Ed Marcus is Dead at 94.
Former state Senator Ed Marcus, who broke the iron grip of party bosses on the state legislature, died Thursday morning. He was a candidate in the state’s first year of primaries and served as Democratic party chairman from 1992 to 2002.
Marcus was elected to the Senate from New Haven in the Democratic landslide of 1958. When he became the Senate Majority Leader in the late 1960s, Marcus successfully challenged state and national party chairman John M. Bailey’s control over legislative patronage. The contentious move, according to Bruce Rubenstein, Marcus’s colleague in party politics, allowed the legislature to become a professional and equal branch of government.
Bailey was not pleased. The party boss opposed Marcus’s 1970 bid for the U.S. Senate. That was the first year of party primaries in the state. A candidate needed to win 20% at their party’s convention to qualify for a primary. There was no provision for collecting signatures to be included on the party contest ballot.
Marcus placed third at the Democratic convention, behind the endorsed candidate, Stamford zipper manufacturer Alphonse Donahue, and anti-Vietnam war candidate Reverend Joseph Duffey. Marcus was third in the primary as well. A quirk in the state’s new primary law set the date for statewide and congressional primaries before legislative ones. Marcus was able to seek re-election to the Senate but faced a primary from Joseph Lieberman, also a New Haven Democrat.
Bailey wanted to grind Marcus into dust and on that primary day he did. An army of state employees reported to New Haven that day and helped Lieberman defeat Marcus.
Denied public office, Marcus nevertheless kept his hand in the game. He became state party chairman in 1992. In 1994, he made news by declaring there were too many Jews competing for places on the state ticket. Voters disagreed. Marcus was Jewish.
Marcus maintained a busy law practice in Branford. His political influence was evident in the administration of former Governor Dannel P. Malloy. Marcus convinced Malloy to appoint his daughter, the controversial Shelley Marcus, to a seat on the Superior Court.
Published May 5, 2022.