William Weld
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William Floyd Weld (born July 31, 1945) was the Republican Governor of the U.S. state of Massachusetts from 1991 to 1997, resigning to pursue the ambassadorship to Mexico.
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Education
Weld was educated at The Loomis Chaffee School, Windsor, Connecticut and Middlesex School, Concord, Massachusetts [1] (http://www.celebrityprepschools.com/part3.htm). He graduated Summa Cum Laude from Harvard College in 1966, studied economics at University College, Oxford and graduated Cum Laude from the Harvard Law School in 1970.
Early career
Weld began his legal career as a counsel with the House Judiciary Committee during the Watergate impeachment inquiry.
He served for five years as United States Attorney in Massachusetts. In the early 1980s, Weld engaged in a highly publicized investigation into the administration of Kevin H. White, then mayor of Boston.
Under President Ronald Reagan, Weld became Assistant U.S. Attorney General in charge of the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice from 1986 to 1988.
Political career
He was elected Governor of Massachusetts in 1990, and again in 1994. While in office, he installed the state's first majority female Cabinet.
Weld stood in Massachusetts for the United States Senate in 1996, losing to John Kerry in one of the most closely-watched Senate races that year. Kerry beat Weld by a comfortable margin. During the 2004 U.S. presidential election, he appeared on TV to discuss what it was like to debate and run against John Kerry. He resigned as Governor in 1997 to lobby for his nomination to be Ambassador to Mexico. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jesse Helms vowed to block the nomination by refusing to hold hearings to discuss it. At issue was the conservative senator's contempt for Weld's support of medicinal marijuana. Helms believed this stance made Weld "soft on drugs", and therefore unsuitable as ambassador to Mexico, seen as a key ally in the War on Drugs. Weld regarded the rhetoric as a challenge, and took his case to the media before ultimately conceding defeat after five months.
Later career
He now runs the Manhattan office of Chicago based international law firm McDermott Will & Emery.
Weld has also flirted with the arts. He writes thriller novels for the mass market, and has done a little acting.
On April 24, 2005, it was reported that he was in talks with the New York Republicans to run for Governor of New York in 2006 against Democrat Eliot Spitzer if current GOP Governor George Pataki decides not to run for a fourth term. He is also being urged to run for Hillary Clinton's Senate seat in New York in 2006. Despite having served as Governor of Massachusetts, Weld has lived in New York since 2000 and grew up on Long Island. If he runs and is elected, he will become the second person after Sam Houston to serve as Governor of two different U.S. states.
Both of those possibilities would be very difficult, however. Polls current show that in a hypothetical matchup, Hillary would easily defeat him 63-26%. [2] (http://www.quinnipiac.edu/x11373.xml?ReleaseID=680) Spitzer would also defeat him, with a 60-16% margin. [3] (http://www.quinnipiac.edu/x11373.xml?ReleaseID=679)
Connections
Weld is well-connected. His ex-wife, Susan Roosevelt Weld, formerly a professor at Harvard specialising in ancient Chinese civilization and law, and then General Counsel to the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, is great granddaughter of Theodore Roosevelt. George Herbert Walker, Jr., uncle of President George H. W. Bush, in the 1970s sold his brokerage company G.H. Walker & Co. to White, Weld & Co. and became a director of the latter company before its merger with Merrill Lynch in 1978. Weld is now said to be heir to the White, Weld fortune.
Weld is a principal at Leeds Weld & Co., which describes itself as the United States's largest private equity fund focused on investing in the education and training industry. Its board of advisors is chaired by Rudolph W. Giuliani.
Quote
"Much is forgiven anyone who relieves the desperate boredom of the working press."
Books
Has written three books for the mass market:
- Stillwater ISBN 0156027232
- Mackerel By Moonlight ISBN 0671038745
- Big Ugly ISBN 0743410378
External links
- USA Today interview July, 2000 (http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/e2214.htm)
- Clinton Impeachment testimony (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/clinton/stories/4thpaneltext120998.htm)
- NACDL Notes on the Kevin White investigation (http://www.nacdl.org/public.nsf/championarticles/99aug03?opendocument)
| Preceded by: Michael Dukakis | Governor of Massachusetts 1991 – 1997 | Succeeded by: Paul Cellucci |