| Terry McAuliffe | |
|---|---|
| 49th Chairman of the Democratic National Committee | |
| In office 2001–2005 |
|
| Preceded by | Joe Andrew & Ed Rendell |
| Succeeded by | Howard Dean |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Terence Richard McAuliffe February 9, 1957 Syracuse, New York |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse(s) | Dorothy McAuliffe |
| Children | Dori, Jack, Mary, Sally, and Peter |
| Residence | Mclean, Virginia |
| Alma mater | The Catholic University of America (B.A.) Georgetown University Law School (J.D.) |
| Profession | Businessman Political Donor Politician |
Terence Richard "Terry" McAuliffe (pronounced /mɨˈkɔːlɨf/; born February 9, 1957) is a longtime leader and political advisor for the United States Democratic Party. He served as chairman of the Democratic National Committee from 2001 to 2005. He served as Co-Chairman of President Bill Clinton's 1996 re-election campaign and also served as chairman of the 2008 Hillary Clinton presidential campaign. He unsuccessfully ran for the 2009 Virginia Democratic gubernatorial nomination.
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McAuliffe grew up in Syracuse, New York and graduated from Bishop Ludden Junior/Senior High School in 1975. His father was treasurer of the local Democratic organization.[1] He started his first business, McAuliffe Driveway Maintenance, at the age of 14. In 1979, he received a bachelors degree from The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. After graduation, McAuliffe took a job in the 1980 presidential reelection campaign of Jimmy Carter, and at the age of 22 became the national finance director. It was during this campaign that McAuliffe wrestled an eight-foot, 260-pound alligator for a $15,000 contribution.[2] After the campaign, McAuliffe enrolled in law school at Georgetown University. He received a Juris Doctor degree in 1984.[3] McAuliffe then served as Chairman of the Federal City National Bank by the age of 30.
He has five children with wife Dorothy: Dori, Jack, Mary, Sally, and Peter.
At the age of 14, McAuliffe started his first business.[4] Under the name McAuliffe Driveway Maintenance he sealed local driveways and parking lots. "After graduating from Georgetown Law, McAuliffe has been forming partnerships, raising capital and investing in business ventures. He has earned millions as a banker, real estate developer, home builder, hotel owner, and internet venture capitalist."[5] According to the Washington Post, "McAuliffe is, at his core, a salesman -- and even called himself a "hustler" in his autobiography."[5]
In January 1988, when he was 30 years old, McAuliffe became the youngest chairman of a bank in the history of the United States when he assumed responsibility for all aspects of Federal City's operations.[6]
Shortly thereafter, the bank loaned $125,000 to a political action committee that supported Richard Gephardt's Presidential campaign. McAuliffe told the New York Times that he abstained from voting on the loan because he was also the Gephardt campaign's finance chairman.[7] The bank also provided loans to former U.S. Representative Tony Coelho and the then-Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, Jim Wright.[8]
In 1991, the bank was cited by federal regulators for unsafe and unsound banking practices. Regulators forced McAuliffe and other bank directors to sign a consent agreement that required the bank to hire outside management, review delinquent loans, track bad credit, and raise additional capital.[9] In December 1991, McAuliffe acknowledged that he "knew we were in awful trouble" and that "the liquidators were ready to roll." In what he now refers to as his "greatest business experience", McAuliffe "rallied the board members" and merged Federal City National Bank with another institution run by Republican Richard V. Allen; Credit International Bank, thereby saving the institution.[8][9] [10]
McAuliffe acquired a struggling homebuilding company that was on the verge of bankruptcy. Within 5 years, McAuliffe and his team successfully built the company into one of the largest and most successful homebuilding companies. During his tenure as chairman, AHH built over 6,000 homes and created thousands of jobs in the construction business. The company was sold to KB Home in 2001.
In 2010 GreenTech Automotive acquired EU Auto MyCar, with a signing ceremony in Hong Kong.[11]
McAuliffe is a founder and chairman of GreenTech Automotive, a leader in affordable and next generation energy efficient vehicles. The company has 5 automobiles in its product line, including 2 electric vehicles and 3 hybrids. The company presently has a 400,000-square-foot (37,000 m2) production plant under construction in Northern Mississippi.
