Jeffrey M. Koopersmith
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Jeffrey Koopersmith, writing as "Jeff" Koopersmith and Mac MacArthur was born in Chicago, Illinois. He attended public school on Long Island, New York and boarding school at the Brentwood School in Brentwood, Los Angeles, California, California State University at Northridge, USC, and Southwestern University School of Law. He was married in 1969 to Mary Margaret Donley the daughter of Richard and Hope Donley of Woodland Hills California. They had one son, Theodore Benjamin, in 1975. Jeff Koopersmith was divorced and remarried Claire Bronowski, the daughter of Jacob and Rita Bronowski. They were divorced in 1984. In 1996 he married Dr. Deborah Shapse. Their marriage ended in 2002.
Koopersmith left law school and became the Chief Legislative Analyst for the president of the Los Angeles City Council for business, budget and taxation. He left City Hall in 1978 and opened his own firm later partnering with Elliot Curson of Philadelphia. Koopersmith advised and managed political campaigns at the federal and state level for three years. His clients included Senator Edward L. Howard (R) PA and many California elected officials. In 1980 Koopersmith teamed up with Curson and they opened an office in Los Angeles where Koopersmith advised elected officials in the west and abroad. He is credited with stopping demonstrations and police antagonism in the early 1980s representing and campaigning for his clients The Los Angeles Police and the Los Angeles Sheriffs. He also invested and developed real property - residential and ski - during the period 1978 through the present.
Koopersmith was active in civil and human rights from the time he was a child due his mother's involvement in that arena from the 1930s on. His mother, Sylvia Reese Koopersmith was a leader in forcing the Pentagon to cease separation between races in the military while serving in the Women's Army Corps during World War II. While at university Koopersmith traveled back and forth between the USA, Africa, and Europe aiding the African National Congress (ANC) in its fight against apartheid. Later he advised the opposition in Kenya successfully in the 1990s. He also tutored women in prison and counseled elderly untreatable psychiatric patients in art, and music and taught underprivileged children elementary piano lessons. Koopersmith went on to become a Fortune 500 lobbyist in Washington DC and abroad specializing in "green" areas and women's health. He was a leader in drafting and advocating legislation that allowed and promoted replacing lead with ethyl alcohols as an octane enhancer and later as a gasoline alternative.
Koopersmith, representing Honeywell and other large corporate interests fought against the National Association of Realtors and the National Association of Homebuilders to force the mandatory testing for indoor radiation (Radon) in the Redding Prong and later other regions of the United States and worldwide. He was awarded the Man of Year by the National Association of Radiation Science in the mid 1980s. Koopersmith is also an award winning documentary film producer. His film "On Any Street" won 8 Cine Golden Eagles in Washington in 1981-2. The film, a 60 minute cinema verite' was the precursor of reality police television programs such as COPS. The film was premiered at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion at the Los Angeles Music Center with an audience exceeding 4,000 and attended by then Governor Jerry Brown and Mayor Tom Bradley who were booed off the stage for their harsh treatment of police during this era. Many movie stars and music personalities performed on stage that night in honor or street cops who gave their lives in service.
In 1988 Koopersmith began publishing "American Politics Journal" (APJ) - then the only opinion editorial publication on the World Wide Web via ARPANET and using his own funds. In 1996 he partnered with Gene Gaudette and expanded the webzine which was yet one of the only political websites on the Internet. IN 2000 APJ published its first hard copy magazine distributed widely in Washington DC and New York. The magazine was a failure because of trouble with national distribution as it attacked the far right wing of the Republican Party mercilessly.
Koopersmith describes himself as a limousine liberal - far left of Ted Kennedy and his writing reflects this. He wrote his first book in 1980 - The California Medfly Cookbook, lauded by Presidents Gerald Ford and later Ronald Reagan. IN 1998 he wrote "Corrobillusion" a non-fiction attack on William Bennett which was published on the Internet because of its scalpel-like agreesion against ultra right neoconservative opinion leaders. APJ was almost totally dedicated to attacking those in Congress who led the charge against President Bill Clinton and his wife and daughter with particular attention to the so-called "House Managers" who brought impeachment proceedings against President Clinton. Only one of the House Managers survived to be re-elected once Clinton had triumphed over their scheme.
