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Terry McAuliffe as DNC Chairman.

Terence Richard "Terry" McAuliffe (b. February 9, 1957) is an American businessman and political consultant. He served as chairman of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) from 2001-05. He was the chairman of the Hillary Clinton for President committee.

Biography

Family and education

McAuliffe grew up in Syracuse, New York and graduated from Bishop Ludden Junior/Senior High School in 1975. His father was treasurer of the local Democratic organization. He started his first business, McAuliffe Driveway Maintenance, at the age of 14. In 1979, he received a bachelors degree from Catholic University in Washington, D.C. After graduation, McAuliffe took a job in the 1980 presidential reelection campaign of Jimmy Carter, and at the age of 22 became the national finance director. It was during this campaign that McAuliffe wrestled an eight-foot, 260-pound alligator for a $15,000 contribution. After the campaign, McAuliffe enrolled in law school at Georgetown University. He received a Juris Doctor degree in 1984.

McAuliffe served as Chairman of the Federal City National Bank by the age of 30.

McAuliffe lives in McLean, Virginia, with his wife Dorothy and five children.

Terry McAuliffe

Politics

From 1980-1981, McAuliffe served as Deputy Treasurer and Director of Finance at the Democratic National Committee. From 1985-87, McAuliffe served as finance director of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. During the 1988 presidential campaign, he served as finance chairman for Dick Gephardt. During the 1996 election cycle, he served as national finance chairman and then national co-chairman of the Clinton-Gore re-election committee. In 1997, he was chairman of the 53rd Presidential Inaugural Committee. In 1999 he was chairman of the White House Millennium Celebration.

In 2000, McAuliffe chaired a tribute to outgoing President Bill Clinton, which set a fundraising record for a single event, raising $26.3 million. The same year, he chaired the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles.

Chairman of the Democratic National Committee

Terry McAuliffe at 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver

In February 2001, McAuliffe was elected as the chairman of the DNC. He served until February 10, 2005, covering a period of impressive fundraising wherein the DNC raised more than $578 million, and emerged from debt for the first time in party history. McAuliffe built a new headquarters and created a computer database of more than 170 million potential voters known as "Demzilla". Under McAuliffe, the DNC founded the Women’s Vote Center to educate and mobilize women voters and the Voting Rights Institute to protect voting rights. McAuliffe also founded the “Something New” program, an initiative to mobilize younger voters.

In 2002, candidate for Governor of New York, Carl McCall accused McAuliffe and the DNC of shorting his campaign of funds. McCall was trailing incumbent George Pataki by 11 points in polls. McAuliffe said, "I've got to put the resources where we can win elections," describing the races to defeat Florida Governor Jeb Bush and re-elect Senator Jean Carnahan of Missouri as his priorities. [1] Pataki and Bush were reelected and Carnahan was defeated by Jim Talent in the 2002 gubernatorial and Senate elections. Democrats also lost seats in the House.

The DNC hosted six presidential primary debates in 2003, including the first-ever bilingual presidential debate in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The DNC also partnered with the Congressional Black Caucus to hold a debate in Baltimore, Maryland. Massachusetts Senator John Kerry, the Democratic presidential nominee, narrowly lost the 2004 presidential election. Once again, Democrats lost seats in Congress.

After 2005

On January 23, 2007, his book, What A Party! My Life Among Democrats: Presidents, Candidates, Donors, Activists, Alligators, and Other Wild Animals, was released and debuted at #5 on the New York Times Bestseller list and #1 on the Washington Post's list.

As a former party chairman, McAuliffe was one of the roughly 796 superdelegates to the 2008 Democratic National Convention.

In 2008, media reports indicated that McAuliffe was considering a run for Governor of Virginia in 2009.

Controversies

Template:Totally-disputed-section Like many longtime political activists, McAuliffe has been targeted by critics. Nothing has ever led to any finding of wrongdoing on McAuliffe's part. Moreover, many view the attacks as politically motivated.

Global Crossing

McAuliffe has been criticized by some political commentators including conservative Matt Drudge, Frank Rich, Rick Perlstein, conservative writer William Safire, and conservative-turned-liberal Arianna Huffington for investing in Global Crossing, a company that went bankrupt in 2002 amidst what a New York Times reporter, covering a Republican-led hearing in the House, called "many of the same accusations that have made Enron into one of the largest corporate scandals in history." McAuliffe had no ties to Enron. In fact, on July 20, 2002, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, Marc Racicot, gave McAuliffe a clean bill of health on the issue of Global Crossing, telling Fox News reporter Rita Cosby, "You want to know the truth of the matter -- I haven't seen anything that was done that was wrong by Terry McAuliffe."

In 1997, McAuliffe made an angel investment of $100,000 in a company known then as Atlantic Crossing. The company had very little value at the time; it was an idea. "Like many investors in the late 90s, I was on the lookout for investments related to the Internet," he said. By 1999, the company had changed its name to Global Crossing and went public, and he sold a portion of the investment. Howard Kurtz of CNN reported that McAuliffe sold his shares years before there was "any hint of trouble with the company," thus clearing him of any possible wrongdoing.

Political critic Rick Perlstein -- in a review published in the New York Times of McAuliffe's memoir, What a Party! -- wrote that McAuliffe's involvement with Global Crossing compromised McAuliffe's ability to attack Republican ties to the Enron scandal during the 2002 midterm congressional elections. He noted, "Some hoped that President Bush’s ties to Enron would make 2002 a Democratic year." While the Democrats lost the Senate that year, neither Perlstein nor anyone else claims that McAuliffe's inability to attack would have changed that. In July 2002 RNC Chairman Racicot stated, "Terry McAuliffe is eminently well qualified to speak for the Democratic party. The fact of the matter is, we all ought to in this country make certain that we avoid the kind of suggestion or innuendo or implication that somehow impugns the character of people for having been associated with some kind of a business entity and there's no proof whatsoever to suggest anything inappropriate."

External links

• Official web site for "What A Party! My Life Among Democrats: Presidents, Candidates, Donors, Activists, Alligators, and Other Wild Animals"