Former Governor and Senator Lowell Weicker Endorses Farrell

Weicker: endorsing Farrell. File photo Lowell P. Weicker Jr., the maverick Republican who served as Greenwich's first selectman in a long career that also saw him as a congressman, senator and Connecticut governor, today endorsed Democratic Westport First Selectwoman Diane G. Farrell.

Weicker, 73, and Farrell scheduled an afternoon news conference in Stamford.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Weicker faulted Farrell's opponent, Republican Rep. Christopher Shays, for his support of the war in Iraq and large budget deficits.

"On both of these counts, Chris is just absolutely folded into the Republican tent," Weicker said. "It's something I just cannot accept."

Weicker said Shays worked for him when he was a senator and Weicker supported Shays in his first bid for Congress.

But Weicker said Shays has become a less independent Republican, a point Farrell has hammered in her bid against Shays.

"Chris Shays today is a very pale reflection of the man I supported 17 years ago," Weicker said.

Farrell has good grass-roots experience as first selectman of Westport, Weicker said.

The endorsement of Farrell is not his first move against Shays. Weicker contributed to Shays' last Democratic opponent, Stephanie Sanchez.

Weicker was elected to the Connecticut general assembly in 1962, 1964, and 1966 and was elected first selectman of Greenwich in 1963 and 1965.

As a Republican member of Congress, he served from 1969 to 1971. He was not a candidate for re-election to the House in 1970 but was elected to the Senate where he served from 1971 to 1989.

An unsuccessful candidate for re-election in 1988, Weicker was elected governor of Connecticut as an independent in 1990 and served four years.

After pushing through the controversial creation of the state's first income tax, he did not seek re-election in 1994.

Weicker also made an aborted run for the GOP presidential nomination in 1980 and briefly flirted with making an independent bid for the White House in 1996 before endorsing President Clinton for re-election.

With the open encouragement of Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura in the summer of 1999, Weicker considered making a run for the Reform nomination.

In October 1999, Weicker announced that he would not seek the Reform Party nomination because he did not want to get in the middle of the "food fight" between the Perot-Buchanan and Ventura-Gargan forces.

Weicker subsequently endorsed Bill Bradley for president in January 2000. This year, he was a Howard Dean supporter. Dean has also endorsed Farrell.

Posted October 19, 2004 11:49 AM | TrackBack