James Alfred (Jim) Guest [1] (born December 25, 1940) is an American lawyer, consumer advocate, and politician. From 2001 to 2014, Guest was the president and chief executive officer of Consumer Reports, a position he was appointed to after serving as Chairman of the Board of the Consumers Union from 1976 to 1994, with 21 of those 22 years as chair.
Guest, a Democrat, unsuccessfully ran for the U.S. Senate in 1982 and the U.S. House of Representatives in 1988. [2]
James Alfred (Jim) Guest was born on December 25, 1940, in Montclair, New Jersey. [2] He graduated from Amherst College in 1962. [1] He was a Woodrow Wilson Fellow in Economics at MIT and graduated from Harvard Law School. [1]
Guest served as a legislative assistant to U.S. Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts. [1]
In the early 1970s, Guest moved to Vermont, where he served as state Commissioner of Banking and Insurance for three years before becoming Secretary of State of Vermont in January 1977, and later becoming state Secretary of Commerce. [2] [1]
The guest was the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in 1982. [2] He unsuccessfully sought election to the U.S. House of Representatives in the 1988 election for the Vermont seat. Guest was part of a four-way primary race for the Democratic nomination, against State Representative Paul N. Poirier of Barre, state Senate President Peter Welch of Windsor County, and political newcomer Dolores Sandoval, a University of Vermont professor. [3] Guest came in third place with 25% of the vote, behind winner Poirier and runner-up Welch. [4]
From 2001 to 2014, Guest was the president and chief executive officer of Consumer Reports, [5] a position he was appointed to after serving as Chairman of the Board of the Consumers Union from 1976 to 1994, with 21 of those 22 years as chair. [6] [1] In 2009, as president and CEO of the Consumer Union, Guest appeared in the 72-year-old organization's first-ever television advertisement, urging Congress to pass the Affordable Care Act. [7] NPR described Guest as a "quietly influential figure" who was mostly unknown to Americans but exercised influence through the widely read Consumer Reports magazine and website. [7] He ranked #11 of "the 100 most powerful people in health care" compiled by the trade publication Modern Healthcare . [7] [8]
Guest noted that the Consumers Union had favored health care reform since 1939, "taking the position that everybody in the country ought to have insurance coverage." [7]
Guest has led several advocacy and other groups, including Handgun Control Inc., the Center to Prevent Handgun Violence, and Planned Parenthood of Maryland. [1] He is also the founding executive director of the American Pain Foundation. [1]
Guest is married to Priscilla Frances Beach; they have two children. [2]
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Michael Okerlund Leavitt is an American politician who served as the 14th Governor of Utah from 1993 to 2003 in the Republican Party, as Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from 2003 to 2005 and as Secretary of Health and Human Services from 2005 to 2009.
James Merrill Jeffords was an American lawyer and politician who served as a U.S. senator from Vermont. Sworn into the Senate in 1989, he served as a Republican until 2001, when he left the party to become an independent and began caucusing with the Democrats. Jeffords retired from the Senate in 2007. Prior to serving in the Senate, he served as the U.S. representative for Vermont's at-large congressional district from 1975 to 1989.
Vermont has been represented in the United States House of Representatives by a single at-large congressional district since the 1930 census, when the state lost its second seat, obsoleting its 1st and 2nd congressional districts. There were once six districts in Vermont, all of which were eliminated after various censuses.
The 2006 United States Senate election in Vermont was held November 7, 2006. Incumbent independent Senator Jim Jeffords decided to retire rather than seek reelection to a fourth term, and Bernie Sanders was elected to succeed him.
Frank C. Partridge was an American attorney, diplomat, and business executive from Vermont. A Republican, he served briefly in the United States Senate, appointed to fill the vacancy left by the death of Frank L. Greene.
The Vermont Senate is the upper house of the Vermont General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Vermont. The senate consists of 30 members elected from multi-member districts. Each senator represents at least 20,300 citizens. Senators are elected to two-year terms and there is no limit to the number of terms that a senator may serve.
