Lowell Weicker | |
|---|---|
 | |
| 85th Governor of Connecticut | |
| In office January 9, 1991 – January 4, 1995 | |
| Lieutenant | Eunice Groark |
| Preceded by | William O'Neill |
| Succeeded by | John Rowland |
| United States Senator fromConnecticut | |
| In office January 3, 1971 – January 3, 1989 | |
| Preceded by | Thomas J. Dodd |
| Succeeded by | Joe Lieberman |
| Member of theU.S. House of Representatives from Connecticut's4th district | |
| In office January 3, 1969 – January 3, 1971 | |
| Preceded by | Donald J. Irwin |
| Succeeded by | Stewart McKinney |
| Member of theConnecticut House of Representatives from the 154th district | |
| In office 1964–1969 | |
| Preceded by | Constituency established |
| Succeeded by | Robert D. Rogers |
| Member of theConnecticut House of Representatives fromGreenwich | |
| In office 1963–1964 | |
| Preceded by | Nelson I. Beers |
| Succeeded by | Constituency abolished |
| First Selectman ofGreenwich | |
| In office 1964–1968 | |
| Preceded by | Griffith Harris |
| Succeeded by | John Taintor |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Lowell Palmer Weicker Jr. (1931-05-16)May 16, 1931 |
| Died | June 28, 2023(2023-06-28) (aged 92) Middletown, Connecticut, U.S. |
| Nationality | American |
| Political party |
|
| Spouses | |
| Children | 5 |
| Education | |
| Signature |  |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  United States |
| Branch/service |  United States Army |
| Years of service |
|
| Rank |  First lieutenant |
| Battles/wars | Korean War |
Lowell Palmer Weicker Jr. (/waɪkər/; May 16, 1931 – June 28, 2023) was an American politician who served as aU.S. representative,U.S. senator, and the 85thgovernor of Connecticut.
Weicker unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for president in1980. One of the first Republican members of Congress to express concerns about PresidentRichard Nixon's role in theWatergate scandal, Weicker developed a reputation as a "Rockefeller Republican", eventually leading conservative activists to endorse his opponentJoe Lieberman, aNew Democrat, in the1988 Senate election which he subsequently lost. Weicker later left the Republican Party, and became one of the fewthird-party candidates to beelected to a stategovernorship in the United States at the time, doing so on the ticket ofA Connecticut Party.
Weicker was born in Paris, the son of American parents Mary Hastings (née Bickford) and Lowell Palmer Weicker.[1] His grandfather Theodore Weicker was a German immigrant who co-founded theE. R. Squibb corporation.[2][3] Weicker graduated from theLawrenceville School (class of 1949),Yale University (1953), and theUniversity of Virginia School of Law (1958).[4] He began his political career after serving in theUnited States Army between 1953 and 1955, reaching the rank offirst lieutenant.[5]
Weicker served in theConnecticut State House of Representatives from 1963 to 1969 and asFirst Selectman ofGreenwich, Connecticut, before winning election to theU.S. House of Representatives, in 1968 as a Republican. Weicker only served one term in the House before being elected to theU.S. Senate in1970.[6][7] Weicker benefited from a split in the Democratic Party in that election: two-term incumbentThomas Dodd ran as an independent after losing the Democratic nomination toJoseph Duffey.[8] Ultimately, Weicker won with 41.7 percent of the vote. Dodd finished third, with 266,500 votes—far exceeding Weicker's 86,600-vote margin over Duffey.[9][10]
Weicker served in the U.S. Senate for three terms, from 1971 to 1989. He gained national attention for his service on theSenate Watergate Committee, where he became the first Republican senator to call forRichard Nixon's resignation.[11] He recalled: "People in Connecticut were very much behind President Nixon, like the rest of the country. They thought he could do no wrong, and when I was in Connecticut, I would get flipped the bird all the time, whether it was on the streets or in the car, for the role that I was playing. After Watergate was over, then the needle goes all the way the other way, and I've got huge favorability ratings."[12] Proving this, Weicker was convincingly reelected in1976.[13]
In 1980, he made an unsuccessful bid for the Republican nomination for president.[14]
Weicker was a liberal voice in an increasinglyconservative Republican Party. For instanceAmericans for Democratic Action consistently rated Weicker as having a liberal quotient of 60 to 90% throughout his Senate career, and in 1987 and in 1988 gave him a higher rating than Connecticut's other senator, DemocratChris Dodd.[15] He was critical of the increasing influence of theChristian right on the party; he described theseparation of church and state as "this country's greatest contribution to world civilization",[16] and the party in 2012 as "swung off so far to the right that no moderate could've survived a primary."[12] Weicker voted in favor of thebill establishingMartin Luther King Jr. Day as afederal holiday and theCivil Rights Restoration Act of 1987 (as well as to overridePresident Reagan's veto).[17][18][19] Weicker voted against the nomination ofWilliam Rehnquist asChief Justice of the United States,[20] as well as thenomination of Robert Bork to theU.S. Supreme Court.[21]
