Former Connecticut Gov. M. Jodi Rell, who took over the office to become the second female governor in state history after her predecessor resigned amid a corruption scandal, has died. She was 78.
Rell died Wednesday at a Florida hospital following a brief illness, her family said in a statement Thursday morning.
Rell, a Republican who was born in Virginia and moved to Brookfield, Connecticut, in 1969, served from 2004 until 2011. Known for her candor and compassion — she would personally call and write notes to people when they faced difficult or happy times — Rell was lieutenant governor and took on the governorship during a challenging period for the state. Gov. John G. Rowland was under federal investigation and faced impeachment.
Rowland ultimately pleaded guilty to a single federal corruption count and served 10 months in prison.
In an interview with The Associated Press in 2010, while preparing to leave office, Rell pointed to her early efforts to “restore honor to the state of Connecticut” as one of her major accomplishments.
“Our state had been through so much. And what we really needed to do, what we needed at the time, was to move on, to once again make our residents proud of our state government,” Rell said, adding how her administration worked to reform the state’s campaign finance laws, impose standards for state contracts, and overhaul the state’s ethics commission.
Rell was lauded Thursday by figures in both major parties, including her successor, Dannel P. Malloy, a Democrat. “She steadied the ship, and returned a sense of decency and honesty to state government at a time when both were sorely needed,” he said in a statement.
Connecticut Republican Party Chairman Ben Proto, who worked with Rell on screening bills when she was a state representative and he was a young attorney with the House Republican caucus, said Rell became governor “almost reluctantly and at a time of great turmoil” but brought “a level of calm and focus” to the state Capitol and the state.
“Governor Rell may have ascended to the office of Governor during a tumultuous time, but her calm demeanor, her knowledge of state government, her political acumen and her southern charm, won over many critics and helped put Connecticut back on track," Proto said in a statement, calling her "the exact right person to lead our state at that time.”
Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont on Thursday ordered flags to be lowered in her honor. He said Rell, a mother of two and a grandmother of four, represented the “very best of Connecticut values, expanding healthcare and childcare, and making Connecticut one of the first states in the country to recognize same-sex unions.” In 2005, Rell signed legislation making Connecticut the first state to institute same-sex civil unions through its legislature and not a court order. In 2009, she was the first governor to sign legislation that codified the U.S. Supreme Court's gay marriage ruling, transforming civil unions into marriages and redefining marriage in Connecticut as a legal union of two people.
Lamont said he and Rell became good friends after he took office. They appeared on stage together last year at the Gov. M. Jodi Rell Center for Public Service at the University of Hartford to discuss the importance of bipartisanship. The center's mission is to promote ethics in government, civil discourse in politics and citizen involvement in public service.
“Her style of leadership was not fabricated or manipulated in any way. The Jodi Rell that the people of Connecticut saw in public was the Jodi Rell that she was in real life — calm, rational, caring, approachable, and devoted to her family and to her state.”
Rell served as lieutenant governor for 10 years and as a member of the state House for 10 years, representing Brookfield and Bethel. After finishing out Rowland's term, Rell won the 2006 election by a wide margin. She was the state's last GOP governor to date.
Five months after taking office, Rell had a mastectomy and reconstructive surgery after breast cancer was discovered following a routine mammogram. Nine days after her surgery, Rell returned to the Capitol to deliver her first State of the State address and was greeted by cheers and a longstanding ovation. Many lawmakers wore pink ribbons in support of breast cancer research.
“You know I get embarrassed,” a smiling Rell said, pleading with the crowd to stop the applause.
A moderate Republican who advocated for bipartisanship, Rell made a pointed reference to her illness during that speech when she called for an end to partisan politics.
“I have been unexpectedly confronted with my own mortality as I was told that I had cancer,” she said. “I am looking at things a little differently now, with different eyes. Eyes more focused on what is truly important, what is truly necessary.”
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Associated Press Writer Dave Collins contributed to this report.
Susan Haigh, The Associated Press
