Rowland’s prison return

The last time John G. Rowland entered a federal prison — April 1, 2005 — it was the biggest news in the state, dominating the front pages and leading TV newscasts. Rowland’s fall had been dramatic and sudden. In just two years, the Republican governor had gone from a landslide re-election victory in November 2002 to pleading guilty to federal corruption charges in December 2004.

When Rowland again reported to a federal prison this past Monday to begin serving a 30-month sentence, the result of another conviction, it amounted to a minor news event. The nation and state were focused on the presidential debate scheduled that night. The big political news in Connecticut was a special legislative session to act on a state incentive package to keep Sikorsky Aircraft in Stratford.

The strange story of John G. Rowland includes the inexplicable, the despicable and the tragic, all rolled into one.

A gifted politician, Rowland was brought down the first time by a pay-to-play scandal that included contractors, doing business with the state, providing free improvements to his weekend home. He lost a lot for relatively little.

Upon release from federal prison in 2006, after serving nearly a year, a contrite and newly religious Rowland promised he had changed. He managed to rebuild a living. In January 2008, he took the job of economic development advisor for the city of Waterbury and later landed a gig as the host of a conservative talk radio show.

This made Rowland’s second fall more unfathomable than the first.

He negotiated a bogus $35,000 consulting contract, hiding the fact that what he was really being paid for was to work behind the scenes on the failed 5th District congressional campaign of Republican candidate Lisa Wilson-Foley. The year was 2012.

On Sept. 19, 2014, a jury found Rowland guilty of campaign fraud, conspiracy and obstruction of justice.

This past June, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit in New York City rejected Rowland’s appeal of his conviction and the 30-month sentence imposed by U.S. District Court Judge Janet Bond Arterton in March 2015.

On Monday, Rowland, 59, was given his old prisoner identification number — 15623-014 — when he reported to the federal prison facility in Otisville, N.Y. That’s certainly not the comeback that Rowland may have once envisioned.

Will there be a third act for Connecticut’s fallen governor? Nothing would shock us.