Weicker was a strong advocate for therights of the disabled during his tenure in Congress, although he ultimately lost his seat before theAmericans with Disabilities Act of 1990 passed.[22] In later interviews, Weicker identified his work on the Americans with Disabilities Act, funding theNational Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, increasing the funding for theNational Institutes of Health, and funding research intoAZT as his proudest achievements in the Senate.[23][12]
Weicker's rocky relations with establishment Republicans may have roots in receiving strong support from Nixon in his 1970 Senate bid, support repaid in the eyes of his critics by a vehement attack on the White House while serving on the Watergate Committee.[24] Later, his relations with theBush family also soured, andPrescott Bush Jr. (the brother of the then Vice President) made a short-lived bid against Weicker to gain the 1982 Republican Senate nomination.[25] Weicker's well-knownDemocratic sympathies increasingly alienated mainstream Republicans, particularly after Weicker’s effort to prevent the nomination of conservatives to state office, which resulted in a poor showing during the 1986 local elections, and he was defeated in the1988 Senate election byJoe Lieberman.[11][16] Lieberman benefited from the support ofNational Review founderWilliam F. Buckley Jr., and his brother, former New York SenatorJames Buckley; William F. Buckley ran columns in support of Lieberman and circulated bumper stickers with the slogan, "Does Lowell Weicker Make You Sick?"[16]
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Weicker's political career appeared to be over after his 1988 defeat, and he became a professor at theGeorge Washington University Law School. However, he entered the1990 gubernatorial election as the candidate ofA Connecticut Party, running as agood government candidate[26] and drew upon his coalition of liberal Republicans, moderate Democrats, and independent voters.[16] Theearly 1990s recession had hit Connecticut hard, worsened by the fall in revenues from traditional sources such assales tax andcorporation tax.[27] Connecticut politics had a tradition at the time of opposition to a stateincome tax—one had been implemented in 1971 but rescinded after six weeks under public pressure.[28][16] Weicker initially campaigned on a platform of solving Connecticut's fiscal crisis without implementing an income tax. He won in a three-way race with RepublicanJohn G. Rowland and DemocratBruce Morrison, taking 40% of the vote against Rowland's 37% and Morrison's 21%. Weicker lostFairfield andNew Haven County counties to Rowland, but won eastern Connecticut, drawing especially strong support from theHartford metro area, where he had been strongly endorsed by theHartford Courant and by many state employee labor unions. TheLos Angeles Times wrote that support from Democrats was credited for Weicker's victory, reflected in Morrison's third-place finish.[11]
After taking office, with a projected $2.4 billion deficit,[29][27] Weicker reversed himself and pushed for the adoption of an income tax, a move that was very unpopular.[27][16] He stated, "My policy when I came in was no income tax, but that fell apart on the rocks of fiscal fact."[30] Weicker vetoed three budgets that did not contain an income tax, and forced a partial government shutdown, before theGeneral Assembly narrowly passed it in 1991.[28] The 1991 budget set the income tax rate at 6%,[31] lowered the sales tax from 8% to 6% while expanding its base, reduced the corporate tax to 10.5% over two years, and eliminated taxes on capital gains, interest, and dividends.[28][29] It also included $1.2 billion in line-by-line budget cuts,[30] including the elimination of state aid to private and parochial schools, but held the line on social programs.[16] His drastic measures provoked controversy.[27] A huge protest rally inHartford attracted some 40,000 participants, some of whom cursed at and spat at Governor Weicker.[16][26]
Weicker earned lasting criticism for his implementation of the income tax; the conservative Yankee Institute claimed in August 2006 that after fifteen years the income tax had failed to achieve its stated goals.[32] However, he earned national attention for his leadership on the issue, receiving theJohn F. Kennedy Library Foundation'sProfile in Courage Award for taking an unpopular stand, then holding firm.[33] Within two years, the state's budget was in surplus and he was well-regarded among voters.[16] In retirement, he commented, "You've had 19 years to repeal it, and all you've done is spend it."[23][12]
Despite his increasing popularity, he did not seek re-election as governor in 1994, citing wanting to spend time with his children as the reason. His last year in office was marked by a controversy over the firing of the state commissioner of motor vehicles, Louis Goldberg.[26] In 2000, he endorsed SenatorBill Bradley (D-NJ) for President. In 2004, Weicker supported formerVermont Gov.Howard Dean's (D-VT) presidential bid. He expressed sympathy for the budget struggles of GovernorDannel Malloy, drawing a parallel with his own efforts to remedy a fiscal crisis.[23][12]
