Mary Mushinsky, the longest-serving member of the Connecticut House of Representatives, said Thursday that she will retire after 46 years in the state General Assembly, a tenure that made her known as the “dean” of the House.
Speaking from the House floor, Mushinsky, 74, said her 46th year in the legislature will be her last. She also said Friday would bring the announcement of her potential successor, though she declined to identify who would run. Her retirement announcement came as lawmakers prepared for the next political cycle in the Wallingford-based 85th House District.
Mushinsky said she holds respect and affection for the institution and the people who work there, and she pointed to the relationships she said she built across party lines during her time at the Capitol. “I have the greatest respect and love for this institution, members here and the staff,” she said, adding, “And I’ve learned something from everyone here, including my Republican friends on the other side. I even learned something from the senators.”
Lawmakers responded with laughter to a remark that included an explicit jab at the Senate, described in reporting as a rare unifying moment in the House. Mushinsky then clarified that she did have favorites in the Senate, and she said her most notably was Martin M. Looney, who was elected to the Senate in 1992. Mushinsky and Looney are the last members from the House class that entered the General Assembly in 1980.
Reporting on Mushinsky’s career also traced her entrance into politics to the 1980 election, when she ran as a Democrat on the same ballot line as Jimmy Carter. She won her seat in a liberal-leaning district and went on to win repeatedly, the Associated Press said, “23 times, not counting primaries,” in the General Assembly’s 85th district in Wallingford. The reporting emphasized that she is one of the longest-serving members in Connecticut House history and has remained a fixture for multiple legislative eras.
The Associated Press account, originally published by The Connecticut Mirror and distributed through AP, also described the political and institutional changes Mushinsky saw during her time in office. It said smoking was permitted when she arrived at the Capitol and that the press room then was overcrowded with more than two dozen reporters who worked there year-round.
The story also included details about Mushinsky’s personal life as it intertwined with the Capitol: it said she married Martin J. Waters, an Associated Press reporter, in 1985 after he gave up his Capitol assignment to date her. The report said their sons were born in 1987 and 1989, and that Mushinsky breastfed both children at the Capitol, a move it said discomfited some male colleagues. “I didn’t care,” Mushinsky said, according to the reporting. “My bosses are in Wallingford. They didn’t care.”
Before she ran for a seat, Mushinsky was described as an organizer and lobbyist, including work for the Connecticut Citizen Action Group, an advocacy organization inspired by Ralph Nader. Her boss at the time, Miles S. Rapoport, tried to dissuade her from running for office, the report said, and in a 2010 interview he recalled that CCAG staff were meant to help others find their voices. Rapoport said he told her, “Organizers are not supposed to get their name in the paper or have a persona of their own. And the legislature is kind of a compromising environment. You shouldn’t do it,” adding, “Fortunately for Connecticut, she ignored my advice.”
Rapoport said organizers reconsidered their role in elective politics after Ronald Reagan’s election, which he said energized the right and brought young conservatives into political life. Rapoport later moved into elected office himself, winning a seat in the House and then becoming secretary of the state.
Mushinsky’s retirement announcement sets up an open contest for the 85th district after decades of incumbency, with her next chapter unfolding as lawmakers weigh who will fill the vacancy that follows her decision to step away from the legislature.