Paul G. Kirk

Paul G. Kirk

Paul Grattan Kirk Jr. (born January 18, 1938 in Newton , Massachusetts ) is an American politician of the Democratic Party . From September 2009 to February 2010 he represented the state of Massachusetts as the appointed successor to the late Edward Kennedy in the US Senate . He did not run for the official by-election for the Senate seat. From 1985 to 1989 Kirk chaired the Democratic National Committee , the party organization of the Democrats.

Private and professional career

Paul Kirk is one of five children of Paul Grattan Kirk Sr., an associate judge on the Massachusetts Supreme Court . He first attended Roxbury Latin School , a Latin school in Roxbury , and then graduated from Saint Sebastian's School , a secondary school in Needham , and Harvard College and Law School at Harvard . In 1965 he was inducted into the Massachusetts Bar Association. In 1974 he married Gail Loudermilk, with whom he now lives in Marstons Mills . His great uncle, William Henry O'Connell, was Archbishop of Boston.

Kirk first came into contact with politics in 1969 when he became an assistant on the staff of US Senator Edward Kennedy. He stayed that way until 1977; that year he joined Sullivan & Worcester LLP as a partner in Boston. As a result, he was a member of the executive boards of several companies; so he was among other things from 1989 to 1997 a member of the Board of Directors of ITT Corporation ; he later took on the same role at Hartford Financial Services Group and continues to do so. He is also chairman and CEO of Kirk & Associates , his own consulting firm based in Boston. In addition, he was and is a curator of numerous schools and other institutions.

Political career

In 1983, Kirk became treasurer of the Democratic Party, before taking over the chairmanship of the party organization two years later as the successor to Charles Taylor Manatt . He succeeded against the opposition of Virginias Governor Chuck Robb and other Southern Democrats. This opposition later formed the Democratic Leadership Council , a faction within the Democratic Party. Kirk was the DNC until 1989; During this time, the Democrats managed to win back the majority in the US Senate in the 1986 election that they had lost to the Republicans in 1980 . He resigned after the defeat of Massachusetts' Governor Michael Dukakis by George Bush in the 1988 presidential election , handing over his post to Ron Brown .

From 1992 to 2001, Kirk chaired the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs , a Democratic-friendly non-profit organization promoting democratic culture in developing countries. He is also vice chairman of the Commission on Presidential Debates , which, as a non-partisan body, controls the conduct of televised duels between presidential candidates before the respective elections, and chairman of the board of directors at the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation . At the Democratic National Convention in 2008, Kirk acted as super delegate and voted for Barack Obama .

US Senator

After the death of Senator Kennedy on August 25, 2009, the question of his successor was initially open. Massachusetts law did not provide for the governor to appoint an interim senator, but for direct by-election after a period of several months. The Democratic Party tried to change this regulation in order to get the filibuster -a certain majority of 60 seats in the Senate again with an appointed successor ; the Massachusetts State Parliament passed the amendment to the law. Thereupon, Governor Deval Patrick called Paul Kirk senator on September 24th, whereby he had also held consultation with the Kennedy family; Kirk himself assured that he would not run in the January 19, 2010 by-election. On the day of the appointment, the Massachusetts Republican Party made efforts to prevent Kirk from taking office, but a district judge dismissed the objection and the new senator was able to take his oath of office on the afternoon of September 25th. In the Senate, he was a member of the Armed Forces Committee and the Homeland Security Committee .

The Democratic candidate for Kirk's successor was Martha Coakley , but she lost to the Republican candidate, Scott Brown , a member of the State Senate . Brown replaced Kirk on February 4, 2010.

Web links

• Paul G. Kirk in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)