In his bookIndependent Nation (2004), political analystJohn Avlon describes Weicker as aradical centrist governor and thinker.[34]
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Weicker published a memoir entitledMaverick in 1995, co-written withBarry Sussman.[24][6] The following year, he joined the board of directors forCompuware.[35] In 1999, he became a member of the board of directors for theWorld Wrestling Federation (now known as WWE), and held this position until 2011.[36] Despite the long professional relationship, Weicker did not support former WWE CEOLinda McMahon in either of her unsuccessful bids for the U.S. Senate in2010 or2012.[37]
Weicker served from 2001 to 2011 as president of the board of directors ofTrust for America's Health, a Washington, DC–based non-profit, non-partisan health policy research organization and was formerly a member of the board of directors of United States Tobacco. From 2003 on Weicker served on the board of Medallion Financial Corp., a lender to purchasers of taxi medallions in leading cities across the U.S. He was named to the board through his personal and business relationship withAndrew M. Murstein, president of Medallion.[38]
Weicker considered a rematch against SenatorJoe Lieberman in2006. He objected to Lieberman's support for theIraq War and toldThe New York Times in 2005, "If he's out there scot-free and nobody will do it [run against Senator Lieberman], I'd have to give serious thought to doing it myself, and I don't want to do it."[39] Weicker ultimately did not run, but he endorsedNed Lamont, who defeated Lieberman in the Democratic primary, causing Lieberman to run as an independent.[24] The Lieberman campaign released an ad that borrowed from one aired during the 1988 Senate race, which depicted Weicker as ahibernatingbear ignoring his Senate duties except at election time. In the 2006 ad, Weicker reappeared as a wounded bear while Lieberman's Democratic challenger, Lamont, was depicted as a bear cub sent and directed by Weicker. Lieberman ultimately defeated Lamont in November.[40]
In 2015, despite criticizing Cuba for its lack of "human rights and democratic elections", Weicker described the country'sfree healthcare system as one of its most positive aspects.[41]
During the2016 Republican primaries, Weicker wrote an editorial in theHartford Courant in which he criticized the repudiation ofRockefeller Republicans, the party's alienation of various population groups, and its obstructionist stance in Congress. He stated that the selection ofDonald Trump as their presidential candidate "will complete their slow and steady descent into irrelevance."[42]
In 2020, he filed anamicus brief on the side ofPennsylvania in the notable election caseTexas v. Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania won the case and Biden was sworn in shortly after. Weicker had served with Biden in the U.S. Senate for 16 years.[43]
Weicker lived inOld Lyme, Connecticut, in his later years.[6] He was married three times and had five sons.[6] His first marriage, to Marie Louise Godfrey, lasted from 1953 to their divorce in 1977.[24] He then married Camille Butler, his secretary. Their six-year marriage was described byThe Connecticut Mirror as "tumultuous", and it ended in divorce.[24] His third marriage, to Claudia Testa Ingram, lasted from 1984 until Weicker's death, atMiddlesex Hospital inMiddletown, Connecticut, on June 28, 2023, at age 92.[24][44] Weicker is interred at thePutnam Cemetery in Greenwich, Connecticut.[45] By the time of his death, he was the last living former member of the Senate Watergate Committee.
| U.S. House of Representatives | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromConnecticut's 4th congressional district 1969–1971 | Succeeded by |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Republican nominee forU.S. Senator fromConnecticut (Class 1) 1970,1976,1982,1988 | Succeeded by |
| New political party | A Connecticut Party nominee forGovernor of Connecticut 1990 | Succeeded by |
| U.S. Senate | ||
| Preceded by | U.S. Senator (Class 1) from Connecticut 1971–1989 Served alongside:Abraham Ribicoff,Chris Dodd | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Ranking Member of theSenate Small Business Committee 1977–1981 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Chair of theSenate Small Business Committee 1981–1987 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Ranking Member of theSenate Small Business Committee 1987–1989 | Succeeded by |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Governor of Connecticut 1991–1995 | Succeeded by |
| Class 1 |  | |
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| Class 3 | ||
| Select Committee (1950–1981) | | |
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| Full Committee (1981–) | ||
| International | |
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| National | |
| People | |
| Other | |
