One might think that Gov. Lowell P. Weicker Jr., an independent third-party governor, would already have his hands full dealing with the Democratic-controlled Connecticut Legislature.

That compares with four vetoes overridden last year, Mr. Weicker's first year in office as a third-party independent governor.

And four times the lawmakers' plans have been rejected by Mr. Weicker, a third-party independent governor without a single member of his tiny party in the General Assembly.

Legislators had become more like independent contractors, people, in other words, with whom a third-party governor can negotiate.

Preconceptions about lame ducks would be shattered, he said, in the same way that he had earlier demolished notions about the ineffectiveness of third-party governors.

Both of the third-party governors in 2001 are gone; one seat went to the Republicans, the other to the Democrats.

More important, Mrs. Groark argues, a third-party governor will be free to push through much-neededprograms that have stalled because of partisan gridlock.

For lawmakers and Mr. Weicker, a third-party independent governor whose insistence on overhauling the tax system by imposing an income tax has driven the conflict, the stakes are immense.

Mr. Weicker, a third-party independent governor, vetoed three budgets last year before the Legislature came up with a $7.6 billion spending plan that satisfied him.

A bearlike man with self-confidence that borders on arrogance, he defied the odds three years ago to become the state's first third-party governor in this century.