Wisconsin governor, Jimmy Carter critic
Patrick J. Lucey, who was twice elected governor of Wisconsin and ran for vice president in 1980 on an independent ticket with John B. Anderson, died Saturday in Milwaukee. He was 96.
His son, Paul, confirmed his death.
Lucey, a Democrat, was governor from 1971-1977. He left office in the middle of his second term when President Jimmy Carter appointed him ambassador to Mexico. Nonetheless, Lucey became a harsh critic of Carter, even before joining the ticket of Anderson, a Republican congressman from Illinois, in a three-way race with Carter and Ronald Reagan.
Reagan was elected, and Anderson finished third, with about 7 percent of the popular vote and no electoral votes.
Patrick Joseph Lucey was born in La Crosse, Wis., on March 21, 1918. His father ran a general store and owned farms. Lucey was drafted into the Army in 1941, serving in the Quartermaster Corps in the Caribbean before he was discharged in 1945. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin the next year and was elected to the Wisconsin State Assembly in 1948.
As the leader of the state Democratic Party in the 1950s, Lucey helped revive the party when the state was mostly Republican. He also created a successful real-estate business in Madison.
He was elected lieutenant governor in 1965 and governor in 1970. He pushed to merge the University of Wisconsin in Madison with the state college system, creating the current system of 13 four-year state colleges.
Besides his son, he is survived by another son, David; a daughter, Laurel Lucey; and nine grandchildren. His wife, Jean, died in 2011.
Metro on 05/13/2014