Janet Peckinpaugh (born 1950) is an American television anchor, reporter, business owner, and two-time political candidate in Connecticut. Personal life Peckinpaugh was born in Muncie, Indiana and grew up in Canton, Ohio. Her father was a small business owner. She had a brief marriage during college that ended in divorce. Janet married Elliot Gerson in 1987 and their son, Alex was born in 1988. That marriage ended in divorce in 1993. Television career After college Peckinpaugh worked briefly for National Airlines. She moved to Washington, D.C. and was a staffer for Senator Richard Stone (D) FL before starting her television career. In 1978 she moved to Richmond, VA and started her career at WWBT-TV as a weather anchor and news reporter. In 1981, she crossed the street to work at WXEX as a co-anchor. Three months later the other stations in the market also had female co-anchors and all the on-air people had contracts. Peckinpaugh's agent Ken Lindner landed a job for her at WTNH in 1984. News of her arrival made it to the front page of The Hartford Courant, and she quickly became a popular figure in Connecticut and in television. In 1987, Peckinpaugh moved to Channel 3 WFSB, based in Hartford. She was a successful evening news anchor with a six figure salary. In 1995, Peckinpaugh's contract was breached when she was taken off the 6pm news. She left at the end of her contract and filed a discrimination lawsuit for breach of contract, oral and written, sex discrimination (her news director said two women could not anchor together when he took her off both the noon and 5:30 news with Gayle King in 1995 and replaced her with a much younger man) and age discrimination. Peckinpaugh won the multimillion-dollar lawsuit against the Washington Post Company on all counts except age discrimination. Peckinpaugh worked as an anchor for WVIT from 1995 until her retirement in December, 2006. Peckinpaugh is still regarded as a popular figure and is said to have been one of the most well-known TV anchors in Connecticut, with name recognition somewhere between 80 and 90 percent in Connecticut. During her career, she interviewed four U.S. presidents. Post-television career After leaving NBC, Peckinpaugh started a media marketing business in Essex, CT. The business, Peckinpaugh Media Group, was designed to advise, guide, and create media productions, such as commercials, for various businesses. She is also a