Geraldine Ferraro

Geraldine Ferraro
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York's 9th district
In office January 3 1979 – January 3 1985
Preceded by	James J. Delaney
Succeeded by	Thomas J. Manton
Democratic Party Vice Presidential nominee (1984 election)
Preceded by	Walter Mondale
Succeeded by	Lloyd Bentsen
United States Ambassador to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights
In office 1994–1996
President	Bill Clinton
Personal details
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	John Zaccaro

Geraldine Anne Ferraro (born August 26 1935) is a Democratic politician and a former member of the United States House of Representatives. She is perhaps best known as the first and only woman to date to represent a major U.S. political party as a candidate for Vice President.

Ferraro was a teacher, lawyer, and member of the Queens County District Attorney's Office prior to being elected to the United States Congress in 1978. In 1984 former Vice President and Presidential candidate Walter Mondale selected Ferraro to be his running mate in the upcoming election. The positive polling Mondale received when she joined him did not last until November, and they were defeated in an electoral landslide by incumbent President Ronald Reagan and Vice President George H. W. Bush. Following the 1984 elections she ran two unsuccessful campaigns for a seat in the United States Senate.

Ferraro is currently a principal with the Blank Rome government lobbying and strategic communications firm, and also part of the financial team for the presidential campaign of the U.S. Senator from New York, Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Biography

Ferraro lived in this house in Newburgh until she was ten.

Ferraro was born in Newburgh, New York. Her father, an Italian immigrant, died when she was eight; her mother was a seamstress. Ferraro received her undergraduate degree from Marymount Manhattan College, and a J.D. degree from Fordham University School of Law, going to classes at night while working as a second-grade teacher in public schools during the day. Ferraro graduated from law school in 1960, one of only two women in her graduating class.

She is married to real estate agent John Zaccaro, a native of Queens County who attended Our Lady Queen of Martyrs, a Catholic School in Forest Hills. She raised three children before joining the Queens County district attorney's office. There she started the Special Victims Bureau.

She was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 1994.

She is currently a principal of Blank Rome Government Relations LLC and serves on the Board of Goodrich Petroleum.

Political career

House of Representatives

Career as a congresswoman

Ferraro was elected to the House of Representatives from New York's 9th Congressional District in Queens in 1978 and served three two-year terms, compiling a generally liberal voting record on social and economic issues. While in Congress she served on the Public Works Committee, the Budget Committee, and the Post Office Committee. She also served a term as the Secretary of the House Democratic Caucus, the first woman in that position. She was the Chairwoman of the Platform Committee for the 1984 Democratic National Convention.

Diplomatic mission in Nicaragua

Congresswoman Ferraro took a trip to Nicaragua and El Salvador in January 1984, when she had time to speak to the contras, and blamed the situation in Central America on the policies of the Reagan Administration. Said Rep. Ferraro at the Vice Presidential Debate, "We're not moving toward a more secure area of the world. As a matter of fact the number of troops that the Sandinistas have accumulated since the administration started its covert activities has risen from 12,000 to 50,000, and of course the number of Soviet and Cuban advisors has also increased. I did not support the mining of the harbors in Nicaragua; it is a violation of international law. Congress did not support it and as a matter of fact, just this week, the Congress voted in cut off covert aid to Nicaragua unless and until a request is made and there is evidence of need for it, and the Congress approves it again in March. So if Congress doesn't get laid on, the covert activities which I opposed in Nicaragua, those CIA covert activities in that specific country, are not supported by the Congress. And believe it or not, not supported by the majority of people throughout the country."

Then-speculation on political future

Ferraro was seen as someone with a bright political future; she was even speculated to run for president or vice president, and achieved the latter, however she did not win the general election. Any speculation about a potential rise to the Speakership was stomped out when she did not return to the House after her White House run. Ferraro was a potential Senate candidate, and ran twice, losing extremely close primary races. However, she won an ambassadorship to the United Nations during the presidential administration of Bill Clinton.

