Chic pike
Mayer Jacob "Chic" Hecht (born November 30, 1928 in Cape Girardeau , Missouri ; † May 15, 2006 in Las Vegas , Nevada ) was an American politician of the Republican Party who ruled the state of Nevada from 1983 to 1989 in the US Senate represented.
Life
Chic Hecht received his bachelor's degree from Washington University in St. Louis in 1949 . He then attended the Military Intelligence School in Fort Holabird ( Maryland ) and worked as an agent for the United States Army Intelligence during the Korean War from 1951 to 1953 . For his service during this time, he was inducted into the Hall of Fame of the Army Intelligence Service in 1988. After his military service ended, Hecht moved to Nevada. There he entered the retail business as well as the hotel and banking sectors. He also campaigned for the construction of the Hecht Synagogue in Jerusalem.
Political career
Hecht's political career began in 1966 when he was elected to the Nevada Senate . He was the first Republican in more than 25 years to win a seat in the democratically dominated electoral district in and around Las Vegas. Hecht remained in the Senate from 1967 to 1975, where he served as the Republicans' opposition leader (minority leader) between 1969 and 1970 .
In 1982 , Hecht competed in the US Senate election against Howard Cannon , who had been in office since 1959 , after beating four competitors in the primary . With a share of 50.1 percent, he was then able to surprisingly defeat Cannon and succeed him in Congress on January 3, 1983 . He spent there only one term until January 3, 1989, as he only achieved 46.1 percent of the vote in the attempted re-election and thus defeated Nevada's Governor Richard Bryan . After leaving the Senate, he was appointed Ambassador of the United States to the Bahamas by President George Bush to succeed Carol Boyd Hallett , which he remained from August 23, 1989 to March 1, 1993.
Commitment to Soviet Jews
Before the summit between US President Ronald Reagan and the Soviet party leader Mikhail Gorbachev in Reykjavík in October 1986 , Hecht met the president and gave him a list of the names of Soviet Jews whom he was supposed to campaign for Gorbachev to leave. Hecht later stated that Reagan had told him after the meeting that Gorbachev had agreed as long as the matter did not become public. Hecht, himself of Jewish faith, subsequently stated that he had been encouraged to take the initiative by Rabbi Menachem Schneerson .
Relationship with John Kerry
A few years after his political career ended, Hecht's name reappeared in the run-up to the 2004 presidential election . They remembered an incident of July 12, 1988: At that time, Hecht was participating in a lunch for a Republican working group when suddenly a piece of apple from his fruit salad stuck in his throat. He began to choke and stormed out of the dining room into the hallway of the restaurant, where his party colleague Kit Bond , a Missouri Senator, tried in vain to help him. At that moment, John Kerry , Democratic Senator from Massachusetts , stepped out of an elevator. Kerry grasped the situation and used the Heimlich handle four times , with which he pushed the piece of apple out of Hecht's throat. After Kerry's rescue operation became public, Hecht received a call from Henry Heimlich who had invented the handle. The doctor told the politician that if Kerry had reacted just 30 seconds later, Hecht might have fallen into a vegetative state for the rest of his life.
“This man saved my life. He knew exactly what to do, ”said Hecht looking back. At the time, Hecht and Kerry were declared political opponents: The Senator from New England was chairman of the Democratic Campaign Committee and had identified Hecht's seat as one of the main targets in the upcoming Senate election . "Something like that can only happen in America: he works against me to inflict a defeat on me and then saves my life," Hecht later summed up the irony of the event.
Until his death, Chic Hecht called John Kerry every December 25th and thanked him for his intervention. Although he was considered a conservative Republican and had donated a large amount for the re-election of George W. Bush , he promised Kerry that he would campaign for him if he asked. One of his daughters, who had been involved in the election campaigns of Ronald Reagan and George Bush, acted out of gratitude as a fundraiser for the Democrats.
End of life
After his time as ambassador, Chic Hecht returned to Las Vegas and pursued his business activities there. In 2005 he was diagnosed with prostate cancer , which he succumbed to on May 15, 2006.
Web links
- Chic Hecht in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)
- Chic Hecht in the nndb (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Article in the Bulletin Journal of July 16, 1981, pages 2 & 9 (English)
- ↑ www.ourcampaigns.com
- ↑ www.chabad.org: “Quiet Diplomacy” with Soviet Union
- ↑ Las Vegas Sun: Former GOP Sen. Hecht owes life to Democratic candidate Kerry
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Pike, chic |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Hecht, Mayer Jacob (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American politician |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 30, 1928 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Cape Girardeau , Missouri |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 15, 2006 |
| Place of death | Las Vegas , Nevada |