Lowell P. Weicker, Jr.
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| Lowell P. Weicker, Jr. | |
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| In office January 9, 1991 – January 4, 1995 |
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| Lieutenant | Eunice Groark |
| Preceded by | William A. O'Neill |
| Succeeded by | John G. Rowland |
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| In office January 3, 1971 – January 3, 1989 |
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| Preceded by | Thomas J. Dodd |
| Succeeded by | Joseph I. Lieberman |
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| Born | May 16, 1931 Paris, France |
| Political party | A Connecticut Party; Republican |
| Spouse | Claudia Weicker |
| Profession | Politician |
Lowell Palmer Weicker, Jr. (born May 16, 1931) is an American politician who has served as a U.S. Representative, U.S. Senator, and Governor of Connecticut, and unsuccessfully ran for the Republican nomination for President in 1980.[1] Though a member of the Republican Party during his time in Congress, he later left the Republican Party and became one of the few independents to be elected as a state governor in the United States in recent years. Since his retirement from political office, he has moved more towards the Democratic Party.
Weicker was born in Paris, to American parents and is a graduate of the Lawrenceville School (class of 1949), Yale University (1953), and the University of Virginia School of Law (1958).[2] He began his political career after serving in the United States Army (1953-1955) after the Korean War.
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[edit] Congressman and Senator
Weicker served in the Connecticut State House of Representatives from 1962 to 1966 and as first selectman of Greenwich, Connecticut before winning election to the U.S. House of Representatives, in 1968, as a Republican. Weicker only served one term in the House before being elected to the U.S. Senate in 1970; he served in the U.S. Senate for three terms, from 1971 to 1989, before being defeated for a fourth term by Joe Lieberman. He gained national attention for his service on the Senate Watergate Committee. During his Senate service, Weicker was always regarded as somewhat of a maverick, and a liberal voice in an increasingly conservative Republican Party. President Reagan referred to him in his diaries as "a pompous, no good, fathead" after Weicker played a key role in the Senate's defeat of Reagan's proposed constitutional amendment to permit organized spoken prayer in public schools.
Weicker's tense relations with establishment Republicans may have roots in receiving strong support from President 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. Later, his relations with the Bush family soured, and the brother of then Vice President Bush (Prescott Bush, Jr.) made a short-lived bid against Weicker to gain the 1982 Republican Senate nomination. Finally, conservative animus spilled into overt support for Joe Lieberman in 1988, both from national sources such as National Review (publisher William F. Buckley, Jr., and his brother, former New York Senator James Buckley, both endorsed and campaigned for Lieberman in 1988), but more importantly, from rank-and-file Connecticut Republicans irate with Weicker's effort to make the local party more liberal and prevent the nomination of conservatives to state office, and the poor showing of Weicker-backed candidates in the 1986 elections. Weicker was defeated in the 1988 election by less than 1% of the vote, owing in large part to defections by Republicans to Lieberman.
[edit] Governor
Weicker's political career appeared to be over after his 1988 defeat for reelection to the Senate by Lieberman, and he became a professor at the George Washington University Law School. However, two years later, he ran for Governor of Connecticut as a member of "A Connecticut Party" against Republican John G. Rowland and Democrat Bruce Morrison.
The most volatile issue facing Connecticut at that time was the attempt to implement a broad-based state income tax. Connecticut traditionally had no state income tax except for a fairly steep one imposed on "unearned income" such as interest and dividends. Weicker ran on a platform of solving Connecticut's fiscal crisis without the implementation of the broad-based income tax to include the taxation of earned income. Weicker won 40% of the vote on election day with Rowland taking 37%. Weicker lost Fairfield and New Haven counties to Rowland, but drew especially strong support from the Hartford metro area, where he had been strongly endorsed by the Hartford Courant and by many state employee labor unions. Weicker gained national attention through his upset victory. Democratic candidate Bruce Morrison’s distant third place with 21% showing in a relatively Democratic state shows that Weicker gained a large amount of his support from Democrats.
However, shortly after his inauguration, Weicker reversed his position and became an advocate of the tax that he had campaigned against. Liberal forces applauded his "political courage" and his willingness to "face reality", while conservative forces were equally quick to denounce him in no uncertain terms as a "liar" and a "traitor." The broad income tax he had come to favor passed the General Assembly. However, a huge protest rally in Hartford held shortly after it was implemented and the withholding for it begun, attracted over 50,000 participants. After this, the Assembly passed a measure repealing the broad-based income tax, which was subsequently vetoed by Governor Weicker. The override of the veto fell a vote short, and the massively unpopular tax was kept in effect. Weicker's critics are quick to blame his implementation of the state income tax for Connecticut's loss of one congressional district as a result of the 2000 census (based on a theory that the tax negatively impacted Connecticut population growth).This position was held by the conservative Yankee Institute, which claimed in August 2006 that after 15 years the income tax had failed to achieve its stated goals[3] However, Weicker also has a cadre of supporters who insist that he was the only person who could have solved the state's ongoing fiscal problems and had the courage to address them directly and forthrightly, and also note that the enactment of the income tax was coupled with a reduction of the state's sales tax to a level comparable to that of surrounding states, benefitting Connecticut merchants.