Vice Presidential candidacy

Main article: United States presidential election, 1984

Selection

Mondale selected Geraldine Ferraro to be his Vice Presidential candidate on July 12 1984. Mondale made his decision after interviewing several candidates, including Colorado Sen. Gary Hart, San Antonio Mayor Henry Cisneros, San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein, Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley, Philadelphia Mayor Wilson Goode, Kentucky Governor Martha Layne Collins, and Senator Lloyd Bentsen. At the time, the choice of Ferraro was viewed as a gamble, and pundits were uncertain whether the choice would result in a net gain or loss of votes for the Mondale campaign. In her acceptance speech upon being chosen Mondale's running mate, Ferraro said, "The daughter of an immigrant from Italy has been chosen to run for vice president in the new land my father came to love."

Positive polling

Prior to choosing a running mate, Mondale was 16 points behind Reagan. After choosing Ferraro, the score went even . Her popularity helped Mondale, but eventually he dipped in the polls once more. Ferraro was quite popular and could easily match Bush in polls, however Mondale was less liked. Mondale was previously the Vice President under Jimmy Carter.

Views on abortion

As a Catholic, Ferraro came under fire from the Roman Catholic Church for being pro-choice on abortion, a position in conflict with Catholic moral doctrine. She strongly defended her position at the debate, which earned her rapturous applause and even admiration from her opponent.

Controversy

Mondale's campaign was already far behind the Republican ticket when Ferraro joined the ticket, and one issue that hurt her credibility was her disclosure of her husband's tax returns. In July 1984, she said she would release both her and her husband's tax returns. Yet a month later she backtracked and said she would release only her returns. Then she backtracked again, saying her husband would release "a financial — a tax statement" on August 20. But she must not have consulted her husband, because Zaccaro initially refused. To her astonishment news surfaced that when she was a baby both parents had been under federal criminal indictment for gambling; the charges were dropped when her father died. After the election the House Ethics Committee officially criticized her mishandling of campaign finances.

Vice Presidential debate

Main article: 1984 Vice Presidential Debate

There was only one Vice Presidential debate between Congresswoman Ferraro and Vice President Bush, which was proclaimed mostly neutral by the press.

Support of Voting Rights Act

Ferraro criticized Reagan's actions of refusing to support, and later signing, the Voting Rights Act. At the debate, after Ferraro issued such criticism, Sander Vancour politely cut her off in order to please ask the enthusiastically applauding audience to calm down.

Experience

Ferraro's experience was questioned at the debate and she was asked how her three terms in congress stacked up with Bush's experience (two House terms, career as an ambassador to China and the United Nations, CIA Director, and four years as Vice President).

Well, let me first say that I wasn't born at the age of forty-three when I entered Congress. I did have a life before that as well. I was a prosecutor for almost five years in the district attorney's office in Queens County and I was a teacher. There's not only what is on your paper resume that makes you qualified to run for or to hold office. It's how you approach problems and what your values are. I think if one is taking a look at my career they'll see that I level with the people; that I approach problems analytically; that I am able to assess the various facts with reference to a problem, and I can make the hard decisions. I'm intrigued when I hear Vice-President Bush talk about his support of the president's economic program and how everything is just going so beautifully. I, too, recall when Vice President Bush was running in the primary against President Reagan and he called the program voodoo economics, and it was and it is. We are facing absolutely massive deficits; this administration has chosen to ignore it; the president has failed to put forth a plan to deal with those deficits and if everything believes that everything is corning up roses, perhaps the vice-president should join me as I travel around the country and speak to people. People in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, are not terribly thrilled with what's happening in the economy because they're standing in the light of a closed plant because they've lost their jobs. The people in Youngstown, Ohio, have stores that are boarded up because the economy is not doing well. It's not only the old industries that are failing, it's also the new ones. In San Jose, California, they're complaining because they can't export their high-tech qualities — goods — to Japan and other countries. The people in the Northwest — in the state of Washington and Oregon — are complaining about what's happening to the timber industry and to the agriculture industry. So, so things are not as great as the administration is wanting us to believe in their television commercials. My feeling, quite frankly, is that I have enough experience to see the problems, address them and make the tough decisions and level with people with reference to those problems.

