John G. Rowland (born May 24, 1957 in Waterbury, Connecticut) was the Governor of Connecticut from 1995 to 2004. He is married to Patty Rowland , his second wife, and the couple have five children between them.

Personal facts

Rowland's family has lived in Connecticut for more than 200 years. His father and grandfather each served as comptrollers for the City of Waterbury.

Rowland attended Holy Cross High School in Waterbury, where he was on the school's wrestling team. After graduating from Holy Cross, he advanced to Villanova University. He has since received honorary degrees from the University of New Haven, the University of Hartford, and Teikyo Post University.

In January of 2003, Rowland was inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame after receiving the "Outstanding American" Award.

Political facts

A member of the Republican Party, 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, where he served three consecutive terms.

After losing the gubernatorial race to Lowell Weicker, Rowland worked as a lobbyist. He was later elected governor in 1995 at age 37 (the youngest governor in Connecticut history), and later defeated Democratic challengers Former US Congresswoman Barbara Bailey Kennelly 63%-35% in 1998, and Former State Comptroller Bill Curry , 54%-46% in 2002.

Rowland resigned as Governor of Connecticut effective July 1, 2004. Lieutenant Governor M. Jodi Rell is serving out the remainder of his term.

Spousal abuse

Rowland's first wife divorced him before he was elected governor in 1994 and filed a spousal abuse charge in June 1995 . The matter was sealed immediately after it occurred, with speculation that it was sealed so as not to affect the election results of the election. There was a request filed under the FOIA which is available at the state website.

Other allegations of spousal abuse against Rowland have been made but not substantiated.

Corruption scandal

In the first years of Rowland's third term, rumors began circulating that contractors doing business with the state paid for and made improvements to his weekend cottage, that he benefited improperly from the sale of a condominium in Washington, D.C. at an inflated price, that he took gifts from subordinates in state government, and that he took partial ownership in businesses immediately before they were granted state contracts. These eventually led to federal investigations and then indictments of some of Rowland's close aides.

Those aides then cooperated with federal investigators, and the rumors continued that they were after Rowland himself. Rowland denied the allegations publicly.

However, in December 2003, Rowland abruptly appeared on television and admitted that work had been done by contractors on his cottage at no charge, and that his earlier statements to the contrary were untrue. Matters were exacerbated when his wife, Patty Rowland , wrote a caustic/sarcastic/satiric poem deriding the media for investigating her husband's admitted wrongdoing.

He claimed that since the work was done he had paid the contractors in full, but in January 2004, an official investigation began into charges of corruption, and whether he should face impeachment.

On April 30, a special investigation panel started the impeachment process.

On June 21, Rowland's lawyers announced that he would resign. The resignation went into effect at noon on July 1, 2004. The announcement followed a decision (on June 18) by the Connecticut Supreme Court that would have required Rowland to testify before the investigative panel, which could have resulted in him giving evidence against himself in the ongoing criminal investigation.

On December 24, Rowland entered a plea of guilty to stealing honest service . The Hartford Courant reported that the plea came after the assistant US Attorney Nora Dannehy was planning to convene a grand jury to investigate racketeering and conspiracy charges.

The scandal ended when he was sentenced to one year and one day in prison, four months house arrest, three years probation, and community service on March 18, 2005, in New Haven, Connecticut. On April 1, 2005, he entered the Federal Correctional Institution in Loretto, Pennsylvania. His Federal inmate number is 15623-014.