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Terry McAuliffe business timeline |
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From 1980 to 1981, McAuliffe served as Deputy Treasurer and Director of Finance at the Democratic National Committee. From 1982 to 1986, while attending Georgetown University Law School full time, McAuliffe served as finance director of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. During the 1988 presidential campaign, he served as finance chairman for Dick Gephardt. During the 1996 election cycle, he served as national finance chairman and then national co-chairman of the Clinton-Gore re-election committee.[12] In 1997, he was chairman of the 53rd Presidential Inaugural Committee.[13] In 1999, he was chairman of the White House Millennium Celebration.[14] In 2000, McAuliffe chaired a tribute to outgoing President Bill Clinton, which set a fundraising record for a single event, raising $26.3 million.[15] The same year, he chaired the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles. In 2001, McAuliffe spoke out against the Clinton pardons, saying he considered Clinton a great friend, but the pardons were troubling and a mistake: "I've publicly said the Rich pardon was a mistake. If I were president I wouldn't have done it. All these incidents are unfortunate, frustrating and distracting, but ultimately they will run their course."[16]
McAuliffe was President Clinton’s first ambassadorial appointment, naming him in 1993 as Ambassador and Commissioner General to Taejŏn Expo '93, the International Exposition in Taejon, South Korea. He was sent to South Korea to deal with myriad of financial and technological problems with the US Pavilion left from the Bush Administration. He was credited with saving the Pavilion and for the first time in US history, US participation in a world exposition was funded solely with private funds, thus saving the taxpayers millions of dollars. [17]
In February 2001, McAuliffe was elected chairman of the DNC and served until February 2005.[18] During that time, he raised $578 million and the Democratic Party emerged from debt for the first time in its history.[19]
Under McAuliffe, the DNC built a new headquarters, created a computer database of more than 170 million potential voters known as "Demzilla",[20] founded a Women’s Vote Center to educate and mobilize women voters, founded the Voting Rights Institute to protect voting rights, and founded “Something New,” an initiative to mobilize younger voters. Circumstances affecting the outcome of the 2002 Senate elections included the influence of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, which heavily favored the GOP. There were also allegations of Republican election rigging, as GOP political operatives were accused of illegally jamming the phone lines of New Hampshire Democrats on election day,[21] a race in which GOP candidate John Sununu barely edged Jeanne Shaheen by 19,000 votes.
Democrats would lose a net of 8 seats in the House in the 2002 elections, magnifying mainly the failures of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, as the DNC would spend more money on the November 2002 Congressional elections than any time in in its history, including $10 million alone on the Congressional redistricting project that would set the party up for Congressional election success not only in 2002 but for years to come.[22]
Despite myriad forces working against the Democrats, there were small electoral victories in 2002 that would lay the groundwork for future successes the party would experience. McAuliffe surveyed the local election landscape and made sound investments in important mayoral races, winning all 8 of those which they identified as critical, including important races in large urban areas such as Los Angeles, St. Louis, and Jersey City.[23] The Democrats also picked up both governors' seats up for election in 2001 & 11 (mostly open) governorships in 2002.
In the transition period between the 2002 elections and the 2004 Democratic convention, the DNC rebuilt operations and intra-party alliances. Donna Brazile, one of McAuliffe's early critics, summed up McAuliffe's revival: "We boxed. He has been punched, believe me. Now, Terry has put the party in a strong strategic position."[24]
In 2003-04, the DNC hosted six presidential primary debates, more than had ever been held previously, including the first-ever bilingual presidential debate. The DNC also partnered with the Congressional Black Caucus to hold a debate in Baltimore, Maryland. Additionally, McAuliffe worked to restructure the Democratic primary schedule so that states such as South Carolina, Arizona and New Mexico would be allowed to vote earlier, in move designed to bolster ties to African-American and Hispanic communities. According to the Washington Post, the new schedule gave Senator Kerry enough time to raise more than $200 million for the general election.[24]
In January 2005, several weeks before his term ended, McAuliffe committed and left 5 million in the bank to be spent in the Commonwealth of Virginia to assist Governor Kaine and other Democrats in their upcoming elections. This donation was the largest non-presidential disbursement in DNC history, and was part of McAuliffe's attempt to prove the Democrats' viability in southern states in the wake of the 2004 presidential election.[25] Kaine was successful in his bid and was Governor of Virginia from 2006-2010.
DNC Highlights 2001-2005
On January 23, 2007, his book, What A Party! My Life Among Democrats: Presidents, Candidates, Donors, Activists, Alligators, and Other Wild Animals (ISBN 9780312357870), was released and debuted at #5 on the New York Times Bestseller list and #1 on the Washington Post's list.
As a former party chairman, McAuliffe was one of the roughly 796 superdelegates to the 2008 Democratic National Convention.
During the 2008 presidential election campaign cycle, he was campaign chairman for Hillary Clinton.
Terry McAuliffe appears in the 2008 award-winning documentary Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story on political strategist Lee Atwater. In the film, McAuliffe says, "When Bill Clinton got elected President, and you had wackos out there funding all these crazy projects, it all started with Lee Atwater. The first independent counsel said there was nothing there – to think they paid Ken Starr and his perverted investigations $70 million of taxpayers’ money? These folks believe you win at all cost.”
