In 1989 Rodham became Assistant Public Defender for the Miami Drug Court. Rodham made one run for political office, winning the 1994 Democratic nomination for the United States Senate seat from Florida, but losing the general election to incumbent Senator Connie Mack III. During the Clinton administration, some of his actions came under public scrutiny. Since then he has been in private practice as a lawyer.
Early life
Rodham was raised in a United Methodist family in suburban Park Ridge, Illinois.[3] His father, Hugh Ellsworth Rodham (1911–1993), was of Welsh and English descent.[4] He managed a successful small business in the textile industry.[3] His mother, Dorothy Emma Howell (1919–2011), was a homemaker of English, Scottish, French Canadian, and Welsh descent.[4][5] Hugh has an older sister, Hillary, and younger brother, Tony.[3] He was often referred to as "Hughie" growing up, to distinguish him from his father, and that name form would persist into adulthood at times.[3][6][7]
Rodham moved to Miami, where he began to practice criminal law;[9] from around 1980 he became an investigator for the public defender in Dade County.[11][12] For a while there he shared a condominium with his brother Tony.[9] While frequently paired together in commentary, the brothers have distinct personalities; Hugh has been compared by friends and acquaintances to the Norm Peterson character from the television series Cheers.[13]
Rodham married Maria Victoria Arias, a Cuban immigrant lawyer whom he met while she was interning at the public defender's office, in 1986.[8][9] She had come to the United States from Cuba around 1960, as Fidel Castro took power, when she was two years old.[6] She graduated from the University of Miami School of Law in 1989 and subsequently became an established real estate lawyer.[6][13] She switched from being a Republican to a Democrat during the Bill Clinton presidential campaign, 1992, and founded a group known as Cuban-American Women for Clinton.[6] A 1993 Washington Post story described her as "a smart, tough attorney, a Cuban version of Hillary."[7] She has given both Bill and Hillary Clinton advice on Cuba matters and an immediate connection to the Cuban exile community in Miami.[13] The couple have lived in Coral Gables, Florida, during their married life and do not have any children.[9]
In 1989 the groundbreaking, much imitated Miami Drug Court was co-founded by State AttorneyJanet Reno,[8][9] Chief Judge Gerald Wetherington, and Public Defender Bennett Brummer. Seeking to combat the crack cocaine epidemic of the time, it sought to find nonviolent drug users and give addicts structured programs to overcome addiction, often in lieu of a jail sentence. Rodham became Assistant Public Defender in the court.[14] In this work Rodham was praised by local officials for effective, tireless work for long hours at low wages;[14] Rodham himself would later say, "Public Defenders are the last bastion for liberty ... we provide a strong defense for every citizen accused."[11] Reno would later credit Rodham for making the Drug Court a success: "That drug court could never have been established without the cooperation of the public defender ... [who] was a fellow by the name of Hugh Rodham, the assistant public defender. And we didn't know who Hugh Rodham was in those days, but one thing he did was get his clients in the back room, and every now and then you could hear him raise his voice and tell them to get with it and let's go. ... He was assiduous in protecting his clients' rights, but he was also extraordinarily helpful in making sure his clients understood that here was a real chance to solve their problems."[15]
In 1993, Hugh Rodham and his brother Tony ignited a small controversy when they tried to solicit corporate donations for Clinton's inaugural parties; they dropped the effort after a public outcry.[16] Once the Clintons entered the White House, Rodham became a sometime golfing buddy of the President[17] and he and Maria often joined family get-togethers at Camp David.[18] When Clinton was having trouble with his cabinet nominations, Rodham recommended Reno to the president for appointment as U.S. Attorney General.[8][19]
Rodham left the public defenders office to run for the United States Senate in Florida in 1994. He had some basic problems as a candidate, including having to explain why he had never registered to vote in the state until 1992.[13] In addition, his campaign manager left the campaign after not getting paid for weeks when told there was no money but discovered that funds were in the account he actually set up.[13] Rodham did not always demonstrate a deep understanding of the political issues of the day and had difficulty being taken seriously by political commentators.[13]
In the contest for the Democratic Party nomination, Rodham competed in a four-person primary field and finished first with 34 percent, which meant there would be a runoff election.[20] After the first primary, the third-place finisher, Miami lawyer Ellis Rubin, joined forces with Rodham as a "senior executive consultant" and hatchet man.[21]
