workouts doomed to fail." Blumenthal also claimed that Countrywide "crammed unconscionable legal fees into renegotiated loans, digging consumers deeper into debt" and that the company "broke promises that homeowners could refinance, condemning them to hopelessly unaffordable loans." The lawsuit demanded that Countrywide make restitution to affected borrowers, give up improper gains and rescind, reform or modify all mortgages that broke state laws. It is also sought civil fines of up to $100,000 per violation of state banking laws, and up to $5,000 per violation of state consumer protection laws.
In October 2008 Bank of America initially agreed to settle the states' suits for $8.4 billion, and in February 2010, Countrywide mailed payments of $3,452.54 to 370 Connecticut residents. The settlement forced Bank of America to establish a $150 million fund to help repay borrowers whose homes had been foreclosed upon, $1.3 million of which went to Connecticut.
Blumenthal commented in defense of U.S. Senator and chairman of the Senate Banking Committee Christopher Dodd
, who had been harshly criticized for accepting a VIP loan from Countrywide, stating that "there's no evidence of wrongdoing on [Mr. Dodd's] part any more than victims who were misled or deceived by Countrywide." In August 2010, Dodd was cleared by the Senate Ethics Committee, which found "no credible evidence" that he knowingly tried to use his status as a U.S. senator to receive loan terms not available to the public.
and that prompt action to reduce greenhouse gas
emissions must be taken. He has urged the Environmental Protection Agency to declare carbon dioxide
as a dangerous air pollutant. "I urge the new Obama EPA to declare carbon dioxide a danger to human health and welfare so we can at last begin addressing the potentially disastrous threat global warming poses to health, the environment and our economy. We must make up for lost time before it's too late to curb dangerous warming threatening to devastate the planet and human society." He has brought suit against a number of electric utilities in the Midwest, arguing that coal
-burning power plants are generating excess emissions. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals recently agreed to allow Blumenthal's lawsuit to proceed. Blumenthal personally has stated "no reputable climate scientist disputes the reality of global warming. It is fact, plain and simple. Dithering will be disastrous."
candidate for Governor of Connecticut but he did not run against Republican governors John G. Rowland
or M. Jodi Rell
in the elections of 1998, 2002, and 2006.
On March 18, 2007, Hartford Courant columnist Kevin Rennie reported Blumenthal had become seriously interested in running for Governor in 2010. At a 2008 Boys' State
Conference, Blumenthal was asked whether or not he would run; he answered the question by saying that he loved what he was doing and didn't have any plans for the future just yet. On February 2, 2009, Blumenthal announced he would forgo a gubernatorial run and seek re-election that year as Attorney General.
announced on January 6, 2010 that he would retire at the end of his term, Blumenthal told the Associated Press
that he would run in the election for Dodd's seat in November 2010
. Later that day, President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden called Blumenthal to express their best wishes.
The same day, Public Policy Polling
released a poll they took on the two preceding evenings, including races where Blumenthal was paired against each of the three most mentioned Republicans contending for their party's nomination for the seat. He led by at least 30% in each hypothetical race: against Rob Simmons
59–28, against Linda McMahon
60–28, and against Peter Schiff
63–23, with a ±4.3% margin of error
cited.
Rasmussen Reports
also polled after Blumenthal announced his candidacy and found a somewhat more competitive race, but with Blumenthal holding a strong lead.
A February poll by Rasmussen found that Blumenthal held leads of 19 (against Simmons) and 20 (against McMahon), and that Republicans had made up little ground since the initial Rasmussen poll after Blumenthal announced.
On May 21, Blumenthal received the Democratic nomination by acclamation for Senator of Connecticut, after opposing candidate Alpert was not allowed to speak at the convention by the committee, except to withdraw his name for nomination after preparing a speech.
Days after the nomination, Quinnipiac University
polling indicated that Blumenthal held a 25-point lead over McMahon. The Cook Political Report changed its prediction on the race to Leans Democratic, making Blumenthal the favored candidate over McMahon.
On the November 2nd election, Blumenthal was elected into the U.S. senate, defeating former WWE CEO Linda McMahon, 55% to 43%.
published an article citing a speech delivered by Blumenthal in Norwalk, Connecticut
in which he he seemed to have mistakenly implied that he had served in Vietnam
. Blumenthal's opponent, Republican Senate candidate Linda McMahon
, announced that her campaign research team had found video footage of the speech and provided the story to The New York Times. After the Times story was published, Rasmussen Reports
indicated that Blumenthal's lead over McMahon had shrunk to three percentage points. Politico
contested the Times article's claims, noting that Blumenthal, a member of the Marine Corps Reserve, had in fact accurately described his military service record at the outset in his Norwalk speech. Connecticut's The Day newspaper, meanwhile, stated that its staff could find no articles in its archives with any suggestion by Blumenthal that he had served in Vietnam. Blumenthal defended his representation of his military service, commenting "On a few occasions, I have misspoken about my service and I regret that. I take full responsibility, but I will not allow anyone to take a few misplaced words and impugn my record of military service." Blumenthal's executive officer, Larry Baldino, responded to the Times story with a letter to the editor
of the New Haven Register, in which he acknowledged the statements were 'misleading' but dismissed the outcry as 'petty.' Baldino further defended Blumenthal as 'good natured' and described him as 'one of the best Marines with whom I ever worked.'
on January 5, 2011. He also planned on returning to Connecticut every weekend and joining a "listening tour" of his home state. On January 20, Blumenthal visited small businesses in eastern Connecticut. The next day, he visited Danbury, Connecticut
.
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
from Connecticut
Connecticut
Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...
and a member of the Democratic Party
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
. Previously, he served as Attorney General of Connecticut
Connecticut Attorney General
The Connecticut Attorney General is the state attorney general of Connecticut.The Attorney General is elected to a four-year term. The current Attorney General is George Jepsen, a Democrat serving since January 5, 2011.-List of Attorneys General:...
.
Born in Brooklyn, New York, Blumenthal is a graduate of Harvard College
Harvard College
Harvard College, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is one of two schools within Harvard University granting undergraduate degrees...
, where he was editorial chairman of The Harvard Crimson
The Harvard Crimson
The Harvard Crimson, the daily student newspaper of Harvard University, was founded in 1873. It is the only daily newspaper in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and is run entirely by Harvard College undergraduates...
. He studied for a year at Cambridge University in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
before attending Yale Law School
Yale Law School
Yale Law School, or YLS, is the law school of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Established in 1824, it offers the J.D., LL.M., J.S.D. and M.S.L. degrees in law. It also hosts visiting scholars, visiting researchers and a number of legal research centers...
, where he was editor-in-chief of the Yale Law Journal
Yale Law Journal
The Yale Law Journal is a student-run law review affiliated with the Yale Law School. Published continuously since 1891, it is the most widely known of the eight law reviews published by students at Yale Law School...
. While at Yale, he was classmates with future President Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
and future Secretary of State
Secretary of State
Secretary of State or State Secretary is a commonly used title for a senior or mid-level post in governments around the world. The role varies between countries, and in some cases there are multiple Secretaries of State in the Government....
