11 hours Ago By Bill Cloutier
Gov. M. Jodi Rell Model of leadership M.
Jodi Rell, who died Wednesday at 78, rose to the governorship of Connecticut in 2004 under difficult circumstances – the resignation of her three-term running mate, John G. Rowland, in disgrace – but she was more than up to the challenge. As she modestly put it, “My mother used to have this expression, I’m sure all mothers do: ‘You’re at any given place at any time for a reason.
'” And she truly found herself in the right place at the right time, despite having maintained a low profile during nearly 10 years as lieutenant governor, after serving 10 years as a state representative for Brookfield and Bethel. A moderate Republican and a fiscal hawk who also supported the state’s capital-punishment law, she went along with Democratic causes such as abortion rights and civil unions for gay couples – gracefully threading the ideological needle between conservative and liberal tenets, and earning acceptance from both sides of the aisle. After serving the remaining two years of Mr.
Rowland’s term, Mrs. Rell – Connecticut’s second woman governor – won the 2006 election in her own right, but chose not to run for a second full term in 2010. Described by her friend and current governor Ned Lamont, Mrs.
Rell was “calm, rational, caring, approachable, and devoted to her family and to her state.” She may not be remembered for huge, sprawling government projects, but for something bigger – the restoration of trust in state government during a tumultuous time. We extend our deepest sympathies to her friends and family.
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