A lifelong resident of the City of Meriden, Senator Thomas P. Gaffey is the son of Martin A. and Joyce St. Arnauld Gaffey. The fourth of six children in the family, Tom is a graduate of local schools. He graduated from St. Rose Parochial School after attending all eight years. An avid athlete at an early age, Tom excelled in football and basketball playing on championship and All Star teams in the former Meriden Junior Football League and the Meriden Deanery Basketball League. He was also active in the Boy Scouts of America rising to the rank of Life Scout and achieving the Community Service Award.

Tom graduated from Francis T. Maloney High School in 1977. While at Maloney he achieved honor roll and lettered in Football, Wrestling and Track where he served as Team Captain. He was awarded the coveted Jacket Award; the highest honor athletes could receive at the school. He was also honored by being awarded the Sgt. Albert Christy Memorial Track Award.

Tom worked his way through college at local businesses while attending Southern Connecticut State University full time. Majoring in Political Science, Tom interned at the State Capitol in Hartford in his senior year. Working for the House Chairman of the General Assembly’s Finance Committee, Tom got his first taste of state government. After graduating with a Bachelor of Arts, Tom was hired to work as an assistant clerk of the Finance Committee. He was later hired to work as legislative aide to House Speaker Irving Stolberg. In 1984 Tom was honored with two of his staff colleagues by the entire membership of the House of Representatives for outstanding staff service. He worked with House Leadership for two years before he volunteered to run for the 82nd district with only five weeks prior to the 1984 election and lost by 51 votes in the Reagan landslide.

After spending seven months working for Public Affairs Consulting in Cheshire, Tom was hired by Governor William A. O’Neill as an executive aide to work at the Department of Environmental Protection. Tom directed DEP’s legislative program and served as staff person on the National Governors Association’s Energy and Environment Committee to advise Governor O’Neill on proposed environment policies. During his tenure working for Governor O’Neill Tom had a major role in developing landmark legislation proposed by the Governor establishing statewide programs on clean water, recycling and open space preservation that were ultimately adopted by the General Assembly.

In 1989, Tom was hired by the Connecticut Resources Recovery Authority as Director of Government Relations. He was directly responsible for all legislative and regulatory matters that came before the Connecticut General Assembly. He worked in that position for six years when he was made Director of Public Relations in charge of all aspects of media relations, publicity, education outreach and writing annual reports. 

Tom was elected to the State Senate in 1994. Since then he has been re-elected seven times and is currently seeking his eighth term. Please click on Tom’s Senate Career for a detailed narrative of his work and accomplishments in the Senate.

In 1997 Tom was promoted to Director of CRRA’s Recycling & Enforcement. He is responsible for two of the largest recycling facilities of their kind in the nation in Hartford and Stratford. His responsibilities include budget, staffing, contract management and compliance, commodity marketing, vendor oversight and procurement. During his tenure as Director, Tom has renegotiated vendor contracts and overseen a recent $10 million expansion and retrofit of the Mid-CT Regional Recycling Facility in Hartford to include state-of-the-art single stream recycling technology. Single stream recycling allows residents the ease of placing all recyclables such as old newspapers, junk mail, magazines and cardboard in the same large container with bottles and cans. CRRA's  recycling facilities also expanded the items accepted including junk mail, over-sized plastic containers and aerosol cans. Tom also launched CRRA's highly popular electronic recycling program where products such as computers are collected for recycling.

Tom has volunteered his time to coach and referee youth sports and to serve on a number of boards and commissions in Meriden including the Meriden Boys & Girls Club. He is an avid workout enthusiast and can often be seen at the Meriden YMCA. Tom is also a member of several Meriden civic and fraternal organizations in including the Lions Club, the Meriden Ancient Order of Hibernians and the St. Mary's Mens Club.

Most important to Tom is that he is the very proud father of three beautiful children.