Sen. Eileen Daily, D-Westbrook, Retiring Over Health Issues

Citing health issues, state Sen. Eileen M. Daily, D-Westbrook, said Tuesday that she will retire from the state Senate upon completion of her current term, her 10th.

Daily, the influential co-chair of the General Assembly’s finance committee, since 1993 has represented the 33rd Senate District — which includes Chester, Clinton, Colchester, Deep River, East Haddam, East Hampton, Essex, Haddam, Lyme, Portland, Westbrook and part of Old Saybrook. Senator Daily is a former first selectman of Westbrook, and before that served on the town’s board of education.

“In the past year holding office has become more physically demanding for me and it would be difficult to initiate a re-election campaign. I’ve been diagnosed with cancer, endured chemotherapy and associated treatment, and am presently recuperating from a broken ankle,” Daily said in a statement.

“During the last weeks of this session I was challenged to maintain the pace required at the Capitol. As I review my 20-year tenure and consider the future, I’ve settled on this plan with complete confidence that it’s time for another voice to speak for this district,” Daily said. “I am also literally blessed with a loving husband and family – Jim and I eagerly look forward to spending more time with our children and grandchildren.”

Daily is the second of 22 incumbent Democratic state senators in a week to announce that she will retire after 2012. Sen. Edith Prague, D-Columbia, announced last week that she will be retiring, as well.

Daily listed among her accomplishments her co-authoring of “breakthrough legislation” creating the Small Town Economic Assistance Program, or STEAP, through which grants are available for public works projects that small towns might otherwise be unable to afford. Daily also “co-authored legislation creating a fund for open space acquisition statewide, and was instrumental in preserving many acres of open space in her district,” the statement said.

However, one open-space issue that caused controversy for Daily was her support of the so-called Haddam land swap. Under that proposal, which outraged many environmental advocates, the state would have transferred 17 acres of public open-space land in Haddam, overlooking the Connecticut River, to private developers in exchange for 87 wooded acres that the developers owned elsewhere in town, away from the river.

Daily pushed legislation providing for the swap through the legislature in 2011, but the swap fell through earlier this year as property appraisals indicated the 17 state-owned acres are worth $1.3 million more than the developers’ 87 acres. Rather than make up the difference in values with cash or other property, the developers withdrew from the deal.

Daily also identified several short- and long-term project as being “among the many gratifying instances of bringing state resources to bear” in her district. They included:

–Sediment detention and ice control in a federal-state Salmon River Flood Control Project.
–Inclusion of the Eight Mile River Watershed within the national Wild and Scenic River program.
–A comprehensive, federal-state dredging project for the Westbrook harbor, which is to begin next fall.
–Acquisition of property in Haddam for new athletic and recreational fields.
–Grants to 33rd District towns through STEAP for infrastructure improvement.

Daily said her office “remains open and available, as always, to help municipal government officials and constituents.”