Tony Coelho

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Anthony "Tony" Coelho (b. June 15, 1942) is a former United States congressman and House Majority Whip from California, and primary author and sponsor of the Americans with Disabilities Act. He currently chairs the Epilepsy Foundation's national board of directors. Coelho is a member of the Democratic Party.

1 Education and Early Career
2 Congressional Career and Politics
3 Life after Congress
4 See also
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Education and Early Career

Coelho was born in rural Los Banos, California to parents of Portuguese descent, attended public schools in nearby Dos Palos, and grew up working on his family’s dairy farm. At age fifteen, Coelho was injured in a pickup truck accident, which doctors later suggested was the precipitating event for the onset of his epilepsy. For years after the accident, Coelho did not know he had the illness.

Coelho graduated with a B.A. from Loyola University of Los Angeles (now Loyola Marymount University) in 1964. At Loyola, he was a member of the prestigious Crimson Circle, and later was elected Student Body President during his senior year. After the Kennedy assassination, Coelho decided to devote his life to public service which, in his case, meant becoming a priest. He went to a doctor for a medical exam, a prerequisite for entering into the seminary. Although his parents had known for years, this was the first time he was directly told; he had epilepsy and, because of Catholic canon law, he was unable to become a priest.^[1] Once the diagnosis was reported to the state, Coelho lost both his drivers’ license and his health insurance.

Searching what to do next with his life, Coelho was advised to consider politics to fulfill his commitment to service. Coelho wrote to his local Congressman, B.F. Sisk, and was invited to join Sisk’s staff.

Coelho worked as a staff member for Congressman Bernie Sisk from 1965 until 1978. By 1970, Coelho was serving as Sisk’s administrative assistant. He enhanced his expertise in agriculture policy as staff director for the House Agriculture Subcommittee on Cotton. As staff coordinator for the House Rules Subcommittee on Broadcasting, on which Sisk served, Coelho helped develop the procedures that made possible the television coverage of the House proceedings via C-Span. When Sisk retired after 14 terms in Congress, Coelho ran for his seat and won.

During his first campaign for Congress, Coelho’s opponent asked how people would feel if Coelho went to a meeting at the White House and had a seizure. “The press called me and the good Lord was with me,” Coelho later related. “Off the top of my head I said, ‘Well, in the thirteen years I have served in Washington I knew a lot of people who went to the White House and had fits. At least I’d have an excuse.”^[2]

[edit] Congressional Career and Politics

In November 1978, Tony Coelho was elected as a Democrat to the Ninety-Sixth Congress. He was later elected to the five succeeding Congresses where he served until his resignation on June 15, 1989. He served on the Agriculture, Interior, Veterans Affairs, and Administration Committees during his tenure, but he dedicated his tenure in the Congress to championing the rights of the disabled.

The Democratic Party lost 33 House seats in the 1980 election that saw Ronald Reagan defeat President Jimmy Carter. Among the casualties was Rep. James Corman (D-CA), then Chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC). But in a larger sense, the casualties were the cohesion and confidence of the Democratic majority in the Congress, which arithmetically controlled the House, but which lost its ability to resist the onslaught of the Reagan presidency and program.

In fact, for much of Reagan’s first two years in office, the Democrats were unable to stop significant budget cuts aimed at the poor and elderly, tax cuts tilted to the wealthy and huge increases in Pentagon spending from winning approval as Reagan demanded.

After the 1980 landslide, with the backing of the House leadership, Coelho was named chairman of what is often called in Washington, “The D Triple C.” As the Washington Post observed, “They made the sophomore congressman from central California, their chief House fund-raiser, a position not bestowed on such a junior member since it was given to a young Texas congressman named Lyndon B. Johnson in 1940.”^[3]

Coelho’s interests went beyond fund-raising but also included what he called “the business of politics,” everything from recruiting top-flight candidates, in order to claw back Democratic numbers in the House following the 1982 election, to being every bit as tough as the Republicans had become in challenging the votes of incumbents and running competitive campaigns.

As a member of the House leadership, Coelho helped lead the effort to pin the political blame for enactment of the Reagan economic program on the Republicans in the House. As the Washington Post related at the time, one Democratic campaign advertisement, airing early in the 1982 election season, featured “scissors clipping away at Social Security card; a voice accuses Republicans of repeatedly trying to cut benefits…’it isn’t fair,’ the voice concludes, ‘it’s Republican.’”^[4]

When the votes were counted on November 2, 1982, the Democrats had regained practical control of the Congress: the Democrats picked up 26 Republican seats. The DCCC had boosted turnout by nationalizing the election and making it a referendum on the Reagan budget cuts, especially proposals to cut Social Security.

The larger significance of the election was that it altered the course of relations between the Congress and the Reagan administration. Democrats regained their functional majority and their confidence. Even though Republicans continued to control the Senate, House Democrats were able to exercise an effective veto over Reaganomics. For legislation to make progress, the White House had to acknowledge and make compromises with the Democratic House.

