Michael Patrick Forbes | |
---|---|
Member of the U.S.HouseofRepresentatives from New York's 1st district | |
In office January 3, 1995 –January 3, 2001 | |
Preceded by | George Hochbrueckner |
Succeeded by | Felix Grucci |
Personal details | |
Born | Riverhead,New York,U.S. | July 16,1952
Political party | Democratic (1999-present) |
Other political affiliations | Republican (until 1999) |
Alma mater | University at Albany (BA) University of Ottawa Saint Paul University University of Mary |
Michael Patrick Forbes (born July 16,1952) is an American former politician from the state of New York. Forbes represented a Long Island district in the United States House of Representatives from 1995 to 2001,first as a Republican (until 1999) and then as a Democrat. He was an influential member of the House Appropriations Committee throughout his tenure on Capitol Hill. Forbes left Congress after being defeated in the 2000 Democratic primary election. In 2005,he relocated his family to Round Rock,Texas. Since leaving politics,Forbes has devoted his life to service in the Roman Catholic Church. He was ordained in 2013 as a permanent deacon by Most Reverend Joe S. Vasquez,Bishop of Austin. Former Congressman,now Deacon Forbes,was invited to become a fellow in the Inspired Leadership Initiative at the University of Notre Dame for the 2023-2024 academic year. He and his wife,Barbara,reside in Granger,Indiana,where they are also closer to Barbara's family.
Michael Patrick Forbes of Granger,Indiana and Quogue,Long Island,was born on 16 July 1952 at Riverhead,Long Island,New York,to Kenneth and Jane (née Morrissey) Forbes. He is the grandson of Carrie Bowman,a Broadway actress,and T. Harold Forbes,an actor and Vaudeville song and danceman who became a well-known newspaper publisher in New Rochelle and Long Island,New York. Forbes holds degrees from the SUNY Albany,Saint Paul University,the University of Ottawa,and the University of Mary. [1] [2] He studied American history,political science,bioethics and canon law,and received an honorary Doctor of Law from Long Island University. Forbes got his start in politics as an assistant to New York State Assembly Speaker Perry B. Duryea Jr. [3] He was a close advisor and senior aide to U.S. Senator Al D'Amato and U.S. Rep. Connie Mack III. In 1979,Forbes joined the George H.W. Bush presidential campaign as a campaign operative in Upstate New York and again,in 1987,successfully campaigned statewide in Maine for Bush to succeed Ronald Reagan. President Bush appointed Forbes to a senior post at the United States Small Business Administration in 1989. He served four years,leaving in 1993 when the Clinton administration came into office.
Forbes remains involved as a former founding board member,and volunteer of the not-for-profit Camp Agawam,an alumni-owned boys summer camp in Raymond,Maine. He and his older brother,Ken,his father,Ken Sr.,and Forbes’s sons,Ted,Sam,Max,and most of their male relatives spent their summers on Agawam’s Crescent Lake dating from the camp’s founding in 1919. Forbes first attended Agawam in 1965. [4]
In 1994,Forbes ran on three ballot lines for the House of Representatives:Republican,Conservative,and Right to Life. Campaigning as a fiscal conservative,he defeated incumbent George Hochbrueckner by six percentage points. Forbes was honored with a seat on the powerful Appropriations committee,unusual for a freshman Representative,after defeating an incumbent congressman and because of his close ties to the new GOP House Speaker Newt Gingrich. In December 1996,after Gingrich was cited for gross campaign irregularities, [5] Forbes became the first Republican to announce he was not going to vote for Gingrich for speaker. [6] Forbes voted for moderate Republican candidate Jim Leach instead. Despite his record of support for a number of President Bill Clinton's programs,particularly his health insurance for all Americans,Forbes voted to impeach Clinton in 1998. [7]
On July 17,1999,Forbes switched to the Democratic Party after chastising national Republicans for being "tone deaf" to the needs of average Americans. While embraced nationally by President Bill Clinton,House Democratic Leader Dick Gephardt,U.S Senators Ted Kennedy and Max Cleland and other Senate and House Democrats,New York's liberal Democrats (particularly chairwoman Judith Hope) refused to welcome Forbes into the Democratic Party because he would not change his long-held belief in the sanctity of human life and push to prohibit abortion. [8]
Activists in the Suffolk County Democratic Party recruited a 71-year-old librarian,Regina Seltzer,to challenge Forbes in the 2000 Democratic primary. Seltzer won a court ruling halting state Democratic Party ads for Forbes. [9] Both the national and state Republican parties secretly funneled $250,000 to Seltzer’s primary,which she won by just 35 votes. Fireworks company executive Felix Grucci,a Republican,beat Seltzer and took Forbes's place in the Congress. Grucci served a single term in Congress,being defeated in 2002 by Democrat Tim Bishop,who served until 2015.
