41 Facts About Jodi Rell

Mary Carolyn Rell was an American politician who served as the 87th governor of Connecticut from 2004 to 2011.

Jodi Rell did not seek re-election in 2010 and left office in January 2011.

Jodi Rell was born Mary Carolyn Reavis in Norfolk, Virginia, the daughter of Foy and Benjamin Reavis.

Jodi Rell attended Old Dominion University, but left in 1967 to marry Lou Rell, a US Navy pilot.

The couple first moved to New Jersey, where Lou Jodi Rell took a position as a commercial airline pilot with Trans World Airlines.

Jodi Rell later attended, but did not graduate from, Western Connecticut State University.

Jodi Rell received honorary law doctorates from the University of Hartford in 2001 and the University of New Haven in 2004.

Jodi Rell encouraged Rell to enter the race to succeed him.

Jodi Rell was elected in 1984, representing the 107th District in northwestern Fairfield County, centered on Brookfield.

Jodi Rell 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.

Jodi Rell 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.

Jodi Rell received approximately 710,000 votes, the highest total for any gubernatorial candidate in Connecticut history.

Governor Jodi Rell was one of many Republicans mentioned as a potential candidate for vice president in the 2008 presidential election.

Governor, Michael Fedele told the media he expected Jodi Rell to run for re-election in 2010.

Jodi Rell announced on November 9,2009, that she would not seek re-election.

Governor Jodi Rell supported abortion rights, and she was supported by the Republican Pro-Choice Coalition and The WISH List, an abortion-rights Republican PAC.

Jodi Rell supported abortion rights embryonic stem-cell research during her tenure as Governor.

Jodi 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.

Jodi Rell delivered the 2008 commencement address at Central Connecticut State University.

Jodi Rell supported the state's constitutional spending cap resisting pressure from groups favoring expanded state government spending which would bypass the cap.

Republican legislators and a few Democrats, including House Speaker James Amann, as well as many others, were skeptical when Jodi Rell claimed her plan would reduce property taxes.

Jodi 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, Jodi Rell announced increased state revenues might make a tax hike unnecessary in 2007.

On June 1,2007, Jodi Rell vetoed a Democratic plan that increased the income tax.

In 2005, Jodi Rell agreed to a plan to revive the Connecticut estate tax, applying to estates worth $2 million or more.

In 2005, Jodi Rell signed into law a campaign finance bill that banned contributions from lobbyists and would provide public financing for future campaigns.

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.

In 2007, Jodi Rell clashed with Democratic lawmakers over state bonding issues.

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

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

Jodi Rell faced another criminal justice issue in July 2007, when two paroled convicts were charged with the home invasion murders of the Petit family in Cheshire.

Ironically, the man Jodi Rell appointed to chair the parole board, Robert Farr, wrote an op-ed for the Hartford Courant defending the state's parole system.

In January 2008, Jodi Rell reached agreement with legislative leaders on a number of criminal justice reforms which were responsive to the systemic failures that occurred before the Cheshire home invasion.

The bill was amended to define marriage as "between a man and a woman" after Jodi Rell threatened a veto.

Jodi Rell signed the bill despite some Republican opposition to it, including from the Chairman of the State Republicans at the time.

Jodi Rell had announced that were the legislature to pass a bill establishing gay marriage in Connecticut, that she would veto the bill.

Governor Jodi Rell responded by saying she would not fight the decision.

In May 2008, Jodi Rell vetoed a bill to raise the minimum wage in the state of Connecticut.

Jodi Rell was married to Lou Jodi Rell in 1967, with whom she had two children, Michael and Meredith.

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