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton is the 67th United States Secretary of State, serving in the administration of President Barack Obama. She was a United States Senator for New York from 2001 to 2009. As the wife of the 42nd President of the United States, Bill Clinton, she was the First Lady of the...
. From 1970 to 1976 Blumenthal served in the United States Marine Corps Reserve
United States Marine Corps Reserve
The Marine Forces Reserve is the reserve force of the United States Marine Corps. It is the largest command in the U.S...
, where he earned the rank of sergeant
Sergeant
Sergeant is a rank used in some form by most militaries, police forces, and other uniformed organizations around the world. Its origins are the Latin serviens, "one who serves", through the French term Sergent....
.
After college Blumenthal served as administrative assistant and law clerk for several Washington
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
figures. From 1977 to 1981 he was United States Attorney
United States Attorney
United States Attorneys represent the United States federal government in United States district court and United States court of appeals. There are 93 U.S. Attorneys stationed throughout the United States, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands...
for the District of Connecticut
United States District Court for the District of Connecticut
The United States District Court for the District of Connecticut is the Federal district court whose jurisdiction is the state of Connecticut. The court has offices in Bridgeport, Hartford and New Haven. Appeals from the court are heard by the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit...
. In the early 1980s he worked in private law, including volunteer counsel for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. He served in the Connecticut House of Representatives
Connecticut House of Representatives
The Connecticut House of Representatives is the lower house in the Connecticut General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The house is composed of 151 members representing an equal number of districts, with each constituency containing nearly 22,600 residents...
from 1984 to 1987, when he was elected to the Connecticut Senate
Connecticut Senate
The Connecticut State Senate is the upper house of the Connecticut General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The state senate comprises 36 members, each representing a district with around 94,600 inhabitants. Senators are elected to two-year terms without term limits...
. He was elected state Attorney General in 1990, and served for twenty years. During this period he was frequently speculated as a contender for Governor of Connecticut, but he never pursued the office.
Blumenthal announced his 2010 run for U.S. Senate after Democratic incumbent Chris Dodd announced his retirement. He faced professional wrestling
Professional wrestling
Professional wrestling is a mode of spectacle, combining athletics and theatrical performance.Roland Barthes, "The World of Wrestling", Mythologies, 1957 It takes the form of events, held by touring companies, which mimic a title match combat sport...
magnate Linda McMahon
Linda McMahon
Linda Marie McMahon is an American professional wrestling magnate and politician. She is notable for her career developing WWE with her husband Vince McMahon. She was in the company from 1980 to 2009. During this time, WWE grew from a small regional business in New York to a large multinational...
in the general election, winning by a 12-point margin with 55 percent of the vote. On January 5, 2011 he was sworn in and took seats on the Senate Armed Services
United States Senate Committee on Armed Services
The Committee on Armed Services is a committee of the United States Senate empowered with legislative oversight of the nation's military, including the Department of Defense, military research and development, nuclear energy , benefits for members of the military, the Selective Service System and...
; Judiciary
United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary
The United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary is a standing committee of the United States Senate, of the United States Congress. The Judiciary Committee, with 18 members, is charged with conducting hearings prior to the Senate votes on confirmation of federal judges nominated by the...
; Aging
United States Senate Special Committee on Aging
The United States Senate Special Committee on Aging was initially established in 1961 as a temporary committee; it became a permanent Senate committee in 1977...
; and Health, Education, Labor and Pensions
United States Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
The United States Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions generally considers matters relating to health, education, labor, and pensions...
Committees.
Early life and education
Blumenthal was born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Jane (née Rosenstock) and Martin Blumenthal, a German Jewish immigrant who was the president of a commodities trading firm. Blumenthal graduated from Harvard CollegeHarvard College
Harvard College, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is one of two schools within Harvard University granting undergraduate degrees...
with an A.B. magna cum laude and was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. As an undergraduate, he was editorial chairman of The Harvard Crimson
The Harvard Crimson
The Harvard Crimson, the daily student newspaper of Harvard University, was founded in 1873. It is the only daily newspaper in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and is run entirely by Harvard College undergraduates...
. Blumenthal was a summer intern reporter for The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
in the London Bureau. Blumenthal was also selected for a Fiske Fellowship that allowed him to study at Cambridge University, Cambridge England for one year after graduation from Harvard College.
He received his J.D.
Juris Doctor
Juris Doctor is a professional doctorate and first professional graduate degree in law.The degree was first awarded by Harvard University in the United States in the late 19th century and was created as a modern version of the old European doctor of law degree Juris Doctor (see etymology and...
from Yale Law School
Yale Law School
Yale Law School, or YLS, is the law school of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Established in 1824, it offers the J.D., LL.M., J.S.D. and M.S.L. degrees in law. It also hosts visiting scholars, visiting researchers and a number of legal research centers...
, where he was editor-in-chief of the Yale Law Journal
Yale Law Journal
The Yale Law Journal is a student-run law review affiliated with the Yale Law School. Published continuously since 1891, it is the most widely known of the eight law reviews published by students at Yale Law School...
. While at Yale, he was classmates with future President Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
and future Secretary of State
Secretary of State
Secretary of State or State Secretary is a commonly used title for a senior or mid-level post in governments around the world. The role varies between countries, and in some cases there are multiple Secretaries of State in the Government....
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton is the 67th United States Secretary of State, serving in the administration of President Barack Obama. She was a United States Senator for New York from 2001 to 2009. As the wife of the 42nd President of the United States, Bill Clinton, she was the First Lady of the...
. One of his co-editors on the Yale Law Journal was future United States Secretary of Labor
United States Secretary of Labor
The United States Secretary of Labor is the head of the Department of Labor who exercises control over the department and enforces and suggests laws involving unions, the workplace, and all other issues involving any form of business-person controversies....
Robert Reich
Robert Reich
Robert Bernard Reich is an American political economist, professor, author, and political commentator. He served in the administrations of Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter and was Secretary of Labor under President Bill Clinton from 1993 to 1997....
. His brother, David Blumenthal, is a recognized health policy expert and is Chairman of the Commonwealth Fund Commission on a High Performance Health System.
Military service
Blumenthal served in the United States Marine Corps ReserveUnited States Marine Corps Reserve
The Marine Forces Reserve is the reserve force of the United States Marine Corps. It is the largest command in the U.S...
. He studied administration. He was discharged honorably six years later, with the rank of sergeant
Sergeant
Sergeant is a rank used in some form by most militaries, police forces, and other uniformed organizations around the world. Its origins are the Latin serviens, "one who serves", through the French term Sergent....
.
Early political career
Blumenthal served as administrative assistant to United States Senator Abraham A. RibicoffAbraham A. Ribicoff
Abraham Alexander Ribicoff was an American Democratic Party politician. He served in the United States Congress, as the 80th Governor of Connecticut and as President John F. Kennedy's Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare...
, as aide to Daniel P. Moynihan when Moynihan was Assistant to President Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
, and as a law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Harry A. Blackmun. At age 31, he became United States Attorney
United States Attorney
United States Attorneys represent the United States federal government in United States district court and United States court of appeals. There are 93 U.S. Attorneys stationed throughout the United States, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands...
for the District of Connecticut
United States District Court for the District of Connecticut
The United States District Court for the District of Connecticut is the Federal district court whose jurisdiction is the state of Connecticut. The court has offices in Bridgeport, Hartford and New Haven. Appeals from the court are heard by the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit...
