Political Career
Rowland's political career began in 1980 when, at age 23, he was elected to the Connecticut State House of Representatives. He held his seat until 1984, when he was elected to represent Connecticut's 5th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives and was reelected in 1986 and 1988.
After losing the 1990 gubernatorial race to Lowell P. Weicker, Jr., Rowland worked as a consultant for United Technologies Corp. He was later elected governor in 1994 at age 37 (the youngest governor in Connecticut history) and later defeated two Democratic opponents: former US Congresswoman Barbara Bailey Kennelly (63%–35%) in 1998 and former State Comptroller Bill Curry (56%–44%) in 2002.
Rowland was the only Republican re-elected Governor of Connecticut in a 50-year period. He was the first governor elected to a third, four-year term after the 1950 election. (Some previous governors did serve at least three terms; each term was one year until 1876, two years after.) His plurality over Kennelly in 1998 was among the largest recorded for any Connecticut politician.
Rowland resigned as Governor of Connecticut effective July 1, 2004. Lieutenant Governor M. Jodi Rell served out the remainder of his term. Rowland is the only Connecticut governor to have ever faced impeachment and he is the only Connecticut governor to have served prison time.
Read more about this topic: John G. Rowland
Famous quotes containing the words political and/or career:
“If all political power be derived only from Adam, and be to descend only to his successive heirs, by the ordinance of God and divine institution, this is a right antecedent and paramount to all government; and therefore the positive laws of men cannot determine that, which is itself the foundation of all law and government, and is to receive its rule only from the law of God and nature.”
—John Locke (1632–1704)
“Each of the professions means a prejudice. The necessity for a career forces every one to take sides. We live in the age of the overworked, and the under-educated; the age in which people are so industrious that they become absolutely stupid.”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)