Senator Richard Blumenthal
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Senator Richard Blumenthal is the United States Senator representing Connecticut from 2011 to date. He had a long and illustrious career as an attorney and politician before becoming the senator. He was the Attorney General of the state of Connecticut for ten years, 1991 to 2011, one of the wealthiest current Senators; he is worth about $100 million. He became a senior Senator in 2013. Senator Blumenthal is a member of the Democratic Party. Over his life of service to the United States and the state of Connecticut, he has lent his voice to many important pieces of legislation to make the country a better and safer place to live in.
The Senator was born in New York to Jane and Martin Blumenthal. His mother was a teacher and his father a businessman. Richard attended private school in the Bronx, Riverdale School. He attained his higher education form the prestigious colleges of Harvard, Trinity College in England and Yale Law School. His classmates at Yale included Bill and Hillary Clinton. In addition, he had the position of editor-in-chief of the school’s law journal. After college, he went on to the United States Marine Corps Reserve between 1970 and 1976 and eventually attained the rank of a sergeant. He received deferments to Vietnam due to his time in school and his career afterward. He has been accused of misleading voters into thinking he served in Vietnam and has apologized for any misunderstanding. After that he went into law practice, becoming an administrative assistant for prominent people such as Senator Ribicoff and a law clerk under Judge Newman and Supreme Court Justice Blackmun.
Senator Blumenthal’s political career began in the Connecticut House of Representatives between 1985 and 1987, after which he won election into the Senate. In 1990, he was elected to become the Attorney General of Connecticut, a position he occupied for twenty years. Before becoming the AG, he worked in a law firm and had represented a death row inmate who had been wrongly convicted. Blumenthal managed to save the man’s life a mere fifteen hours before the convict would have been executed. This case led him to testify in support of the abolition of the death penalty in the state of Connecticut. Many expected him to run for office as a state Governor, but this never happened. When Connecticut U.S Senator Chris Dodd retired in 2010, Blumenthal threw his hat into the ring, and his candidacy was widely accepted in the state. He ran against Linda McMahon and won 55 percent of the total votes cast. Joe Lieberman retired, and Senior Senator in 2013 and Senator Blumenthal took up the position. He was re-elected in 2016, making history with more than a million votes in the statewide election.
During his tenure as Attorney General, he prosecuted many cases including drug trafficking, consumer fraud, white collar crimes, environmental pollution, organized crime, and civil rights violations. Some of the most notable examples include the lawsuit against Big Tobacco company together with 46 other states, they accused the company of having known the dangers of smoking and demanded that they are reimbursed for Medicaid expenses incurred by the states concerning tobacco. The company paid $246 billion nationally. In 1999, Blumenthal filed a lawsuit against the Village Academy, a charter school in New Haven for financial mismanagement. The Connecticut Supreme Court unanimously ruled that he had no authority to cite common law in May of 1998, he and 19 other lawyers filed against Microsoft for misusing monopoly power to stifle competitors. Blumenthal also made a case against MySpace and Craigslist for not having put in place adequate measures against sex offenders and predators. He has urged that the Environmental Protection Agency declare carbon dioxide as a threat to human health and welfare.
He first vied the Connecticut Senatorial seat in 2010 and received widespread support, and he was named as the Democratic Party candidate by acclamation. Even before the election, polls carried out in the state showed that Blumenthal maintained a steady lead against all of the incumbents including McMahon and Robb Simmons. A report appeared in the New York Times accusing the Senator of saying he had served in Vietnam when in reality he had not. One of his commanding officers at the time he had served in the Marine Corps remarked that the report was petty and praising Blumenthal to be one of the best Mariners with whom he had ever worked. During his terms as Connecticut Senator, Blumenthal has served in multiple committees. These are Committees on the Judiciary, Armed Services, Veteran Affairs, Aging, Commerce, Sean, and Transportation as well as the Committee on Security and Cooperation in Europe. He sponsored the Affordable College Textbook Act in the 115th Congress.
Senator Blumenthal has taken a stance of many issues of national importance including gun control, the economy, China among others. When it comes to Gun Control, he has openly supported the implementation of mental health checks on individuals owning guns and criticized the National Rifles Association for its support of gun ownership. Most recently, he called on the grounding of all Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft until a cause is established for the Ethiopian Airlines crash. He is an avid supporter of reproductive rights, speaking out against Wal-Mart’s efforts to ban the sale of contraceptives. He supports federal funding of family planning clinics. On the issue of immigration, he and seventeen other senators wrote to the U.S Secretary of Homeland Security demanding that immigrant children be reunited with their parents. In August 2018, lawmakers including Senator Blumenthal urged the government to impose sanctions against China for violations of human rights against Uyghur Muslims in detention camps.
On economic matters, the senator along with fellow senators wrote to the Federal Trade Commission outlining the harm of non-compete and incomplete clauses imposed on employees by their employers. Such provisions limit the employees’ ability to find work elsewhere and hamper their efforts to bargain for better wages or working conditions in their current forms of employment. The prevalence of non-compete clauses derail the competitiveness of the market and impacts the economy negatively. Several Democratic Party Senators wrote to the Salman of Saudi Arabia demanding the release of rights lawyer and human rights activists. Saudi Arabia had a track record for the detention of peaceful activities, mistreatment of immigrant workers and discrimination of women and minorities.
Some of the functions of state legislature include making laws for the state as well oversight of the other branches of government. Over the past several years, the state of Connecticut has faced many challenges including high taxes, crime, and fiscal policies. The bills on retirement benefits have also escalated, and this needs to be addressed as it takes up a lot of the budget. The public school system also needs regulation. In general, the state has budgeting problems. The state legislature has failed to come up with effective laws to address these issues. Although Senator Blumenthal has made significant contributions to the nation, the state of Connecticut remains in dire situations especially with regards to its economy.
Bibliography
Blumenthal, Richard. “The Role of State Attorneys General.” Conn. L. Rev. 33 (2000): 1207.
Lyon, Jeff. “Concern Over Family Planning Clinics.” Jama 317, no. 14 (2017): 1404-1404.
Sugarman, Stephen D. “Torts and Guns.” Journal of Tort Law10, no. 1 (2017): 3-22.
Bishara, Norman D., and Evan Starr. “The incomplete noncompete picture.” Lewis & Clark L. Rev. 20 (2016): 497.
