| Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky | |
|---|---|
| Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania's 13th district |
|
| In office January 3, 1993 – January 3, 1995 |
|
| Preceded by | Lawrence Coughlin |
| Succeeded by | Jon Fox |
| Personal details | |
| Born | June 21, 1942 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse(s) | Edward Mezvinsky (1975–2007, divorced)[1] |
| Children | 11, including Marc Mezvinsky |
| Alma mater | University of Pennsylvania |
| Religion | Judaism[2] |
Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky (pronounced /ˈmɑrdʒəri mɑrˈɡoʊliːz mɛzˈvɪnski/;[3] born June 21, 1942) is an adjunct faculty member at the University of Pennsylvania and a women's right activist. She is a former journalist and a former politician for the Democratic Party. From 1993 to 1995 she was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, representing Pennsylvania.
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Margolies was born in Philadelphia. She graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1963. She was a broadcast journalist for over twenty-four years, winning five Emmy Awards for her work. She worked as a television journalist at WCAU-TV from 1967 to 1969, was a CBS News Foundation Fellow, Columbia University from 1969 to 1970, and then for WRC-TV from 1975 until 1990. She was correspondent for the "Today Show."[4][5]
In 1970, Margolies adopted a daughter from Korea, reportedly the first time a single American woman had adopted a foreign child.[6]
In 1992 she ran for an open seat in Congress for Pennsylvania's 13th congressional district, a largely suburban district outside Philadelphia which Republicans had held since 1916. After defeating Republican Jon D. Fox by 1,373 votes, she became a member of the 103rd Congress.
She was on the bipartisan Deficit Reduction Task Force.[7] But, her reelection defeat was blamed on her vote for President Bill Clinton's controversial 1993 budget, for which she was the deciding vote. She had opposed the bill, until the president called her. House Democrats cheered as the House Republicans jeered, "Goodbye Marjorie."[8][9] Losing in 1994 to her 1992 opponent, she was one of 34 Democratic incumbents who were defeated in the Republican Revolution.
She had earned an honored place in history, with a vote she shouldn't have had to cast.[10]
In a 2009 interview with The Daily Beast, she recalled Rep. Robert Walker (R-Pennsylvania) in particular joining in the Republican jeers. She also recalled the ire of her constituents resulting from her vote, saying:
when I went to town-hall meetings, I had to be escorted by the police....I was just surprised at the level of divisiveness and immaturity.[11]
That same year, she completed A Woman's Place, a book with the other women in the class of 1992.
After her term in Congress, she was the Chair of the National Women’s Business Council, and the Director and Deputy Chair of the United States delegation to the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in 1995.[12]
In 1998, she ran for Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania. She won the primary election, becoming the running mate of State Representative Ivan Itkin, but the ticket lost to Republicans Tom Ridge and Mark Schweiker.
In 2000, she withdrew from the Democratic Senate primary with five other candidates, for the seat of Rick Santorum, after disappointing fundraising, mother's illness, and legal trouble of Edward Mezvinsky, which ended in a conviction for fraud. Shortly thereafter, she filed for bankruptcy,[13] but failed to receive a discharge from her debts, based on 11 U.S.C. §727(a)(5). The court found Mezvinsky had failed to satisfactorily explain a significant loss of assets in the four years prior to her bankruptcy filing. The bankruptcy judge stated, in her published opinion, "I find that the Debtor has failed to satisfactorily explain the loss of approximately $ 775,000 worth of assets (the difference between the $ 810,000 represented in May 1996 and the $ 35,000 now claimed in her Amended Schedule B)." Sonders v. Mezvinsky (in re Mezvinsky), 265 B.R. 681, 694 (Bankr. E.D. Pa. 2001).
She currently serves as the founder and chair of Women’s Campaign International (WCI), a group that provides advocacy training for women throughout the world. She is also a professor at the Fels Institute of Government at the University of Pennsylvania.[14]
After the U.S. House passed the health care reform bill in November 2009, the conservative Americans for Tax Reform, (a 527 organization) featured her 1994 defeat as an example of what can occur in next year's elections, to those Democrats in swing districts who voted in favor of that bill.[15][16] Margolies-Mezvinsky, however, wrote in the Washington Post that she was glad that she had cast her vote as she had, and urged vulnerable Democrats in Congress to vote for the healthcare bill in March 2010.[17]
She was married to former Iowa Congressman Edward Mezvinsky in 1975;[5] they divorced in 2007 after many years of marriage.[1][18] They raised eleven children together: four from his first marriage, two she had adopted on her own, two sons they had together, and three adopted children.
Their son, Marc Mezvinsky, married Chelsea Clinton, the daughter of former U.S. President Bill Clinton and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, on July 31, 2010, in Rhinebeck, NY.[6][19] He was a Goldman Sachs investment banker, and is an investment banker at 3G Capital Management.[20][21]
| United States House of Representatives | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Lawrence Coughlin |
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania's 13th congressional district 1993–1995 |
Succeeded by Jon Fox |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by Tom Foley |
Democratic nominee for Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania 1998 (lost) |
Succeeded by Catherine Baker Knoll |