HARTFORD, Conn. -- Gov. John Rowland's personal attorney said Monday that the governor will announce his resignation tonight.
For months, Rowland has been the subject of investigations into alleged corruption in his administration. The legislative Committee of Inquiry, which was vested with the power to recommend Rowland's impeachment, was scheduled to open another week of testimony Monday.
House Speaker Moira Lyons said in light of the reports, she did not plan to ask the committee for an impeachment recommendation.
"What's the point of impeaching someone who's no longer in office?" she said.
The committee met late Monday morning and immediately went into executive session to confer with its attorneys and decide how to proceed.
Rep. Arthur O'Neill, the inquiry committee's Republican co-chairman, called the pending resignation a sad ending to a brilliant political career.
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"It certainly takes an enormous weight off the shoulders of the committee and of the House of Representatives, and for that matter the whole legislature," O'Neill said. "In that regard, I believe the governor is doing a service to the people of Connecticut by eliminating that process."
O'Neill said he had not reached a conclusion on whether to recommend Rowland's impeachment.
Rowland's resignation would elevate Lt. Gov. M. Jodi Rell (pictured, right) to governor. Rowland's personal lawyer, William Dow III, said Monday that Rowland will make the announcement at 6 p.m. at the Governor's Mansion in Hartford.
An administration source said the resignation would be effective at noon, July 1.
Sen. David Cappiello, R-Danbury, told NBC 30 Connecticut News that Rell would be a good leader.
"I've never heard anyone say anything negative about Jodi Rell," Cappiello told NBC 30's Janet Peckinpaugh.
The news comes after the Connecticut High Court, by a vote of 5-2, issued a ruling Friday that allowed the legislative impeachment committee to subpoena the governor. Rowland fought the subpoena, arguing the panel's actions violated the separation of powers between branches of state government.
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.
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.
Before being elected governor, Rowland had served three terms in Congress and two in the state House.
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.
NBC 30 is reporting that the resignation would go into effect on July 1, 2004.
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