, serving from 1977 to 1981, and as the chief federal prosecutor of that state successfully prosecuted many major cases involving drug traffickers, organized crime
Organized crime
Organized crime or criminal organizations are transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals for the purpose of engaging in illegal activity, most commonly for monetary profit. Some criminal organizations, such as terrorist organizations, are...
, white collar criminals
White-collar crime
Within the field of criminology, white-collar crime has been defined by Edwin Sutherland as "a crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation" . Sutherland was a proponent of Symbolic Interactionism, and believed that criminal behavior was...
, civil rights violators, consumer fraud, and environmental pollution. From 1981 to 1986, he was a volunteer counsel for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.
Before he became Attorney General, Blumenthal was a partner in the law firm of Cummings & Lockwood, and subsequently in the law firm of Silver, Golub & Sandak. In December 1982, while still at Cummings & Lockwood, he created and chaired the Citizens Crime Commission of Connecticut, a private, non-profit organization. In 1984, when he was 38, Blumenthal was elected to the Connecticut House of Representatives
Connecticut House of Representatives
The Connecticut House of Representatives is the lower house in the Connecticut General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The house is composed of 151 members representing an equal number of districts, with each constituency containing nearly 22,600 residents...
, representing the 145th district. In 1987, he won a special election to fill a vacancy in the 27th District of the Connecticut Senate
Connecticut Senate
The Connecticut State Senate is the upper house of the Connecticut General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The state senate comprises 36 members, each representing a district with around 94,600 inhabitants. Senators are elected to two-year terms without term limits...
, at the age of 41. Blumenthal resided in Stamford, Connecticut
Stamford, Connecticut
Stamford is a city in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. According to the 2010 census, the population of the city is 122,643, making it the fourth largest city in the state and the eighth largest city in New England...
.
In the 1980s, Blumenthal testified in the State Legislature in favor of abolishing Connecticut’s death penalty statute. He did so after representing Florida death row inmate Joseph Green Brown, who had been wrongly convicted. Blumenthal succeeded in staving off the Brown’s execution just 15 hours before it was scheduled to take place.
Attorney General career
Blumenthal was first elected as the 23rd Attorney General in 1990 and was re-elected in 1994, 1998, 2002, and 2006. On October 10, 2002 he was awarded the Raymond E. Baldwin Award for Public Service by the Quinnipiac University School of LawQuinnipiac University School of Law
Quinnipiac University School of Law is the law school of the Quinnipiac University. The School is the youngest law school in the U.S. state of Connecticut, having received full accreditation from the American Bar Association in 1995. It is a member of the Association of American Law Schools. It is...
.
Pequot land annexation bid
In May 1995, Blumenthal and the state of Connecticut filed lawsuits challenging a decision by the Department of the Interior to approve a bid by the Mashantucket Pequots for the annexation of 165 acres of land in the towns of Ledyard, North Stonington and Preston. The Pequots' bid sought to have the land placed in a Federal trust, a legal designation that would have given the tribe sovereign control. Blumenthal argued that The Department of the Interior's decision was “fatally, legally flawed, and unfair," and that "it would unfairly remove land from the tax rolls of the surrounding towns and bar local control over how the land is used, while imposing tremendous burden.” The tribe announced the withdrawal of the land annexation petition in February 2002.Interstate air pollution
In 1997, both Blumenthal and Governor John G. RowlandJohn G. Rowland
John Grosvenor Rowland was the 86th Governor of Connecticut from 1995 to 2004; he is a member of the Republican Party. He is married to Patty Rowland, his second wife, and the couple have five children between them...
petitioned the United States Environmental Protection Agency
United States Environmental Protection Agency
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is an agency of the federal government of the United States charged with protecting human health and the environment, by writing and enforcing regulations based on laws passed by Congress...
(EPA) to address interstate air pollution problems created from Midwest and southeastern sources. The petition was filed in accordance with Section 126 of the Clean Air Act
Clean Air Act
A Clean Air Act is one of a number of pieces of legislation relating to the reduction of airborne contaminants, smog and air pollution in general. The use by governments to enforce clean air standards has contributed to an improvement in human health and longer life spans...
, which allows a United States state to request pollution reductions from out-of-state sources that contribute significantly to its air quality problems.
In 2003, Blumenthal and the Attorneys General of 8 other states (New York, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Vermont) filed a federal lawsuit against the Bush Administration for "endangering air quality by gutting a critical component of the federal Clean Air Act". The suit alleged that changes in the Act would have exempted thousands of industrial air pollution sources from the Act’s New Source Review provision and that the new rules and regulations would lead to an increase in air pollution.
Big Tobacco
While Attorney General, Blumenthal was one of the leaders of a 46-state lawsuit against the tobacco industry, which alleged that the companies involved had deceived the public about the dangers of smoking. Blumenthal argued that the state of Connecticut should be reimbursed for MedicaidMedicaid
Medicaid is the United States health program for certain people and families with low incomes and resources. It is a means-tested program that is jointly funded by the state and federal governments, and is managed by the states. People served by Medicaid are U.S. citizens or legal permanent...
expenses related to smoking. In 1998, the tobacco companies reached a $246 billion national settlement, giving the 46 states involved 25 years of reimbursement payments. Connecticut's share of the settlement was estimated at about $3.6 billion.
In December 2007, Blumenthal filed suit against RJ Reynolds alleging that a 2007 Camel advertising spread in Rolling Stone magazine used cartoons in violation of the master tobacco settlement, which prohibited the use of cartoons in cigarette advertising because they entice children and teenagers to smoke. The company paid the state of Connecticut $150,000 to settle the lawsuit and agreed to end the advertising campaign in question.
In April 2011, Blumenthal expressed support for the Food and Drug Administration
Food and Drug Administration
The Food and Drug Administration is an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, one of the United States federal executive departments...
’s pledge to follow up on a report from the Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee
Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee
The Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee is an advisory panel of the United States Food and Drug Administration organized to provide advice, information and recommendations to the FDA commissioner on matters related to the regulation of tobacco products...
, which recommended that menthol cigarettes be removed from the marketplace to protect public health. Blumenthal stated that tobacco companies were using menthol cigarettes to target children and teen consumers and encourage them to smoke.
Microsoft lawsuit
In May 1998, Blumenthal, along with attorneys general from 19 other states and the District of Columbia, filed an anti-trust lawsuit against MicrosoftMicrosoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
accusing the company of abusing its monopoly power to stifle competition. The suit, which centered on Microsoft's Windows 98
Windows 98
Windows 98 is a graphical operating system by Microsoft. It is the second major release in the Windows 9x line of operating systems. It was released to manufacturing on 15 May 1998 and to retail on 25 June 1998. Windows 98 is the successor to Windows 95. Like its predecessor, it is a hybrid...
operating system and the company's contractual restrictions imposed on personal computer
Personal computer
A personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...
manufacturers to tie the operating system to its Internet Explorer
Internet Explorer
Windows Internet Explorer is a series of graphical web browsers developed by Microsoft and included as part of the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems, starting in 1995. It was first released as part of the add-on package Plus! for Windows 95 that year...
browser, was eventually merged with a federal case brought by the United States Department of Justice
United States Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice , is the United States federal executive department responsible for the enforcement of the law and administration of justice, equivalent to the justice or interior ministries of other countries.The Department is led by the Attorney General, who is nominated...
