Jodi Rell facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Jodi Rell
Rell in 2023
87th Governor of Connecticut
In office July 1, 2004 – January 5, 2011
Lieutenant	Kevin Sullivan Michael Fedele
Preceded by	John Rowland
Succeeded by	Dan Malloy
105th Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut
In office January 4, 1995 – July 13, 2004
Governor	John Rowland
Preceded by	Eunice Groark
Succeeded by	Kevin Sullivan
Member of the Connecticut House of Representatives from the 107th district
In office January 1985 – January 1995
Preceded by	David Smith
Succeeded by	Scott Santa-Maria
Personal details
Born	Mary Carolyn Reavis (1946-06-16)June 16, 1946 Norfolk, Virginia, U.S.
Died	November 20, 2024(2024-11-20) (aged 78) Florida, U.S.
Political party	Republican
Spouse	Lou Rell ​ ​ (m. 1967; died 2014)​
Children	2
Education	Old Dominion University Western Connecticut State University

Mary Carolyn "Jodi" Rell (née Reavis; June 16, 1946 – November 20, 2024) was an American politician who served as the 87th governor of Connecticut from 2004 to 2011. Rell also had served as the state's 105th lieutenant governor of Connecticut from 1995 to 2004 under Governor John G. Rowland, and became governor after Rowland resigned from office. To date, Rell is the last Republican and last woman to serve as Governor of Connecticut.

Rell was Connecticut's second female governor, after Ella Grasso. She did not seek re-election in 2010 and left office in January 2011.

Early life

Born Mary Carolyn Reavis in Norfolk, Virginia, Rell attended Old Dominion University, but left in 1967 to marry Lou Rell, a U.S. Navy pilot. The couple first moved to New Jersey, where Lou Rell took a position as a commercial airline pilot with Trans World Airlines. The family then moved to a 19th-century farmhouse in Brookfield, Connecticut, in 1969. Jodi Rell later attended, but did not graduate from, Western Connecticut State University. She received honorary law doctorates from the University of Hartford in 2001 and the University of New Haven in 2004. In 2015, she received an honorary doctorate degree of humane letters from Western Connecticut State University. In her early career, she tutored and did substitute work for the Hartford Public Schools.

Early career

Jodi Rell's political career began as a campaign worker for Connecticut state Rep. David Smith during several of his campaigns. Smith, a pilot for Eastern Airlines, declined to seek re-election to a 5th term in the Connecticut House of Representatives in the 1984 election. He encouraged Rell to enter the race to succeed him. Rell was elected in 1984, representing the 107th District in northwestern Fairfield County, centered on Brookfield. She served from 1985 to 1995.

She became lieutenant governor after the 1994 election as John Rowland's running mate and won re-election in 1998 and 2002, becoming governor in 2004 after Rowland resigned due to corruption.

Governor of Connecticut (2004–2011)

Tenure

In her first months in office, Rell had high approval ratings, with a December 2004 Quinnipiac University Polling Institute poll showing her at 80 percent, the highest rating ever measured by that poll for a governor in Connecticut. She announced in October 2005 she would seek a four-year term in 2006, and was nominated by the Republican Party in May 2006 to seek a full term of her own. Stamford businessman and former state representative Michael Fedele was nominated as her running mate as lieutenant governor.

Former Gov. Jodi Rell with Gov. Ned Lamont in 2023

Rell defeated her Democratic opponent, New Haven Mayor John DeStefano, Jr. in the 2006 Connecticut gubernatorial election. She received approximately 710,000 votes, the highest total for any gubernatorial candidate in Connecticut history. She carried all but seven towns.

Governor Rell was one of many Republicans mentioned as a potential candidate for vice president in the 2008 presidential election. The presidential nominee John McCain chose Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate instead.

In April 2008, Rell's Lt. Governor, Michael Fedele told the media he expected Rell to run for re-election in 2010. In August 2008 she told reporters she would file an exploratory committee for a 2010 reelection bid. She announced on November 9, 2009, that she would not seek re-election. Democrat Dan Malloy succeeded Rell in office on January 5, 2011.

