From 1977 to 1981, Senator Blumenthal served as a U.S. Attorney forConnecticut, prosecuting drug trafficking, organized and white-collar crime, civil rights violations, consumer fraud, and environmental pollution. On March 18, 2007, Hartford Courant columnist Kevin Rennie reported that Blumenthal had become seriously interested in running for governor in 2010. A member of the Democratic Party, he is one of the wealthiest members of the Senate, [5] with a net worth over $100 million. In 2009, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals agreed to allow Blumenthal's lawsuit to proceed. Blumenthals political career began while serving as an administrative assistant to then-Senator Abraham Ribicoff. He was the leading Senate sponsor of the Forced Arbitration Injustice Repeal Act, alongside Representative Hank Johnson, which would ban the use of the clauses in consumer contracts. In the 1980s, Blumenthal testified in the state legislature in favor of abolishing Connecticut's death penalty statute. He held a press conference last Tuesday to . 'You've Used It Too': Jake Tapper Corners Democratic Senator On Claim [88] He said that prostitution ads remained on the site despite previous assurances that they would be removed. They met at a party she attended with her parents when Blumenthal was 31. House of Representatives: $10,550. Richard Blumenthal. [183], In August 2019, Blumenthal was one of 19 senators to sign a letter to United States Secretary of the Treasury Steve Mnuchin and United States Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar requesting data from the Trump administration in order to help states and Congress understand the potential consequences in the event that the Texas v. United States Affordable Care Act (ACA) lawsuit prevailed in courts, claiming that an overhaul of the present health care system would form "an enormous hole in the pocketbooks of the people we serve as well as wreck state budgets". When it comes to his personal life, since 1982 Richard has been married to Cynthia Allison Malkin, a daughter of American real estate magnate Peter L. Malkin. [208] They have four children. Richard Blumenthal - Wikipedia [110], The New York Times reported that Blumenthal misspoke on at least one occasion by saying he'd served with the military "in Vietnam". He was elected to the Connecticut House of Representatives and later won a special election to fill a vacancy in the Connecticut Senate. In 2001, the federal appeals court agreed, but rather than break up the company, it sent the case to a new judge to hold hearings and determine appropriate remedies. And to enlisting in the United States Marine Corps Reserves in 1970. [157], In June 2018, Blumenthal cosponsored a bipartisan bill that would reinstate penalties on ZTE for export control violations in addition to barring American government agencies from either purchasing or leasing equipment or services from ZTE or Huawei. In October 2007, Blumenthal and the attorneys general of four other states lobbied Congress to reject proposals to provide immunity from litigation to telecommunications firms that cooperated with the federal government's terrorist surveillance program following the September 11 attacks. In an opinion piece, he and Ro Khanna proposed to promptly pause the massive transfer of American warfare technology to Saudi Arabia and take a tougher stance against the kingdom. Last night, the New York Times printed an explosive story suggesting that Democratic Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal - who is currently . "[197], In May 2019, Blumenthal was one of six senators to cosponsor the Healthy MOMMIES Act, legislation that would expand Medicaid coverage in an attempt to provide comprehensive prenatal, labor and postpartum care with an extension of the Medicaid pregnancy pathway from 60 days to a full year following birth to assure new mothers access to services unrelated to pregnancy. His Republican opponent, Leora Levy, calls him a career. Blumenthal: worst Attorney General in U.S. Connecticut Fights to Keep Stanley Works from Disappearing to Bermuda, Governor, Attorney General Urge Tighter Restrictions on Air Pollution, Attorney General Submits Comments To FERC Opposing Formation Of Regional Transmission Organization, Lawsuit Filed By Blumenthal, Nappier Brings Halt To Stanley Works' Reincorporation Plans, Attorney General Asks SEC To Investigate Stanley Works Vote, Blumenthal, New England AGs And Consumer Advocates Warn That Proposed RTO Will Raise Rates, Without Consumer Benefit, Connecticut and 11 Other States File Suit to Prevent Weakening of the Clean Air Act, Law School lauds Blumenthal with public service award, FERC's Transmission