Home From Prison, Rowland Says He Won’t Run Again

By Susan Haigh

Associated Press

WEST HARTFORD — Back home from federal prison, former governor John G. Rowland told The Associated Press on Monday that he will not seek future public office.

The once-popular, three-term Republican returned to Connecticut on Monday, three days after finishing a prison sentence for corruption. Rowland, 48, served more than 10 months of a yearlong sentence at a prison camp in Loretto, Penn.

Although the former governor ruled out public office, Rowland said he wants to help people and possibly do work similar to what he did in prison, where he taught inmates job skills and provided counseling.

“When you lose your freedom, it’s a very humbling experience,” he told the AP. “It puts a different perspective on things. It puts a different perspective on your life and your future and how you look at things.”

Although felons cannot hold public office in some states, Connecticut restores voting and election privileges once felons are out of custody. Rowland can apply for the right to vote and hold office after he completes four months of house arrest monitored with an ankle bracelet and 300 hours of community service.

A Waterbury native, Rowland is frequently mentioned as a future mayoral candidate because he has remained so popular there. Asked about running for mayor, Rowland said, “No, I don’t think that’s going to happen.”

He later said he did not plan to seek any future public office.

Asked if he planned to stay in Connecticut, Rowland said he doesn’t have the luxury of making long-range plans right now because he has to finish his home confinement.

Rowland resigned in July 2004 in the wake of a federal corruption probe and possible impeachment. He pleaded guilty in December 2004 to one count of conspiracy to steal honest services, a combination of mail and tax fraud, admitting that he accepted more than $100,000 in vacations and chartered trips to Las Vegas from a state contractor and a jet company that received a state tax break.

Wearing blue jeans and looking thinner and grayer than he did a year ago, Rowland stopped briefly to talk with reporters after gathering up parcels left by the letter carrier at his porch.

He later told the AP he doesn’t know when or if he’ll be fitted for an electronic monitoring ankle bracelet for his four months of home confinement. He will be allowed to leave his home for work and to attend church services. Rowland must also complete 300 hours of community service.

Rowland said he had checked in with his federal probation officer.

The former governor said he has no immediate plans.

“We still have a long way to go,” Rowland said. “I’m not sure what’s going to happen over the next year or two. It’s going to be hard on our family, but we’ll do the best we can.”

Rowland said he hopes to prove to the people of Connecticut that he’s truly sorry that he let them down.

“I hope that through my actions, in the years to come, I’ll be able to be a better person and do things to enrich other people’s lives,” he told AP.