The second-place finisher and other entrant in the runoff was Mike Wiley, a talk radio personality and advocate of UFO conspiracy theories.[17][20] In the presence of Rodham at a press conference, Rubin leveled the accusation that Wiley was hiding his Jewish faith by changing his name from his birth name, Michael Schreiber,[20] and that Wiley "changed his name before the campaign to deceive voters about his Jewish religion."[20] Rodham won the runoff contest by a margin of 58 to 42 percent,[17][20] but as a result of the friction that had developed, Wiley refused to endorse Rodham afterward.[20]
In the general election contest against incumbent Republican Senator Connie Mack III,[9] Rodham had few funds, only one television commercial, and little support from the Florida Democratic party establishment in a year that saw Republican gains everywhere.[8][9] Bill and Hillary Clinton both campaigned for Rodham, but his organization was unable to take advantage of their help.[22] In one case late in the race, Bill Clinton flew to Miami to speak at a rally for Rodham but only 200 people were in the audience due to poor advance work by the campaign.[22][23]
In November 1994, Rodham lost by a margin of more than 40 points to Mack.[9] Rodham lost in even normally Democratic areas such as Broward County.[23]
After the election, Rubin switched allegiance again and charged Rodham with election law violations in the first primary.[24] The Federal Elections Commission eventually dismissed the allegations.[24]
Rodham then had some involvement in Broward County politics, supporting a candidate for the County Commission who lost.[23] He subsequently tried to unseat the Dade County Democratic Party Chairman; after badly losing that race, he disappeared from the Florida political scene.[8]
Return to law
After losing the Senate race, Rodham returned to law, while also trying his hand at hosting a syndicated talk radio show around 1996.[9][11] The radio show failed to find an audience.[13] During 1995 through 1997 Rodham started working on a very large tobacco lawsuit with other attorneys; observers were puzzled as to Rodham's involvement, given his limited experience in the area, and speculated that influence peddling might be the reason.[8][12] The massive case eventually failed to gain Congressional approval,[17] but by one report a 2002 settlement involved in it made Rodham financially secure.[13]
Episodes such as these led Hillary Clinton's White House staff to refer to Hugh and Tony as "the Brothers Rodham",[26] extending the American tradition of troublesome presidential siblings to the brother-in-law category;[19] one senior White House official would be quoted as saying, "You never wanted to hear their name come up in any context other than playing golf."[26]
As the Clinton administration came to a close in early 2001, it was discovered that Hugh Rodham received around $400,000 for legal services regarding gaining the Presidential pardon of businessman Glenn Braswell who had been convicted of fraud, and the sentence commutation of drug trafficker Carlos Vignali.[27] While legal experts said that Rodham may well not have done anything wrong, the appearance of possible impropriety certainly existed.[14] Moreover, coming while the Bill Clinton pardons controversy was already in full force, this was a further embarrassment for the former administration and even got the attention of the Congressional House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.[8] Hillary Clinton, now a newly-sworn-in Senator, said, "He's my brother. I love my brother ... I'm just extremely disappointed in this terrible misjudgment that he made ... I knew nothing about my brother's involvement in these pardons. I knew nothing about his taking money for his involvement."[8] Both Clintons pressured Rodham to return the $400,000, which he promptly did.[17][23] During this time, Rodham additionally collected media criticism for being overweight and a poor dresser.[17][25] By 2001 he was working in the law firm of Rodham & Fine in downtown Fort Lauderdale.[28][23]
William Jefferson Clinton is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and again from 1983 to 1992. Clinton, whose policies reflected a centrist "Third Way" political philosophy, became known as a New Democrat.
Cornelius Alexander McGillicuddy III, also known as Connie Mack III, is an American former Republican politician. He served as a member of the United States House of Representatives from Florida from 1983 to 1989 and then as a Senator from 1989 to 2001. He served as chairperson of the Senate Republican Conference from 1997 to 2001.
Bill Clinton was criticized for some of his presidential pardons and acts of executive clemency. Pardoning or commuting sentences is a power granted by the Constitution to sitting U.S. presidents. Scholars describe two different models of the pardons process. In the 'agency model' of pardons the process is driven by nonpolitical legal experts in the Department of Justice. In contrast, Clinton followed the 'presidential model', viewing the pardon power as a convenient resource that could be used to advance specific policy goals.