Forbes is married to Barbara Ann (Blackburn) Forbes and has four children and seven grandchildren. In his post-Congress years,Forbes worked as a public relations executive,founding his own communications firm in 2001. His clients included defense industry contractors,financial services,Internet payment providers,non-profit children's home,and other small businesses seeking Federal legislative relief and appropriations. He has also blogged for the Huffington Post. [10]
In 2005,Forbes and his wife moved to Round Rock,Texas,then in 2023,to Granger,Indiana. [11] In 2008,he entered five years of formation and theological study in the Diocese of Austin to become a permanent deacon in the Roman Catholic Church. He was ordained clergy in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Austin by Bishop Joe S. Vásquez on April 13,2013. For ten years,he served at Saint William Catholic Church in Round Rock. Today,Forbes is a deacon at St. Monica Parish,Mishawaka,Indiana,in the Catholic Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend,and assists as a canon lawyer in the tribunal for the diocese. [12]
In 2016,Forbes earned both ecclesiastical and civil degrees in canon (Church) law (the iuris canonici licentiate (J.C.L.) and a Master in Canon Law (M.C.L.) from Saint Paul University and the University of Ottawa,respectively. [11] He proceeded to complete a Master in Science in Bioethics (MSBE) from the University of Mary at Bismarck,North Dakota,in 2021 to better serve his parish and diocese in critical life issues. In addition to having served as a judge on the ecclesiastical court of the Diocese of Austin,Forbes formerly served Bishop Vasquez as his canonist and as Vice Chancellor for the Diocese of Austin. He was also the director of diaconal ministry. He is a member of the Canon Law Society of America,the Canon Law Society of Great Britain and Ireland,the Canon Law Society of Australia New Zealand,and the Canadian Canon Law Society.
The Republican Party,also known as the GOP,is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States. It emerged as the main political rival of the then-dominant Democratic Party in the mid-1850s,and the two parties have dominated American politics since then.
The 1996 United States presidential election was the 53rd quadrennial presidential election,held on Tuesday,November 5,1996. Incumbent Democratic President Bill Clinton and his running mate incumbent Democratic Vice President Al Gore were re-elected to a second and final term defeating the Republican ticket of former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole and former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Jack Kemp and the Reform ticket of businessman Ross Perot and economist Pat Choate.
The speaker of the United States House of Representatives,commonly known as the speaker of the House or House Speaker,is the presiding officer of the United States House of Representatives. The office was established in 1789 by Article I,Section II,of the U.S. Constitution. By custom and House rules,the speaker is the political and parliamentary leader of the House and is simultaneously its presiding officer,de facto leader of the body's majority party,and the institution's administrative head. Speakers also perform various other administrative and procedural functions. Given these several roles and responsibilities,the speaker usually does not personally preside over debates—that duty is instead delegated to members of the House from the majority party—nor regularly participate in floor debates.
The Clinton–Lewinsky scandal was a sex scandal involving Bill Clinton,the president of the United States,and Monica Lewinsky,a White House intern. Their sexual relationship began in 1995—when Clinton was 49 years old and Lewinsky was 22 years old—and lasted 18 months,ending in 1997. Clinton ended televised remarks on January 26,1998,with the later infamous statement:"I did not have sexual relations with that woman,Ms. Lewinsky." Further investigation led to charges of perjury and to the impeachment of Clinton in 1998 by the U.S. House of Representatives. He was subsequently acquitted on all impeachment charges of perjury and obstruction of justice in a 21-day U.S. Senate trial.
Newton Leroy Gingrich is an American politician and author who served as the 50th speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1995 to 1999. A member of the Republican Party,he was the U.S. representative for Georgia's 6th congressional district serving north Atlanta and nearby areas from 1979 until his resignation in 1999. In 2012,Gingrich unsuccessfully ran for the Republican nomination for president of the United States.
The "Republican Revolution","Revolution of '94",or "Gingrich Revolution" are political slogans that refer to the Republican Party's (GOP) success in the 1994 U.S. mid-term elections,which resulted in a net gain of 54 seats in the House of Representatives,and a pick-up of eight seats in the Senate. It was led by Newt Gingrich.
