Gov. Patrick Lucey, Wisconsin leader, dies at 96
Former Wisconsin Gov. Patrick Lucey, 96, a hard-nosed Democratic politician who served as U.S. ambassador to Mexico in the 1970s and ran for vice president of the United States as an independent in 1980, died Saturday at the Milwaukee Catholic Home after a brief Illness, said his son, Paul.
Lucey was elected governor in 1970 and won reelection in 1974. Then-President Carter selected Lucey to serve as his ambassador to Mexico in 1977, a year before Lucey’s second term as governor would have ended.
In 1980, Lucey became independent candidate John Anderson’s running mate in a failed bid to defeat Carter and Republican Ronald Reagan, who won the election.
In Wisconsin, he will perhaps be remembered most for pushing to merge the University of Wisconsin in Madison with the state college system, a fierce battle that created today’s system of 13 four-year state colleges.
Lucey was born in La Crosse, Wis., in 1918. He worked as a grocery store manager from 1937 until 1940 and served in World War II in the Caribbean. He was elected to the state Assembly in 1948 and became executive director and later chairman of the state Democratic Party. He served as lieutenant governor in 1966.
Lucey remained active in politics and as opinionated as ever well into his 90s. He briefly served with former Gov. Tommy Thompson as honorary co-chairmen for Justice David Prosser’s contentious campaign for the Wisconsin Supreme Court in 2011, but withdrew his support just before the election because of what he called “a disturbing distemper and lack of civility” in Prosser, though he did not cite specifics.
Times wire services
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