Weicker, Lowell Palmer, Jr., , 1931–2023 , American politician, b. Paris, France, Yale Univ. (B.A., 1953), Univ. of Virginia School of Law (J.D., 1958). Weicker served in the Army (1953–55) and then completed his law degree. From 1963–69, he served in the Connecticut State House of Representatives and as Greenwich's First Selectman, before his election to the U.S. House of Representatives (1968–70). He was elected Senator in 1970, serving three terms (1971–89). He gained national attention as a member of the Senate Watergate committee, and unsuccessfully ran in the Republican presidential primary in 1980. Increasingly ostracized within his own party because of his traditional, "Rockefeller Republican" positions, he was defeated in his final Senate run in 1988 by Democrat Joseph Lieberman, who won the support of conservative Republicans. After briefly teaching at George Washington Univ. Law School (1988–90), he was elected governor of Connecticut in 1990 running under the umbrella of his own A Connecticut Party; he served one term in this position. Faced with a large state deficit, he initially opposed implementing an income tax, but changed his views on his entering office, leading to further criticism from the state's conservatives. Weicker supported Democrat Ned Lamont for Senate in 2006, but Lieberman held his seat running as an Independent. He has criticized the Republican party for its embrace of Donald Trump , filing an amicus brief during the 2020 campaign supporting the fairness of Pennsylvania's vote tally, helping Joe Biden defeat this challenge to his election.
See his Maverick: A Life in Politics (1995, with B. Sussman).
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