Senate Leadership
November 9, 2006
Senate Democrats Re-Elect Williams and Looney as Leaders
Senate President Pro Tempore and Majority Leader cite challenges ahead
State Senate Democrats, fresh off an election in which they maintained a veto-proof majority, unanimously re-elected Sen. Donald E. Williams, Jr. (D Brooklyn) as Senate President Pro Tempore and Sen. Martin M. Looney (D New Haven) as Majority Leader. The Democrats made their choices at a caucus in Hartford this afternoon.
Sen. Williams, in accepting another term as the top Democrat in the General Assembly, noted the challenges ahead. "We need to take this terrific team and move ahead on the substantial challenges that lay ahead. These include increasing access to quality, affordable health care; improving the quality of education-and doing so in a manner that will allow us to ease the property tax burden; and maintaining our commitment to improving the state's economy," he said. "I am honored to have the trust of such a talented group of lawmakers."
In July of 2004, the state Senate elected Sen. Williams to serve as President Pro Tempore. He was re-elected in January of 2005 and will be formally re-elected at the outset of the 2007 session.
Sen. Looney also said there is much to be done in the upcoming session, "We Democrats consistently have offered creative and progressive policy initiatives which have proven to be the basis for sound and humane state programs in education, health care, economic development and criminal justice," he said. "I am deeply honored to have the confidence of our gifted caucus to serve as Majority Leader once again."
Sen. Looney will be entering his third term as Majority Leader when he is formally re-elected in January.
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Senator Williams’ Larry Cook |
Listing of Leadership’s recent press releases. |
Senator Looney’s Larry Cook |
