Connecticut at a Glance State Profile - Gov. Rowland (R) - Sen. Dodd (D) - Sen. Lieberman (D) Presidential Politics Congressional Districting - 01 - Larson (D) - 02 - Simmons (R) - 03 - DeLauro (D) - 04 - Shays (R) - 05 - Maloney (D) - 06 - Johnson (R) Almanac 2002 Home States & Districts Elected Officials For district profiles and additional information on the elected officials of Connecticut, please use the pull-down menu above.

The beginnings of Connecticut's defense industry came two centuries ago, in 1798, when Eli Whitney, a young Yale graduate, won an order from the federal government to produce 10,000 muskets at $13.40 each. Six years before, Whitney had invented the cotton gin, which revolutionized the South but for years only embroiled him in a patent suit. On the musket contract, he was determined to make a profit right off, so he set up a system of interchangeable parts and invented a milling machine and gauges: the beginning of standardized American manufacturing. It was also the beginning of New Haven as a manufacturing center, for Whitney set up his factory along a small, rapidly flowing river just north of this town established more than 150 years before as a religious haven for strict Puritans. For the next 150 years or so, the town mass-produced rifles, clocks, locks, hardware and toys--anything its tinkerers and entrepreneurs could fashion. Today there are few factories left in New Haven, and Connecticut's defense contracts have been cut way back. Southern Connecticut around New Haven is mostly prosperous, but the city itself, with significant crime rates and many neighborhoods scarred by abandoned homes, has only two-thirds of its peak population. Yale, with its Gothic spires, redbrick halls and modernist skating rink, has always been the visual focus of the city; now Yale is left as New Haven's largest employer. In the late 1990s, the city had a bit of an economic revival--sparked, in part, by Yale's homebuyers' program of incentives to faculty and staff and by $1 billion in campus-area investments by biotech firms. A $500 million plan for a shopping mall along Long Wharf has sparked controversy.

The 3d Congressional District of Connecticut covers the New Haven metropolitan area, which has long since spread beyond the narrow city limits over the hills of what were once Yankee villages and countryside; New Haven cast only 14% of its votes in 2000. Politics in the New Haven area for years was a three-cornered battle, between Yankee Republicans, Irish Democrats, and Italians who became its largest ethnic group and usually voted Republican. Though often regarded as a Democratic seat, the 3d has sometimes been marginal, changing partisan hands in the 1980s as well as the 1940s and 1950s.

Rosa DeLauro, congresswoman from the 3d District, is well connected in New Haven and Washington. She grew up in New Haven's Wooster Square, where her father Ted was alderman; her mother, Luisa DeLauro, retired in 1999 after 35 years as New Haven's longest-serving alderman. Rosa's husband Stanley Greenberg was Bill Clinton's chief pollster from 1991-94 and worked for Tony Blair's New Labour Party in Britain, for Ehud Barak in Israel's 1999 and 2001 elections and for Al Gore in 2000. Rosa DeLauro has been in politics for years: She was a development administrator in New Haven in the 1970s, chief of staff to Senator Christopher Dodd from 1980-87, then spent a year working to stop U.S. military aid to Nicaraguan contras before going on to become director of EMILY's List, the spectacularly successful liberal women's fundraising group. In 1990, when 3d District incumbent Bruce Morrison ran for governor, DeLauro ran for Congress and won 52%-48% over anti-tax and anti-abortion legislator Tom Scott, after spending an impressive $957,000.

DeLauro is now one of the Democratic leadership's loudest champions on the floor. In November 1998 she ran for caucus chairman, and lost narrowly, 108-97, to Martin Frost of Texas. But Dick Gephardt, responsive to demands by Democratic women for a leadership post, named her an assistant to the leader to work on the party message. She has a consistently liberal record and supported the Clinton administration faithfully; she backed the idea of 100,000 more teachers and called for no tax cut in order to save Social Security. Like most House Democratic leaders, she voted against NAFTA and permanent normal trade relations with China. She has been an active and enthusiastic supporter of women's issues. A cancer survivor herself, she sponsored the law to require 48-hour hospital stays for mastectomies and argues for coverage of early-detection tests of cervical cancer. She introduced the Paycheck Fairness Act which would allow women to collect punitive damages for pay discrimination. She has sought unsuccessfully to remove abortion restrictions on federal employees' health benefits.

DeLauro remains an active and intense political strategist, "a live wire whose words rush out like sparks," wrote Frank Bruni of The New York Times. As a House Democratic leader, she sought political focus on gun control and sponsored the "Columbine Clock" as a symbol of congressional inaction. In 2000, she helped to crystallize House Democrats' attacks on George W. Bush and organized pre-election bus tours for women members in battleground states. On local matters, she has sought defense contracts for locally built Black Hawk helicopters. With her seat on Appropriations, she secured $7.3 million to support lobstermen victimized by dying lobsters in Long Island Sound.

DeLauro's last serious competition came in 1992, when she beat Scott 66%-34%. She has been reelected easily since then. When Joe Lieberman's vice presidential candidacy raised the possibility that his Senate seat would become open, she expressed interest in running for it. For now, though, she has to focus on protecting her district. Redistricting could expand it in various directions, but the likelihood is that she will get a New Haven-centered district from which she can easily be re-elected.

Cook's Call:
Safe. After her initial narrow victory in 1990, DeLauro has won easily in this solidly Democratic district. But, redistricting could have an impact here. There has been some talk about parceling out the 5th District between the 4th, 6th and this New Haven-based district.

Update: July 18, 2002
In October 2001 DeLauro announced her intention to run for Democratic Caucus chair. The move pits her against New Jersey Congressman Bob Menendez. Although technically a notch below Menendez in the current Democratic leadership line-up, DeLauro has had great visibility in her role as an assistant to Minority Leader Gephardt. The Caucus chairman will be chosen after the November election.

The People:

• Pop. 2000: 561,576; Pop. 1990: 547,904, up 2.5% 1990-2000.
• 78.8% White, 12.8% Black, 2.7% Asian, 0.2% Amer. Indian, 2% Two+ races, 3.5% Other. 8% Hispanic origin.

2000 Presidential Vote Gore (D) 146,540 (60%) Bush (R) 82,344 (34%) Nader (Green) 11,847 (5%)

1996 Presidential Vote Clinton (D) 129,756 (57%) Dole (R) 71,009 (31%) Perot (I) 22,916 (10%)