HARTFORD, Conn. — Former Connecticut Gov. Lowell Palmer Weicker Jr., a larger-than-life former U.S. senator and governor who helped create the state income tax while becoming one of the most dominant figures in Connecticut politics for decades, died Wednesday after a short illness, his family confirmed.
“It is with profound sadness and loss that we announce that husband, father, grandfather and great grandfather” died, the family said in a statement.
Blunt and feisty, loved and hated, Weicker stood out in Connecticut politics for decades as a do-it-my-way figure who won political races at the local, state, and federal levels in a long career that stretched four decades from the 1960s into the 1990s.