Pricing Policy: New England Cost Impacts, Statement of the Hon. Richard Blumenthal, (born February 13, 1946, Brooklyn, New York, U.S.), American politician who was elected as a Democrat to the U.S. Senate in 2010 and began representing Connecticut the following year. He announced plans to return to Connecticut every weekend to join a "listening tour" of his home state. Rep. Chris Collins of New York, the first elected Republican to endorse Donald Trump's 2016 presidential bid, owns stake in various companies ranging from manufacturing to biotechnology. Malkin is the daughter of real estate mogul Peter Malkin. [47] In order to rectify this situation he championed the Corporate Patriot Enforcement Act to close tax loopholes. Rep. Suzan DelBene of Washington and her husband have both held high-level positions at Microsoft, one of the largest corporations in the world. This page was last edited on 30 April 2023, at 19:21. Contributions to incumbent Connecticut state lawmakers by drug companies between 2006 and 2015: Senate: $3,895. Before becoming attorney general, Blumenthal was a partner in the law firm of Cummings & Lockwood, and subsequently in the law firm of Silver, Golub & Sandak. [57], In 2003 Blumenthal, former Massachusetts Attorney General Tom Reilly, Rhode Island Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch, and consumer advocates from Connecticut, Maine, and New Hampshire opposed "the formation of a regional transmission organization (RTO) that would merge three Northeast and mid-Atlantic power operators, called Independent Service Operators (ISOs), into a single super-regional RTO. Born in Brooklyn, New York, Blumenthal attended Riverdale Country School, a private school in the Bronx. In the Senate, Senator Blumenthal has built on his longtime advocacy for consumers by holding companies accountable for the safety of their products. Altimari, Dave and Mahony, Edmund (January 30, 2010). [180], In February 2019, Blumenthal and 22 other Democratic senators introduced the State Public Option Act, a bill that would authorize states to form a Medicaid buy-in program for all residents and thereby grant all denizens of the state the ability to buy into a state-driven Medicaid health insurance plan if they wished. He then transitioned to leadU.S. He fought and sued the federal government for failing to follow or enforce environmental laws and energy statues, as well as imposing multimillion dollar unfunded mandates on local taxpayers under the No Child Left Behind Act. Her grandfather, Lawrence Wien, was a prominent lawyer and philanthropist. [48], Blumenthal was involved in a series of lawsuits against associates of Connecticut Governor Rowland and the various entities of the Tomasso Group over Tomasso's bribing of state officials, including Rowland, in exchange for the awarding of lucrative state contracts. Republican Rep. Francis Rooney of Florida has earned a large fortune from his business, Manhattan Construction Group, which has built massive projects such as Cowboys Stadium. He served as the state attorney. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) passed an amendment to delay the test's implementation. [104] On February 2, 2009, Blumenthal announced he would forgo a gubernatorial run and seek reelection that year as attorney general. He was drafted into the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve during the Vietnam War, however, he didnt participate actively in the war. During his stint as Attorney General, he built a reputation with high profile cases involving Microsoft, the tobacco lobby, Internet pornography, the environment, and more. Their son Matt Blumenthal was elected to the Connecticut House of Representatives from the 147th district in 2018. [161], In July 2019, Blumenthal was a cosponsor of the Defending America's 5G Future Act, a bill that would prevent Huawei from being removed from the "entity list" of the Commerce Department without an act of Congress and authorize Congress to block administration waivers for U.S. companies to do business with Huawei. This is roughly 100 Americans' active income as our median income trends around $31k per year. [] Senator Tammy Baldwin Requests Data from Trump Administration on Consequences of Texas V. United States Prevailing", "U.S. Blumenthal and Wife Have Six-Figure Investment in Chinese Government Baldino wrote that the misleading statement was too "petty" to be the basis for supporting or not supporting Blumenthal. "[59] The opposition was due to a report authored by Synapse Energy Economics, Inc. Archived May 27, 2010, at the Wayback Machine, a Cambridge-based energy consulting firm, that alleged that consumers would be worse off under the