Mark Davis, longtime Connecticut TV political reporter, dies at 76

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Mark Davis, a television news journalist who covered Connecticut politics for three decades for a local ABC affiliate, has died. He was 76.

Davis died on Monday, WTNH-TV announced on Tuesday. He worked at the station for 36 years and retired in 2020 as chief Capitol correspondent. The cause of death was not disclosed. He had surgery last year for bladder cancer, the station previously reported.

Known for always beating out other reporters to ask the first question at news conferences, Davis covered the most high-profile political stories in the state including the 2000 vice presidential candidacy of U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman, a Connecticut Democrat who ran with Al Gore, and the 2004 resignation of Republican Gov. John Rowland during a corruption scandal.

“The thing I like the best about the job is … when someone walks up to me on the street and says, ‘I like you, Mark Davis. You’re a plain talker,'" he said in a 2017 WTNH video celebrating his 50th anniversary in broadcasting. “I mean that’s our job, is to be plain talkers.”

Davis worked at Boston radio stations in the 1970s before moving to Connecticut in 1980 to take a radio job in Hartford.

He moved to television in 1984 when he joined WTNH. He held various jobs there, including anchor, before becoming a political reporter in 1989. He retired in 2020, citing worries about contracting the coronavirus at his age.

Condolences poured in from political leaders across the state on Tuesday.

“For decades, Mark Davis provided the people of Connecticut with valuable news and information about what was going on in their state, giving them insight into their communities, their government, and their neighbors," Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont said in a statement. “Mark Davis is a Connecticut icon, and his passing is a loss for our state.”

Davis' death came nearly four months after the death of another longtime Connecticut TV political reporter, Tom Monahan, who worked at NBC affiliate WVIT-TV for 45 years. Monahan, who was 84, retired from the station in 2010.