Peter Francis Welch is an American lawyer and politician serving as the junior United States senator from Vermont since 2023. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as U.S. representative for Vermont's at-large congressional district from 2007 to 2023. He has been a major figure in Vermont politics for over four decades, and is only the second Democrat to be elected a U.S. senator from the state.
The Vermont Democratic Party is the affiliate of the Democratic Party in the U.S. state of Vermont.
Eric Wayne Burlison is an American politician serving as the U.S. representative from Missouri's 7th congressional district since 2023. He previously served as the representative for District 133 in the Missouri House of Representatives. A Republican, Burlison was elected to the Missouri House in 2008 and left office at the end of 2016. In 2018, he was elected to the Missouri Senate, representing District 20. He was elected to Congress in 2022.
The 1990 United States House of Representatives election in Vermont was held on Tuesday, November 6, 1990 to elect the U.S. representative from the state's at-large congressional district. The election coincided with the elections of other federal and state offices.
The 1974 United States Senate election in Vermont took place on November 5, 1974. The incumbent Republican Senator, George Aiken, did not run for re-election to another term in the United States Senate. The Democratic nominee, Patrick Leahy, the state's attorney of Chittenden County, defeated Republican nominee, Rep. Richard W. Mallary, to become Aiken's successor. This election also included Liberty Union Party candidate Bernie Sanders, who won 4.1% of the vote.
The 2016 United States House of Representatives election in Vermont was held on November 8, 2016, to elect the U.S. representative from the state of Vermont from Vermont's at-large congressional district. The election coincided with the 2016 U.S. presidential election, as well as other elections to the House of Representatives, elections to the United States Senate and various state and local elections. The primaries were held on August 9.
The 1988 United States House of Representatives election in Vermont was held on November 8, 1988. Republican nominee Peter Plympton Smith defeated independent candidate Bernie Sanders and Democratic nominee Paul N. Poirier.
The 2018 Vermont gubernatorial election took place on November 6, 2018, to elect the Governor of Vermont, concurrently with the election of Vermont's Class I U.S. Senate seat, as well as other elections to the United States Senate in other states and elections to the United States House of Representatives and various state and local elections. Incumbent Republican Governor Phil Scott, who was first elected in 2016, was re-elected to a second term in office. Hallquist's 40.4% was also the worst performance for a Democratic Party candidate since 2008. As of 2022 this election marked the last time a Democratic candidate won a county in a gubernatorial election in Vermont, as well as the last time the Republican candidate did not win by more than 40 points.
Paul N. Poirier is a Vermont politician who served several terms in the Vermont House of Representatives.
The 2022 United States Senate election in Vermont was held on November 8, 2022, to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent the State of Vermont. Incumbent Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy, who was first elected in 1974 and most recently re-elected in 2016 with 61.3% of the vote, announced on November 15, 2021, that he would not seek re-election. Leahy was the only Democratic senator who did not run for re-election in 2022. Democratic U.S. Representative Peter Welch won the open seat.
Rebecca A. Balint is an American politician who is a member of the United States House of Representatives from Vermont's at-large congressional district as a member of the Democratic Party. She served as a member of the Vermont Senate from Windham County from 2015 to 2023, as majority leader from 2017 to 2021, and as president pro tempore from 2021 to 2023.
A general election was held in the U.S. state of Vermont on November 6, 2018. All of Vermont's executive officers were up for election as well as Vermont's Class I Senate seat and at-large seat in the United States House of Representatives. Primary elections were held on August 14, 2018.
The 2022 United States House of Representatives election in Vermont was held on November 8, 2022, to elect the U.S. representative from Vermont's at-large congressional district. The election coincided with other elections to the House of Representatives, elections to the U.S. Senate, as well as various other state and local elections.
The 2022 Vermont gubernatorial election was held on November 8, 2022, to elect the governor of Vermont. Incumbent Republican governor Phil Scott won re-election to a fourth term, defeating Democratic nominee Brenda Siegel.
