Elizabeth Holtzman

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Elizabeth Holtzman (born August 11, 1941, in Brooklyn, New York) is a former American Democratic politician, a pioneer as a woman officeholder. She is now an attorney and author on politics. She served for eight years as a U.S. Congresswoman and won national attention for her role on the House Judiciary committee during the Watergate scandal. She was subsequently elected District Attorney of Kings County (Brooklyn), the only woman ever elected district attorney in New York City, serving for eight years (two terms). Holtzman was also the only woman ever elected Comptroller of New York City (for one term).[1] Her last term in elective office ended in 1994. Since then she has been an attorney in private practice. For nearly ten years, ending in 2007, she served on a Congressionally mandated commission, the IWG, charged with producing a report recommending for declassification U.S. records relating to Nazi and Japanese Imperial Government war crimes. Since 2006, as a book author and blogger, she has advocated the impeachment of President George W. Bush.

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[edit] Early Life

She is a graduate of Radcliffe College and Harvard Law School. She was admitted to the New York State bar in 1966.[2]

[edit] Congress

She is the youngest woman ever to serve in United States House of Representatives, having been elected in 1972 from New York's 16th Congressional District at the age of thirty-one years, two months.[3] In the primary election, she upset Judiciary Committee chairman Emanuel Celler, the fifty-year incumbent and the House's longest serving member at that time. Her victory over him was due chiefly to attacking his opposition to feminism and the Equal Rights Amendment.[citation needed] Even though Celler was on the ballot as the candidate of the Liberal Party, he decided not to campaign, giving her an easy victory in the November general election.[citation needed] She served from January 1973 until January 1981.

During her tenure, Holtzman was considered a staunch liberal.[citation needed] She served on the House's Judiciary Committee during the impeachment hearings on the activities of President Richard Nixon in the summer of 1974. In 1978, her House Joint Resolution No. 638 was approved by the 95th Congress, which proposed to extend the originally agreed-upon deadline for the state legislatures to ratify the proposed Equal Rights Amendment to the United States Constitution. She also served on the House Budget Committee and as Chairwoman of the House Immigration Subcommittee.

[edit] First Senate Campaign

Holtzman was the Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate in 1980, having defeated such luminaries as former Miss America Bess Myerson, former New York City Mayor John V. Lindsay, and Queens District Attorney John Santucci in the Democratic primary.

She ran against Republican challenger Al D'Amato and incumbent Senator Jacob Javits on the Liberal Party ticket. Holtzman was narrowly defeated by D'Amato, a loss many observers attributed to her and Javits' splitting the liberal and Jewish vote between them.[citation needed] She lost by a margin of 1%, or 81,000 votes.

[edit] Municipal Politics

In 1981, Holtzman made a comeback, winning election as District Attorney in Kings County (Brooklyn), a post to which she was reelected in 1985. While district attorney, she formed new bureaus to focus on sex crimes and domestic violence, along with children's issues. She argued — and won — New York v. Burger, 482 U.S. 691 (1987), a case in which the United States Supreme Court held that warrantless administrative inspections can support criminal convictions in "closely regulated" industries.

She won citywide office when she was elected New York City Comptroller in 1989. She has said that she first considered a race for Mayor of New York in 1989 before deciding to seek the comptroller's post instead. Holtzman viewed the comptroller's post as an extension of her work in Congress and as district attorney.

[edit] Second Senate Campaign

In 1992, Holtzman sought the Democratic nomination for senator to again challenge D'Amato. She finished fourth in the primary, behind New York Attorney General Robert Abrams, former Representative and 1984 vice presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro, and the Reverend Al Sharpton. Abrams himself was defeated by the Republican incumbent in the November general election. This was a bitter primary which marked by a high amount of rancor in the debates, with Holtzman frequently sparring with Ferraro on ethics issues. Accusations were raised about Holtzman receiving a questionable loan from the Fleet Bank. These charges that came back to haunt her in 1993 when she was defeated in an attempt to retain her office as Comptroller, in large part due to Democratic bitterness over her part in the expensive and brutal Senate primary that, in the judgement of some, had left victor Abrams too weakened to defeat vulnerable incumbent D'Amato.[citation needed]

[edit] Final Campaign

During Holtzman's 1993 reelection race for city comptroller, she faced Assemblyman Alan Hevesi and former Congressman Herman Badillo in the Democratic primary. Badillo was also the Republican nominee for comptroller on a fusion ticket with mayoral nominee Rudolph Giuliani.

Ferraro, upset over Holtzman's ethics accusation from the 1992 Senate primary, went so far as to encourage Hevesi's candidacy to oppose Holtzman. (Ironically, Hevesi and Ferraro would later become estranged.)[citation needed] As well, Hevesi won the endorsement of Local 1199 of the Service Employees International Union, the politically powerful health care union, led by Jennifer Cunningham. While initial polls showed Holtzman an easy winner for reelection, the Fleet Bank loan from the Senate race was made an issue by Hevesi and Badillo during the NY1 debate and led to Holtzman losing support. In the primary, Holtzman finished first but was forced into a runoff with Hevesi. Hevesi defeated Holtzman in the runoff primary and went on to defeat Badillo in the general election.

[edit] After Elective Office

Holtzman entered the private practice of law in New York City. In 1996, there appeared her memoir, titled, Who said it would be easy: one woman's life in the political arena (Cynthia L. Cooper, coauthor).

She served for many years on the Nazi War Crimes and Japanese Imperial Government Records Interagency Working Group, commonly known as the IWG, a commission created in 1998 by an act of Congress to locate, identify, inventory, and recommend for declassification, currently classified U.S. records relating to Nazi and Japanese Imperial Government war crimes. On September 28, 2007, the Archivist of the United States presented to Congress, the Administration, and the American people the final report of the IWG.[4]

On January 11, 2006 The Nation published her essay calling for the impeachment of U.S. President George W. Bush for authorizing "the wiretapping of hundreds, possibly thousands, of Americans, in violation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act."[5] She expanded on her arguments for impeaching President Bush in a 2006 book coauthored with Cynthia L. Cooper, The impeachment of George W. Bush: a practical guide for concerned citizens.[6] In June 2008, Holtzman published a commentary on the action of U.S. Representative Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) in introducing articles of impeachment against President Bush on June 9, 2008[7].

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Biographical statement at Huffington Post.com
  2. ^ Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
  3. ^ Women in the United States Congress, p 9
  4. ^ The National Archives; IWG
  5. ^ The Nation, January 30, 2006
  6. ^ The Nation, January 30, 2006
  7. ^ Huffington Post.com

[edit] References

[edit] Further reading

Preceded by
John M. Murphy		 Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from New York's 16th congressional district
1973–1981		 Succeeded by
Charles E. Schumer
Preceded by
Ramsey Clark		 Democratic Nominee for U.S. Senate from New York (Class 3)
1980		 Succeeded by
Mark J. Green
Preceded by
Eugene Gold		 District Attorney - Kings County, New York
1982-1989		 Succeeded by
Charles J. Hynes
Preceded by
Harrison J. Goldin		 New York City Comptroller
1990–1993		 Succeeded by
Alan Hevesi