Martin Looney takes a bow after 44 years in the General Assembly. Longest serving Senate Majority Leader and President Pro Tem will not seek re-election.

State Senate Pro Tem Martin Looney told his Democratic colleagues Saturday he will not seek an 18th term in the General Assembly’s upper chamber. The New Haven Democrat was elected to the House of Representatives in 1980 and served there for six terms. He followed Tony Avalone in the Senate in 1992.

Looney served as Senate Majority Leader for 12 years. He is in his fifth term as President Pro Tem do the Senate. No one has held those positions longer than Looney who has an encyclopedic memory of Connecticut politics and government. He was elected to the House as Ella Grasso was weeks away from resigning due to ill health. Looney has served the state with six governors of vastly different legacies.

This spring, Looney was still regularly attending Democratic town committee meetings in his district. A lawyer, Looney has also taught courses in politics and law at Quinnipiac University’s undergraduate and law school.

His honors and titles are here. He has seen it all. Looney is the only current member of the legislature to have served in the minority in both the House and the Senate. The House in 1985-1987, the Senate in 1995-1997. Along with Republican Len Fasano, Looney navigated the Senate through the two years it was evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats in 2017 and 2018. Since then, Looney has seen Republican membership shrink to its current 11 members. Looney has managed the challenges that come with a party facing little meaningful opposition in a legislative body.

Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff (D-Norwalk) is expected to be elected to follow Looney as President Pro Tem. State Representative Al Paolillo, Jr., is the likely Democratic nominee in Looney’s 11th Senate District.

Published May 2, 2026.