Bruce F. Caputo

Bruce Faulkner Caputo
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York's 23rd district
In office January 3, 1977 – January 3, 1979
Preceded by	Peter A. Peyser
Succeeded by	Peter A. Peyser
Personal details
Born	(1943-08-07) August 7, 1943 New York City
Political party	Republican Party
Spouse(s)	Bonnie Caputo
Residence	[New York, New York]]
Alma mater	Harvard University Georgetown Law School
Occupation	Attorney

Bruce Faulkner Caputo (born August 7, 1943) is an American lawyer and politician from New York.

Life

Born in New York City, he graduated from Deerfield Academy in 1961, Harvard University in 1965 and Harvard Business School in 1967. After leaving Harvard Caputo went to work in the Office of the Secretary of Defense who at the time was Robert McNamara whose Systems Analysis unit hired recent business school graduates to work on various policy issues. During his first four years of working Caputo went to law school at night and received a law degree from Georgetown Law School in 1971.

In 1969 Caputo was one of the four co-founders and a board member and principal stockholder of ICF, a management consulting company. Initially focusing on energy and health care issues, the company later expanded into environmental businesses and began to build engineering capabilities. In 1988 ICF acquired Kaiser Engineers, which had originated as the engineering unit of Henry J. Kaiser's industrial empire and grew to rank among the largest engineering and construction companies in the world. The following year (1989) the combined company went public and eventually traded stock on the New York Stock Exchange. The company operated as "ICF Kaiser," with the consulting unit remaining largely intact.

In 1999, ICF Consulting ended its decade-long affiliation with Kaiser Engineers through a leveraged buyout, financed in part by the CM Equity Partners, LP, an equity investment firm based in New York City.

In 2006, ICF Consulting was renamed ICF International to reflect its growing geographic presence and the increased scope of its offerings from advisory services through implementation and improvement. The firm completed an Initial Public Offering (IPO) and now is a publicly traded firm listed on the NASDAQ under the symbol ICFI.

Caputo was elected to the New York State Assembly in 1972, representing a district in Yonkers. He was re-elected in 1974, and sat in the 180th and 181st New York State Legislatures. Caputo served on the Assembly Ways and Means, Housing and Insurance committees.

In 1976, Republican Congressman Peter A. Peyser gave up his seat to challenge U.S. Senator James L. Buckley for the Republican nomination. Caputo ran for the congressional seat and won, defeating Democratic Assemblyman J. Edward Meyer, a former Republican who became a Democrat in 1973. Caputo's district included Yonkers, three towns in lower Westchester and the Woodlawn, Wakefield, Williamsbridge, Edenwald, Eastchester and Baychester sections of the Bronx. Caputo served on the House Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs committee and the Ethics committee.

In 1978, Perry Duryea, the Republican leader of the State Assembly and front runner for the Republican nomination for governor, picked Caputo as his running mate for lieutenant governor. The Republican state convention nominated them both in fall of 1978. Governor Hugh L. Carey, a Democrat who was elected in 1974, and his lieutenant governor running mate, Mario Cuomo, narrowly defeated the Duryea-Caputo ticket.

In 1980, Caputo entered the Republican primary against U.S. Senator Jacob Javits, but withdrew after his main rival on the right, Alfonse D'Amato, secured the crucial nominations of the Conservative and Right to Life parties.^[1] D'Amato defeated Javits in the Republican primary and won the general election in the fall. In his autobiography, "Power, Politics, and Pasta: The World According to Senator Al D'Amato" (1995), D'Amato bitterly criticized Caputo.

In 1981, President Reagan nominated Caputo as an alternate United States delegate to the United Nations General Assembly. The Senate confirmed the nomination and Caputo began serving in the spring of that year.

Early in 1982, Caputo announced his candidacy for U.S. Senate against incumbent Democrat Daniel Patrick Moynihan, who was seeking his second term in the 1982 mid-term election. Considered a young rising star in the Republican Party, Caputo raised money for his race around the country. Caputo withdrew from the race in March 1982.^[2] Tim Russert, who worked for Senator Moynihan as a campaign aide at the time and later became the host of NBC's Meet the Press, discovered that Caputo had falsely claimed to have been drafted into the Army during the Vietnam War.^[3][4] During a campaign appearance, Caputo had described himself as "a draftee" during the Vietnam-era, and his entry in "Who's Who in American Politics" stated that he was a second lieutenant in the Army.^[5] Although Caputo never said that he served in Vietnam, the way he had described his status gave many people that impression. In fact, Caputo worked as a civilian analyst at the Pentagon to avoid being drafted.^[6] Republican Party bosses forced Caputo to withdraw from the race, and the disclosure destroyed his political career. That year, Assemblywoman Florence M. Sullivan of Brooklyn won the Republican primary to win the nomination, but she was defeated in a landslide by Moynihan.

Since leaving politics, Caputo has worked as a lawyer. Caputo received attention in June 2008 after the death of NBC News Washington bureau chief (and Meet the Press moderator) Tim Russert. A number of articles noted Russert's role in exposing Caputo in the 1982 Senate race. In May 2010, Caputo was compared to Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal who falsely claimed to have served in Vietnam.^[7]

Personal life

Caputo is married to Bonnie Tiburzi Caputo, the first woman pilot for a major airline. They have two children. He is currently a resident of New York, New York.

External links

• Bruce F. Caputo at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress

References