Cecil Heftel

Cecil Heftel

Cecil Landau Heftel (born September 30, 1924 in Chicago , Illinois , †  February 5, 2010 in San Diego , California ) was an American politician . Between 1977 and 1986 he represented the state of Hawaii in the US House of Representatives .

Early years

Cecil Heftel attended the Chicago public schools. He then studied until 1951 at Arizona State University . He later also attended the University of Utah and New York University . Eventually he settled in Honolulu , where he founded the Heftel Broadcasting Society. He then acquired several television and radio stations in different parts of the United States. During the Second World War he was a soldier in the US Army . Even after the war, he continued his business career in television and radio.

Political career

Heftel became a member of the Democratic Party , whose Democratic National Convention he attended as a delegate in 1972. In 1976 he was elected to the US House of Representatives as his party's candidate for the first constituency of Hawaii. He took up this mandate on January 3, 1977. After a few re-elections he was able to exercise it until his resignation on July 11, 1986. He was a member of a commission that investigated what was going on in the Philippines and was instrumental in the removal of President Ferdinand Marcos .

In July 1986, he stepped down from Congress to run for governor of Hawaii. This candidacy failed in his party's primary elections. After that he retired from politics for some time. In 1998 he spoke up again when he protested against the current practice of campaign financing.

Web links

• Cecil Heftel in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)