Paul G. Kirk

Paul Grattan Kirk, Jr. ( born January 18, 1938 in Newton, Massachusetts) is an American politician of the Democratic Party. From September 2009 to February 2010, he represented the state of Massachusetts appointed as successor to the late Edward Kennedy in the U.S. Senate. Go to the official election to the Senate seat he did not present himself. From 1985 to 1989, Kirk was chairman of the Democratic National Committee, the party organization of the Democrats.

Private and professional career

Paul Kirk is one of five children of Paul Grattan Kirk Sr., an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts. He attended the Roxbury Latin School, a grammar school in Roxbury, and made as a result, its financial statements at the Saint Sebastian 's School, a secondary school in Needham, as well as the Harvard College and Harvard Law School. In 1965 he was admitted to the Bar Association of Massachusetts. In 1974 he married Gail Loudermilk, with whom he lives in Marstons Mills today. His great uncle William Henry O'Connell, Archbishop of Boston.

With the policy Kirk came into contact for the first time in 1969, when he became an assistant on the staff of U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy. This he remained until 1977; This year, he joined as a partner in the law firm of Sullivan & Worcester LLP in Boston one. As a result, he was a member of the boards of several companies; as he was inter alia 1989-1997 Member of the Board of Directors of ITT Corporation; later he took over the same function at the Hartford Financial Services Group and has held this still out. He is also Chairman and CEO of Kirk & Associates, his own consulting firm based in Boston. Moreover, he was and is curator of numerous schools and other facilities.

Political career

In 1983, Kirk Treasurer of the Democratic Party, before he succeeded by Charles Taylor Manatt took over the chairmanship of the party organization two years later. He succeeded against the resistance of Virginia Governor Chuck Robb and other Southern Democrats. From this opposition out to the Democratic Leadership Council was formed later, a faction within the Democratic Party. Kirk stood before the DNC to 1989; During this time he managed the Democrats in the elections of 1986, regain the majority in the U.S. Senate, which they had lost in 1980 to the Republicans. He resigned after the defeat of Massachusetts ' Governor Michael Dukakis against George Bush back in the presidential election in 1988 and handed over his office to Ron Brown.

From 1992 to 2001 Kirk chaired the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, one of the Democrats related non-profit organization for the promotion of democratic culture in developing countries. He is also Deputy Chairman of the Commission on Presidential Debates, which controls the process as politically independent institution of television duels of the presidential candidates before the respective elections, as well as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation. At the Democratic National Convention in 2008, Kirk served as a super delegate and voted for Barack Obama.

U.S. Senator

After the death of Senator Kennedy on August 25, 2009, the question of his successor was initially open. The Massachusetts law did not provide for the appointment of an interim senator by the Governor, but the direct election after a period of several months. The Democratic Party sought a revision of the system to come up with a successor appointed again to the two-thirds majority of 60 seats in the Senate; the state legislature of Massachusetts passed the amendment to the law. Subsequently appointed Governor Deval Patrick on September 24, Paul Kirk as senator, said he had also held consultation with the Kennedy family; Kirk himself said that he would not compete in the by-election on 19 January 2010. On the day of the appointment, the Republican Party of Massachusetts made ​​efforts to prevent the inauguration of Kirk, but a district judge rejected the objection, whereupon the new senator in the afternoon of 25 September, could take his oath of office. In the Senate he was a member of the Armed Services Committee and the Homeland Security Committee.

Democratic candidate for Kirk's successor was Martha Coakley, but against the Republican candidate, Scott Brown, a member of the State Senate, lost. Brown broke from Kirk on February 4, 2010.

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