R. E. Baldwin; Versatile Connecticut Politician

Raymond Earl Baldwin, the only man since the American Revolution to serve as a Connecticut governor, U.S. senator and chief justice of the state Supreme Court, died Saturday. He was 93.

A Republican, Baldwin was considered to be his party’s sacrificial lamb in the 1938 race against four-time Democratic Gov. Wilbur Cross, even though Cross’ administration had been tinged with influence-peddling scandals. Baldwin reluctantly accepted the nomination and was elected governor, defeating Cross by 3,000 votes.

Under Baldwin, the state’s budget was balanced for the first time in 10 years without the creation of new taxes. He was defeated in 1940, but was reelected in 1942 and 1944.

After a short stint as a life insurance executive, Baldwin ran for the U.S. Senate and in 1946 won by one of the biggest margins in Connecticut history. In the Senate, Baldwin was considered brash and liberal and continually attacked what he called the GOP’s “stuffed-shirtism.”

In 1949, he resigned to become an associate justice of the Supreme Court of Errors of Connecticut, the state’s highest court. In 1959, he was named the court’s chief justice.

Earlier Baldwin had been touted as a Republican vice presidential candidate in 1940 and a dark-horse presidential candidate in 1944 and 1948. The 1940 vice presidential nomination went to Sen. Charles L. McNary of Oregon. Baldwin lost to Thomas E. Dewey in 1944 and 1948.