Controversy with Barbara Bush

Barbara Bush, when asked what she thought of Ferraro said she couldn't respond, however, the word she was thinking of rhymes with "rich". Later that evening Mrs. Bush called Ferraro to apologize for allegedly calling her a "witch". Ferraro mentioned this in an article she wrote about Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign in a December 25, 2006 – January 1, 2007 issue of Newsweek, where she understandingly terms Bush's words as protecting her husband; Mrs. Bush had said this after an open microphone had caught George H.W. Bush bragging that he had "kicked a little ass" following the mostly neutral debate.

Electoral votes

Although Ferraro was the first woman to be on a major-party ticket for one of the nation's two highest offices, she was not the first woman to receive an electoral vote. That woman was Theodora Nathan, a Libertarian Vice Presidential candidate who got the support of Roger MacBride, a Virginia elector who in 1972 voted for her instead of the pledged Spiro Agnew. However, Rep. Ferraro was the first woman to receive more than one electoral vote.

Political career following the 1984 race

Senate campaign, UN Ambassadorship, published works, and television

She published an autobiography, Ferraro: My Story, in 1985, and in 1992 ran unsuccessfully for Democratic nomination for a New York seat in the U.S. Senate. She finished second in the heated primary behind State Attorney General Robert Abrams. She placed ahead of Rev. Al Sharpton and New York City Comptroller and former congresswoman Elizabeth Holtzman in the primary. She has said that if she had not run for Vice President, she would have sought the Senate seat in 1986.

In 1993 President William Jefferson Clinton appointed Ferraro ambassador to the United Nations Committee on Human Rights.

From 1996 to 1997, she was co-host on Crossfire, a political commentary show on the cable television network CNN. She continues to provide political commentary as a guest on national television news program. As of March 2008 she holds a position as a commentator on Fox News Channel.

In 1998, Ferraro ran for the Senate again. She started off as the frontrunner for the nomination but lost ground in the late summer months. She finished second behind Congressman Charles Schumer and placed ahead of New York City Public Advocate Mark J. Green. Schumer went on to defeat D'Amato in the general election.

Business career

Ferraro served as president of G&L Strategies, a management consulting firm, and is now a senior managing director of the Global Consulting Group, a corporate public relations firm. In 1998, she was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, the second-most common form of blood cancer after leukemia. She has become an avid supporter of the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation. She is an honorary board member of the National Organization of Italian American Women. She lived for many years in Forest Hills Gardens, Queens and recently moved to Manhattan. She joined Blank Rome Government Relations LLC as a principal on February 1, 2007.

She is on the board of Goodrich Petroleum.

Endorsement of Hillary Clinton's 2008 Presidential run

In an issue of Newsweek Magazine she announced her support for speculated presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton. In the article, entitled "What We Learned the Hard Way", she thanked Walter Mondale for taking down the "Men Only" sign from the White House. She compared his selecting her as a running mate to Roman Catholic Al Smith's running for president in 1928 and opening the door for Catholic John F. Kennedy in 1960.

Ferraro wrote an e-mail on March 29, 2007 to members of Team Hillary to try to gather support for Hillary Clinton's fundraising as the March 30 deadline for donations approached.

She has vowed to help protect Clinton from Republican attacks, such as the Swiftboat campaign that destroyed nominee Senator John Kerry in the close-cut 2004 presidential election. During Clinton's successful bid for the senate, Ferraro campaigned with the former First Lady, helping her secure the votes of Queens residents.

In addition to her endorsement, Ferraro also serves as a member of Clinton's campaign finance committee.

