John Droney. We mourn the best brawler with the biggest heart.

If you have not, you will want to read the tributes and summaries of John Droney’s consequential life that ended Sunday. Find them here, here, and here. 

His record of heaving candidates with uncertain prospects across the finish line first spawned a syndrome among political leaders and operatives that will endure as one of John’s legacies: Droney envy. A couple of generations of politicos wanted to be like him. Shrewd, strategic, bitingly funny, and at ease with it all. A brawler with brains. They will likely strain in vain. He lived the wisdom of Judy Garland, who advised, “Always be a first class version of yourself and not a second rate version of someone else.” 

He was a glorious original. 

I got to know him not long after I started writing a column for the Sunday edition of The Hartford Courant when, in 2003, the Rowland scandals began to come to light. I wrote about them as they unfurled in ghastly detail, and John was often asked to comment. We compared what we knew from time to time.

Our enduring bond formed in 2005 when the Sunday magazine section of the paper published an edition  on dogs. I wrote a piece about my recently adopted rescued English setter, Jack. The plucky fella had been shot in Idaho, found at a pound, and moved among four English setter rescue volunteers. having surgery and undergoing rehab. My home was the seventh place he lived in a year. 

Still recovering from surgery, Jack’s story of pluck, resilience, and—for a dog—personality captivated the brawler with heart. John was devoted to his labs but if dogs could run for office, he might have made Jack Connecticut’s governor. 

We talked and saw each other often and every conversation included an inquiry on life with Jack for the seven years he was here. 

The Droney touch lifted many campaigns to victory. The one he talked about with the most enthusiasm and satisfaction was Francisco Borges’s 1986 come-from-behind bid for state treasurer. John saw the elements of a star in the Hartford Democrat and Travelers lobbyist. 

Waterbury Democrats, feeling shut out of statewide office, had made an aggressive claim for the open spot on the Democratic ticket. Its candidate was state Representative Maurice Mosley. He was the frontrunner but that did not hinder the formation of Team Borges. 

Borges was smooth, smart, and just stylish enough to make a favorable impression on the Democrats who would be delegates at the state convention. He launched Borges—who had obvious political talent—onto the town committee circuit, gathered enough commitments of support to provide some momentum, and prepared to exploit the unexpected. 

Those events appeared at the conclusion of a critical primary for Waterbury’s delegates to the state convention between Governor Bill O’Neill and challenger Toby Moffett. The former member of Congress had been defeated in his 1982 campaign to unseat Republican U.S. Senator Lowell Weicker and was engaged in an uncomfortable public quest to figure out what to do next. Moffett needed Waterbury’s 49 delegates to reach the 20% threshold to qualify for a primary. More than 12,000 Waterbury Democrats voted in the delegate primary. O’Neill’s slate won by 43 votes. 

Recollections, as Queen Elizabeth II observed of a family dispute, may vary. In Waterbury, some said dodgy absentee ballots denied Moffett a win. Others disputed the charge. What many—especially Democrats observing from other towns—could agree on was that the primary was tawdry enough that it did not seem prudent to put the state’s pension funds in the hands of a Waterbury Democrat—any Waterbury Democrat. 

The Mosley campaign became collateral damage of the bitter delegate primary and collapsed. Frank Borges was the unsoiled alternative. He won the nomination and the election, and went on to a notable career in finance and philanthropy after winning a second term in 1990. It was Frank Borges’s victory and the pride of John Droney’s considerable collection of winning campaigns. 

Readers will have noted from John’s obituary that he was a trusted advisor to Governor O’Neill. He became governor when Ella Grasso resigned due to ill health in December 1980. He was often counted out but won re-election twice, the second time by a landslide. Governor O’Neill’s reputation has grown in the decades since he left office ni 1991. 

Governor O’Neill possessed many virtues as a politician, John and I agreed. One was not obvious to the public but stood out to us. Bill O’Neill never cut the line at a wake. Never. We admired that and believed it revealed the essence of a political leader. So today as we look for ways to honor our illustrious friend, the great and the good can pay silent tribute by standing in line with all the other sad but lucky friends of John Droney. He would have wanted me to tell you. 

Published July 24, 2026.