Originally Posted by NY Times
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) -- Gov. John G. Rowland will announce his resignation Monday night, amid a federal corruption investigation and a growing move to impeach him, his lawyer told The Associated Press.
The governor was planning to announce his resignation on a live television address to the state at 6 p.m., lawyer William Dow III said Monday. Rowland's resignation would elevate GOP Lt. Gov. M. Jodi Rell to governor. Dow would not specify when the resignation would take effect.
Earlier, a spokesman for the governor's office refused to comment.
Rowland, 47, a Republican easily re-elected to a third term in 2002, admitted late last year that he lied about accepting gifts and favors from friends, state contractors and state employees. But he continued to insist that he did nothing in return for the gifts.
``No one has even said I've compromised this office,'' he said in a recent Associated Press interview. ``I've not done anything inappropriate for anybody.''
State and federal authorities have been investigating the allegations, and a special House committee also has been considering whether to recommend Rowland's impeachment. The committee was scheduled to begin its third week of hearings later Monday but may now end those hearings, the co-chairman said Monday.
``It does not make a lot of sense for the committee to do anything more,'' said state Rep. John Wayne Fox, D-Stamford, one of the two chairmen of the inquiry committee. ``We still have an obligation under our resolution to report back to the House, but I don't think it make any sense to continue. My opinion, we ought to stop today.''
The news comes several days after the state Supreme Court ruled that the legislative panel could compel the governor to testify.
Rowland was once the nation's youngest governor -- he was 37 when first elected in 1994 -- and considered a rising star in the GOP. He is a former chairman of the Republican Governors Association and was rumored to be considered for several positions in the Bush administration.
But 2003 began badly for Rowland and rapidly descended into nightmare.
Last March, Rowland's former deputy chief of staff, Lawrence Alibozek, pleaded guilty to federal charges he steered state business to certain contractors in exchange for gold and cash.
That plea -- and the governor's subsequent acknowledgment that a federal grand jury had subpoenaed stacks of documents relating to several major projects and a politically connected contractor -- set the stage for a spring and summer of embarrassing revelations about discounted vacations he had taken at homes owned by people doing business with the state.
One of those people was William Tomasso, a principal in the contracting firm under scrutiny by the grand jury.
Rowland paid $9,000 to the state Ethics Commission to settle its probe of the vacation stays. Two months later he paid $6,000 to the state Elections Enforcement Commission to settle a complaint over charges he made to a state Republican Party credit card.
Rowland admitted no wrongdoing in either case.
But in mid-December Rowland admitted he had lied about who paid for improvements to a one-story, lakeside cottage he purchased in 1997. Asked Dec. 2 about who paid for the work, Rowland insisted he and his wife, Patricia, had taken out several loans to cover the bills.
Ten days later he issued a statement apologizing to the Capitol press corps and admitting friends, employees and some state contractors -- including the Tomassos -- had paid for renovations, including a new heating system, a hot tub, work on the kitchen, ceiling and deck.
But he said those helping him got nothing in return.
``I'm not going to sell my integrity or my 25 years of public service for a box of cigars. I mean, it's silly to even think that,'' he said, referring to a state contractor's claim he gave Rowland boxes of Cuban cigars to help speed up payments to his electrical company.
Before being elected governor, Rowland had served three terms in Congress and two in the state House.
The governor's plans to resign were first reported Monday morning by WTNH-TV.
Only seven governors in U.S. history have been impeached and removed from office. The last was Arizona's Evan Mecham, a conservative former car dealer whose campaign accepted a secret $350,000 loan from developers. A campaign finance charge was dismissed, but the unpopular political outsider was impeached in 1988 on an unrelated charge of trying to thwart an investigation into an alleged death threat made by a state official.
