HARTFORD, CT — Ending what had been a day of speculation, Sen. Gayle Slossberg announced she would not seek re-election this year.
Slossberg, an independent-minded Democrat who did not always agree with her party, said there was no one thing that caused her to make the decision.
“I’ve looked over my 14-year career and I have accomplished a great deal,” Slossberg said in a phone interview. “I’m ready for a new challenge.”
Slossberg made the announcement this afternoon in her Milford living room.
She said from the day she was first elected she promised to be a positive force for her community, jobs and the economy, quality education, healthcare, and veterans.
“While I am proud of the accomplishments we have achieved, I am most grateful and humbled by the friends and neighbors who invited me into their homes to share their most personal and difficult issues,” Slossberg said.
Rich Smith, chairman of the Democratic Town Committee in Milford said there’s no question that Slossberg was “a thoughtful, deliberative, and hardworking Senator who was committed to the ideals of the Democratic Party.”
Senate President Martin Looney, D-New Haven, said “Senator Gayle Slossberg has been a leader on education policy and an effective advocate for her district.”
But the relationship Slossberg had with her Democratic colleagues wasn’t always easy or comfortable.
Slossberg was one of three Democratic senators who bucked their party and voted for a Republican budget in September 2017. The announcement also comes a week after she announced she would She recuse herself from a vote to elevate Supreme Court Justice Andrew McDonald to chief justice.
But Slossberg is no stranger to conflict. She challenged Democratic Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s administration on fiscal policy and helped orchestrate a veto override of a bill that would change affordable housing regulations.
Prior to co-chairing the Education Committee where she helped make Connecticut the first state in the nation to provide a state-sponsored SAT test to every high school student, Slossberg was the chairwoman of the General Administration and Elections Committee where she led a panel seeking to find efficiencies in state government.
Slossberg also chaired the GAE committee when it helped usher through landmark public campaign finance legislation. As chair of the Veterans Affairs Committee, she helped create a Depleted Uranium Task Force to study the effects that toxic substances had on soldiers who fought in the Middle East.