Ben Davol, a political strategist and former Connecticut state chairman for John McCain’s first presidential run, died this weekend at the age of 58.
Davol, who lived in Mystic, apparently suffered a heart attack Saturday while he was taking part in a charity bike ride for Smilow Cancer Hospital.
He had spoken only weeks before to Connecticut Public Radio to pay tribute to McCain, after the senator’s death from brain cancer.
During that interview, Davol spoke about his own political philosophy, saying politics has become too much about personal attacks.
“It’s really important that people be engaged," he said. "One of the things that’s happened in the last two years is a lot more people are engaged. Democracy is a participatory activity. It is not static. And frankly we’ve been too static for too long, and it’s why we’ve gotten to the point where we’ve gotten to, where everybody’s simply yelling and screaming at each other and forgetting that we’re all Americans at the end of the day.”
Davol had participated in the 100-mile Closer to Free ride to raise money for cancer research in three previous years.
