Governor Rowland: More Visible This Year, Is He A Plus Or Poison To

Candidates?
Former Governor's Visibility Has Increased In This Political Year By Giving Political Advice
Or Money To Candidates
Jon Lender, Government Watch
The Hartford Courant
July 25, 2010

Republican gubernatorial front-runner Tom Foley says that ex-Gov. John G. Rowland has been
informally helping him to gather political support around Rowland's hometown of Waterbury.

In the same locale, but on the other side of state politics, Democratic Waterbury Mayor Michael
Jarjura last month received $100 each from Rowland, his wife and three children - for a total of
$500 - to help finance Jarjura's candidacy for the Democrats' nomination for state comptroller in
the Aug. 10 primary, public records show.

As the summer campaign season has heated up, Rowland's name increasingly has been popping
up - raising his statewide profile a bit, six years after a 2004 corruption scandal chased him from
office and put him in federal prison for 10 months.

Rowland never disappeared completely. The Republican lives in Middlebury and works in
Waterbury in a $90,000 city-subsidized job as economic development coordinator at the local
chamber of commerce -all with Jarjura's blessing. But generally he's noticed mostly in his home
area.

Lately, though, he's been seen and heard more - for example, by filling in earlier this month for
radio talk-show host Jim Vicevich on WTIC 1080 AM. And now his name has surfaced in
connection with Foley and Jarjura.

It's led some political insiders to speculate that Rowland is "working his way back" or, in other
words, trying to "re-emerge" - not necessarily to become an active participant in politics again,
but at least to build up a respectable image after his public downfall.

Rowland says that's not what's happening. "I'm not emerging in any way, shape or form," he said
in a phone interview Friday night. "When candidates call me and ask me to sit down and give
advice, I'm happy to do it." Many have talked to him this year, he said, including all three
candidates, or rerpresentatives of their campaigns, in the scheduled Aug. 10 primary campaign -
Foley, R. Nelson "Oz" Griebel, and Lt. Gov. Michael Fedele.

"I've met with Oz [Griebel], I met with Mike Fedele's campaign people," and with other
candidates for both statewide office, the U.S. House of Representatives, and state legislature,
Rowland said. "I'm not involved in anybody's campaign," he said, but some candidates "just want
to pick my brain" for the benefit of "any experiences I've had" in a 25-year political career.

"Let me restate - I'm not trying to re-emerge or emerge. I respect people who are willing to run
for public office," he said, and willing talk to them "if they ask me for advice about issues."
Some have speculated about whether Rowland might ever run for public office again, such as
mayor of his native Waterbury, where the scandal has seemed to hurt his image less. Rowland
wouldn't deal with the subject either way - either to say he would consider it, or to rule out the
possibility. "I'm not getting into any political stuff," he said.

Asked if he prefers one Republican gubernatorial hopeful over the others, Rowland said he's not
endorsing anyone publicly. As to backing Jarjura in the comptroller's race, Rowland said his
family's recent donations were consistent with his past support for the mayor, adding that "I
haven't advised Jarjura at all."

Griebel's campaign verified Rowland's statement that he had talked to the ex-governor, but
Fedele's did not. "I am unaware of any meetings between Gov. Rowland the Fedele campaign,"
said Fedele campaign manager Jim Conroy.

As Conroy's comment suggests, any public association with Rowland still seems to carry a level
of political risk, and lately his name has brought Foley and Jarjura some discomfort.

In Foley's case, it came up in an on-air interview on Connecticut Public Radio with "Where We
Live" host John Dankosky on July 15. In the context of a discussion about his opposition to the
state's system of publicly financing political campaigns, Foley said it was "never shown" that
Rowland used his state position to enrich contractors who had given him personal benefits such
as home improvements and airplane flights.

It was an awkward moment that earned Foley criticism from Internet commentators, who noted
that Rowland had acknowledged such behavior when he entered a guilty plea in federal court in
December 2004.

Polls show Foley as the front-runner over Fedele and Griebel in the Aug. 10 Republican primary.
Foley seemed more the cautious candidate last week when asked in a phone interview if he still
believed what he had said to Dankosky on the radio. "I believe the point I was trying to make
was that nothing about John Rowland's problems that I was familiar with was related to taking
political contributions, and that it wasn't about the election law" - which Foley challenged in
court unsuccessfully in recent weeks.

He acknowledged that Rowland "has been supportive of my candidacy in Waterbury. I think he's
well-known to people there in the Republican Party, and I think he's helped generate enthusiasm
for my candidacy in the Waterbury area." But Foley said the ex-governor has no campaign role.

Even discussing any social associations with Rowland brought hesitation from Foley, a
multimillionaire Greenwich businessman who earned a reputation as a major Republican
fundraiser. Were he and Rowland friends? "No, we weren't social friends," Foley said. "I'd
helped raise money for him" and other Republican candidates, he said. It was through such
activities that he got to know Rowland, he said, but "other than that I didn't have a relationship
with him."
Whatever the nature of their connection was, however, it was enough for Rowland to put Foley
on a special commission to examine the state's divorce and child-custody laws in 2001 and 2002,
when Foley was personally embroiled in a bitter custody fight with his ex-wife over their son.

Foley is an experienced pilot of private planes, and he was asked if he ever flew Rowland
anywhere. "No," he said flatly. But, in answer to a follow-up question, he said, "I actually did fly
with him on a flight to Atlantic City, but it wasn't my plane." He said it was in the 1990s, it was a
small group of people in a social setting, and he thought it was before Rowland became governor
in 1995. But, as to details such as whose private plane it was and who invited him, Foley said,
"You know, I'm actually not sure."

An association with Rowland may not be as sensitive for Foley, who's looking for Republicans'
votes in the primary, as it may be for Jarjura in the Democratic primary against intra-party rival
Kevin Lembo, who holds the official state post of health care advocate. Lembo already has tied
Jarjura to Rowland by criticizing his support of the taxpayer-funded Waterbury post for the
scandal-tinged Republican ex-governor.

Jarjura said Friday that he hadn't personally solicited the Rowlands' contributions to his current
campaign and that Rowland has "no role " in his comptroller's effort.

If elected as comptroller, would Jarjura put Rowland on the office's public payroll, as he
supported doing in the Waterbury economic-development position?

"No, absolutely not," Jarjura said. "There's no possibility."

In his pre-scandal days as governor, Rowland had supported Jarjura's candidacy for mayor, and
Jarjura once called Rowland "the best governor Connecticut has ever had." Last week, Jarjura
said Rowland had paid his debt to society for the "major blunder" he made, has apologized for it,
and is "moving on with his life." He added: "Why does this guy keep getting beat over the head
by other politicians?"

Jon Lender is a reporter on The Courant's investigative desk, with a focus on government and
politics. Contact him at jlender@courant.com, 860-241-6524, or c/o The Hartford Courant, 285
Broad St., Hartford, CT 06115.