NATION : Weicker to Run as Independent for Governor of Connecticut

Former Republican Sen. Lowell P. Weicker Jr. said today that he will run for governor as an independent, seeking to become the first person in modern state history to win the office without party backing.

Weicker, an outspoken liberal who was ousted from the Senate two years ago by Democrat Joseph Lieberman, said he decided to run as an independent to take his case “to the streets of Connecticut.”

“I think I can read numbers as good as the next guy and I know where my strength lies. My strength lies on the streets of Connecticut,” he told a packed Capitol news conference.

Weicker, the only Republican elected to statewide office since 1970, has been teaching at George Washington University in Washington and serving as head of a Virginia foundation that promotes medical research since his ouster from the Senate.

He said he is launching the political comeback attempt as an independent with a goal of attracting support from Democrats and unaffiliated voters who have been crucial to his past victories.

“Both political parties in Washington and in Connecticut don’t want to handle the tough answers and the tough problems because they’re afraid of the heat it will generate on their parties. I’m willing to go ahead and take that kind of heat,” Weicker said.