Oz Griebel’s life lessons for Connecticut

Among the many curiosities of the last gubernatorial election was that Oz Griebel assumed the position of outsider, yet was perched between Ned Lamont and Bob Stefanowski as the candidate with the most experience dealing with Connecticut’s machinations.

Politically, Lamont represented traditional Connecticut blue, while Stefanowski staunchly embraced causes true to the minority red party.

It put Griebel, who was running as an independent, in what has become an elusive position in America in this century: the middle.

Griebel, who died Wednesday at age 71 after being struck by a motor vehicle while jogging in Pennsylvania, once referred to himself as a “liberal Republican.” During his primary run in 2010, he drew criticism from fellow Republicans for having donated to Democratic campaigns.

His platform tilted closer to Lamont’s two years ago, so much so that the eventual winner acknowledged on the trail that voters might gravitate toward Griebel because “he’s sane.”

Griebel always seemed like the adult in the room, pragmatic yet irresistibly charming.

“Oz Griebel’s heart was with the State of Connecticut — he loved this state and the people who live in it, and he enthusiastically believed that its best days are ahead,” Lamont said after Griebel’s death. “I loved listening to his spirited energy whenever he spoke about the opportunity to make Connecticut and the Hartford region an even better place to live and work. We can all take a page from his commitment to work across the aisle and remove politics from policy.”

Expect similar warm reflections to come from both sides of that aisle. State Senate Minority Leader Len Fasano, R-North Haven, noted that Griebel “was always a gentleman.”

Striving to dodge politics in traffic around the state Capitol was just one of many valuable lessons from the Griebel textbook.

From the time Griebel took the helm of the newly formed Transportation Strategy Board (TSB) in 2000 through the end of his term five years later, the panel pitched more than 50 projects designed to improve transportation in Connecticut. Confounding as it may sound, it took a panel to draw lawmakers’ attention to the traffic they were getting stuck in every day.

Over time, Griebel earned credit for the concept of putting a lockbox on transportation funding, and for finally getting new rail cars in Connecticut.

Dannel Malloy broke up the TSB when he took the governor’s office in 2010. When Malloy eventually reframed it as the Transportation Finance Panel and drafted familiar faces, Griebel compared it to the film “Groundhog Day,” with the same issues and characters.

A college pitcher at Dartmouth, Griebel never stopped tossing ideas to improve the state. Since the election, Griebel became involved with the Serve America Movement, which embraced causes such as open primaries and voting by mail.

Love Connecticut. Don’t let politics get in the way. Relentlessly pursue solutions. That was “The Essence of Oz.” It’s a philosophy that needs to be pulled back from the outside.

Love Connecticut. Don’t let politics get in the way. Relentlessly pursue solutions. That was “The Essence of Oz.”