Ricki Seidman | |
---|---|
Born | Ricki Lynn Seidman August 24, 1955 |
Nationality | American |
Education | Miami University (BA) University of Georgia (JD) |
Occupation(s) | Political activist, adviser |
Political party | Democratic |
Parent(s) | Eileen Joan (née Ladenson) and Frank Seidman |
Ricki Lynn Seidman (born August 24, 1955) is an American political adviser, government official, and Democratic Party activist. Seidman is known for her involvement in the Supreme Court confirmation hearings of Robert Bork, Clarence Thomas, Sonia Sotomayor, and Brett Kavanaugh.
Seidman's role in Democratic politics over the past four decades has led her to be represented in media such as the HBO film Confirmation , where she was depicted an as adviser to Anita Hill during the Clarence Thomas Supreme Court nomination. [1]
Seidman was born on August 24, 1955, to a Jewish family, the daughter of Eileen Joan (née Ladenson) and Frank Seidman. [2] [3] She earned a Bachelor of Arts from Miami University and a Juris Doctor from the University of Georgia School of Law. [4]
After graduation, she worked as a senior investigator for the investigation firm, Investigative Group International [5] [6] and later for the People for the American Way. [7]
She has been involved in presidential campaigns beginning with Walter Mondale in 1984, Michael Dukakis in 1988, [5] and Bill Clinton in 1992. Seidman worked for President Clinton as assistant to the president, as the director of scheduling and advance, and as the deputy communications director and assistant to the president. [5] She served as deputy communications director during the Clinton–Gore presidential campaign transition, [5] and worked on the failed nominations of Lani Guinier and Webster Hubbell. [8]
She appeared in the 1993 documentary film about the 1992 Clinton campaign for president, The War Room , and the 2008 film The Return of the War Room documenting Barack Obama's presidential campaign.
Seidman worked as an assistant to Senator Ted Kennedy and chief investigator for the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee [5] where she worked against the Robert Bork (1987) and Clarence Thomas (1990) nominations to the U.S. Supreme Court. [8] Nan Aron from Alliance for Justice asserts that she was the one that tipped Seidman off about Thomas' alleged harassment. [9]
In 1991, she prepped Anita Hill before she testified. [10] She was played by Grace Gummer in the HBO film Confirmation , depicting her role as adviser to Anita Hill during the Clarence Thomas Supreme Court nomination. [1]
In September 2018, Politico reported that she is serving as an adviser to Christine Blasey Ford, who has accused Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her in 1982 when they were teenagers. [11] Her involvement was criticized by Cassie Smedile, press secretary for the Republican National Committee, who stated, "If you're concerned about an appearance of partisanship, hiring a Democratic operative with a history of smearing conservative judges doesn't exactly mitigate that." [12]
Subsequently, she was named as a deputy associate attorney general at the U.S. Department of Justice. [4] [13] In 2000, she served as a senior principal at TSD Communications, a position she maintains today. [13] She served as then-Senator Joe Biden's communications director during the Obama presidential campaign in 2008. [4] In 2009, she advised President Barack Obama during the successful nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court. [13] In 2021, Seidman rejoined the Department of Justice under the Biden administration. [14]
She also served as a fellow of the Harvard Institute of Politics at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, and for three years as executive director of Rock the Vote. [4] Seidman served as an advisor to Google from 2006 to 2011 and her firm, TSD Communications, included Facebook among its clientele. [15]
Anita Faye Hill is an American lawyer, educator and author. She is a professor of social policy, law, and women's studies at Brandeis University and a faculty member of the university's Heller School for Social Policy and Management. She became a national figure in 1991 when she accused U.S. Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas, her supervisor at the United States Department of Education and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, of sexual harassment.
Ronald Alan Klain is an American attorney, political consultant, and former lobbyist who served as White House chief of staff under President Joe Biden from 2021 to 2023.
Leonard Anthony Leo is an American lawyer and conservative legal activist. He was the longtime vice president of the Federalist Society and is currently, along with Steven Calabresi, the co-chairman of the organization's board of directors.
Stephanie Cutter is an American political consultant. She served as an advisor to President Barack Obama during his first presidential term, and was deputy campaign manager for his 2012 re-election campaign. She previously worked in campaign and communications roles for other prominent Democrats including Ted Kennedy, John Kerry, and Michelle Obama. The New York Times described her as "a popular but polarizing face of [Obama's] campaign", and a "soldier who says the things the candidate can't say."