The 1994 United States Senate elections were held November 8, 1994, with the 33 seats of Class 1 contested in regular elections. Special elections were also held to fill vacancies. The Republican Party took control of the Senate from the Democrats. Like for most other midterm elections, the opposition, this time being the Republicans, held the traditional advantage. The congressional Republicans campaigned against the early presidency of Bill Clinton, including his unsuccessful healthcare plan. Democrats held a 56–44 majority, after having lost a seat in Texas in a 1993 special election.
The Clinton health care plan of 1993 was an American healthcare reform package proposed by the Bill Clinton administration and closely associated with the chair of the task force devising the plan, first lady Hillary Clinton. Bill Clinton had campaigned heavily on health care in the 1992 United States presidential election. The task force was created in January 1993 but its own processes were somewhat controversial and drew litigation. Its goal was to come up with a comprehensive plan to provide universal health care for all Americans, which was to be a cornerstone of the administration's first-term agenda. The president delivered a major health care speech to the U.S. Congress in September 1993, during which he proposed an enforced mandate for employers to provide health insurance coverage to all of their employees.
Hugh Ellsworth Rodham was an American businessman. He was the father of Hillary Clinton.
Dorothy Emma Rodham was an American homemaker and the mother of former First Lady, U.S. Senator, United States Secretary of State, and 2016 Democratic Party presidential nominee Hillary Rodham Clinton.
This is a list of books and scholarly articles by and about Hillary Clinton, as well as columns by her.
Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton is an American politician and diplomat who served as the 67th United States secretary of state in the administration of Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a U.S. senator representing New York from 2001 to 2009, and as the first lady of the United States to the 42nd president of the United States, Bill Clinton from 1993 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party, she was the party's nominee in the 2016 presidential election, becoming the first woman to win a presidential nomination by a major U.S. political party and the first woman to win the popular vote for U.S. president. She is to date the only First Lady of the United States to have run for elected office.
Almon Glenn Braswell was a convicted felon business owner who founded Gero Vita International Inc. He is most noted for being one of the 140 people pardoned in the Bill Clinton pardons controversy of January 2001.
Anthony Dean Rodham was an American consultant and businessman who was the youngest brother of Hillary Clinton and brother-in-law of former U.S. President Bill Clinton.
In 1969, Hillary Rodham wrote a 92-page senior thesis for Wellesley College about the views advocated by community organizer Saul Alinsky, titled "There Is Only the Fight . . . ": An Analysis of the Alinsky Model.
U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton of New York unsuccessfully sought the Democratic Party's 2008 nomination for president of the United States. She won many primaries, although she ultimately lost the nomination to Barack Obama.
The 1994 United States Senate election in Florida was held November 8, 1994. Incumbent Republican U.S. Senator Connie Mack III won re-election easily, earning a second term and carrying every county in the state.
John Christian Adams is an American attorney and conservative activist formerly employed by the United States Department of Justice under the George W. Bush administration. Since leaving the DOJ, Adams has become notable for making alarmist and false claims about the extent of voter fraud in the United States. He has falsely accused a number of legitimate voters of being fraudulent, and has published information about them online, including Social Security numbers.
The cultural and political image of Hillary Clinton has been explored since the early 1990s, when her husband Bill Clinton launched his presidential campaign, and has continued to draw broad public attention during her time as First Lady of the United States, U.S. Senator from New York, 67th United States Secretary of State, and the Democratic Party's nominee for President of the United States in the 2016 election.
Following her graduation from Yale Law School in 1973 until becoming first lady of the United States in 1993, Hillary Clinton practiced law. In 1988 and 1991 The National Law Journal named Clinton one of the 100 most influential lawyers in the United States.
Hillary Clinton served as the first lady of the United States from 1993 until 2001, during the presidency of her husband Bill Clinton.
Hillary Clinton served as first lady of Arkansas during the two governorships of her husband, Bill Clinton. During her husband's first governorship, she was known as Hillary Rodham. However, in his second governorship, she made use of the name Hillary Rodham Clinton.
1 2 3 4 5 Hanson, Cynthia (September 1994). "I Was a Teenage Republican". Chicago Magazine. Archived from the original on September 30, 2020. Retrieved September 20, 2009. The "boys," as they're still called, are Hughie and Tony ... At Maine South, the boys were known as fun-loving jocks. The Rodhams expected them to perform as well on the football field as Hillary did in the classroom
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