Dannel Malloy

Early life, education and early career

Dannel Patrick Malloy was born and raised in Stamford, Connecticut, the seventh of seven sons and youngest of the eight children of Agnes Veronica (née Egan), a nurse, and William Francis Malloy. He is of Irish descent and was raised as a Catholic.

As a child, Malloy had learning disabilities and difficulties with motor coordination. He did not learn to tie his shoes until the fifth grade. Malloy eventually was diagnosed with dyslexia and learned the skills necessary to succeed academically. He does not write or type, and rarely reads from notes in public, but developed an extraordinarily useful memory. He graduated magna cum laude from Boston College, where he met his wife Cathy, and later earned his J.D. degree from Boston College Law School.

After passing the bar exam, Malloy served as an Assistant District Attorney in Brooklyn, New York from 1980 to 1984. During his tenure as a prosecutor, Malloy tried 23 felony cases, four of them homicides, and won 22 convictions. He was subsequently a partner in the Stamford law firm of Abate and Fox from 1984 to 1995. He served on the Stamford Board of Finance from 1983 to 1994.

Mayor of Stamford (1995–2009)

In 1995, he ran successfully for Mayor of Stamford, defeating two-term Republican incumbent Stanley Esposito. At the same time, voters approved a measure to extend the Mayor's term of office from two years to four, effective at the next election. He was re-elected in 1997, 2001 and 2005.

Malloy made crime reduction a priority during his tenure as mayor; Stamford saw a dramatic decrease in homicides under his administration. Stamford is currently ranked as the 9th safest city in the United States and 3rd safest in the Northeast region and for the past six years has ranked in the top 11 safest cities with populations of 100,000 or more, according to the FBI. Malloy wrote a blog known as "The Blog That Works", since deleted, until mid-January 2010.

Budgeting and districting of the various fire departments throughout the city has been unstable since 2007, due to an extended legal conflict between the volunteer departments and the Malloy administration, which sought to consolidate the fire departments against the advice and wishes of the volunteer fire departments.

Governor of Connecticut (2011–2019)

Elections

In 2004, Malloy was the first candidate to announce his bid for the Democratic Party nomination for Governor of Connecticut. In a major upset in Malloy's favor, he received the convention endorsement of the Democratic Party on May 20, 2006, by 4 votes. Malloy lost in the primary election however against New Haven Mayor John DeStefano, Jr. on August 8, 2006.

On February 3, 2009, Malloy officially filed paperwork with Connecticut's State Elections Enforcement Commission to form a gubernatorial exploratory committee, and subsequently announced that he did not intend to seek re-election as Mayor of Stamford. On March 9, 2010, Malloy filed the required paperwork to officially run for governor.

Malloy received the Democratic Party's endorsement for governor on May 22, 2010, in a 68–32 vote over 2006 Democratic senatorial candidate Ned Lamont. Connecticut's Democratic Party rules allow any candidate who received more than 15% of the vote at its nominating convention to challenge the endorsed candidate for the nomination in a primary, and Lamont announced that he would challenge Malloy in the gubernatorial primary. The primary was held on August 10, 2010. Malloy won with 58% of the vote, according to AP-reported unofficial results. According to preliminary numbers, he beat Lamont 101,354 to 73,875.

As a Democratic candidate for governor prior to the Democratic state convention and subsequent primary, Malloy chose Nancy Wyman to be his running mate. Wyman is the only woman elected State Comptroller since the office was created in 1786. Malloy's choice was confirmed by the Democratic nominating convention on May 22, and Wyman became the official 2010 Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor when she defeated primary opponent Mary Glassman on August 10. After the primaries, candidates for governor and lieutenant governor run together as a team on a single ticket. Thus, Malloy and Wyman were both elected on November 2, 2010.

Malloy faced Republican Thomas C. Foley, the former United States Ambassador to Ireland under President George W. Bush, in the race for governor. Tom Foley had never been elected to public office. In the last Quinnipiac University Polling Institute poll released on the morning before Election Day, Malloy trailed Foley 48% to 45%.

According to The New York Times on November 3, Malloy was elected governor; they later placed Foley in the lead with no declared winner. The Associated Press had at one point also placed Foley ahead by 8,424 votes because they hadn't added the votes from New Haven or Bridgeport at that time. In the days following the election, there was controversy over several polling locations in Bridgeport remaining open until 10 p.m. on Election Day due to ballot shortages. Foley's team looked into the events that took place in Bridgeport and determined there was insufficient evidence of enough fraud to overcome the vote deficit.