(DOJ) under Attorney General Janet Reno
Janet Reno
Janet Wood Reno is a former Attorney General of the United States . She was nominated by President Bill Clinton on February 11, 1993, and confirmed on March 11...
.
A 2000 landmark federal court decision ruled that Microsoft had violated antitrust laws, and the court ordered that the company be broken up. In 2001, the federal appeals court agreed, but rather than breakup the company, sent the case to a new judge to hold hearings and determine appropriate remedies. Remedies were later proposed by Blumenthal and eight other attorneys general; these included requiring that Microsoft license an unbundled version of Windows in which middleware and operating system code were not commingled. In 2001, the Bush Administration's DOJ settled with Microsoft in an agreement criticized by many states and other industry experts as insufficient. In November 2002, a federal court ruling imposed those same remedies.
In August 2007, Blumenthal, along with five other states and the District of Columbia, filed a report alleging that the federal settlement with Microsoft, and court-imposed Microsoft remedies, had failed to adequately reduce Microsoft's monopoly.
Stanley Works
On May 10, 2002 then Attorney General Blumenthal and Connecticut State Treasurer Denise L. NappierDenise L. Nappier
Denise L. Nappier is the current state treasurer of the U.S. state of Connecticut. A Democrat, she was first elected in 1998 and was re-elected in 2002, 2006, and 2010. She is the first African-American woman elected to statewide office in the history of Connecticut.-Career:Prior to her election as...
helped to stop the hostile takeover of New Britain-based
New Britain, Connecticut
New Britain is a city in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States. It is located approximately 9 miles southwest of Hartford. According to 2006 Census Bureau estimates, the population of the city is 71,254....
Stanley Works
Stanley Works
Stanley Black & Decker , formerly known as The Stanley Works, is a manufacturer of tools and hardware and provider of security products and locks headquartered in New Britain, Connecticut...
, a major Connecticut employer, by filing a lawsuit alleging that the move to reincorporate in Bermuda
Bermuda
Bermuda is a British overseas territory in the North Atlantic Ocean. Located off the east coast of the United States, its nearest landmass is Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, about to the west-northwest. It is about south of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, and northeast of Miami, Florida...
based on a shareholder's vote of May 9 was "rife with voting irregularities." The agreement to temporarily halt the move was signed by New Britain Superior Court Judge Marshall Berger. On June 3 Blumenthal referred the matter to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for further investigation and on June 25 he testified before the U.S. House Committee on Ways and Means that "Long-time American corporations with operations in other countries can dodge tens of millions of dollars in federal taxes by the device of reincorporating in another country" by "simply [filing] incorporation papers in a country with friendly tax laws, open a post-office box and hold an annual meeting there" and that Stanley Works, along with "Cooper Industries
Cooper Industries
Cooper Industries is a former US-based company that in 2009 switched its incorporation office from Bermuda to Ireland, maintaining its chief operational offices in Houston, Texas. It produces transformers, tools and electrical equipment, employing 29,000 staff around the world. Revenue in 2007 was...
, Seagate Technologies, Ingersoll-Rand and PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting
PricewaterhouseCoopers
PricewaterhouseCoopers is a global professional services firm headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the world's largest professional services firm measured by revenues and one of the "Big Four" accountancy firms....
, to name but a few, have also become pseudo-foreign corporations for the sole purpose of saving tax dollars." Blumenthal stated that "Corporations proposing to reincorporate to Bermuda, such as Stanley, often tell shareholders that there is no material difference in the law" but said that this was not the case and was misleading to their shareholders. In order to rectify this situation he championed the Corporate Patriot Enforcement Act to close tax loopholes.
Charter schools lawsuit
In September 1999, Blumenthal announced a lawsuit against Robin Barnes, the president and treasurer of New Haven-based charter schoolCharter school
Charter schools are primary or secondary schools that receive public money but are not subject to some of the rules, regulations, and statutes that apply to other public schools in exchange for some type of accountability for producing certain results, which are set forth in each school's charter...
the Village Academy, for serious financial mismanagement of the state-subsidized charitable organization. Citing common law, Blumenthal’s suit sought to recover money misspent and serious damages resulting from Barnes’s alleged breach of duty.
In a Connecticut Supreme Court
Connecticut Supreme Court
The Connecticut Supreme Court, formerly known as the Connecticut Supreme Court of Errors, is the highest court in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It consists of a Chief Justice and six Associate Justices. The seven justices sit in Hartford, across the street from the Connecticut State Capitol...
decision, Blumenthal v. Barnes (2002), a unanimous court determined that the state’s Attorney General could act using only the powers specifically authorized by the state legislature, and that since the Attorney General’s jurisdiction is defined by statute rather than common law, Blumenthal lacked the authority to cite common law as the basis for filing suit against Barnes. Despite this ruling, Blumenthal announced that he intended to pursue a separate 2000 lawsuit against the school's trustees filed on behalf of the State Department of Education.
Regional transmission organization
In 2003 Blumenthal, along with former Massachusetts Attorney GeneralMassachusetts Attorney General
The Massachusetts Attorney General is an elected executive officer of the Massachusetts Government. The office of Attorney-General was abolished in 1843 and re-established in 1849. The current Attorney General is Martha Coakley....
Tom Reilly
Thomas Reilly
Thomas F. Reilly is an American attorney and politician who served as the 45th Massachusetts Attorney General. He was born in Springfield, Massachusetts to Irish immigrant parents....
, Rhode Island
Rhode Island
The state of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, more commonly referred to as Rhode Island , is a state in the New England region of the United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area...
Attorney General
State Attorney General
The state attorney general in each of the 50 U.S. states and territories is the chief legal advisor to the state government and the state's chief law enforcement officer. In some states, the attorney general serves as the head of a state department of justice, with responsibilities similar to those...
Patrick C. Lynch
Patrick C. Lynch
Patrick C. Lynch is Rhode Island's Attorney General. He has overseen the investigation and prosecution of the second-deadliest fire in Rhode Island history and also successfully sued former lead paint manufacturers for cleanup costs associated with their old products...
, and consumer advocates from Connecticut, Maine
Maine
Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...
, and New Hampshire
New Hampshire
New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state was named after the southern English county of Hampshire. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian...
, opposed "the formation of a regional transmission organization (RTO) that would merge three Northeast and mid-Atlantic power operators, called Independent Service Operators (ISOs), into a single super-regional RTO." In a press release he is quoted as saying "This fatally flawed RTO proposal will raise rates, reduce accountability and reward market manipulation. It will increase the power and profits of transmission operators with an immediate $40 million price tag for consumers." The opposition was due to a report authored by Synapse Energy Economics, Inc., a Cambridge
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...
