Hartford Lawyer to Run for Attorney General

(Hartford, May 8, 2010)

Attorney Stephen Fournier of Hartford filed papers last week formalizing his candidacy for the office of attorney general. Fournier, admitted to the bar in 1978, has had a diverse practice over the years, beginning with an assignment as Staff Attorney in the University of Connecticut School of Law Criminal Clinic and culminating with the closing of his real estate practice last year.

Fournier was nominated as the Green Party candidate for attorney general in April, and he consented to have his name appear on the nominating petition of the Independent Party. The Green Party nominee will appear on the ballot without petitioning, because the party's 2006 candidate Nancy Burton received more than one percent of the vote.

Fournier announced his candidacy at Hope Out Loud Coffeehouse, where he sings and plays every month to benefit the local antiwar movement. He told his audience that he is running principally to restore the rule of law, and he promised to take on rogue government at all levels. He described himself as "furious" over the lawlessness of public officials and the corruption of public policy.

Fournier calls himself a “people’s lawyer,” tending to take the side of the employee over the employer, the borrower over the bank, and the individual over the state. He has tried cases to the court and to the jury and handled civil claims of various kinds. He closed his doors after “one too many conflicts with crooked bankers.” Fournier is currently employed in food service at Portland Secondary School, maintaining only a part-time law practice.

Fournier has been involved in the peace movement since his discharge from the Air Force in 1970. He is the principal author of the Connecticut Green Party platform, presently awaiting adoption by the membership, which calls on state government to:

• Cut back privatization and boost public employment
• Open enrollment in the state employee health plan to all residents, pending the effective date of universal coverage under the federal health insurance reform law.
• Bring home the National Guard.
• End the war on drugs.
• Abolish the death penalty.
• Maintain funding for clean energy and energy efficiency initiatives, facilitate the creation of green jobs with targeted environmental protection programs, create incentives for the construction of green buildings, and enact legislation to protect watersheds, regulate stormwater, and improve and expand bus and rail transit.

“The office of attorney general should be occupied by a political independent,” says Fournier. “From an attorney’s point of view, there’s an inherent conflict of interest between representing the people of the state and fealty to a major political party. How do you restrain rogue government when half the wrongdoers are your political allies? I have no political allies in government.”