Maverick Senator Lowell P. Weicker
Contents
Watergate Maverick Senator Lowell P. Weicker Jr. Dies At 92: In his capacity as a former U.S. senator and governor of Connecticut, Lowell P.
He was a Republican U.S. senator who tussled with his own party during the Watergate hearings, championed legislation protecting people with disabilities, and later became governor of Connecticut as an independent. He was 92 years old.
The death of Weicker at a hospital in Watergate Maverick Senator Lowell P. Weicker Jr. Dies At 92, Middletown, Connecticut, after a short illness has been confirmed by his family in a statement.
Weicker was a leading figure in Connecticut politics from 1962 until 1994, when he decided not to run for a second term as governor with a 6-foot-6-inch frame and a “shoot from the hip” style.
Many people who met him expressed strong feelings about him. It has been argued that Weicker is either “decisive and courageous” or “inflexible and arrogant,” according to one poll.
Weicker, who served one term as governor in 1990, restructured Connecticut’s revenue system, introducing a new income tax despite vocal opposition. Watergate Maverick Senator Lowell P. Weicker Jr. Dies At 92, As well as drafting a compact with the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, he helped bring casino gambling to eastern Connecticut.
As a leader, he was constantly challenging the status quo. According to Republican state senator Ryan Fazio, who represents Greenwich, the town in which Weicker once served as first selectman, Weicker was not interested in winning popularity contests. Republican legislators like Fazio as well as Democrats, who control the state government and its congressional delegation, praised Fazio’s independent thinking on Wednesday.
He did tremendous good for Connecticut and our country, and he did it in his own way,” said Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal. Former Democratic Governor Dannel P. Malloy praised Weicker for being both “tough and compassionate.”
Weicker’s political marquee was most visible during the hearings of the Senate’s special committee on Watergate in 1973. The freshman senator, one of three Republicans on the seven-member panel, did not hold back in criticizing President Richard Nixon, his own party or the attempted cover-up.
According to Weicker’s 1995 autobiography “Maverick: A Life in Politics,” he did not join the committee to be an anti-Nixon activist, or a tough prosecutor, even though Nixon campaigned for him in 1968 and 1970.
“Events increasingly demonstrated that the Nixon White House was a cauldron of corruption,” Weicker wrote. “Even as disclosures continued to flow, more and more national leaders continued to act as though nothing particularly unusual had occurred.”
During the writing of Weicker’s autobiography, Barry Sussman, a former Washington Post editor, credited Weicker for taking the Watergate scandal more seriously than his Senate colleagues and for investigating whether Nixon had understated his income.
According to Sussman, none of the other Republican senators were interested in conducting any investigations. The same could be said of the Democrats as well.”
In 1931, Weicker was born in Paris, the son of Lowell P. Weicker Sr. — whose family founded the pharmaceutical company Bristol-Myers Squibb — and the former Mary Bickford of a prominent British family.
In 1962, Weicker was elected to the Connecticut House of Representatives after completing college, law school, and military service. Watergate Maverick Senator Lowell P. Weicker Jr. Dies At 92, He began his national political career in 1968 when he was elected to the U.S. Legislative Assembly. He moved up to the U.S. Congress.
In addition to serving on the Watergate committee, Weicker was instrumental in passing the War Powers Act. Having a child with developmental disabilities, Watergate Maverick Senator Lowell P. Weicker Jr. Dies At 92, he sponsored the Protection and Advocacy for the Mentally Ill Act in 1985 and 1988, and introduced legislation that would later become the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Also read: Democrat Tester To Be Challenged By A Former Navy Seal In 2024
Nevertheless, Weicker was at odds with the conservative wing of his party on social issues such as school prayer, busing, and abortion.
In 1988, irritated Republicans backed then-Democrat Joe Lieberman and denied Weicker a fourth term as Senator. Two years later, he returned Watergate Maverick Senator Lowell P. Weicker Jr. Dies At 92, to politics with a new affiliation. As the first – and last – independent governor since the Civil War, he leads a new independent political party called the A Connecticut Party.
Connecticut had a deficit of $963 million when he assumed office. Weicker opposed the imposition of a state income tax during the 1990 campaign, Watergate Maverick Senator Lowell P. Weicker Jr. Dies At 92, stating that it would be like pouring gasoline on a fire. However, his budget secretary convinced him that it was the only fiscally responsible action.
After three state budgets were passed by the legislature, Weicker vetoed them until he achieved his goals. Ultimately, on August 22, 1991, Watergate Maverick Senator Lowell P. Weicker Jr. Dies At 92 lawmakers passed a budget that included a 4.5 percent flat income tax and a reduction in the sales tax from 8 to 6 percent.
It is estimated that more than 40,000 protesters gathered on the grounds of the state Capitol in Hartford on Oct. 5, 1991, calling on legislators to repeal the tax. In addition, furloughed state workers protested Weicker’s budget cuts. According to a nun, he should be “burned forever in the fires of hell” for attempting to cut state aid to parochial schools.
Political Career: Watergate Maverick Senator Lowell P. Weicker Jr. Dies At 92
Weicker was born in Paris in 1931 to a diplomat father and socialite mother. From 1953 to 1955, he served in the U.S. Army after Yale University. He returned to Connecticut and was elected to the U.S. House in 1968. He became Connecticut’s first Republican senator since 1875 in 1970.
Weicker was known for challenging Nixon and his party. He opposed Nixon’s veto of a health care expansion and his Supreme Court choice of Watergate Maverick Senator Lowell P. Weicker Jr. Dies At 92 G. Harrold Carswell. Weicker was the lone Republican senator to vote against Nixon’s budget early in 1973, resulting in his party’s highest public dissatisfaction.
Watergate effect: Watergate Maverick Senator Lowell P. Weicker Jr. Dies At 92
Weicker spoke up during Watergate. One of seven senators who publicly opposed the president, he was one of the first to call for a special prosecutor.
Weicker led the Senate subcommittee that found Nixon had accepted illegal campaign contributions. He relentlessly pursued Nixon’s lawyer, John Dean, and questioned witnesses about the Watergate cover-up.
Legacy
Weicker won the 1982 Connecticut governorship after two more Senate terms. He vetoed nearly 800 laws, including a death sentence bill. He advocated Watergate Maverick Senator Lowell P. Weicker Jr. Dies At 92 stem cell research, homosexual rights, and gun regulation.
Washington and his constituents will remember Weicker’s independence. He stood up for what he believed in no matter what. Politicians everywhere will miss him.