On November 10, 2008, McAuliffe filed to form an exploratory committee for Governor of Virginia in the 2009 election.[29] He told reporters that he had planned to spend the next few months traveling to "every corner of Virginia" to measure interest in his possible run.[29] McAuliffe told The Washington Post that he is "best suited to carry the Democratic banner because he (would) campaign as a business leader who can bring jobs to Virginia."[29] He also cited his ability to raise money for down-ticket Democratic candidates.[29] On January 3, 2009, McAuliffe announced in a YouTube video emailed to his supporters that he would be seeking the Democratic Party nomination for Governor of Virginia.[30]
McAuliffe's political team included several former staffers from the campaigns of Democrats Hillary Clinton, Tim Kaine, Mark Warner and Jim Webb. Among them were campaign manager Mike Henry, senior strategist Mo Elleithee, and communications director Delacey Skinner.[31] According to The Washington Post, McAuliffe raised $7.5 million over the course of the campaign.[32]
In the primary, McAuliffe faced two other high-profile Democrats, State Sen. Creigh Deeds, 2005 nominee for Attorney General, and Brian Moran, a former state representative and former Democratic Caucus Chairman. On June 9, 2009, Virginia Democrats selected Deeds as their gubernatorial candidate with McAuliffe finishing second.[33] Virginia Attorney General Bob McDonnell was the only candidate for the Republican nomination.[34]
McAuliffe is widely considered to be eying another run for Governor of Virginia. In November 2009, Democratic nominee Creigh Deeds lost to Republican candidate Bob McDonnell by a margin of 18 points. McDonnell received the highest percentage of the vote since 1961. In the aftermath, many in the local and national media speculated that McAuliffe would have been in a better position to win the election, as Deeds was said to have lost on economic issues and those relating to jobs, the same platform upon which McAuliffe had hinged his campaign.[35]
McAuliffe was a visiting Fellow to Harvard University’s John F Kennedy School of Government. In addition to several faculty and student lectures, McAuliffe hosted a study group entitled The Making of a Candidate: From Running Campaigns to Running on my Own.[36]
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Terry McAuliffe political timeline |
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Like many in the late 1990s, McAuliffe was consistently seeking out innovative business and investment opportunities related to the internet and other areas of high technology. Among them was his investment of $100,000 in a startup company called Global Crossing. In the early 1990s, McAuliffe was approached by longtime friend Mike Steed concerning an investment opportunity in what was then known as Atlantic Crossing. The company would be among the first to lay a high-speed fiber-optic cable between the United States and Europe, anticipating the need for increasing data traffic to come in the next few years. McAuliffe himself refers to the investment as “risky,” given the lack of guarantees with technology startups. McAuliffe put up the money while the idea was still in its infancy, even before a company had been formed. The company would eventually wind up carrying half the data traffic between the United States and Europe and was widely considered a tremendous success.
When the company went public seventeen months later, the stock’s value rose quickly and McAuliffe’s initial $100,000 investment was valued at nearly $18 million. Global Crossing filed for bankruptcy in 2002 at a time when many technology startups began to fail and after McAuliffe had sold his stock. Though he had made millions from the stock, McAuliffe was never an employee of Global Crossing nor did he serve on its board of directors. Still, Republicans attempted to compare his investment in Global Crossing as equivalent to the insider trading activity that occurred at Enron.
In 2006, The Securities and Exchange Commission, after a four year investigation, ruled that no wrongdoing occurred at Global Crossing and no enforcement action was necessary.[37]
McAuliffe played no management role in Global Crossing[38] and had no ties to Enron. Howard Kurtz of CNN reported that McAuliffe was free of any wrongdoing, having sold his shares years before there was "any hint of trouble with the company."[39] On July 20, 2002, Marc Racicot, the chairman of the Republican National Committee told Fox News reporter Rita Cosby, "I haven't seen anything that was done that was wrong by Terry McAuliffe."[40] On January 29, 2000, McAuliffe discussed the issue on the Fox News television program Hannity & Colmes where he claimed that former President George H.W. Bush gave a speech in Japan praising Global Crossing in exchange for the right to purchase $80,000 of stock at a reduced price of 34 cents per share.[38]
On January 23, 2007, his book, What A Party! My Life Among Democrats: Presidents, Candidates, Donors, Activists, Alligators, and Other Wild Animals (ISBN 9780312357870) was published. It debuted at #5 on the New York Times Bestseller list and #1 on the Washington Post's list.
| Party political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Joe Andrew Ed Rendell |
Chairman of the Democratic National Committee 2001–2005 |
Succeeded by Howard Dean |