-based energy consulting firm, which alleged that consumers would be worse off under the merger.
Gina Kolb lawsuit
In 2004, Blumenthal sued Computer Plus Center of East Hartford and its owner, Gina Kolb, on behalf of the state. It was alleged that CPC overcharged $50 per computer, $500,000 in total, on a three-year, $17.2 million contract to supply computers to the state. Blumenthal sued for $1.75 million. Kolb was arrested in 2004 and charged with first degree larceny. Under a plea deal, she was admitted to a rehabilitation program. Kolb later countersued, claiming the state had grossly abused its power. Kolb was initially awarded $18.3 million in damages; however, the Attorney General appealed the decision and the damages initially awarded were slashed by 90 percent to $1.83 million. In ruling, Superior Court judge Barry Stevens described the jury's initial award of $18.3 million as a "shocking injustice" and said it was "influenced by partiality or mistake."Big East and ACC
Attorney General Blumenthal played a pivotal role in one of the biggest college athletics stories of the decade; expansion of the Atlantic Coast ConferenceAtlantic Coast Conference
The Atlantic Coast Conference is a collegiate athletic league in the United States. Founded in 1953 in Greensboro, North Carolina, the ACC sanctions competition in twenty-five sports in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association for its twelve member universities...
and the departures of Boston College, Miami, and Virginia Tech from the Big East. He led efforts by the Big East football schools (Virginia Tech, Rutgers, Pittsburgh, and West Virginia) in legal proceedings against the Atlantic Coast Conference
Atlantic Coast Conference
The Atlantic Coast Conference is a collegiate athletic league in the United States. Founded in 1953 in Greensboro, North Carolina, the ACC sanctions competition in twenty-five sports in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association for its twelve member universities...
, the University of Miami and Boston College, accusing them of improper disclosure of confidential information and of conspiring to dismantle the Big East. According to Blumenthal, the case was pursued because "the future of the Big East Conference was at risk -- the stakes huge for both state taxpayers and the university's good name." The suits cost the schools involved $2.2 million in the first four months of litigation. The lawsuit against the ACC was initially dismissed on jurisdictional grounds but was subsequently refiled. A declaratory judgment by the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts exonerated Boston College
Boston College
Boston College is a private Jesuit research university located in the village of Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, USA. The main campus is bisected by the border between the cities of Boston and Newton. It has 9,200 full-time undergraduates and 4,000 graduate students. Its name reflects its early...
in the matter. Virginia Tech accepted an invitation from the ACC and withdrew from the suit to remove themselves from the awkward position of suing their new conference. An out-of-court settlement in the amount of $5 million was eventually reached, which included a $1 million exit fee that Boston College was required to pay the Big East under the league's constitution.
Interstate 84
In October 2, 2006, Blumenthal launched an investigation concerning a botched reconstruction project of the Interstate 84Interstate 84 (east)
Interstate 84 is an Interstate Highway extending from Dunmore, Pennsylvania at an interchange with Interstate 81 to Sturbridge, Massachusetts, at an interchange with the Massachusetts Turnpike . I-84 has mile-log junction numbering in Pennsylvania; otherwise, exit numbers are roughly sequential...
in Waterbury
Waterbury, Connecticut
Waterbury is a city in New Haven County, Connecticut, on the Naugatuck River, 33 miles southwest of Hartford and 77 miles northeast of New York City...
and Cheshire
Cheshire
Cheshire is a ceremonial county in North West England. Cheshire's county town is the city of Chester, although its largest town is Warrington. Other major towns include Widnes, Congleton, Crewe, Ellesmere Port, Runcorn, Macclesfield, Winsford, Northwich, and Wilmslow...
. The original contractor for the job, L.G. DeFelice, went out of business and it was later revealed that hundreds of storm drains has been improperly installed. Blumenthal subsequently announced lawsuits against L.G. DeFelice and the Maguire Group, the engineering firm that inspected the project. United States Fidelity & Guaranty, the insurer behind the performance bond for the Interstate-84 construction, agreed to pay $17.5 million to settle the claims. Under the terms of the agreement, the state of Connecticut retained the right to sue L.G. DeFelice for additional funds. In 2009, the bonding company agreed to pay an additional $4.6 million settlement, bringing the total award to $22.1 million ($30,000 more than the repair costs).
Lyme disease guidelines lawsuit
In November 2006, Blumenthal launched an antitrust investigation into the Infectious Diseases Society of AmericaInfectious Diseases Society of America
The Infectious Diseases Society of America is a medical association representing physicians, scientists and other health care professionals who specialize in infectious diseases. As of 2010, IDSA had approximately 9,000 members...
's (IDSA's) 2006 guidelines regarding the treatment of Lyme disease
Lyme disease
Lyme disease, or Lyme borreliosis, is an emerging infectious disease caused by at least three species of bacteria belonging to the genus Borrelia. Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto is the main cause of Lyme disease in the United States, whereas Borrelia afzelii and Borrelia garinii cause most...
. Responding to concerns from chronic Lyme disease advocacy groups, Blumenthal claimed the IDSA guidelines would "severely constrict choices and legitimate diagnosis and treatment options for patients." In 2008, Blumenthal ended the investigation after the IDSA agreed to conduct a review of the guidelines. In 2010, an eight-member independent review panel unanimously agreed that the original 2006 gudeline recommendations were "medically and scientifically justified" in the light of the evidence. The committee did not change any of the earlier recommendations but did alter some of the language in an executive summary of the findings. Blumenthal said he would review the final report.
MySpace/Facebook
In March 2006, Blumenthal noted that more than seven incidents of sexual assault in Connecticut had been linked directly to MySpaceMySpace
Myspace is a social networking service owned by Specific Media LLC and pop star Justin Timberlake. Myspace launched in August 2003 and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. In August 2011, Myspace had 33.1 million unique U.S. visitors....
contacts. Earlier that year, Blumenthal and attorneys general in at least five other states were involved in discussions with MySpace that resulted in the implementation of technological changes aimed at protecting children from pornography and child predators on the company’s website. At Blumenthal's urging, MySpace installed a link to free blocking software (“K9 Web Protection”); however, in May 2006, Blumenthal announced that the site had failed to make the program easy to find and that it was not clearly labeled. Blumenthal also urged MySpace to take further steps to safeguard children, including purging deep links to pornography and inappropriate material, tougher age verification, and banning users under 16.
Blumenthal was co-chair, along with North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper, of the State Attorney General Task Force on Social Networking. In 2008, the attorneys general commissioned the Internet Safety Technical Task Force report, which researched "ways to help squash the onslaught of sexual predators targeting younger social-networking clients".
Blumenthal's office subpoenaed MySpace for information about the number of registered sex offenders on its site. In 2009, MySpace revealed that over a 2-year span it had roughly 90,000 members who were registered sex offenders (nearly double what MySpace officials had originally estimated one year prior). Blumenthal accused MySpace of having "monstrously inadequate counter-measures" to prevent sex offenders from creating MySpace profiles.
Blumenthal and Cooper secured agreements from MySpace and Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
to push toward making their companies’ sites safer. Both sites implemented dozens of safeguards, including finding better ways to verify users' ages, banning convicted sex offenders from using the sites, and limiting the ability of older users to search members under 18.