On July 1, 1991, President George H. W. Bush nominated Clarence Thomas for the Supreme Court of the United States to replace Thurgood Marshall, who had announced his retirement. At the time of his nomination, Thomas was a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit; President Bush had appointed him to that position in March 1990.
Kim Anita McLane Wardlaw is an American lawyer and jurist serving as a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit since 1998. She is the first Hispanic American woman to be appointed to a federal appeals court. Wardlaw was considered as a possible candidate to be nominated by Barack Obama to the Supreme Court of the United States.
Anita Dunn is an American political strategist who served as a senior advisor to U.S. President Joe Biden, holding the post from January 20, 2021, to August 12, 2021, and again from May 5, 2022 to August 2024. She is currently serving as a senior adviser to the Future Forward PAC.
Brett Michael Kavanaugh is an American lawyer and jurist serving as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He was nominated by President Donald Trump on July 9, 2018, and has served since October 6, 2018. He was previously a U.S. circuit judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit from 2006 to 2018.
Robert F. Bauer is an American attorney who served as White House Counsel under President Barack Obama.
Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime is a book by political journalists John Heilemann and Mark Halperin about the 2008 United States presidential election. Released on January 11, 2010, it was also published in the United Kingdom under the title Race of a Lifetime: How Obama Won the White House. The book is based on interviews with more than 300 people involved in the campaign. It discusses factors including Democratic Party presidential candidate John Edwards' extramarital affair, the relationship between Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama and his vice presidential running mate Joe Biden, the failure of Republican Party candidate Rudy Giuliani's presidential campaign and Sarah Palin's vice presidential candidacy.
Regina McCarthy is an American air quality expert who served as the first White House national climate advisor from 2021 to 2022. She previously served as the thirteenth Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency from 2013 to 2017.
The Concord Fund is an American conservative advocacy organization. Its president is Carrie Severino, a former law clerk for Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas. In 2020, OpenSecrets described the organization as having "unmatched influence in recent years in shaping the federal judiciary." It is among a network of organizations associated with Leonard Leo, a co-chair of the Federalist Society, that are funded mostly by anonymous donors, with funding distributed by Concord and a related group, The 85 Fund.
Confirmation is a 2016 American television political thriller film, directed by Rick Famuyiwa and written by Susannah Grant. It is about Clarence Thomas's Supreme Court nomination hearings, and the controversy that unfolded when Anita Hill alleged she was sexually harassed by Thomas. It stars Kerry Washington as Hill and Wendell Pierce as Clarence Thomas, with Erika Christensen, Jennifer Hudson, Greg Kinnear, Jeffrey Wright, Bill Irwin, and Eric Stonestreet in supporting roles. The film aired on HBO on April 16, 2016.
On March 16, 2016, President Barack Obama nominated Merrick Garland for Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States to succeed Antonin Scalia, who had died one month earlier. At the time of his nomination, Garland was the chief judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
With the advice and consent of the United States Senate, the president of the United States appoints the members of the Supreme Court of the United States, which is the highest court of the federal judiciary of the United States. Following his victory in the 2016 presidential election, Republican Donald Trump took office as president on January 20, 2017, and faced an immediate vacancy on the Supreme Court due to the February 2016 death of Associate Justice Antonin Scalia.
On July 9, 2018, President Donald Trump nominated Brett Kavanaugh for Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States to succeed retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy. When nominated, Kavanaugh was a judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, a position he was appointed to in 2006 by President George W. Bush.
Christine Margaret Blasey Ford is an American professor of psychology at Palo Alto University and a research psychologist at the Stanford University School of Medicine. She specializes in designing statistical models for research projects. During her academic career, Ford has worked as a professor at the Stanford University School of Medicine Collaborative Clinical Psychology Program.
Carrie Campbell Severino is an American lawyer and conservative political activist. She is the president of the Concord Fund, where she supported the Supreme Court nominations of Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh. She is the coauthor of Justice on Trial: The Kavanaugh Confirmation and the Future of the Supreme Court.
Ben LaBolt is an American political advisor who is the White House Communications Director to Joe Biden. He succeeded Kate Bedingfield in the role when she stepped down at the end of February 2023. In August 2024 LaBolt was promoted to Senior Advisor to the President succeeding Anita Dunn after her departure. Previously, LaBolt has worked on presidential campaigns for Barack Obama and Howard Dean, as well as for Jan Schakowsky, Sherrod Brown, and Rahm Emanuel.