After law school, Blumenthal passed the bar and served as administrative assistant and law clerk for several Washington, D. Blumenthal served one term in the Connecticut House of Representatives from to ; in he was elected to the Connecticut Senate and began service in He was elected Attorney General of Connecticut in and served for 20 years.
During this period political observers speculated about him as a contender for governor of Connecticut , but he never pursued the office. Blumenthal announced his run for the U. Senate after incumbent Senator Chris Dodd announced his retirement. He was sworn in on January 5, After Joe Lieberman retired in , Blumenthal became Connecticut's senior senator. He was reelected in with Blumenthal's brother David Blumenthal is a doctor and health care policy expert who became president of the Commonwealth Fund.
He then attended Harvard College , from which he graduated in with an A. As an undergraduate, he was editorial chairman of The Harvard Crimson. In , Blumenthal received his J. Blumenthal received five draft deferments during the Vietnam War , [ 16 ] first educational deferments, then deferments based on his occupation.
Blumenthal served as administrative assistant to Senator Abraham A. Ribicoff , as aide to Daniel P. Newman , U. At age 31, Blumenthal was appointed United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut , serving from to In , he married Cynthia Allison Malkin. Her maternal grandfather was lawyer and philanthropist Lawrence Wien.
In , when he was 38, Blumenthal was elected to the Connecticut House of Representatives , representing the th district. In , he won a special election to fill a vacancy in the 27th district of the Connecticut Senate , at age In the s, Blumenthal testified in the state legislature in favor of abolishing Connecticut's death penalty statute.