Coelho served three terms as campaign committee chair. After having elected so many Democrats to the House, he set his sights higher in the Congressional leadership. In 1986, the position of House Majority Whip became an elective office for the first time in Congressional history. Coelho was elected by an overwhelming margin to the position of Whip. As the chief vote counter for his party, Coelho oversaw a series of Democratic victories in the House on measures ranging from the budget to cutting off funds for the war in Central America.

Coelho’s service as Whip came during a period of deep suspicion between the Republican and Democratic Parties in the Congress, extreme partisanship, and scandals involving Members of Congress, such as House Speaker Jim Wright, and institutions of Congress – such as the Post Office and House Bank – which were administered under Democratic control. As Roll Call reported, “Coelho, 48, retired from the House after six terms in the wake of press reports that he had received a loan from a wheeler dealer S+L executive to purchase junk bonds. While no wrong-doing was charged, Coelho decided to leave the Hill to spare his family the agony of a possible investigation.”^[5]

Shortly after he left Congress, Coelho scored his greatest legislative victory. Coelho was the original author of the Americans with Disabilities Act, signed into law by President George H.W. Bush, which is now recognized as one of the most important pieces of civil rights legislation since the 1960s for its defense of people with disabilities. President Bush honored Coelho by inviting him to the signing ceremony for the bill.

By 1994, the U.S. Census Bureau was reported that some 800,000 more people with severe disabilities had found employment than were employed when the bill was first enacted.^[6] The promise of Coelho’s political career had been redeemed by the community of the disabled from whose ranks he had arisen.

[edit] Life after Congress

In nearly two decades since his retirement from Congress, Tony Coelho has pursued careers in business and public service, while remaining active in the disabilities community.

After leaving Congress in 1989 (timing his departure to coincide with his 47th birthday), he joined Wertheim Schroder & Company, an investment firm, as a managing director. From 1990 to 1995, he also served as president and CEO of Wertheim Schroder Investment Services, “a firm that he grew from $400 million to $4 billion in managed investments.”^[7]

In 1995, Coelho formed ETC w/tci, an education and training technology company in Washington, DC. He was the chairman and chief executive officer until 1997.

President Clinton appointed Tony Coelho to serve as Chairman of the President’s Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities, a position he held from 1994 to 2001; he also served as Vice Chair of the National Task Force on Employment of Adults with Disabilities. In 1998, President Bill Clinton appointed Coelho as the United States Commissioner General at the 1998 World Expo in Portugal. President Clinton also appointed Coelho as Co-Chair to the U.S. Census Monitoring Board, a position he held until his appointment as general chairman of the Gore Presidential campaign.

In the summer of 1994, Coelho was the principal Democratic political strategist during the run-up to the mid-term Congressional elections. Officially, he was Senior Advisor to the Democratic National Committee. The Republican Party won a landslide victory in the fall congressional elections, capturing both the House and Senate by commanding margins.

On November 29, 1994, then Speaker Tom Foley appointed Tony Coelho as one of 17 members of The Commission on the Roles and Capabilities of the United States Intelligence Community. The U.S. Congress created the commission to study what intelligence agencies should do after the Cold War, and was charged with preparing a report of its findings and recommendations to the President and the Congress.

After an absence from politics, Coelho, in 1999, was made Chairman of Vice President Al Gore's ailing presidential campaign. During his tenure, Coelho moved the campaign headquarters from Washington, DC to Nashville, Tennessee. He oversaw an overhaul of the campaign’s message and strategy, and changed personnel and consultants. Gore prevailed over former Senator Bill Bradley in the Democratic primaries of 2000 in every primary and caucus contest and received the Democratic nomination to be president.

Before the 2000 Democratic Convention, Coelho became ill and resigned his position as General Campaign Chairman. Doctors later found and removed a tumor on the left side of his brain. He was replaced by former Commerce Secretary William Daley.

Coelho continues to live in Arlington, Virginia. He participates annually at New York Law School for its Tony Coelho Lecture in Disability Employment Law & Policy. He has endowed a chair in Public Policy at the University of California in Merced. He is chairman of the Board of Directors of the Epilepsy Foundation.

[edit] See also

Congressional Hispanic Caucus

[edit] References

^ 'Why Tony Coelho fights for the disabled: epilepsy kept him from Vietnam and the Jesuits,' The National Catholic Reporter, January 20, 1995.
^ “Tony Coelho reflects on his life with epilepsy,” Epilepsy/USA staff, April 1, 2002.
^ “Rep. Coelho: Democrats’ Fund-Raiser Extraordinaire,” Washington Post, August 26, 1982, A2.
^ “Short but Not Sweet: Democrats Counter GOP Ad,” Washington Post, July 16, 1982.
^ “The Coelho Network is Alive and Well,” by Tim Burger, Roll Call, January 28, 1991.
^ “Coelho Reflects on the Law,” The Modesto Bee, January 18, 1997, B1.
^ “About Us,” Epilepsy Foundation, www.epilepsyfoundation.org.