Malloy counsel Bronin leaving to explore Hartford mayoral run

Luke Bronin is resigning next month after a two-year stint as the top legal adviser to Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, a move that allows him to explore a run for mayor of Hartford.

“Many fellow Hartford residents have reached out and encouraged me to run for mayor, and I’m considering it,” Bronin said Tuesday. “I won’t make a decision until I leave.”

If he runs, Bronin would be challenging Mayor Pedro Segarra for the Democratic nomination for mayor.

His resignation as general counsel to Malloy takes effect Jan. 7, the day that Malloy begins his second term as governor. No successor has been named.

Bronin, 35, was named to the post after Andrew McDonald resigned to accept Malloy’s appointment to the Connecticut Supreme Court. Bronin, who grew up in Rye, N.Y., and Greenwich, served in Afghanistan from September 2010 to April 2011 as a Naval reservist assigned to an anti-corruption task force. He previously was chief of staff to the president of The Hartford’s property and casualty operations.

He and his wife, Sara C. Bronin, a tenured professor at the University of Connecticut School of Law, live with their three children in a brownstone they refurbished across from Bushnell Park, a short walk to the State Capitol and City Hall.

The couple met after both were named Rhodes Scholars in 2001. Each has a master’s degree from Oxford and a law degree from Yale, which he also attended as an undergraduate.

Sara Bronin, who also is a licensed architect, already serves in city government as the chairwoman of the Planning and Zoning Commission. She has been on the faculty at UConn law in Hartford since 2006.