Another criticism of Weicker's support for the state income tax, one not well-reported in the media, is that the new tax law benefitted his wealthy supporters in Fairfield County. The new law reduced the state sales tax by 2 percentage points (from 8% to 6%) and increased the tax on earned income by 4 percentage points (from 0% to 4%), which resulted in a net tax increase for most Connecticut residents. However, two groups of residents enjoyed significant reductions in their tax bills. One of those groups is Connecticut residents who work in another state and pay income tax to that state (mostly residents of Weicker's home county (Fairfield County) who work in New York City). These individuals can subtract taxes paid to the other state from their Connecticut tax bill, usually resulting in no Connecticut tax on their earned income. The second favored group is wealthy individuals with substantial investment income. The new tax law eliminated Connecticut's "Dividends and Capital Gains" tax, which had taxed investment income at rates of 10% to 12%. Because investment income (like earned income) is taxed at only 4% under the new tax law, individuals with large amounts of investment income enjoyed a significant reduction in the amount of tax paid to Connecticut.
Critics of Connecticut's earned income tax claim that since the income tax was implemented studies show that Connecticut has gone from being one of the lowest-taxed per capita of the fifty states to one of the highest, if not "the" highest. However, Weicker supporters contend that only since his implementation of the income tax has there been an adequate stream of state revenue, including funding for areas which Connecticut voters had previously expressed support for in theory but then were unwilling to pay for, and note that Connecticut still has the highest per capita income of any of the 50 U.S. states. Weicker has a reputation, in any event, for courting controversy, and as such is well-liked by his friends and deeply disliked by his detractors. Weicker is generally well regarded by liberals, and is harshly criticized by many Republicans and some Democrats, such as Joseph Lieberman. The income tax controversy may well have prompted Weicker not to seek any further term as governor, but there seems to be little indication that he had ever intended to make that office a career as he had his Senate service.
Supporters of the income tax also pointed to the state spending cap added to the state constitution in 1992 as a benefit from its enactment. In 2007 Governor Jodi Rell proposed a budget that far exceeded the spending cap, causing one observer to remark that 16 years of fiscal discipline were being jettisoned. [1]. Ironically Rell had been an anti-tax state legislator in the early 1990s.
Weicker did not seek re-election as governor in 1994. In 2000, he endorsed Senator Bill Bradley (D-NJ) for President. In 2004, Weicker supported former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean's (D-VT) presidential bid.
[edit] 2006 candidacy for U.S. Senator from Connecticut
Lowell Weicker was said to be considering a rematch against Senator Joe Lieberman in the 2006 election cycle. He objects to Lieberman's support for the Iraq War and noted in a New York Times article published on December 6, 2005, "If he's out there scot-free and nobody will [run against Senator Lieberman], I'd have to give serious thought to doing it myself, and I don't want to do it."
The Lieberman campaign released an ad which borrows from one aired during the 1988 Senate race, which depicted Weicker as a hibernating bear ignoring his Senate duties except at election time. In the 2006 ad, Weicker reappears as a wounded bear while Lamont is depicted as a bear cub sent and directed by Weicker.
On June 18, 2006, Weicker held a fundraiser for Lamont and described himself as an "anti-war activist."
[edit] Other activities
In 1999, Weicker became a member of the Board of Directors for World Wrestling Entertainment, and still holds this position.
Weicker is the current President of the Board of Directors of Trust for America's Health, a Washington, DC-based non-profit, non-partisan health policy research organization, and formerly a member of the Board of Directors of United States Tobacco.
Weicker, a former Republican has endorsed Barack Obama. His successor, Joe Lieberman is a vocal ally of John McCain and his presidential campaign.
| Preceded by Donald J. Irwin |
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Connecticut's 4th congressional district 1969–1971 |
Succeeded by Stewart McKinney |
| Preceded by Thomas J. Dodd |
United States Senator (Class 1) from Connecticut 1971–1989 Served alongside: Abraham A. Ribicoff, Christopher Dodd |
Succeeded by Joe Lieberman |
| Preceded by Gaylord Nelson Wisconsin |
Chairman of the Senate Small Business Committee 1981–1987 |
Succeeded by Dale Bumpers Arkansas |
| Preceded by William A. O'Neill |
Governor of Connecticut 1991–1995 |
Succeeded by John G. Rowland |
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