Craigslist
In March 2008, Blumenthal issued a letter to Craigslist attorneys demanding that the website cease allowing postings for erotic services, which he claimed promoted prostitution, and he accused the site of "turning a blind eye" to the problem.Blumenthal worked with Craigslist and a group of 40 attorneys general to create new measures on the site designed to thwart ads for prostitution and other illegal sexual activities. In April 2009, Craigslist came under the scrutiny of law enforcement agencies following the arrest of Philip H. Markoff (aka the "Craigslist Killer
Craigslist Killer
Craigslist Killer is a name given by the media to individuals who were accused of murdering their victims after meeting the victims through Craigslist, a popular classified advertising website...
"), suspected of killing a 25-year-old masseuse he met through Craigslist at a Boston hotel. Blumenthal subsequently called for a series of specific measures to fight prostitution and pornography on Craigslist—including steep financial penalties for rule breaking, and incentives for reporting wrongdoing. Blumenthal claimed that "Craigslist has the means -- and moral obligation -- to stop the pimping and prostituting in plain sight."
Blumenthal, leading a coalition of 39 states, subpoenaed Craigslist in May 2010 as part of an investigation into whether the site was taking sufficient action to curb prostitution ads and whether it was profiting from them. Blumenthal stated that prostitution ads had remained on the site despite previous assurances that they would be removed. The subpoena sought documents related to the company's processes for reviewing potentially objectionable ads, as well as documents detailing the revenue gained from ads sold to the company's erotic services and adult services categories. In August 2010, Blumenthal called on the website to shut down the section permanently and take steps to eradicate prostitution ads from other parts of the site. Blumenthal also called on Congress to alter a landmark communications law (Communications Decency Act
Communications Decency Act
The Communications Decency Act of 1996 was the first notable attempt by the United States Congress to regulate pornographic material on the Internet. In 1997, in the landmark cyberlaw case of Reno v. ACLU, the United States Supreme Court struck the anti-indecency provisions of the Act.The Act was...
) that Craigslist has cited in defense of the ads.
Following continued pressure, Craigslist removed the adult services sections from its U.S. sites in September 2010 and from its international sites in December 2010. Blumenthal called the company's decision a victory against sexual exploitation of women and children, and against human trafficking connected to prostitution.
Blumenthal and other state attorneys general reached a settlement with Craigslist on the issue; the settlement called for the company to charge people via credit card for any ads that were suggestive in nature so the person could be tracked down if they were determined to in fact be offering prostitution. However, Blumenthal remarked that subsequent to the settlement, the ads had continued to flourish using veiled code words.
Terrorist surveillance program
In October 2007, Blumenthal and the attorneys general of 4 other states lobbied Congress for the rejection of proposals to provide immunity from litigation to telecommunications firms that cooperated with the federal government's terrorist surveillance program following the September 11 attacks in 2001. In 2008 the Congress passed and President George W. Bush signed into law a new terrorist surveillance bill including the telecom immunity provisions opposed by Blumenthal.Countrywide Financial
In August 2008 Blumenthal announced that Connecticut had joined California, Illinois and Florida in suing subprime mortgage lender Countrywide FinancialCountrywide Financial
Bank of America Home Loans is the mortgage unit of Bank of America. Bank of America Home Loans is composed of:*Mortgage Banking, which originates purchases, securitizes, and services mortgages. In 2008, Bank of America purchased the failing Countrywide Financial for $4.1 billion...
(now owned by Bank of America
Bank of America
Bank of America Corporation, an American multinational banking and financial services corporation, is the second largest bank holding company in the United States by assets, and the fourth largest bank in the U.S. by market capitalization. The bank is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina...
) for fraudulent business practices. The suit alleged that Countrywide pushed
consumers into "deceptive, unaffordable loans and workouts, and charged homeowners in default unjustified and excessive legal fees." According to Blumenthal, "Countrywide conned customers into loans that were clearly unaffordable and unsustainable, turning the American Dream of homeownership into a nightmare" and when consumers defaulted, "the company bullied them into workouts doomed to fail." Blumenthal also claimed that Countrywide "crammed unconscionable legal fees into renegotiated loans, digging consumers deeper into debt" and that the company "broke promises that homeowners could refinance, condemning them to hopelessly unaffordable loans." The lawsuit demanded that Countrywide make restitution to affected borrowers, give up improper gains and rescind, reform or modify all mortgages that broke state laws. It is also sought civil fines of up to $100,000 per violation of state banking laws, and up to $5,000 per violation of state consumer protection laws.
In October 2008 Bank of America initially agreed to settle the states' suits for $8.4 billion, and in February 2010, Countrywide mailed payments of $3,452.54 to 370 Connecticut residents. The settlement forced Bank of America to establish a $150 million fund to help repay borrowers whose homes had been foreclosed upon, $1.3 million of which went to Connecticut.
Blumenthal commented in defense of U.S. Senator and chairman of the Senate Banking Committee Christopher Dodd
Christopher Dodd
Christopher John "Chris" Dodd is an American lawyer, lobbyist, and Democratic Party politician who served as a United States Senator from Connecticut for a thirty-year period ending with the 111th United States Congress....
, who had been harshly criticized for accepting a VIP loan from Countrywide, stating that "there's no evidence of wrongdoing on [Mr. Dodd's] part any more than victims who were misled or deceived by Countrywide." In August 2010, Dodd was cleared by the Senate Ethics Committee, which found "no credible evidence" that he knowingly tried to use his status as a U.S. senator to receive loan terms not available to the public.
Global warming
Blumenthal has been a vocal advocate of the position that human activity is responsible for rising global temperaturesGlobal warming
Global warming refers to the rising average temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans and its projected continuation. In the last 100 years, Earth's average surface temperature increased by about with about two thirds of the increase occurring over just the last three decades...
and that prompt action to reduce greenhouse gas
Greenhouse gas
A greenhouse gas is a gas in an atmosphere that absorbs and emits radiation within the thermal infrared range. This process is the fundamental cause of the greenhouse effect. The primary greenhouse gases in the Earth's atmosphere are water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone...
emissions must be taken. He has urged the Environmental Protection Agency to declare carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide is a naturally occurring chemical compound composed of two oxygen atoms covalently bonded to a single carbon atom...
as a dangerous air pollutant. "I urge the new Obama EPA to declare carbon dioxide a danger to human health and welfare so we can at last begin addressing the potentially disastrous threat global warming poses to health, the environment and our economy. We must make up for lost time before it's too late to curb dangerous warming threatening to devastate the planet and human society." He has brought suit against a number of electric utilities in the Midwest, arguing that coal
Coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...
-burning power plants are generating excess emissions. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals recently agreed to allow Blumenthal's lawsuit to proceed. Blumenthal personally has stated "no reputable climate scientist disputes the reality of global warming. It is fact, plain and simple. Dithering will be disastrous."
