GOP chief who taunted the FBI dies at 71

On his way to prison in January 1994, the 44-year Richard Foley said he knew how his obituary would begin: There would be a mention of his service as a state lawmaker and Republican state chairman, followed by the fact he was convicted of taking a bribe.

Dick Foley wasn’t known for flinching. He was the blue-collar guy who led the state GOP from 1989 to 1992, when Connecticut was a presidential swing state and the party struggled to decide if its future was in Fairfield County or the postindustrial Naugatuck Valley.

When it became clear in late 1992 that he was in the crosshairs of the FBI, Foley called a press conference to call the feds bumblers and bureaucrats. “We’re going on offense. Put up or shut up,” Foley said. “They picked on the wrong mick.”

The quote ended up on the wall of a semi-secret office the FBI kept for a time in Waterbury, a corruption target. Two years later, Foley was convicted of four felonies in connection with $25,000 he accepted from two corrupt businessmen, a developer and a banker.

When asked for an interview before he left for prison, Foley said, “Yeah, why not?”

Foley, 71, was found dead at his condominium in Danbury on Saturday. His friend, Ben F. Proto, said Foley’s daughter called with news of his death. No cause was immediately evident.

An Irish memory

He came head-on at pretty much everything, from politics to prison. He had an Irish memory, forever remembering friends and foes. He was a state representative, a salesman and a student of human behavior

His conviction was overturned on appeal, and Foley managed a second act in political life as a lobbyist and campaign consultant. He attempted a comeback last year, challenging J.R. Romano for state chair of the GOP. He won and lost plenty of political bets. In 1991, he was convinced that passage of the income tax by a Democratic legislature and an independent governor, Lowell P. Weicker Jr., would be the GOP’s ticket to the majority. It wasn’t.

Proto said that Foley was steeped in Connecticut’s political history and was among the very young Republicans who, in the early 1970s, made up Gov. Thomas Meskill’s “kiddie corps.”

Chris Healy, a former GOP state chairman, said Foley prized — and exuded — loyalty.

“He was the most-loyal, steadfast person you could find,” Healy said Saturday. “I am grief-stricken because I lost one of my best friends. You either loved him or hated him, and those of us who loved him, we would have done anything for him. ... You always ended up laughing during a conversation with Dick Foley, at some point.”