US governor, born in Brookline, Massachusetts, USA. An army veteran (19568) and lawyer, he served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives (Democrat, 196371). As governor (19759, 198391), he initially reduced the budget deficit and attracted business to Massachusetts, but the late 1980s recession left the state in a financial crisis. Resoundingly defeated by George Bush in the 1988 presidential campaign, he retired from politics (1991) to practise law and lecture on government at various universities.
| Michael Dukakis | |
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| 65 Governor of Massachusetts | |
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Term of office: January 2, 1975 – January 4, 1979 January 6, 1983 – January 3, 1991 |
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| Lieutenant Governor: |
Thomas P. O'Neill, III (1975-1979)
John Kerry (1983-1985), Evelyn Murphy (1987-1991) |
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| Predecessor: |
Francis W. King (1st)
William Weld (2nd) |
| Born: |
November 3, 1933 Brookline, Massachusetts |
| Political party: | Democratic |
| Profession: | Lawyer |
| Spouse: | Kitty Dukakis |
| Religion: | Greek Orthodox |
Michael Stanley Dukakis (born November 3, 1933) is an American Democratic politician, former Governor of Massachusetts, and the Democratic presidential nominee in 1988.
Early career and family
Dukakis's father Panos (1896-1979) was a Greek from Asia Minor who settled in Lowell, Massachusetts in 1912 and graduated from Harvard Medical School twelve years later, subsequently working as an obstetrician. Dukakis graduated from Swarthmore College in 1955, served in the U.S. Army, and then received his law degree from Harvard Law School in 1960.
Sibling rivalry - brother Stelian Dukakis
Dukakis had one brother, Stelian Panos Dukakis (1930-1973), who was sent into a coma when struck by a motorist while he was riding his bicycle in Brookline, Massachusetts and taken off life support after four months.
During the 1988 Presidential campaign, Dukakis' own mental health became an issue when he refused to release his full medical history and there were, according to The New York Times, "persistent suggestions" that he had undergone psychiatric treatment in the past.
Massachusetts Governor
After serving for a time in the Massachusetts legislature, Dukakis was elected Governor of Massachusetts in 1974, defeating the incumbent Republican Francis W. Dukakis won in part by promising to be a 'reformer' and pledging not to increase the state's sales tax to balance the state budget. The Dukakis pledge to dismantle MDC failed in the Legislature where MDC had many powerful supporters and ultimately came back to haunt Dukakis when the MDC withheld its critical backing in the 1978 gubernatorial primary (see below).
Governor Dukakis was an amiable host to President Gerald Ford and Queen Elizabeth II during their visits to Boston in 1976 to commemorate the bicentenary of the United States. Dukakis is also remembered for his 1977 exoneration of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, two Italian anarchists whose trial sparked protests around the world, and who were electrocuted by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 1927.
During his first term in office, Dukakis commuted the sentences of 21 first-degree murderers and those of 23 second-degree murderers. Due to controversy engendered by some of these individuals having re-offended, Dukakis curtailed the practice later, issuing no commutations in his last three years as governor.
However, this performance did not prove enough to offset a backlash against the state's high sales and property tax rates, which turned out to be the predominant issue in the 1978 gubernatorial campaign. Dukakis, despite being the incumbent Democratic governor, was refused re-nomination by his own party. King in the Democratic primary partly because King rode the wave against high property taxes (along with the passing of a binding petition on the state ballot that limited property tax rates to 2 1/2% of the property valuation -- known as Proposition 2 1/2), but more significantly because State Democratic Party leaders lost confidence in Dukakis' ability to govern effectively. Dukakis suffered a scathing defeat in the Democratic Primary. Yet, four years later ('after wandering in the wilderness' some said), having made peace with the state Democratic Party machine powerbrokers, MDC, and the state police and public employee unions, Dukakis defeated King in a 're-match' in the 1982 Democratic primary. Future Democratic Presidential nominee John Kerry was elected Lieutenant Governor on the same ballot with Dukakis, and served in the Dukakis administration from 1983 to 1985.
Dukakis served as Governor again from 1983 until 1991 (winning re-election in 1986 with more than 60 percent of the vote) during which time he presided over a high-tech boom and a period of prosperity in Massachusetts and simultaneously getting the reputation for being a 'technocrat'. The National Governors Association voted Dukakis the most effective governor in 1986.
Soon after his loss in the 1988 Presidential election to George Herbert Walker Bush, the so-called 'Massachusetts Miracle' of prosperity also went bust, and Dukakis was little more than a 'lame duck' Governor for his final two years in office.
Presidential candidate
Using the phenomenon termed the "Massachusetts Miracle" to promote his campaign, Dukakis sought the Democratic Party nomination for President of the United States in the 1988 elections, prevailing over a primary field which included Jesse Jackson, Richard Gephardt, Gary Hart and Al Gore, among others, and collectively known as The Seven Dwarfs.
