Andrew Roraback

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Andrew Roraback (born 1960) is an American politician from Goshen, Connecticut, a state legislator, a member of the Republican Party, and a former candidate for Congress. He has been appointed to serve as a judge of the Connecticut Superior Court.[1]

Family life[]

Roraback was born March 29, 1960, in Torrington, Connecticut. He is the cousin of the late Catherine Roraback, a civil rights attorney in Connecticut best known for representing Estelle Griswold and Dr. C. Lee Buxton in the 1965 Supreme Court case Griswold v. Connecticut, which legalized the use of birth control in Connecticut and created the precedent of the right to privacy. Roraback is married to Kara Dowling and they reside with their son Andrew Kevin in Goshen.[2]

Education[]

Roraback attended public schools in Torrington and in Litchfield, and then high school at the Hotchkiss School. He graduated cum laude from Yale University in 1983, and in 1987 earned a J.D. from the University of Virginia Law School. He returned to Torrington in 1988 to work with his father, brother and sister at the family law firm of Roraback and Roraback, which was founded in 1883 by his great-grandfather.[2]

Politics[]

Connecticut House of Representatives[]

In 1994, 1996, and 1998, Roraback was elected to the Connecticut House of Representatives, in the 64th Assembly District. His district then included the northwest-corner towns of Cornwall, Goshen, Salisbury, and Sharon, which provided about half of its population; the remainder of his constituents lived in Torrington, mostly outside the more densely populated south-central portion of that town[3]—and made up about one third of that city's population.[4]

Connecticut Senate[]

In 2000 Roraback was elected as senator for the 30th Senate District. It then included the whole of Torrington, the rest of his former Assembly district, plus eight towns (in whole) and parts of two others in western Litchfield County; Torrington and the district's portion of New Milford accounted for about 55% of the district's population.[4] In each of the five succeeding elections, the most recent in 2010, he was re-elected to the redistricted 30th Senate District. As of 2012 that district embraces a part of Torrington similar to what had been in his Assembly district, 13 other Litchfield County towns, and Brookfield in Fairfield County.[5]

In June 2007, Roraback was elected Deputy Minority Leader Pro Tempore and Minority Caucus Chairman of the State Senate.

Roraback's General Assembly committee assignments as of 2012 include:

  • Environment Committee
  • Finance, Revenue & Bonding Committee (the Senate ranking member)
  • Judiciary Committee
  • Executive and Legislative Nominations Committee
  • Regulation Review Committee (He is one of that chair-less joint committee's two Co-Chairs, the other of whom belongs to both the other party and the other chamber.)

In addition to his leadership role on the Finance Committee, Roraback has been widely recognized for his work on education,[6] domestic violence,[7] agriculture[8] and environmental issues.[9] In 2006, Senator Roraback was honored by being named to the Aspen-Rodel Fellowship in Public Leadership as one of the nation’s top young elected officials.[10]

In the seventeen years that he served in the Connecticut General Assembly, Roraback never missed a roll call vote, casting 8,468 consecutive votes. Roraback was the only one out of 187 legislators who could claim this record.[11]

Attorney General campaign[]

In early 2010, Roraback explored seeking the office of Attorney General of Connecticut that fall; in April he announced that nine of his fellow senators and several mayors had offered their support, but he would seek re-election to the state Senate instead.[12]

United States Congress[]

In October 2011, Roraback announced his campaign for Connecticut's 5th congressional district seat in Congress. As the Republican convention approached, he won several more influential endorsements for the party's endorsement and the nomination, including that of Nancy Johnson, the last of their party to hold the seat. He was endorsed by former governor M. Jodi Rell on September 4, 2012.[13][14]

At the congressional district's convention in May 2012, Roraback won the Republican endorsement with 53% of the delegates' votes. Three other Republican contenders—Mark Greenberg, Lisa Wilson-Foley, and Justin Bernier—each received enough votes to have the right to require that the party's nominee be the winner of a primary election, which was held on August 14;[15] Roraback, and all of the other three (each having so requested), appeared on the primary ballot. Roraback won 32% of the votes cast, exceeding his nearest opponent by 5 percentage points.

