Monday 21 June 2004: Connecticut Governor Rowland announces Resignation, effective 1 July; Lt. Governor Jodi Rell to then become State's second woman Governor.
· In a speech only about six minutes long, delivered outside the Governor's Mansion in the State Capital, Hartford, Governor John Rowland (R-Connecticut) announced earlier this evening that he will resign his office, said resignation to take effect at Noon Eastern Time (1600 UTC) on Thursday 1 July, at which time Lieutenant Governor M. Jodi Rell- also a Republican- will be sworn in and officially succeed to the Governorship, becoming only the second woman to hold Connecticut's highest office.
· In his remarks, Rowland gave no reason for his resignation, saying simply that it was now time to take a "new path" in his life, but the combination of recent testimony damaging to Rowland- who has been investigated in relation to gifts made to the Governor by state contractors and state employees- before the Select Committee of Inquiry, set up by the Connecticut House of Representatives to determine if impeachment of the Governor was desirable, as well as last Friday's decision by the State Supreme Court that Rowland was constitutionally required to answer to a subpoena from the Select Committee, is believed to have been a main impetus to the Governor's decision to now step down. Now that the Governor has formally announced his resignation, impeachment by the lower house of the State's General Assembly followed by a trial in the State Senate is a moot point.
· The State's next Governor, 58 year old Jodi Rell, was first elected to her current post of Lieutenant Governor as the second half of the GOP ticket in Rowland's first gubernatorial victory back in 1994. Prior to that, she had served in the State House of Representatives.