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12/09/2014 11:00 PMOn Jan. 6, 2015, State Senator Edward J. Meyer III (D, District 12) wraps up a storied political career during which his outspoken, independent style never dimmed.
After representing the state's 12th District for five consecutive terms, Ed announced his retirement in April and will be succeeded by Democrat Ted Kennedy, Jr., who won the seat on Nov. 4 in his first political race.
"I am excited about Ted," says Ed, in an interview at the Guilford home he shares with his wife, Patty Ann. "I actually started courting him for this position about three or four years ago, and he showed the great value of saying, 'No' to me, because his kids were still at home. It wasn't until both his children left that he decided he would like to do this when I retired. He's got wonderful personal values and a strong public perspective. He's independent, like me. He's not going to be a straight party vote."
Refusing to toe the party line has never been a problem for Ed. He began his political career in New York in 1971 as a Republican assemblyman and literally crossed the aisle in 1973 to join the Democratic Party after becoming increasingly unhappy with the more conservative GOP ideal. He served as New York state assemblyman two terms (1971-'75), then lost two close U.S. House of Representatives races and served on the New York Board of Regents for 23 years. Ed was offered the Democratic nomination for Westchester County district attorney just as he and Patty Ann were deciding to move to Connecticut. The couple married in 1979 and moved to Guilford in 2001.
In this state, Ed won his first run for state senator in 2004, besting seven-term incumbent Bill Aniskovich (R).
Stirring the Drink in Hartford
Following his five-term, 10-year Senate career, Ed said in his Senate retirement speech this past May, "My mission has been to stir the drink."
In recent years, Ed's stirred things up in some memorable ways, including introducing a "one-bullet" gun bill and voting not to support Democratic Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's 2011 state budget.
"You have to let your conviction guide you," says Ed. "I think parties sometimes mess up and I've been independent, and it does annoy some people."
And sometimes, it does worse. After announcing his gun bill in 2013, Ed received three personal death threats.
"I've been in legislature in two states and I've gone through abortion and the same-sex issue, but the emotion on those issues was small compared to guns," says Ed. "The gun issue is the most emotional issue I've ever faced. I've found one reason was the fear a lot of people have about protection of their family and themselves. The second reason was just repulsion at the government for telling people what they could shoot [and] insistence upon the Second Amendment-and I actually made the mistake of infuriating those people."
In reviewing the Second Amendment, passed in 1791, "I found that the weapon at the time was a musket that shot only one bullet. So I introduced a one-bullet bill that absolutely infuriated-but it contributed to the dialogue. And it allowed people to see that there was sort of a middle ground between 'One-Bullet Meyer' and the bill that we ultimately passed that allowed 10 bullets."
Ed infuriated Democrats in 2011 when he refused to support his party's push for the new state budget by not only voting "No," but also debating against it.
"I voted against Gov. Malloy's 2011 tax package and it terribly upset the leadership. Because of that vote, they actually removed me from the Democratic Caucus of the Finance Committee."
Ed was "shocked" to be kicked out.
"I felt I was doing the right thing. It was very upsetting, particularly because I thought the bill was excessive and I thought I was making a vote of conscience, and a vote of conscience should be respected," he says.
In 2013, Ed drew plenty of criticism from colleagues when he fought a bill to suppress all photos and 911 calls relating to murders in the state, introduced after the Newtown school shootings.
"In our Senate caucus, I told my colleges and the Senate leaders I was going to be voting 'No' and debating 'No,'" says Ed.
He ultimately abided by leadership's request to refrain from debate, as families of those slain in Newtown would be present. Instead, he put out a statement with photos from the Holocaust and other infamous 20th-century violent images.
"I said, 'There's got to be a big spotlight put on ugliness, and that event was Connecticut's most ugly, and you don't suppress that. You publish the pictures and show people what happened. You allow them to hear the 911 calls.' I said, 'These kind of pictures helped to prevent history from repeating itself.' And the press across the state supported my position. I don't think I've ever had a vote that had so much public support."