Education policy

Rell supported a lawsuit in response to the federal No Child Left Behind Act. Connecticut's Attorney General Richard Blumenthal filed the lawsuit against the US Department of Education to force Congress and President George W. Bush to amend the act because, Rell contended, it would compel Connecticut to spend tens of millions to meet impossibly high standards, even as the state's schools perform at one of the highest levels in the nation. The act required states to pay for standardized testing every school year, instead of every two years. Rell's State Department of Education said the extra testing will provide little new information about students' academic progress. Rell had been active on education issues; she gave the 2008 commencement address at Central Connecticut State University.

Government spending

Rell supported the state's constitutional spending cap resisting pressure from groups favoring expanded state government spending which would bypass the cap. As a result, in late June 2006 the state reported a $910 million surplus for the prior year and the state's Rainy Day Fund exceeded $1 billion in deposits for the first time. In 2007 she shocked many of her supporters by proposing additional spending for education that would cause the state budget to significantly exceed the spending cap. Paying for the increased spending would require raising the state income tax. Republican legislators and a few Democrats, including (at least initially) House Speaker James Amann, as well as many others, were skeptical when Rell claimed her plan would reduce property taxes. And as public opinion polls showed steadfast opposition to an income tax hike, she changed her mind and withdrew her support for increased educational spending. Rell originally had the support of the Connecticut Education Association for her proposal, but they later switched to the Democratic plan favoring even higher state taxes and no limits on property tax increases. On May 9, 2007, Rell announced increased state revenues might make a tax hike unnecessary in 2007. On June 1, 2007, Rell vetoed a Democratic plan that increased the income tax. A compromise education plan passed both houses of the legislature in late June that did not increase the income tax, but raised the cigarette tax and did not limit property taxes. It nonetheless exceeded the state spending cap.

In 2005, Rell signed into law a plan to revive the Connecticut estate tax. The tax applies to estates worth $2 million or more. Critics said the tax would encourage wealthy citizens to leave and take their money with them.

In 2005, Rell signed into law a campaign finance bill that banned contributions from lobbyists and would provide public financing for future campaigns. The law received support from Arizona Senator John McCain, who campaigned for Rell in Hartford on March 17, 2006.

In June 2006, Rell intervened with New London city officials, proposing that homeowners displaced by the Kelo v. New London court decision be deeded property so they may retain homes in the neighborhood. A settlement was reached with the homeowners on June 30, 2006.

In 2007, Rell clashed with Democratic lawmakers over state bonding issues. Explaining that she felt the Democratic proposal spent too much funds that the state cannot afford, she called on them to renegotiate a new package with less spending. In October an agreement was reached that reduced the bond package by $400 million and the Governor signed it into law.

In September 2010, Rell was one of seven governors to receive a grade of F in the Cato Institute's fiscal-policy report card.

Health care

In July 2009, the Connecticut legislature overrode a veto by Rell to pass SustiNet, the first significant public-option health care reform legislation in the nation.

Minimum wage

In May 2008, Rell vetoed a bill to raise the minimum wage in the state of Connecticut. The legislature successfully voted to override Rell's veto in June 2008. The legislation raised Connecticut's minimum wage at the time, $7.65 an hour to $8.00 an hour beginning in January 2009, and to $8.25 an hour in 2010.

Electoral history

Personal life

Rell was an Episcopalian. Rell was married to Lou Rell in 1967, with whom she has two grown children, Michael and Meredith. In April 2006, she became a grandmother. Her 2006 campaign advertisements featured her with her grandson.

Rell underwent surgery for breast cancer in December 2004.

Her husband, Lou Rell, died on March 22, 2014, from cancer.

Rell died on November 20, 2024 at a hospital in Florida from a short illness at the age of 78.

See also

In Spanish: Jodi Rell para niños

• List of governors of Connecticut
• List of female state governors in the United States
• List of female lieutenant governors in the United States