Prospect of gubernatorial candidacy
Blumenthal was frequently considered a top prospect as the DemocraticDemocratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
candidate for Governor of Connecticut but he did not run against Republican governors John G. Rowland
John G. Rowland
John Grosvenor Rowland was the 86th Governor of Connecticut from 1995 to 2004; he is a member of the Republican Party. He is married to Patty Rowland, his second wife, and the couple have five children between them...
or M. Jodi Rell
M. Jodi Rell
Mary Jodi Rell is a Republican politician and was the 87th Governor of the U.S. state of Connecticut from 2004 until 2011. She was the Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut under Governor John G. Rowland, who resigned during a corruption investigation. Rell is Connecticut's second female Governor,...
in the elections of 1998, 2002, and 2006.
On March 18, 2007, Hartford Courant columnist Kevin Rennie reported Blumenthal had become seriously interested in running for Governor in 2010. At a 2008 Boys' State
Boys/Girls State
Boys State and Girls State are summer leadership and citizenship programs sponsored by the American Legion and the American Legion Auxiliary for high school students between their junior and senior years. Boys and Girls State programs both began in 1937 and are held in each of the U.S. states ,...
Conference, Blumenthal was asked whether or not he would run; he answered the question by saying that he loved what he was doing and didn't have any plans for the future just yet. On February 2, 2009, Blumenthal announced he would forgo a gubernatorial run and seek re-election that year as Attorney General.
2010 election
After Sen. Chris DoddChristopher Dodd
Christopher John "Chris" Dodd is an American lawyer, lobbyist, and Democratic Party politician who served as a United States Senator from Connecticut for a thirty-year period ending with the 111th United States Congress....
announced on January 6, 2010 that he would retire at the end of his term, Blumenthal told the Associated Press
Associated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
that he would run in the election for Dodd's seat in November 2010
United States Senate election in Connecticut, 2010
The 2010 United States Senate election in Connecticut was a midterm election which took place on November 2, 2010 to decide a Class III Senator from the State of Connecticut to join the 112th United States Congress. Incumbent Democratic U.S...
. Later that day, President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden called Blumenthal to express their best wishes.
The same day, Public Policy Polling
Public Policy Polling
Public Policy Polling is an American Democratic Party-affiliated polling firm based in Raleigh, North Carolina. PPP was founded in 2001 by businessman and Democratic pollster Dean Debnam, the firm's current president and chief executive officer...
released a poll they took on the two preceding evenings, including races where Blumenthal was paired against each of the three most mentioned Republicans contending for their party's nomination for the seat. He led by at least 30% in each hypothetical race: against Rob Simmons
Rob Simmons
Robert Ruhl "Rob" Simmons is a retired U.S. Army Colonel and former U.S. Congressman from Connecticut. He served as a member of the United States House of Representatives from 2001 to 2007, representing Connecticut's Second Congressional District as a Republican.Simmons ran as a candidate for the...
59–28, against Linda McMahon
Linda McMahon
Linda Marie McMahon is an American professional wrestling magnate and politician. She is notable for her career developing WWE with her husband Vince McMahon. She was in the company from 1980 to 2009. During this time, WWE grew from a small regional business in New York to a large multinational...
60–28, and against Peter Schiff
Peter Schiff
Peter David Schiff is an American investment broker, author and financial commentator. Schiff is CEO and chief global strategist of Euro Pacific Capital Inc., a broker-dealer based in Westport, Connecticut and CEO of Euro Pacific Precious Metals, LLC, a gold and silver dealer based in New York...
63–23, with a ±4.3% margin of error
Margin of error
The margin of error is a statistic expressing the amount of random sampling error in a survey's results. The larger the margin of error, the less faith one should have that the poll's reported results are close to the "true" figures; that is, the figures for the whole population...
cited.
Rasmussen Reports
Rasmussen Reports
Rasmussen Reports is an American media company that publishes and distributes information based on public opinion polling. Founded by pollster Scott Rasmussen in 2003, the company updates daily indexes including the President's job approval rating, and provides public opinion data, analysis, and...
also polled after Blumenthal announced his candidacy and found a somewhat more competitive race, but with Blumenthal holding a strong lead.
A February poll by Rasmussen found that Blumenthal held leads of 19 (against Simmons) and 20 (against McMahon), and that Republicans had made up little ground since the initial Rasmussen poll after Blumenthal announced.
On May 21, Blumenthal received the Democratic nomination by acclamation for Senator of Connecticut, after opposing candidate Alpert was not allowed to speak at the convention by the committee, except to withdraw his name for nomination after preparing a speech.
Days after the nomination, Quinnipiac University
Quinnipiac University
Quinnipiac University is a private, nonsectarian, coeducational university located in Hamden, Connecticut, United States at the foot of Sleeping Giant State Park...
polling indicated that Blumenthal held a 25-point lead over McMahon. The Cook Political Report changed its prediction on the race to Leans Democratic, making Blumenthal the favored candidate over McMahon.
On the November 2nd election, Blumenthal was elected into the U.S. senate, defeating former WWE CEO Linda McMahon, 55% to 43%.
Allegations about military service
On May 17, 2010, prior to the election, The New York TimesThe New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
published an article citing a speech delivered by Blumenthal in Norwalk, Connecticut
Norwalk, Connecticut
Norwalk is a city in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the population of the city is 85,603, making Norwalk sixth in population in Connecticut, and third in Fairfield County...
in which he he seemed to have mistakenly implied that he had served in Vietnam
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
. Blumenthal's opponent, Republican Senate candidate Linda McMahon
Linda McMahon
Linda Marie McMahon is an American professional wrestling magnate and politician. She is notable for her career developing WWE with her husband Vince McMahon. She was in the company from 1980 to 2009. During this time, WWE grew from a small regional business in New York to a large multinational...
, announced that her campaign research team had found video footage of the speech and provided the story to The New York Times. After the Times story was published, Rasmussen Reports
Rasmussen Reports
Rasmussen Reports is an American media company that publishes and distributes information based on public opinion polling. Founded by pollster Scott Rasmussen in 2003, the company updates daily indexes including the President's job approval rating, and provides public opinion data, analysis, and...
indicated that Blumenthal's lead over McMahon had shrunk to three percentage points. Politico
Politico (newspaper)
The Politico is an American political journalism organization based in Arlington, Virginia, that distributes its content via television, the Internet, newspaper, and radio. Its coverage of Washington, D.C., includes the U.S. Congress, lobbying, media and the Presidency...
contested the Times article's claims, noting that Blumenthal, a member of the Marine Corps Reserve, had in fact accurately described his military service record at the outset in his Norwalk speech. Connecticut's The Day newspaper, meanwhile, stated that its staff could find no articles in its archives with any suggestion by Blumenthal that he had served in Vietnam. Blumenthal defended his representation of his military service, commenting "On a few occasions, I have misspoken about my service and I regret that. I take full responsibility, but I will not allow anyone to take a few misplaced words and impugn my record of military service." Blumenthal's executive officer, Larry Baldino, responded to the Times story with a letter to the editor
Letter to the editor
A letter to the editor is a letter sent to a publication about issues of concern from its readers. Usually, letters are intended for publication...
of the New Haven Register, in which he acknowledged the statements were 'misleading' but dismissed the outcry as 'petty.' Baldino further defended Blumenthal as 'good natured' and described him as 'one of the best Marines with whom I ever worked.'
