HARTFORD, Conn. (WTNH) — State Sen. Martin Looney, the longest serving Senate president in Connecticut’s history, announced Saturday that he will not seek reelection to another term in office.

“Serving the people of Connecticut in the General Assembly for 46 years has been the great privilege of my public life,” Looney said in a statement.

Looney announced his decision to a private meeting of the Senate’s Democratic office on Saturday afternoon, shortly before the chamber convened for a rare weekend session to approve adjustments to the state budget. 

Raised in New Haven to parents who immigrated from Ireland, Looney has served in the legislature since 1981. He held a seat in the state House for 12 years before being elected to the Senate in 1992. In 2003, his colleagues elected him majority leader and then Senate president pro tempore a dozen years later. 

Technically, the role of President pro tempore is to preside over the State Senate in the absence of the lieutenant governor. Practically, the role is the Senate’s prime leadership position and one of the most powerful public offices in the state. The Senate president wields immense influence over which bills are put up for votes, which senators receive desirable committee postings and which policies are prioritized by the caucus in each year’s legislative session.

From his perch atop the upper chamber, Looney has consistently preached and advanced an agenda firmly aligned with his party’s progressive wing. 

“I was raised by New Deal Democratic immigrant parents and believe to my core that enlightened public policy can deliver positive transformation when government takes its obligations seriously,” Looney said.

In his years as the Senate’s top leader, Looney shepherded the passage of Connecticut’s $15 minimum wage law, helped establish paid family and medical leave, fought for tax relief for the working poor and negotiated a landmark budget framework that has defined the last decade of legislative debate over state spending. 

The long arc of Looney’s career as a state lawmaker spans across the administrations of six governors: O’Neill, Weicker, Rowland, Rell, Malloy and Lamont. Throughout that time, he has variously played the role of ally, leader among the opposition and intraparty counterweight – always working to nudge Democrats in a more progressive direction.

His reputation as a labor-aligned man of the left made him at times the subject of Republican scorn, but those political disagreements were always accompanied by deep respect on the other side of the aisle. 

“Marty Looney is one of the finest public servants I have ever met,” John McKinney, a retired state senator who led the Republican minority opposite Looney for eight years, said. “Marty never made it about himself. He wasn’t flashy or bombastic. He was always about policy and trying to make life better for his constituents and the people of Connecticut. When Marty rose to speak, you listened. Marty also cared deeply about the institution and protected it at every opportunity. And when it came to using the levers of power, whether as a Committee Chairman, Majority Leader or Senate President, no one did it better.”

Gov. Ned Lamont, a moderate Democrat who has occasionally found himself at odds with the more progressive Looney, echoed that sentiment.

“I am grateful for the service of Marty Looney, who has been a steady, principled voice in the Connecticut General Assembly for working families and the kind of patient, serious legislating that produces lasting results,” Lamont said.

The governor also noted another one of Looney’s most endearing qualities: a near encyclopedic knowledge of history.

“Marty and I would sit down to work through policy and inevitably find ourselves deep in a discussion about American history,” Lamont said. “We shared a particular appreciation for Calvin Coolidge, or ‘Silent Cal’ – a man who understood that not every moment required a speech.”

Looney’s impact on state politics extends far beyond the ornate halls of the Senate chamber. In New Haven, he has been a defining force in city politics, sitting near the center of a multigenerational tapestry of political alliances often rooted in family and lifelong relationships. Looney allies and friends dot the Elm City’s political landscape.

Vincent Mauro Jr., a longtime Looney aide and confidant, serves as chair of New Haven’s Democratic Town Committee. Dominic Balletto Jr., another Looney ally, served as state Democratic Party chairman. State Rep. Alphonse Paolillo Jr., a contemporary and longtime friend of Mauro’s, served on the Board of Alders before heading to Hartford.

Paolillo has Looney’s support to succeed him in the Senate. State Sen. Bob Duff, the current majority leader and second-in-command Democrat, has Looney’s support to be the next Senate president.

Looney’s announcement was accompanied by a reassurance that commemorations of his service would not slow down the final few days of the legislative session. Lawmakers will conclude their business on Wednesday at the strike of midnight. The speeches and ovations that typically accompany the retirement of a longtime legislator will be postponed until the end of the month, after the session is over. 

Stay with News 8 for updates.

Chris Payne of Cumberland is a graduate student at the University of New England.

Commercial fishing in Maine is breaking the people who sustain it.

Four out of five fishermen report overuse injuries — torn shoulders, damaged knees, chronic back pain — from work that hasn’t fundamentally changed in generations. Most don’t retire from the job. Their bodies give out first.

We know how to reduce that damage. What’s missing is consistent federal support. This isn’t an abstract policy debate — it’s being decided right now in the federal budget process.

Maine already has organizations doing the work. Groups like the Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association and Fishing Partnership Support Services provide injury prevention training, early access to physical therapy and practical equipment changes that reduce strain before injuries become permanent. They also address mental health and addiction — a critical need in a profession where chronic pain often leads to self-medication.

These programs are not theoretical. They are working. But they operate in a funding gap that federal policy has long promised to close and repeatedly failed to.

The urgency is growing. The administration’s proposed fiscal year 2026 budget would eliminate Maine Sea Grant and cut the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration by roughly one-third. That comes just months after the administration abruptly terminated Maine’s Sea Grant program in January 2025 — later partially reversed after intense pushback — following a political dispute that had nothing to do with fisheries, safety or workforce development.

Programs like Sea Grant do more than fund research. They support the training, safety systems and local partnerships that keep fishermen on the water longer and in better health. In 2023, Maine Sea Grant generated roughly $15 in economic activity for every federal dollar invested. Eliminating it is not cost savings. It is economic contraction.

Congress already has tools to address this. The FISH Wellness Act would expand existing fishing safety grants, add behavioral health support and remove cost-match requirements that currently exclude many small operators. These are practical, bipartisan solutions built on programs that already exist.

What they lack is stable funding and sustained attention.

That instability has real consequences. Without consistent investment in training and safety, fishermen enter one of the most physically demanding jobs in America without the support systems common in other industries. Injuries accumulate. Careers shorten. Knowledge leaves the water faster than it can be replaced.

This is not a niche issue. Commercial fishing is a cornerstone of Maine’s coastal economy and identity. The people doing that work are not asking for special treatment. They are asking for the same basic infrastructure other industries expect as standard: training, health support and a viable path into the profession that does not depend on physical sacrifice.

Maine’s congressional delegation has shown it can fight when funding is threatened. It helped restore Sea Grant once. But reacting after the fact is not enough.

In the months ahead, Congress will decide whether programs like Sea Grant survive and whether legislation like the FISH Wellness Act moves forward. Those decisions will determine whether fishermen get the training, health support and safety infrastructure that other industries expect as standard — or continue working until their bodies give out.

That makes this a test of priorities. Will Maine’s delegation push for sustained funding for fishing safety and workforce development before more cuts take hold? And will candidates seeking to represent Maine commit to making that funding permanent, not discretionary?

Fishing communities cannot rebuild their workforce or protect their health one budget fight at a time. If Maine wants a future on the water, Congress needs to fund it — deliberately and as policy.