Sam Coppersmith

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Samuel G. "Sam" Coppersmith (born May 22, 1955 in Johnstown, Pennsylvania) is a former Democratic United States Congressman from Arizona from 1993 to 1995.

Coppersmith graduated magna cum laude from Harvard, and then worked as a Foreign Service Officer with the U.S. State Department, assigned to the U.S. Embassy in Port of Spain, Trinidad. He then earned a law degree from Yale Law School. After law school, he clerked for Judge William C. Canby, Jr., of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and served as an assistant to the Mayor of Phoenix.

In 1992, Coppersmith won the Democratic primary in Arizona's 1st District and defeated three-term Republican John Rhodes III in 1992. Coppersmith's win was one of the biggest upsets in Arizona political history. The district had already been strongly Republican (a Democrat had not represented the district since 1953), but had become even more Republican when many Hispanic neighborhoods in Phoenix were shifted to the 2nd District. Also, popular Senator John McCain (who had represented the district from 1983 to 1987) was running for reelection.

While serving in Congress, he kept a campaign promise by returning a congressional pay raise he opposed by writing a check each month to the U.S. Treasury. Coppersmith also gained national attention with his leadership of the effort to eliminate the Advanced Liquid Metal Reactor program, an effort that united a coalition of budget-cutters, environmentalists, and foreign policy experts concerned about plutonium. Also, through his efforts, the U.S. Department of Labor and Department of Education talked with each other to end an interpretation of labor laws that kept parents in some Arizona schools from participating in their children's classrooms.

In 1994, Coppersmith gave up his seat after only one term to run for the Senate when Dennis DeConcini retired. He lost to fellow Congressman Jon Kyl.

After leaving Congress, Coppersmith spent two years as the chairman of the Arizona Democratic Party. He is currently an attorney specializing in real estate law and a managing partner of the law firm of Coppersmith Gordon Schermer & Brockelman P.L.C. He has a blog called LiberalDesert.