Some laws passed with Ed's support of which he's particularly proud are gun control, same-sex marriage, increasing minimum wage, adopting paid sick leave, repealing the death penalty, and the 2005 Clean Elections Program (although he's dismayed by a 2010 change allowing corporation and labor union contributions). As chair of the Environment Committee (2007-'14), Ed's also proud of climate change and toxic chemical restriction legislation he's led as well as land conservation efforts.
Representing His Roots
Ed says he loves representing District 12, comprised of Branford, North Branford, Guilford, Madison, Killingworth, and Durham.
"It's a suburban and rural district that's full of the diversity of the shoreline and farms in the interior. In New York, I never represented a farm. Here, I've gotten into representing a lot of cows," says Ed, smiling. "So the diversity of the district, in terms of shoreline versus interior, is good. It is not a district that is racially diversified; it is a district that is economically diversified-there's a large gap between higher income and lower income residents in this district. It's also a very intelligent district and it's a district that's not politically partisan."
As Ed notes, five of the six towns have Republican leadership.
"I've had a great relationship with all my Republican first selectmen and particularly with Joe Mazza," of Guilford, says Ed.
When moving to Guilford in 2001, the Meyers selected a lovely shoreline locale in the Mulberry Point area. The proximity also keeps them in close range of the family's six children and 13 grandchildren. As a Yale College graduate (1957) and Yale Law School (1961) alumnus, returning to New Haven County was also a bit like coming home for Ed.
Ed was first married in 1957 and moved to New York in the early 1960s. In 1964, he was appointed a federal prosecutor by U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy and fought organized crime. Ed's federal experience was on his mind when writing bills urging Connecticut legislature to adopt an Ethics Committee/Code of Ethics and employ the Investigative Subpoena at the state level.
"During my tenure, we've lost four state senators because of convictions and expulsions, and yet we have no legislative Ethics Committee and no Code of Ethics. Congress has it. Two-thirds of state legislatures in the country have it," says Ed. "We are also one of the few states that does not give our law officers a subpoena to compel the production of documents and the presence of witnesses [at] trial. I looked over all public corruption cases in Connecticut [and] discovered none of them were state cases-they were all federal. I was a federal prosecutor-chief prosecutor of the Vito Genovese family of the Mafia-and we made cases because we compelled the presence of witnesses, often who were scared and reluctant to testify. So Connecticut is very handicapped in its law enforcement by the lack of an investigative subpoena."
While his ethics bill wasn't heard, Ed's investigative subpoena bill came before the Judiciary Committee.
"The American Civil Liberties Union was concerned about prosecutorial abuse, and the Catholic Church came out against it because they were concerned about sexual abuse by priests and the subpoena would bring out a lot of evidence, and they both have defeated my bill."
Unfinished Business
Even as he leaves office, Ed still hopes to see ideals he's introduced become law some day. They include property tax reform, forming an independent redistricting commission, his "Death with Dignity" bill, and imposing legislator term limits. (See "Meyer Discusses Failed Bills" to the left).
Of his own decision to retire, Ed says, "Patty Ann and I discussed when we should end this, if the voters didn't. We decided I should be doing other things when I got to be 80, and I'll be 80 in April."
Those other things include a bit of travel, more time with the grandkids, and not just a little tennis. Patty Ann was a tennis pro and boys' high school coach at Westbrook High School, and Ed is also quite force on the court. As an attorney, he once represented-and sometimes played a friendly game against-tennis legend Jimmy Connors. The Meyers plan to participate in the U.S. Tennis Association's Senior Husband and Wife Division.
"We're both tournament tennis players and we're going to take a crack at going back on the senior tour," says Ed.
But there's no doubt, when it comes to stepping down from his longtime role as state senator, "I'm definitely going to miss it," says Ed of the job he's held since the age of 70, which is about the same time he retired as an attorney.
"Elective office is the best when done right [and] you're not running up the elective office flagpole, so to speak. So this was a great stage in life to serve in elective office, because it breeds independence and an ability to call it as you see it, to vote as you see it, and be your own person. You're not running to be congressman or governor. I was running in those five elections to be the best state senator that I could be."