Susan Bysiewicz: Difference between revisions

Susan Bysiewicz, speaking at an anti-war rally in Hartford, March 17, 2007

Susan Bysiewicz (born 1961) is an American politician of the Democratic Party, in Connecticut.

She was raised on a farm in Middletown, Connecticut, and graduated from Yale University and Duke University School of Law; while pursuing her law degree, she wrote Ella: A Biography of Governor Ella Grasso. (Grasso is remembered in Connecticut both for pioneering women's roles in politics, and for serving in late stages of her fatal cancer.)

Bysiewicz practiced law in New York City, and then in Hartford.

She was elected state representative for the 100th Assembly District of Connecticut for three successive terms starting in 1992, representing until 1998 about 22,000 constituents living in parts of the towns of Middletown (64% of her constituents) and Middlefield (10%), and throughout the town of Durham (26%).

In 1998, she sought the Democratic nomination for Secretary of the State. At the state Democratic Convention, she lost the party's endorsement for the nomination, to Representative Ellen Scalettar, but won enough delegates' votes to qualify to run for the nomination in a primary. She won both the nomination, and, in the general election in November, the office itself. She won re-election in 2002, but in 2005, while serving, she announced her candidacy for the Democratic nomination for the gubernatorial election of 2006. She withdrew from that race in September 2005, and on November 7, 2006, won a third term (running through 2010) as Secretary of the State.

Susan Bysiewicz is serving her third term as Connecticut’s Secretary of the State. In her time as the chief elections officer and business registrar of the state, she has made technology a focus of her administration. Susan Bysiewicz developed Connecticut’s first electronic filing system for voter registration to prevent fraud and encourage registration. She also instituted an electronic business searching system called CONCORD that allows users to search a database of all the registered companies in the State of Connecticut.

In 2006/2007 Secretary Bysiewicz implemented new voting technology including adoption of the optical scan machine and a vote-by-phone procedure so that Connecticut voters with disabilities are able to vote securely and independently. She advocated with success at the legislature for the passage of a constitutional amendment that would allow 17 year olds to vote in primaries. [1]

On January 27, 2009, Bysiewicz made public her intention to seek the Democratic nomination for governor of Connecticut in the 2010 election.

In March 2009 she was quoted in the Yale Daily News suggesting that Senator Chris Dodd 's reelection bid could be a drag on her fortunes in the 2010 election

In February 2009, Quinnipiac University conducted a poll in which they asked:“If the Democratic primary for governor were being held today and the candidates were Dan Malloy, Susan Bysiewicz and Jim Amann, for whom would you vote?” Of the Democrats who responded, 44% said they would vote for Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz, 12% said they would vote for Stamford Mayor Dannel Malloy and 4% said they would vote for James Amann, former Speaker of the House. http://www.ctnewsjunkie.com/state_capitol/qpoll_puts_bysiewicz_in_lead_a.php In a poll conducted by the Susan Bysiewicz gubernatorial exploratory committee in October 2009, support for incumbent Governor Jodi Rell fell to 47% in a head to head contest with Susan Bysiewicz who received 41% of the respondents’ vote. When asked how they would vote if the election was held between Rell and Stamford Mayor Dannel Malloy, poll respondents said they would vote 52% for Rell and 31% for Malloy. In Bridgeport alone, those taking part in the poll were asked who they would vote for if the primary were held that day and they said Bysiewicz 31.44 percent, Malloy 14.56 percent. http://blog.ctnews.com/kantrowitz/2009/10/27/susan-bysiewicz-still-way-ahead-in-democratic-run-for-governor/

Personal life

She is married to David Donaldson; they live in Middletown and have three children.