While he was still an infant,his family moved to Albany.[2][5] His father resigned from his commission and worked as vice president of the English Speaking Union in New York City starting in 1949.[2][3] Treadwell grew up on a 385-acre family estate called Bessboro Farm in Westport,New York,overlooking Lake Champlain.[2][3] There,his father raised Holstein cattle.[3] Treadwell had one brother,Thomas Ord Treadwell.[3]
Treadwell served in the Army National Guard.[citation needed]
Career
Journalist
After college,Treadwell was a sports journalist for Sports Illustrated.[4][2] He wrote articles about college basketball and football.[5] He stayed in that position for three years,leaving in 1972 to become a freelance writer.[2] In 1973,he wrote articles for New York magazine.[8][9]
He worked for ClassicSports magazine for four years in the late 1970s.[2] Next,he tried to start a movie magazine without success.[2] In 1987,he wrote The World of Marathons (Stewart,Tabori &Chang,1987) a book about 26 races around the world.[2][10][11] In its review,Library Journal wrote,"Essential reading for both the amateur and professional distance runner."[12]
Politics
Treadwell became active in the Republican Party in Essex County,New York.[2] In 1973,he sought the Essex County GOP endorsement for the New York State Assembly but lost badly in a county committee vote.[2] He changed his tactics,aiming lower.[2] He became the Republic Party chairman in Westport.[2] In 1985,he was elected Republican chairman for the county.[2] He was vice chairman of the New York State Republican Party from 1989 to 1994.[2][11]
In 1990,Treadwell campaigned for the Republican Party across the state of New York,sharing the Republican platform at public forums.[2] Along the way,he met George Pataki.[2] In 1994 when Pataki ran for governor in 1994,Treadwell officially endorsed him as a county chairman,becoming one of the first county chairmen in the state to do so.[2]
New York Secretary of State
In 1995,Governor George Pataki appointed Treadwell Secretary of State of New York.[2] In this capacity,Treadwell earned $120,800 a year.[2] The Department of State had 850 employees and an annual budget of $110 million during Treadwell's leadership.[13] As Secretary,Treadwell was active in reorganizing the Department of State in order to streamline operations and improve efficiency. [citation needed] He reduced the agency's workforce without layoffs while holding the line on spending. He was also active in local government issues statewide.[citation needed] He served as the Secretary of State through 2001.[13]
In 2004,Treadwell faced controversy after he supported AssemblymanHoward Mills as the party's nominee for the U.S. Senate against Senator Chuck Schumer over the would-be candidate Michael Benjamin.[15] Benjamin publicly accused Treadwell and Governor George Pataki of trying to muscle him out of the Senate race and undermine the democratic process because he was half Honduran.[15] Mills,who was nominated after numerous other potential candidates turned the race down,lost to incumbent Schumer in the largest landslide in state history.[16]
In April 2008, Treadwell filed to run for Congress in New York's 20th District against Kirsten Gillibrand.[7] Treadwell signed the Americans For Tax Reform's Taxpayer Protection Pledge and ran on the promise that he will never vote to increase taxes on individuals or businesses.[5] He supported more troops in Iraq, but noted, "We went into Iraq for the wrong reasons. Terrible mistakes were made in the first four years."[5] He also favored a limit of four terms for Congressmen.[5] In addition, he supported expanding broadband and cellular infrastructure.[5] He also stated that he would not accept a salary to serve in Congress, but would donate those funds to charities.[5]
Treadwell was endorsed by Bill Weld, the former Governor of Massachusetts.[18] Former mayor of New York City, Rudy Giuliani, hit the campaign trail on his behalf.[19] However, conservative commentator George Marlin criticized Treadwell, labeling him a "social moderate" and a "liberal elitist trust bab[y]".[18] In fact, during his campaign, Treadwell noted Martin Luther King Jr. and John F. Kennedy as major influences on his life.[5] Another New York Republican operative called him a "Rockefeller Republican".[14]
Treadwell was defeated by Gillibrand, who was re-elected with 62% of the vote.[20][21] Treadwell spent more than $6 million on his campaign; nearly $5 million was his own money.[22] Gillibrand spend $4.49 million.[21] It was the most expensive United States House race in 2008.[22]
Other political issues
In 2011, Treadwell publicly supported gay marriage, and encourage Republican senators to vote for marriage equality.[23] In 2020, Treadwell was a founder of a Bipartisan Committee to Elect Joe Biden; the committee started to support Democrat Amy Klobuchar who later withdrew from the presidential race.[24]
Artist
At 67 years old, Treadwell became an artist, specializing in charcoal portraits.[1] He is affiliated with the Ojai Studio Artists.[1] His gallery is the Ojai Valley Artists at 238 East Ojai Avenue in Ojai, California.[1]
Personal life
Treadwell married Elisabeth "Libby" Ward Krautter on March 21, 1970, in Saints Chapel of Christ Episcopal Church in Winnetka, Illinois.[6][1][10] Krautter was also a writer for Sports Illustrated and was one of the first woman journalists to cover professional football.[6][2] In addition, she is a poet.[14] They had an apartment in Manhattan, but also lived in Essex County, New York near his mother.[2] They moved to Westport in 1972.[5] The couple had two children: Zachary and Caroline.[2][10]
In 1980, he saw runners in the New York City Marathon.[2] The next day, he began training for the 1981 marathon.[2] At the time, Treadwell smoked two and a half packs of cigarettes a day.[2] He ran both the New York City Marathon and the London Marathon two times, as well as running the Moscow Marathon once.[2]
In 2004, he purchased a home in Lake Placid, New York.[5] He spent winters there and summers in Westport on the farm where he spent his childhood.[5] The family also has a house in California.[14]
In 2004, President George W. Bush appointed Treadwell to the board of trustees for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.[14] In 2006, he was the president of the Lake Placid Regional Winter Sports Committee.[10] He has also served as vice president of the Clark Foundation.[10]
↑ Treadwell, Sand; Howard, Pamela (May 26, 1973). "Dr. Atkins Says He's Sorry". The New York Weekly. United States Congress Hearings, Reports and Prints of the Senate Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs: 68 – via Google Books.
↑ Hoffman W. H. The World of Marathons. Library Journal. 1987;112(10):125. Accessed August 3, 2022. via EBSCO. Accessed August 3, 2022.
1 2 "Accomplishments". Sandy Treadwell for Congress. webarchive.loc.gov. Archived from the original on 2008-10-08. Retrieved 2022-08-03.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
1 2 Benjamin, Elizbeth (February 25, 2004) "Senate hopeful claims GOP bosses snubbed him". Archived from the original on August 7, 2004. Retrieved 2004-08-07.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)Albany Times-Union. Accessed August 3, 2022.
↑ Former chair of the New York State Republican Party endorses gay marriage. (2011, June 17). Daily Record (Rochester, NY). via Gale, accessed August 3, 2022
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