Comments about Barack Obama's presidential candidacy

In March of 2008, with Hillary Clinton trailing rival Barack Obama in the Democratic presidential primaries, Ferraro made the assertion in an interview that "[i]f Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position. And if he was a woman (of any color) he would not be in this position. He happens to be very lucky to be who he is." Obama supporters responded to her comments with angry calls for a repudiation from Clinton, with Obama himself later calling the comments "divisive and "patently absurd." Facing calls for Ferraro to step down from the Clinton campaign, Clinton later distanced herself from the comments but refused to call for Ferraro's resignation, saying she did not agree with them and that "[it was] regrettable that any of our supporters on both sides, because we've both had that experience, say things that kind of veer off into the personal."

In a follow-up interview with the Daily Breeze, Ferraro stood by her comments and suggested that she is being attacked for this because she is white: "Any time anybody does anything that in any way pulls this campaign down and says let's address reality and the problems we're facing in this world, you're accused of being racist, so you have to shut up," Ferraro said. "Racism works in two different directions. I really think they're attacking me because I'm white. How's that?"

Ferraro also stated on Fox News that Obama should not attack her comments about his race because he needs her to raise money for him if he wins the Democratic Party nomination.

Ferraro's comments regarding Obama have been criticized as hypocritical, considering that Ferraro's gender was a factor when the Mondale campaign considered her as the Democratic Vice Presidential candidate in the 1984 Presidential election. Ferraro dismissed the alleged hypocrisy by saying "I was talking about historic candidacies and what I started off by saying (was that) if you go back to 1984 and look at my historic candidacy, which I had just talked about all these things, in 1984 if my name was Gerard Ferraro instead of Geraldine Ferraro, I would have never been chosen as a vice presidential candidate. It had nothing to do with my qualification."

Ferraro had also made similar statements about former presidential candidate Jesse Jackson during the 1988 presidential election cycle, claiming that if "Jesse Jackson were not black, he wouldn't be in the race.".

Ferraro further insinuated on Fox News with Bill Hemmer that being black is easier than being a woman when running for office, using Shirley Chisholm as an example. This was in response to Hemmer's question that people could make the same case that Hillary Clinton has benefited from being a woman just as Obama has benefited from being black as she claims.

Electoral history

New York's 9th congressional district, 1978

• Geraldine Ferraro (D) - 51,350 (54.17%)
• Alfred A. DelliBovi (R) - 42,108 (44.42%)
• Theodore E. Garrison (Liberal) - 1,329 (1.40%)

New York's 9th congressional district, 1980

• Geraldine Ferraro (D) (Inc.) - 63,796 (58.34%)
• Vito P. Battista (R) - 44,473 (40.67%)
• Gertrude Geniale (Liberal) - 1,091 (1.00%)

Battista also ran on Conservative and Right to Life tickets

New York's 9th congressional district, 1982

• Geraldine Ferraro (D) (Inc.) - 75,286 (73.22%)
• John J. Weigandt - 20,352 (19.79%)
• Ralph G. Groves (Conservative) - 6,011 (5.85%)
• Patricia A. Salargo (Liberal) - 1,171 (1.14%)

1984 Democratic National Convention (Vice Presidential tally)

• Geraldine Ferraro - 3,920 (99.90%)
• Shirley Chisholm - 3 (0.08%)
• Scattering - 1 (0.03%)

United States presidential election, 1984

• Ronald Reagan/George H. W. Bush (R) (Inc.) - 54,455,472 (58.8%) and 525 electoral votes (49 states carried)
• Walter Mondale/Geraldine Ferraro (D) - 37,577,352 (40.6%) and 13 electoral votes (1 state and D.C. carried)
• David Bergland/Jim Lewis (L) - 228,111 (0.3%) and 0 electoral votes

Democratic primary for the United States Senate, 1992

• Robert Abrams - 426,904 (37.02%)
• Geraldine Ferraro - 415,650 (36.04%)
• Al Sharpton - 166,665 (14.45%)
• Elizabeth Holtzman - 144,026 (12.49%)

Democratic primary for the United States Senate, 1998

• Chuck Schumer - 388,701 (50.84%)
• Geraldine Ferraro - 201,625 (26.37%)
• Mark Green - 145,819 (19.07%)
• Eric Ruano-Melendez - 28,493 (3.73%)

See

Sources

• National Women's Hall of Fame