:A Connecticut Party

{{short description|Political party in Connecticut}}

{{Use American English|date = March 2020}}

{{Use mdy dates|date = March 2020}}

{{Infobox political party

|colorcode={{party color|A Connecticut Party}}

|name=A Connecticut Party

|leader=Lowell Weicker

|foundation={{start date|1990}}

|dissolution={{end date|1998}}

|split=Republican Party

|merged=

|headquarters=Greenwich, Connecticut

|ideology=Social liberalism

|position = Center-left

|colors={{color box|{{party color|A Connecticut Party}}|border=darkgray}} Orange

|country=the United States

}}

A Connecticut Party was a political party formed by former Republican senator and gubernatorial candidate Lowell Weicker in 1990.{{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/07/07/nyregion/a-connecticut-party-endorses-lieberman.html |title="A Connecticut Party Endorses Lieberman". New York Times, July 07, 1994 |work=The New York Times |date=July 7, 1994 |access-date=February 14, 2017 |archive-date=January 9, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160109123823/http://www.nytimes.com/1994/07/07/nyregion/a-connecticut-party-endorses-lieberman.html |url-status=live }} Weicker subsequently won the 1990 gubernatorial election and served a single term as governor of Connecticut. The party was intentionally named to fall alphabetically first on the ballot.{{cite book|last1=Bibby|first1=John F.|last2=Maisel|first2=L. Sandy|author-link2=L. Sandy Maisel|title=Two Parties—Or More?: The American Party System|year=1998|publisher=Westview Press|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZmH4Bm2bfBgC&pg=PA101}}{{Cite news|last=Yarrow|first=Andrew L.|date=1992-07-27|title=Third Party Celebrates Its Second Year|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/07/27/nyregion/third-party-celebrates-its-second-year.html|access-date=2020-09-20|issn=0362-4331|archive-date=January 14, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180114202314/http://www.nytimes.com/1992/07/27/nyregion/third-party-celebrates-its-second-year.html|url-status=live}}

In 1992 the party held its first convention with 350 delegates attending. At the convention the party endorsed more than 100 candidates for the General Assembly (about 80 Democrats, 16 A Connecticut Party candidates and a "handful of Republicans").{{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/07/27/nyregion/third-party-celebrates-its-second-year.html?scp=2&sq=A%20Connecticut%20Party&st=cse |title="Third Party Celebrates Its Second Year" by Andrew L. Yarrow, New York Times,July 27, 1992 |work=The New York Times |date=July 27, 1992 |access-date=February 14, 2017 |archive-date=March 3, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303223605/http://www.nytimes.com/1992/07/27/nyregion/third-party-celebrates-its-second-year.html?scp=2&sq=A%20Connecticut%20Party&st=cse |url-status=live |last1=Yarrow |first1=Andrew L. }}

In 1994, Weicker's lieutenant governor, Eunice Groark, carried the ACP banner into the governor's race, but was defeated, finishing third with 18.9% of the vote. In other races for statewide or federal office, the party mostly endorsed Democrats including incumbents Joe Lieberman for US Senate, Richard Blumenthal for attorney general, Joseph M. Suggs Jr. for state treasurer, and Barbara B. Kennelly for representative in the 1st congressional district. The party also endorsed the Democratic Party candidacies of state representative Miles S. Rapoport for secretary of state, and Charlotte Koskoff for representative in the 6th congressional district. In the 2nd congressional district the party ran its own candidate, David Bingham, who finished third in a three-way race with 14.90%. However, without its own statewide officeholder, the party faded from view by the late 1990s. The party stopped running its own candidates in 1998.{{Cite news|date=1998-10-29|title=A Connecticut Party dissolution|pages=303|work=Hartford Courant|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/59630532/a-connecticut-party-dissolution/|access-date=2020-09-20|archive-date=April 29, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240429035804/https://www.newspapers.com/image/177150698/?clipping_id=59630532&fcfToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJmcmVlLXZpZXctaWQiOjE3NzE1MDY5OCwiaWF0IjoxNzE0MzYzMDc5LCJleHAiOjE3MTQ0NDk0Nzl9.IfHZCJILWM5govtKREk502UN3e7zII4d9jPmJIyRXYQ|url-status=live}}

Starting in 2021 there is an ongoing effort to revive the party in West Hartford, however, this new party of the same name shares no legal relation to A Connecticut Party.{{Cite news|author=Walsh, Michael|date=2021-10-25|title='A Connecticut Party' finds middle ground in West Hartford|work=CT Insider|url=https://www.ctinsider.com/news/article/A-Connecticut-Party-finds-middle-ground-in-16561471.php|access-date=2022-03-29|archive-date=April 5, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230405045616/https://www.ctinsider.com/news/article/A-Connecticut-Party-finds-middle-ground-in-16561471.php|url-status=live}}