Susan Bysiewicz

After the redistricting that followed the 1990 Federal Census, she decided to run in the newly redrawn Connecticut's 100th Assembly District, and defeated Republican Joseph Milardo by a margin of 61–39%.[9] She was a part of the largest Freshman class of the state legislature since 1974.[10] In 1994, she won re-election to a second term with 67% of the vote.[11] In 1996, she won re-election to a third term with 66% of the vote.[12]

She was elected state representative for the 100th Assembly District of Connecticut for three successive terms starting in 1992, representing until 1998 about 22,000 constituents living in parts of the towns of Middletown (64% of her constituents) and Middlefield (10%), and throughout the town of Durham (26%).[13]

In the House, she investigated the political power of County Sheriffs and Connecticut's last vestige of patronage politics at the local level. The sheriffs are only political positions of Connecticut county government, which was eliminated in 1960. Democrats control the Hartford County Sheriff's Department, for example, and of the 288 deputy and special deputy sheriffs working, the Program Review and Investigations Committee found just two Republicans.[14]

• Connecticut Ethics Commission (Co-Chairwoman)[15]
• House Government Administration Committee (Chairwoman)
• House Elections Committee
• House Judicial Committee[16]

On February 7, 2010, the Hartford Courant reported that Attorney General Blumenthal was investigating whether Bysiewicz violated the law by using e-mail addresses obtained by her office in their official duties for campaign use—soliciting campaign support and donations.[20] In September, both Blumenthal and Chief State's Attorney Kevin Kane concluded that she had not broken the law, and that no charges were warranted.[21]

On January 27, 2009, Bysiewicz made public her intention to seek the Democratic nomination for governor of Connecticut in the 2010 election.[22]

That February, Quinnipiac University conducted a poll in which they asked: "If the Democratic primary for governor were being held today and the candidates were Dannel Malloy, Susan Bysiewicz and Jim Amann, for whom would you vote?" Of the Democrats who responded, 44% said they would vote for Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz, 12% said they would vote for Stamford Mayor Dannel Malloy and 4% said they would vote for James Amann, former Speaker of the House.[23]

In a poll conducted by the Susan Bysiewicz gubernatorial exploratory committee in October 2009, support for incumbent governor Jodi Rell fell to 47% in a head-to-head contest with Susan Bysiewicz, who received 41% of the respondents' vote. When asked how they would vote if the election was held between Rell and Stamford Mayor Dannel Malloy, poll respondents said they would vote 52% for Rell and 31% for Malloy. In Bridgeport alone, those taking part in the poll were asked who they would vote for if the primary were held that day and they said Bysiewicz 31.44 percent, Malloy 14.56 percent.[24]

In January 2010 Bysiewicz dropped her bid for governor, choosing to run for attorney general. On January 21, 2010, Quinnipiac University released its results a poll of the primary for attorney general which found that Susan Bysiewicz had a 52-point lead (Bysiewicz 62, Jepsen 10, Undecided 24, 593 Democratic Voters, MOE +/- 4%).[25]

After Bysiewicz announced her bid for attorney general, a number of observers questioned her legal qualification to hold the post, citing a state statute that requires the attorney general to have spent ten years in "active practice" of law.[26] Bysiewicz claimed that her years managing the Secretary of the State's office should be applied against this requirement. She sought an opinion from the current attorney general, Richard Blumenthal on the issue.[27] Blumenthal responded that he believed the law to be valid, but the question as to whether Bysiewicz met the requirements had to be decided by the courts or the legislature.[28]

Bysiewicz also had to explain filing a form seeking a waiver of a state fee, when she claimed not to be actively practicing law. Her spokesperson said she had made a mistake.[29] While Bysiewicz vowed to continue her campaign despite the qualifications controversy prominent Republicans suggested she was "cooked"[30] and "delusional."[31]

Under deposition on March 31, 2010, Bysiewicz admitted that "she has never argued a case before a judge and couldn't remember being in a courtroom to observe litigation since law school."[32] On May 5, 2010, Superior Court Judge Michael Sheldon ruled that Bysiewicz was legally qualified to run for state attorney general.[33] However, when the case reached the Connecticut Supreme Court on May 18, Justice Flemming L. Norcott Jr. handed down the court's 7-0 unanimous ruling that Bysiewicz failed to meet the requirements of General Statutes Section 3-124, which outlines the qualifications for state attorney general.[34][35] In consequence, Bysiewicz was unable run for attorney general in 2010, leaving former State Senator George Jepsen the sole remaining Democratic candidate in the race, which he subsequently won.[34]

On November 3, one day after the general election, Bysiewicz announced that Democratic candidate Dannel Malloy was the unofficial winner of the race, beating Republican Tom Foley.[36] Later that evening the Associated Press, who had also called the race largely based on Bysiewicz's announcement, "un-called" the race when it found that Foley actually led in its vote count.[37] One major reason for the election discrepancies was the conduct of the election in Bridgeport, where local officials ordered an inadequate number of ballots to meet turnout.[38]

President Obama had paid a last minute visit to the City of Bridgeport, and introduced Dannel Malloy,[39] and the resulting increase in ballot requirements took the local election board by surprise.[40] Bridgeport Democratic Registrar of Voters Santa Ayala, one of two officials responsible for ordering the ballots, noted that other communities ran out of ballots. She disputed the widely quoted figure of 21,000 ordered ballots, but didn't provide an alternative number. Ayala said, "We base the number of ballots we order on prior elections. The Republican and Democratic registrars agreed on that number.".[41] Bysiewicz cited these counting delays—including a bag of uncounted ballots found after Election Day[42]—caused by the ballot shortages in Bridgeport for the confusion; despite her role as Chief Elections Officer she denied bearing any responsibility for the ballot shortages.[43] Bysiewicz said she had directed local officials to order enough ballots but had not monitored Bridgeport officials to ensure the directive was followed, as she had no legal authority to do so.[43]

Bysiewicz answered Tom Foley directly, on a local Connecticut NPR radio program, who complained that she had improperly announced a winner. Bysiewicz argued that she had made it clear the results were "unofficial", and that she was merely "sharing information"; she promised to send Foley any information he required upon his request.[44]

She had planned to announce the official winner of the election on Friday, November 5, after receiving all of the official ballot results.[45] Late in the afternoon of Friday, November 5, Bysiewicz announced Dannel Malloy as the official winner in the gubernatorial election by a much larger vote total of 5,637 votes, which differed from the early results announcement two days earlier when she declared Malloy the unofficial winner by 3,103 votes.[46]