Richard Blumenthal | Flickr/kellynigro (Creative Commons).Sen. Chris Dodd announced his retirement on Wednesday. Later that day, Richard Blumenthal, Connecticut’s attorney general, announced he would run for Dodd’s seat. Democrats are psyched because they know they have a better chance to hold on to the seat with the very popular Blumenthal on the ticket as opposed to the unpopular and scandal-tainted Dodd. But who is this Dick Blumenthal? And why is he so popular?
Back in 2000, David Plotz wrote a great piece for Slate about Blumenthal, who was about to enter his second decade as Connecticut’s attorney general:
Blumenthal was supposed to be “the Jewish Kennedy.” Now the 54-year-old finds himself in the autumn of his career fighting for Joe Lieberman’s sloppy seconds. Blumenthal is blessed with every political virtue except recklessness and luck. His résumé makes Gore’s look like a high-school dropout’s….
What Lieberman had begun [as Connecticut attorney general before him], Blumenthal perfected. He turned consumer advocacy into high art and helped lead the nationwide trend of AG activism. According to Yale legal scholar Akhil Reed Amar, Reagan-era deregulation and congressional gridlock left a power vacuum, especially in antitrust law and consumer protection. AGs, always trolling for power and press, rushed to fill it. Blumenthal proved a master. Ambitious, independent, and fiercely committed to progressive activism, he was creative in finding causes related (however tenuously) to the well-being of Connecticut. He joined the anti-tobacco posse early then led the AGs as they piled on the Justice Department’s Microsoft suit. Blumenthal spearheaded the national campaign against deceptive sweepstakes mailings and has taken a prominent role in negotiating with gun manufacturers.
In 2007, Mother Jones‘ own Stephanie Mencimer wrote about Blumenthal’s No. 1 foes: big business lobbies like the US Chamber of Commerce and the Competitive Enterprise Institute:
[T]he Competitive Enterprise Institute issued a “study” on the nation’s “Top Ten Worst State Attorneys General.” CEI has been heavily funded by tobacco, auto, and utility companies and has been active in fighting off attempts to mitigate global warming. Public enemy No. 1 for CEI is Connecticut attorney general Richard Blumenthal.
In all this is a clue to Blumenthal’s popularity. He’s visible—he’s always in the news, taking on “bad guys” and suing corporate villains. And he has a job in which it’s really easy to be on the side of “the people.”
I grew up in Connecticut. When people had a problem with a company, they seemed just as likely to go straight to the AG’s office as they were to call the Better Business Bureau or their state representative. And when you complain to the AG’s office about a problem and they end up doing something about it, you remember it. Blumenthal has two decades worth of individuals who his office helped, and two decades worth of suing companies like Countrywide that were the focus of populist rage. Those companies hate him for it, of course, but ordinary people tend to like him—a lot.
This is part of why liberals shouldn’t shed too many tears for Dodd. Blumenthal’s a better candidate, but he also has a chance to eventually become a better senator. He doesn’t have Dodd’s ties to Washington or Wall Street. He has all the right enemies. And he has lots of experience fighting the same interests that Dodd was seen as too cozy with. Blumenthal pioneered the concept of the modern state AG—Eliot Spitzer (first AG, then governor of New York) and Sheldon Whitehouse (first AG, then senator from Rhode Island) were just following in his footsteps. Now it’s finally Blumenthal’s turn.
Kevin is traveling today.