Tenure

Malloy was sworn in as the 88th Governor of Connecticut on January 5, 2011, succeeding Republican Governor Jodi Rell.

In the state's legislative elections of November 2012, Republicans tried to tie Democratic legislators to Malloy, who had consistently faced negative job approval ratings. The strategy did not work and the Democrats recorded no losses in either house. Malloy called the results a "vindication" and said that "Tough times require tough decisions that are not immediately popular... you should not be afraid to make tough decisions, particularly if you are transparent about those decisions, if you explain why those decisions were necessary. In our case, the tough decisions we had to make were in fact caused by Republican governors."

According to a July 2016 New York Times survey, Malloy was the most unpopular Democratic governor in the country, with a 64% disapproval and 29% approval rating, and the second-most unpopular overall, after Republican Sam Brownback of Kansas.

The first task facing Malloy upon taking office was addressing a multibillion-dollar deficit as a result of the prior state budget enacted by the Democratic super-majority-controlled legislature which Rell chose to accept without signing. Malloy adopted what he called an agenda of "shared sacrifice" which was dependent on increases in various taxes, including the income tax, the gas tax, the sales tax, and the estate tax, as well as $1 billion each year in union concessions. Malloy chose not to reduce aid to municipalities as part of his budget agenda, although such aid would have been jeopardized if labor concessions were not reached. After two months of negotiations, in May 2011, Malloy won $1.6 billion in union givebacks. The budget deal meant that, in contrast to many other states, there were no layoffs. Many of Malloy's proposed tax increases were unpopular, despite a statewide "listening tour" to promote the budget.

In June 2011, Malloy signed a bill that decriminalized possession of small amounts of marijuana. Offenders pay a $150 fine for a first offense and a fine ranging from $200 to $500 for subsequent offenses. Those younger than 21 face a 60-day driver's license suspension. Paraphernalia has also been decriminalized as long as the person possesses under 1/2 an ounce of marijuana. Offenders may still be arrested for under 1/2 an ounce or a pipe if they are in a school zone and there is a mandatory minimum sentence (MMS) of 3 years. There is also an MMS of 3 years for sale to a minor.

Chancellor of University of Maine System

Malloy was unanimously chosen by the University of Maine System Board of Trustees to be its Chancellor on May 30, 2019, with his service beginning on July 1. Under Malloy's leadership, since 2021, three of the eight University of Maine System campus presidents have resigned — University of Maine at Augusta, University of Maine at Farmington, and University of Southern Maine.

In 2022, Malloy withheld information on a prior campus faculty vote of "No Confidence" for the replacement president hired at University of Maine Augusta, and presided over the layoff of nine tenure-rank faculty positions at University of Maine at Farmington. Subsequently, the faculty senates of University of Maine at Augusta and University of Southern Maine voted "No Confidence" in Malloy and called for his resignation, and the students of University of Maine at Farmington held a "sit in" and also called for Malloy's resignation as Chancellor.

Memberships

Chairman of the Democratic Governors Association, 2016 – 2017

Trustee and Vice Chair for Education of the Jobs, Education & Workforce Committee, United States Conference of Mayors

Co-chair of Small Business/Partner America Task Force, United States Conference of Mayors

Former Member, Executive Committee of the Democratic National Committee

Former President, Connecticut Conference of Municipalities

Adjunct Professor, the University of Connecticut

Member, Board of Trustees, Mitchell College, New London, Connecticut

Member, Mayors Against Illegal Guns Coalition

Personal life

Malloy and his wife have been married since 1982. Cathy Malloy is the chief executive officer of the Greater Hartford Arts Council. She formerly served as executive director of the Center for Sexual Assault Crisis Counseling and Education serving lower Fairfield County. The couple has three sons: Dannel, Ben, and Sam.

In 2007, Malloy's youngest son, Sam, then 14 years old, was involved in an incident in which he and a group of other boys at Stamford High School allegedly called Candace Owens and left racist hate speech and violent threats on her voicemail. The incident resulted in a settlement between the Stamford Board of Education and the Owens family.