Tenure
Blumenthal was sworn into the 112th United States Congress112th United States Congress
The One Hundred Twelfth United States Congress is the current meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, composed of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It convened in Washington, D.C. on January 3, 2011, and will end on January...
on January 5, 2011. He also planned on returning to Connecticut every weekend and joining a "listening tour" of his home state. On January 20, Blumenthal visited small businesses in eastern Connecticut. The next day, he visited Danbury, Connecticut
Danbury, Connecticut
Danbury is a city in northern Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. It had population at the 2010 census of 80,893. Danbury is the fourth largest city in Fairfield County and is the seventh largest city in Connecticut....
.
Committee assignments
- Committee on Armed ServicesUnited States Senate Committee on Armed ServicesThe Committee on Armed Services is a committee of the United States Senate empowered with legislative oversight of the nation's military, including the Department of Defense, military research and development, nuclear energy , benefits for members of the military, the Selective Service System and...
- Subcommittee on AirlandUnited States Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on AirlandThe Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Airland is one of six subcommittees within the Senate Armed Services Committee.-Jurisdiction:The Airland Subcommittee has primary jurisdiction over all issues related to the U.S. Army, U.S. Air Force, and U.S...
- Subcommittee on PersonnelUnited States Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on PersonnelThe Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Personnel is one of six subcommittees within the Senate Armed Services Committee.-Jurisdiction:The Personnel Subcommittee has jurisdiction over all matters relating to active and reserve military personnel, including pay rates, military health care and...
- Subcommittee on SeapowerUnited States Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on SeaPowerThe Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Seapower is one of six subcommittees within the Senate Armed Services Committee.-Jurisdiction:The Seapower Subcommittee has jurisdiction over all U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps, including non-tactical air programs, and the Naval Reserve forces.-Members, 112th...
- Subcommittee on Airland
- Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions
- Subcommittee on Children and FamiliesUnited States Senate Health Subcommittee on Children and FamiliesThe Senate Health Subcommittee on Children and Families is one of the three subcommittees within the Senate Committee on Health-Jurisdiction:The Subcommittee's jurisdiction includes Head Start, the Family Medical Leave Act, child care and child support, and other issues involving children, youth,...
- Subcommittee on Employment and Workplace SafetyUnited States Senate Health Subcommittee on Employment and Workplace SafetyThe Senate Health Subcommittee on Employment and Workplace Safety is one of the three subcommittees within the Senate Committee on Health-Jurisdiction:...
- Subcommittee on Children and Families
- Committee on the JudiciaryUnited States Senate Committee on the JudiciaryThe United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary is a standing committee of the United States Senate, of the United States Congress. The Judiciary Committee, with 18 members, is charged with conducting hearings prior to the Senate votes on confirmation of federal judges nominated by the...
- Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer RightsUnited States Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer RightsThe Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights is one of seven subcommittees within the Senate Judiciary Committee.-Jurisdiction:...
- Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Human Rights
- Subcommittee on Immigration, Refugees and Border SecurityUnited States Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Refugees and Border SecurityThe Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Refugees, and Border Security is one of seven subcommittees within the Senate Judiciary Committee.-Jurisdiction:...
- Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law
- Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights
- Special Committee on AgingUnited States Senate Special Committee on AgingThe United States Senate Special Committee on Aging was initially established in 1961 as a temporary committee; it became a permanent Senate committee in 1977...
Further reading
- Altimari, Dave and Mahony, Edmund (January 30, 2010). Computer Firm Owner Awarded $18 Million In Countersuit Against State. Courant.com. Retrieved February 7, 2010.
- Mosher, James (December 27, 2009). Don't outlaw our stoves, Eastern Connecticut farmers urge, Attorney general: Burning wood outside pollutes air. NorwichBulletin.com. Retrieved January 6, 2010.
- Pesci, Donald (December 10, 2009). Blumenthal: worst Attorney General in U.S.. RegisterCitizen.com. Retrieved January 6, 2010.
- Baue, William (July 9, 2002). Connecticut Fights to Keep Stanley Works from Disappearing to Bermuda. Socialfunds.com. Retrieved September 5, 2004.
- Connecticut Attorney General's Office (August 14, 1997). Governor, Attorney General Urge Tighter Restrictions on Air Pollution. Press release. Retrieved September 5, 2004.
- Connecticut Attorney General's Office (October 15, 2001). Attorney General Submits Comments To FERC Opposing Formation Of Regional Transmission Organization. Press release. Retrieved September 5, 2004.
- Connecticut Attorney General's Office (May 10, 2002). Lawsuit Filed By Blumenthal, Nappier Brings Halt To Stanley Works' Reincorporation Plans. Press release. Retrieved September 5, 2004.
- Connecticut Attorney General's Office (June 3, 2002). Attorney General Asks SEC To Investigate Stanley Works Vote. Press release. Retrieved September 5, 2004.
- Connecticut Attorney General's Office (September 30, 2003). Blumenthal, New England AGs And Consumer Advocates Warn That Proposed RTO Will Raise Rates, Without Consumer Benefit. Press release. Retrieved September 5, 2004.
- Connecticut Attorney General's Office (October 27, 2003). Connecticut and 11 Other States File Suit to Prevent Weakening of the Clean Air Act. Press release. Retrieved September 5, 2004.
- Patrick, Mike (October 10, 2003). Law School lauds Blumenthal with public service award. QUDaily. Retrieved September 5, 2004.
- Sorry, Stanley - editorial (May 9, 2003). Wall Street Journal, cited from the article at The Center for Freedom and Prosperity, http://www.freedomandprosperity.org/Articles/wsj05-09-03/wsj05-09-03.shtml. Retrieved September 5, 2004.
- Peterson, Paul; White, David; Doolittle, Nick; & Roschelle, Amy (September 29, 2003) of Synapse, Energy Economics Inc. FERC's Transmission Pricing Policy: New England Cost Impacts. Report commissioned by Connecticut Attorney General's Office.
- Subcommittee on Select Revenue Measures of the House Committee on Ways and Means (June 6, 2002). Statement of the Hon. Richard Blumenthal, Attorney General, Connecticut Attorney General's Office. Retrieved September 5, 2004.
- Subcommittee on Select Revenue Measures of the House Committee on Ways and Means (June 25, 2002). Statement of the Hon. Richard Blumenthal, Attorney General, Connecticut Attorney General's Office, Hearing on Corporate Inversions. Retrieved September 5, 2004.
- Plotz, David (September 15, 2000). Richard Blumenthal: He was supposed to be president. So why is he only Connecticut's attorney general?. Slate.com. Retrieved January 6, 2010.
- New York Times (May 17, 2010) Candidate’s Words on Vietnam Service Differ From History http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/18/nyregion/18blumenthal.html
External links
- Senator Richard Blumenthal official U.S. Senate site
- Blumenthal for U.S. Senate official campaign site
- Richard Blumenthal (D), Connecticut Attorney General at the National Association of Attorneys GeneralNational Association of Attorneys GeneralThe National Association of Attorneys General is an organization of 56 state and territorial attorneys general in the United States...