Roraback secured general election endorsements from numerous newspapers across the state, including the Register-Citizen,[16] Danbury's News Times,[17] Waterbury's Republican American,[18] the Litchfield County Times,[19] the New Haven Register,[20] and the Housatonic Times.[21]

In the general election, Roraback was defeated by Elizabeth Esty, a Democrat who had been a one-term member (for the 103rd Assembly District) of the Connecticut House of Representatives.

Superior Court Judge[]

In 2013, Roraback was appointed by Governor Dannel P. Malloy to be a Connecticut Superior Court Judge. He currently serves in the Waterbury Judicial District.

References[]

  1. ^ "Andrew Roraback Sworn in as Connecticut Superior Court Judge". CountyTimes.com. April 8, 2013. Retrieved January 7, 2018.
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b "About Andrew - Connecticut Senate Republicans". Connecticut Senate Republicans. Retrieved January 7, 2018.
  3. ^ "State map of Assembly Districts ... Adopted November 29, 1991", p.671, Connecticut State Register and Manual 1995, Secretary of the State, matches as to Torrington (to the extent that its resolution permits) "Find Legislator by Map - Torrington" Archived October 29, 2010, at the Wayback Machine, retrieved 2012 May 18. The latter is linked by "State of Connecticut Districts -- Find Representative, Senator and Congressperson" Archived November 17, 2010, at the Wayback Machine, retrieved 2012 May 18, which (appropriately) continues to reflect town/district associations from 2010 elections rather than those that have applied, or will, to conventions, primaries, and general elections in 2012. Thus the 1992-2002 Assembly boundary within Torrington must not grossly differ from the corresponding 2002-2012 one.
  4. ^ Jump up to: a b "1991 Congressional [sic] Districting" Archived May 22, 2013, at the Wayback Machine, Connecticut Secretary of the State
  5. ^ "2001 Congressional [sic] Districting" Archived February 14, 2012, at the Wayback Machine, Connecticut Secretary of the State
  6. ^ http://www.conncan.org/aboutus/news/conncan-hails-five-reformed-minded-lawmakers[permanent dead link]
  7. ^ "Chapin and Roraback Honored by Connecticut Coalition Against Domestic Violence". CountyTimes.com. October 12, 2011. Retrieved January 7, 2018.
  8. ^ "STATEWIDE FARMING ORGANIZATION HONORS REPRESENTATIVE CHAPIN, SENATOR RORABACK - Connecticut Senate Republicans". Connecticut Senate Republicans. Retrieved January 7, 2018.
  9. ^ "Senate Republicans Move to Jump Start Land Conservation - Connecticut Senate Republicans". Connecticut Senate Republicans. Retrieved January 7, 2018.
  10. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on September 2, 2012. Retrieved November 3, 2012.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  11. ^ "The New Haven Register Blogs: Plenty of Politics: Roraback honored after nearly 8,500 votes, called "the legislature's Cal Ripken Jr."". CtStatePolitics.Blogspot.com. Retrieved January 7, 2018.
  12. ^ "Roraback Decides Not to Seek AG Bid", Housatonic Times, April 18, 2010
  13. ^ The Hartford Courant, September 4, 2012
  14. ^ "Gov. Rell Endorses Andrew Roraback In 5". Courant.com. Archived from the original on October 5, 2012. Retrieved January 7, 2018.
  15. ^ "Roraback wins GOP endorsement for 5th Congressional District in tight convention battle"[permanent dead link], The Republic, May 18, 2012[dead link]
  16. ^ http://www.registercitizen.com/articles/2012/10/31/opinion/doc50918e0f0ef64002747290.txt?viewmode=fullstory
  17. ^ "Endorsement: 5th Congressional District". NewsTimes.com. Retrieved January 7, 2018.
  18. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on February 1, 2013. Retrieved November 3, 2012.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  19. ^ "Roraback for Congress In the 5th District". CountyTimes.com. November 2, 2012. Retrieved January 7, 2018.
  20. ^ [1]
  21. ^ [2]

External links[]

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