Robert Linlithgow Livingston Jr. is an American lobbyist and politician who served as a U.S. Representative from Louisiana from 1977 to 1999. A Republican,he was chosen as Newt Gingrich's successor as Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives,a position he declined following revelations of an extramarital affair. He served as a U.S. Representative from Louisiana from 1977 to 1999 and as the Chairman of the Appropriations Committee from 1995 to 1999. During his final years in Congress,Livingston was a strong supporter of Bill Clinton's impeachment. He is currently a Washington,D.C.-based lobbyist. Livingston's memoir,The Windmill Chaser:Triumphs and Less in American Politics,was published in September 2018.
James Claude Wright Jr. was an American politician who served as the 48th speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1987 to 1989. He represented Texas' 12th congressional district as a Democrat from 1955 to 1989.
Robert Henry Michel was an American Republican Party politician who was a member of the United States House of Representatives for 38 years. He represented central Illinois' 18th congressional district,and was the GOP leader in the House,serving as House Minority Leader during his last 14 years in Congress (1981–1995).
The 2000 United States House of Representatives elections were held on November 7,2000,to elect U.S. Representatives to serve in the 107th United States Congress. They coincided with the election of George W. Bush as President of the United States. The Republican Party won 221 seats,while the Democratic Party won 212 and independents won two.
The 1998 United States House of Representatives elections were held on November 3,1998,to elect U.S. Representatives to serve in the 106th United States Congress. They were part of the midterm elections held during President Bill Clinton's second term. They were a major disappointment for the Republicans,who were expecting to gain seats due to the embarrassment Clinton suffered during the Monica Lewinsky scandal and the "six-year itch" effect observed in most second-term midterm elections. However,the Republicans lost five seats to the Democrats,although they retained a narrow majority in the House. A wave of Republican discontent with Speaker Newt Gingrich prompted him to resign shortly after the election;he was replaced by Congressman Dennis Hastert of Illinois.
Texas's 14th congressional district for the United States House of Representatives stretches from Freeport to Orange,Texas. It formerly covered the area south and southwest of the Greater Houston region,including Galveston,in the state of Texas.
Felix James Grucci Jr. is an American politician from New York who served in the United States House of Representatives from New York's 1st congressional district as a member of the Republican Party.
James Albert Smith Leach is an American academic and former politician. He served as ninth Chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities from 2009 to 2013 and was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Iowa (1977–2007).
The following is a timeline of major events leading up to the United States presidential election of 2012. The election was the 57th quadrennial United States presidential election held on November 6,2012.
The 1994 United States elections were held on November 8,1994. The elections occurred in the middle of Democratic President Bill Clinton's first term in office,and elected the members of 104th United States Congress. The elections have been described as the "Republican Revolution" because the Republican Party captured unified control of Congress for the first time since 1952. Republicans picked up eight seats in the Senate and won a net of 54 seats in the House of Representatives. Republicans also picked up a net of ten governorships and took control of many state legislative chambers. This is the first midterm election since 1946 in which the Republicans ended unified Democratic control of Congress in a midterm election under a Democratic president.
The 2000 United States House of Representatives elections in New York were held on November 7,2000,to elect the 31 United States representatives from the State of New York,one from each of the state's 31 congressional districts.The elections were held concurrently with other elections in the state for President and Vice President,U.S. Senate,state senate,state assembly,state supreme court,ballot proposition one,and various other local offices. Both major parties in the U.S. congressional delegation from New York maintained their overall seat count,though the Republican Party gained a seat from the Democratic party in New York's first district,and the Democratic Party gained a seat from the Republican Party in New York's second district.
As a result of conflicts between Democratic President Bill Clinton and the Republican Congress over funding for education,the environment,and public health in the 1996 federal budget,the United States federal government shut down from November 14 through November 19,1995,and from December 16,1995,to January 6,1996,for 5 and 21 days,respectively. Republicans also threatened not to raise the debt ceiling.
The impeachment inquiry against Bill Clinton,the 42nd president of the United States,was initiated by a vote of the United States House of Representatives on October 8,1998,roughly a month after the release of the Starr Report. The United States House of Representatives,led by Republican Speaker Newt Gingrich,voted to authorize a broad impeachment inquiry against President Clinton. The inquiry was conducted by the House Committee on the Judiciary.
The 1996 presidential campaign of Bob Dole began when Republican Senator and Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole formally announced his candidacy for Republican Party nomination in 1995. After beating other candidates in the primaries,he became the Republican nominee,with his opponent being Democratic incumbent President Bill Clinton in the 1996 presidential election. Dole conceded defeat in the race in a telephone call to Clinton on November 5,1996.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link){{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)