Irving Stolberg, Speaker of Connecticut House and ex-NCSL President

by Karl Kurtz

Irving J. Stolberg, former speaker of the Connecticut House of Representatives and president of NCSL in 1986-87, died last week after a long bout with leukemia.  An article in the Hartford Courant captures his impact on the Connecticut General Assembly:

Stolberg was a liberal New Haven Democrat who introduced the sophisticated and hard-edged brand of politics that has helped give Democrats an unbroken string of House majorities since 1986.

And he was one of the leaders who brought the legislature into a new era by overseeing the construction of the Legislative Office Building on the expanded grounds of the state Capitol.

"Connecticut is saddened by the loss of Speaker Stolberg, a man who served during a crucial transition period when our state Legislature was redefining itself and reshaping its mission," Gov. M. Jodi Rell said Sunday. "In many ways his imprint can still be seen today on the General Assembly in both its physical offices and role in governing."

The opening of the Legislative Office Building in 1988 gave rank-and-file lawmakers their first offices and provided space for expanded staff and public hearings that the 1878 Capitol could not accommodate.

"He really is a primary architect, though not alone, of the way the legislative branch functions today," said George J. Jepsen, who witnessed the changes as a legislative aide and Senate majority leader.

Under Stolberg, legislative pay and prestige increased, as did the number of members who saw legislating as their primary occupation. Stolberg was among them.

The legislature began to function as a co-equal branch of government, rather than a poor relation of the executive branch. To emphasize the change, Stolberg once locked gubernatorial aides out of the House chamber when they lobbied against one of his bills.

"He is the father of the modern legislature," said Jonathan Pelto, who helped implement Stolberg's then-cutting-edge vision for electing legislators using direct mail shaped by shared polling.

But Stolberg, who practiced politics with confidence and pride, also will be remembered as the victim of his own hubris — and the target of an audacious, bipartisan plot that denied him an unprecedented third term as speaker on the opening day of the 1989 legislative session.

Meeting in secret over a period of weeks in late 1988, two dozen moderate and conservative Democrats enlisted minority Republicans to help them to unseat Stolberg and install a moderate Democrat, Richard J. Balducci.

Stolberg was president during NCSL's one and only transition of executive directors and chaired the selection committee that chose Bill Pound to replace Earl Mackey, who stepped down after 11 years as executive director.  Irv was as strong and forceful a leader of NCSL as he was of the Connecticut House.

A curious and personal sidelight to Irv's and my relationship: He and I were often mistaken for each other.  Frequently at NCSL meetings, people walk up to me and, with an uncertain look in their eye, ask if I am still serving in the legislature.  I immediately know that it is someone who thinks that I am Irv.  Whenever Irv (right) saw me (left), he would say, "Hi, Irv," and I would say, "Hi, Karl."

We will miss him.

Comments

[Jeff wice]

I served on the NCSL Executive Committee as a legislative staff member during Irv's tenure as a NCSL leader. We went as far back as my first NCSL Annual Meeting in 1977 and developed a lasting friendship. I'll always recall how we helped some of the progressive and labor groups attain ex officio status on the NCSL Executive Committee sometime around 1988. Irv Stolberg will be sorely missed.

[Gerry Cohen]

From the linked Hartford Courant article:
"Stolberg was elected to the House in 1970, two years after witnessing the tumult of the Democratic National Convention as a delegate in Chicago."

I will one up Jeff Wice. I met Irv in Chicago in 1968 when I was a volunteer with the McCarthy delegates at the convention, and worked with him on a US Senate primary campaign in Connecticut in 1970. (Joe Duffey). He was a giant. (I left Hartford to go to college in North Carolina the week after the 1968 convention)

[Dennis Griesing]

I got back to New Haven from the Peace Corps in Dec. 1969 after graduating SCSU. Irv sees me on the Chapel St. and quickly asks if I want to make $50 a week staffing the then one desk, one phone Duffy (no "e")office in New Haven. I'm studying for GREs and accept the offer. He then asks me if I'll be his campaign treasurer since he'll know where to find me and I'll have a phome (pre-cell days after all). Yeh, sure I say.

Next I know its Democratic Alliance, Joe Lieberman, Jim Jones, Bill Jones, Hank Parker, Walter Esdaile, Lee Wallace etc. Oh yes, and there was this guy from Arkansas who showed ina copper coloered Opel with Arkansas plates to go to law school. 1970 was a very good year in New Haven.