Joel Schweidel, former independent candidate for governor, dies at 61

Joel W. Schweidel, a prominent union negotiator who ran briefly for governor against Republican M. Jodi Rell, died Wednesday after a battle with Lou Gehrig’s Disease. He was 61.

Schweidel earned his name in state government as a tough, sharp negotiator for one of the state’s most prominent unions – AFSCME Council 4. As the union’s chief negotiator, Schweidel knew the smallest details of every contract and labor issue. A rotund figure, he was well known at the state Capitol for his blunt-spoken ways.

Schweidel was involved in the union negotiations in 1997 that led to a now-criticized 20-year deal between then-Gov. John G. Rowland and the State Employee Bargaining Agent Coalition, known as SEBAC. The deal was hailed at the time by Rowland and the unions as the best deal possible. In subsequent years, even Rowland’s supporters said the deal lasted too long and proved to be too costly for the state on health and pension benefits.

On the day that the historic deal was reached on February 3, 1997, Schweidel was quoted as saying that the overall pension liability for the state would remain the same.

“No one’s individual pension is touched,” Schweidel told The Hartford Courant.

Dan Livingston, the chief negotiator for the unions, said that day that “we consider this a victory for both sides. We believe health care costs for both sides would have gone up dramatically without this agreement.”

The much-criticized deal was scheduled to last until 2017 before it was extended another five years by Gov. Dannel Malloy and the state employee unions.

More than seven years after the SEBAC deal, Schweidel came to the state Capitol as one of nearly 1,000 people to shake hands with Rell – the new governor who had just taken over from the scandal-scarred Rowland. As part of her introduction to a state where polls had shown that many residents didn’t know enough about her in July 2004, Rell stood for three hours in the Capitol rotunda as citizens smiled for photographs with the state’s second female governor.

One of the surprising attendees in the crowd of nearly 1,000 well-wishers was Schweidel, who at the time was trying to take Rell’s job. Since filing his official papers in February 2004, Schweidel had been running for governor as an independent who wanted to install a $5 toll at seven highway entrances to the state to raise $300 million to $500 million annually.

“I think she was surprised to see me,” Schweidel said after waiting about 45 minutes before seeing Rell. “I don’t normally have the tolerance to wait for much. … There are a lot of people who need their faith in government restored.”

Rell’s open house was part of what she called the healing process after the scandals and impeachment hearings involving Rowland, who left office only two weeks earlier.

While he had a lawyer’s grasp of the nuances of contractual minutiae, Schweidel objected when anyone referred to him as a lawyer.