merger. His estimated net worth has risen as high as $110 million over the past several years. [45] On June 3 Blumenthal referred the matter to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for further investigation[46] and on June 25 he testified before the U.S. House Committee on Ways and Means that "Longtime American corporations with operations in other countries can dodge tens of millions of dollars in federal taxes by the device of reincorporating in another country" by "simply [filing] incorporation papers in a country with friendly tax laws, open a post-office box and hold an annual meeting there" and that Stanley Works, along with "Cooper Industries, Seagate Technologies, Ingersoll-Rand and PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting, to name but a few, have also become pseudo-foreign corporations for the sole purpose of saving tax dollars." Some say it could be much higher. By: Caroline John - Published: September 28, 2018 at 7:10 am, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) participates in an anti-Gorsuch rally April 6, 2017 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. Furthermore, the spouses of senators who have assets worth more than $1.0 million arent required to state all assets on financial disclosure reports. [6] He was Attorney General of Connecticut from 1991 to 2011. [72] Responding to concerns from chronic Lyme disease advocacy groups, Blumenthal claimed the IDSA guidelines would "severely constrict choices and legitimate diagnosis and treatment options for patients. He was reelected in 2016 and 2022. [32], In May 1995, Blumenthal and the state of Connecticut filed lawsuits challenging a decision by the Department of the Interior to approve a bid by the federally recognized Mashantucket Pequot for annexation of 165 acres of land in the towns of Ledyard, North Stonington and Preston. [41] In November 2002, a federal court ruling imposed those same remedies. DeFelice and the Maguire Group, the engineering firm that inspected the project. He graduated from Harvard College, where he was editor-in-chief of The Harvard Crimson. Although Cynthia Malkins exact wealth is not known, everyone agrees that the combined wealth between her and her husband is a lot more. Also, she most likely has family trusts to her name. Senator Blumenthal Week In Review 04/14/202304/21/2023 [133], Blumenthal is pro-choice. With a father who fled Nazi Germany at age 18, and a mother who left Nebraskas farmland to become a social worker, Richard Blumenthal was raised with a deep dedication to public service, a duty to give back by helping others, and a bedrock belief in hard work. American lawyer and politician (born 1946), Richard Blumenthal on his support for the, Statewide elected officials and legislative leaders of, Internet pornography, prostitution, and sexual predators, Antitrust, competition and corporate regulation, U.S. District Court of the District of Connecticut, Raymond E. Baldwin Award for Public Service, United States Environmental Protection Agency, Journal of the American Medical Association, 2010 United States Senate election in Connecticut, 2016 United States Senate election in Connecticut, 2022 United States Senate election in Connecticut, 2021 storming of the United States Capitol, Twenty-fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, Subcommittee on Readiness and Management Support, Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, and Data Security, Affordable College Textbook Act (S. 1864; 115th Congress), United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, National Defense Authorization Act for 2019, United States Secretary of Health and Human Services, Department of Housing and Urban Development, United States Secretary of Homeland Security, National Telecommunications and Information Administration, 2023 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, Connecticut US Senator (Class III) General Election, 2010, Connecticut US Senator (Class III) General Election, 2016, Connecticut US Senator (Class III) General Election, 2022, List of Jewish members of the United States Congress, List of law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States (Seat 2), "Our Campaigns - CT State Senate 27 - Special Election Race - Nov 03, 1987", "Our Campaigns - CT State House 145 - Special Election Race - Apr 10, 1984", "Our Campaigns - CT State House 145 Race - Nov 04, 1986", "Richard Blumenthal- Net Worth - Personal Finances", "Blumenthal at high end of Senate millionaires' club: Financial disclosure forms: Senator's estimated net worth soars from $73 million to $112 million", "The Public and Private Life of Dick Blumenthal", Jewish Virtual Library: Richard Blumenthal.