Patrick Leahy (politician)

Patrick Leahy (2009)

Patrick Joseph Leahy [ leɪhiː ] (born March 31, 1940 in Montpelier , Vermont ) is an American politician of the Democratic Party . He has represented the state of Vermont in the US Senate since 1975 , making him the longest serving member of the Senate. There he was chairman of the judiciary committee from 2007 to 2015 and from December 2012 to January 2015 President of the Senate pro tempore .

Career

Leahy's ancestors come from Italy and Ireland and immigrated to Vermont as miners in the 19th century. His parents ran a print shop and encouraged their son, who was born almost blind in one eye, to read. After studying at St. Michael's Catholic College in Colchester - he was the first in the family to graduate with his sister - and studying at the Law Center at Georgetown University , Leahy first worked as a lawyer. He was elected to the Chittenden County District Attorney in 1966 and was re- elected three times. He married by French Canadians derived Marcelle Pomerleau 1962; they have three children.

Leahy ran successfully against Republican Richard W. Mallary for the US Senate in 1974 and at the age of 34 was the youngest Senator ever sent to Washington, DC , and the first Democratic Senator from Vermont since the Civil War . Since then Leahy has been re-elected seven times , most recently in 2016 , including against Richard A. Snelling in 1986 and Jim Douglas in 1992 . His term of office runs until January 3, 2023.

His most unusual re-election was in 1998 against the farmer Fred Tuttle . He had no intention of defeating the Democrat, but called for his election himself. Tuttle had only wanted to prevent the candidacy of multimillionaire Jack McMullen, who had spent most of his life in Massachusetts unrelated to Vermont; Tuttle had defeated McMullen in the Republican primary by ten percentage points. Although he declared in the main election campaign that he did not want to move to Washington at all, Tuttle received 23 percent of the vote; Leahy got 72 percent. Six years later , McMullen was the Republican candidate, but with 25 percent of the vote, he had no chance against the incumbent.

In the Senate, Leahy was Chairman of the Agriculture, Food and Forestry Committee from 1987 to 1995 , and Chairman of the Judiciary Committee from 2001 to 2003 and from 2007 until the loss of a Democratic majority in 2015.

After Daniel Inouye's death on December 17, 2012, Leahy is the longest-serving Democratic Senator, which means that he has been given the function of Senate President pro tempore . On January 6, 2015, after the successful election for the Republicans in November 2014 , he passed the office to Orrin Hatch , who was the senior Republican senator at the time.

Leahy supported Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primary election for the 2020 presidential election .

Leahy is considered one of the most liberal members of the Senate.

In pop culture

The comic strip fan Leahy has appeared in several Batman film productions . He was seen in cameo appearances in Batman & Robin and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and with speaking roles in The Dark Knight and in the animated series Batman . He also played a small role in The Dark Knight Rises . Leahy prepared the US Senate's decision to ban the export of landmines with a Batman comic on the subject that he had commissioned and sent to all senators.

Web links

Commons : Patrick Leahy  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Patrick Leahy in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)
• Official website (English)
• Patrick Leahy in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Leahy's re-election to Ballotpedia in 2016

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Eric Garcia: Patrick Leahy, the Senator from Gotham. In: Roll Call , April 26, 2016 (English).
2. ↑ Senate's Leahy finds peace on his Vermont farm. In: NBC News , 2009 (English); Glenn Russell: Marcelle & Patrick Leahy: A Vermont love story. In: Burlington Free Press , February 14, 2016.
3. ↑ Isabella Grullón Paz and Matt Stevens: A 2020 Democratic Primary Endorsement Digest. In: nytimes.com ( The New York Times ) February 1, 2020, accessed February 16, 2020.