Susan Molinari

Infobox Congressman
name = Susan Molinari


date of birth = birth date and age|1958|03|27
place of birth = Staten Island, New York
state = New York
district = 13th
term = 1990–1997
preceded = Guy V. Molinari
succeeded = Vito Fossella
party = Republican
spouse = Bill Paxon

Susan Molinari (born March 27, 1958) is a politician, journalist, and lobbyist from New York. She was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives for three terms.

Early life and family

Molinari was born in Staten Island, New York, the daughter of lawyer and perennial Republican politician Guy Molinari. She graduated from the University at Albany, The State University of New York. She served on the New York City Council before winning a special election to the House of Representatives in 1990 as a Republican to replace her father, who retired from Congress to become Staten Island Borough President.

Molinari married fellow U.S. Representative Bill Paxon on July 3rd 1994, after having previously married to John Lucchesi. The couple have two daughters together, Susan Ruby and Kate.

In the House of Representatives

While in the House of Representatives, Molinari's ideology tended to be more moderate than the main line of the Republican Party, in which the conservative Southern wing of the party was clearly ascendant. On issues of crime and punishment, she favored extended use of the federal death penalty and restrictions. She favored reduction of Social Security taxes, middle class tax cuts, and tax credits for families; these were policies consistent with traditional fiscal conservatism. She signed on to the Republicans' 1994 Contract with America, which promised a balanced budget amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and opposed the placing of U.S. troops under U.N. command. Concerning social policy, she leaned more liberal than many of her Republican colleagues. Unlike her father, an outspoken opponent of abortion, Molinari is pro-abortion. She also sided with the Democrats in voting for the Family and Medical Leave Act, a cornerstone of Bill Clinton's social policy. She offset these positions with her own standing as a new mother, framing her outlook in terms of "family values," and in fact energetically campaigned for fellow Republicans with whom she disagreed on both abortion and FMLA. In her autobiography she intimated that the tense ideological atmosphere within the Republican Party after they won majority in the House and Georgian Newt Gingrich became Speaker contributed to her unease. Molinari gave the keynote speech at the 1996 Republican National Convention, but resigned the House in June 1997 to take a job as a television journalist for CBS.

Molinari was replaced by Republican Vito Fossella in a 1997 Special Election.

After politics

Journalism

At CBS, Molinari co-anchored a Saturday morning news program for roughly nine months, ending in 1998. Her hiring was controversial from the very beginning; Although Molinari had earned degrees in communication, her major professional credentials were political, and her main national public recognition came from her speech at the Republican National Convention. Media critics asked whether a partisan politician could reasonably be expected to maintain objectivity. Others at the time criticized her on-air demeanor as either too "stiff" or too "perky," or attacked her interviews as superficial. Conservatives accused her of "selling out." Although allegedly CBS had first tried to respond to these criticisms by switching Molinari into "home and garden" journalism, the official comment from CBS executives was that they thought her better suited to political commentary, and had no such position available. However, she did later host a public affairs show called "The Flipside" and has been frequently called upon as a guest commentator on other leading political talk shows.

Lobbying and consulting

Molinari joined the law and public policy firm Bracewell & Giuliani in 2008 as a senior principal. The firm is home to former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and has a well-established government relations and strategic communications practice. Previously, she was president of Ketchum Public Affairs and also served as chief executive officer of Ketchum Inc.'s lobbying firm, The Washington Group, where she served as its chairman.

Molinari has cooperated for years with the Rape Abuse and Incest National Network (RAINN), which operates a telephone hotline in conjunction with more than 1,000 rape crisis centers nationwide. The group also sponsors outreach programs on college campuses. Her activities have included sponsoring legislation, and more recently heading a task force directed toward developing an Internet-based counterpart to the existing hotline.

Molinari also serves as Chair of The Century Council, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to fighting drunk driving and underage drinking by advocating and facilitating education, communications, research, law enforcement, and other programs. In its fight against these types of alcohol abuse, the Council is funded by "America's leading distillers" of alcoholic liquor, including Bacardi, Inc. and several other liquor manufacturers.

Recent Political Activities

Although she has maintained a public face, Molinari's subsequent political activities have been largely behind the scenes. She supported George W. Bush's election in 2000, but joined with more moderate Republicans such as Gerald Ford, David Rockefeller, and Richard Riordan in forming the Republican Unity Coalition, which opposed Bush's decision to support an amendment to the United States Constitution banning gay marriage. She did not seek any elected office in 2006, bucking speculation that she would run against Democratic Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton.Molinari served as an adviser to former New York City Mayor Rudi Giuliani's (R) 2008 presidential campaign. She is considered a possible candidate for Mayor of New York City in 2009.

References

*CongBio|M000843