Richard Blumenthal

U.S. Senate candidate, Richard Blumenthal, is currently serving an unprecedented fifth term as Attorney General for the State of Connecticut.

Early in his career, Attorney General Blumenthal served as aide to Senator Daniel P. Moynihan when Mr. Moynihan was Assistant to President Richard Nixon, and as Assistant to United States Senator Abraham A. Ribicoff. He later served as a law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Harry A. Blackmun.

He became United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut in 1977, serving until 1981. As the chief federal prosecutor for Connecticut, he successfully prosecuted major cases involving drug trafficking, organized crime, white collar crime, civil rights violations, consumer fraud, and environmental wrongdoing.

From 1981 to 1986, he was a volunteer counsel for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, where he saved the life of an innocent, wrongly convicted death row inmate, who came within hours of execution.

Richard was elected to the Connecticut House of Representatives in 1983, representing citizens of the 145th district in Stamford. In 1987, he won a special election to fill a vacancy for the 27th State Senate District in Stamford and Darien.

In 1990, Connecticut elected Richard to his first term as Attorney General. Since then his relentless commitment to consumer protection, environmental stewardship, labor rights and personal privacy has helped reshape the role of state attorneys general nationwide. In that time he has also recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for Connecticut taxpayers and consumers.

Attorney General Blumenthal helped lead the national fight against Big Tobacco to stop deceptive marketing aimed at children -- a victory that significantly lowered youth smoking rates and resulted in a multibillion dollar settlement for Connecticut taxpayers.

He successfully fought unfair utility rate charges and skyrocketing costs of heating oil, natural gas, and other vital sources of energy. In addition, he has fought environmental polluters and lawbreakers as well as scams and frauds that victimize consumers. His advocacy forced reforms in the health insurance industry to assure critical health care coverage and lower pharmaceutical drug prices.

Richard graduated from Harvard College (Phi Beta Kappa, Magna Cum Laude), and Yale Law School, where he was Editor-in-Chief of the Yale Law Journal.

He served in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserves, honorably discharged as sergeant.

He and his wife, Cynthia, have four children.

Bio courtesy of http://richardblumenthal.com/