Despite the claims that Dukakis always "turned the other cheek," he did run a particularly effective commercial against rival Dick Gephardt that featured a tumbler doing somersaults while the announcer said, "Dick Gephardt has been flip-flopping over the issues." Dukakis finished third in the Iowa caucuses and then became the first candidate to ever win a contested New Hampshire primary by more than ten points with Gephardt finishing second. Dukakis finished first in Minnesota and second in South Dakota before winning five states on March 8, 1988, the "Super Tuesday" primaries. As his competition continued to fade, Dukakis wound up with a seven-week stretch of one-on-one elections between himself and controversial civil rights leader Jesse Jackson. Dukakis lost the Michigan caucus to Jackson but then prevailed by margins of two to one in Wisconsin, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, California, and New Jersey, clinching the nomination on June 7, 1988. Bush, the Republican nominee, launched several attacks on Dukakis for his traditionally liberal positions on many issues. These included Dukakis's statement during the primary season that he was "a card-carrying member of" the American Civil Liberties Union, his veto of legislation requiring public school teachers to lead pupils in the Pledge of Allegiance, and his opposition to the resumption of capital punishment in the United States.
Dukakis had trouble with the personality that he projected to the voting public. Dukakis was often referred to as "Zorba the Clerk." Nevertheless, Dukakis is considered to have done well in the first presidential debate with George Bush. In the second debate, Dukakis had been suffering from the flu and spent quite a bit of the day in bed. Bernard Shaw, the moderator of the debate, asked Dukakis, "Governor, if Kitty Dukakis [his wife] were raped and murdered, would you favor an irrevocable death penalty for the killer?" Dukakis replied coolly, "No, I don't, and I think you know that I've opposed the death penalty during all of my life," and explained his stance. During debate preparations, Dukakis's campaign manager Susan Estrich had prepared an answer highlighting the candidate's empathy for victims of crime, noting the beating of his father in a robbery and the death of his brother in a hit-and-run car accident. Many — including the candidate himself — believe that this, in part, cost Dukakis the election, as his poll numbers dropped from 49% to 42% nationally that night.
Prison furlough program issue
The most controversial criticism against Dukakis involved his support for a prison furlough program, not begun while he was governor, that resulted in the release of convicted murderer Willie Horton, who committed a rape and assault in Maryland after his escape.
Bush mentioned Horton by name in a speech in June, 1988 and his campaign brought up the Horton case. That ad campaign was followed by a separate Bush campaign ad, "Revolving Door," criticizing Dukakis over the furlough program without mentioning Horton.
The Pledge of Allegiance Issue
The Bush campaign also criticized Dukakis for vetoing a bill that would have required recitation of the pledge of allegiance in Massachusetts classrooms. Dukakis felt the law was unconstitutional. In any case, many people felt the Bush campaign was unfairly questioning Dukakis's patriotism.
Public relations failure
Dukakis has been blamed for allowing "liberal" to come to be considered a derogatory term. He was criticized during the campaign for a perceived softness on defense issues, particularly the controversial "Star Wars" SDI program, which Dukakis promised to scale down (although not cancel). In response to this, Dukakis orchestrated what would become the key image of his campaign, albeit not for the reasons he intended. In September 1988, Dukakis visited the General Dynamics plant in Michigan to take part in a photo op in an M1 Abrams tank. Filmed wearing a safety helmet that seemed too large for his head, Dukakis looked awkward, out of place, and decidedly uncomfortable in a military setting. Footage of Dukakis was used by the Bush campaign as evidence he would not make a good commander-in-chief, and "Dukakis in the tank" remains shorthand for backfired public relations outings. Dukakis himself blames his defeat on the time he spent doing gubernatorial work in Massachusetts in the final weeks of the campaign, when many believed he should have been campaigning across the country. Dukakis made some strong showings in rural states that typically vote Republican. In Montana, Dukakis racked up a close 46% of the vote, in a state that typically goes Republican by twenty points (Reagan and George W. Dukakis's relative strength in farm states was no doubt due to the serious economic difficulties these states faced in 1980s.
Although Dukakis cut into the Republican base in the midwest, he failed to dent the emerging GOP stronghold in the south.
In the Rust Belt, Dukakis also performed poorly. Dukakis did have luck by winning the second largest electoral market New York, but by a slim margin. In the Pacific Northwest, Dukakis did much better, capturing both Washington and Oregon but losing California.
Dukakis won 41,809,476 votes in the popular vote.
Overall, Dukakis won a higher percentage of the popular vote than either Walter Mondale in 1984 or Bill Clinton (in a three way race) in 1992.
After the end of his term, he served on the board of directors for Amtrak, and became a professor of political science at Northeastern University in Massachusetts and visiting professor of Public Policy at UCLA.
Dukakis has recently developed a strong passion for grassroots campaigning and the appointment of precinct captains to coordinate local campaigning activities, two strategies he feels are essential for the Democratic Party to compete effectively in both local and national elections.
Trivia
Had Dukakis been elected, he would have been the second US President, after Andrew Jackson, with immigrant parents. "I'm voting for Dukakis" is the first line of dialogue in the cult film Donnie Darko, and is often quoted by its fans. Michael Dukakis was the longest serving governor of Massachusetts, serving a total of twelve years in the governor's office. Famed composer John Williams wrote "Fanfare for Michael Dukakis" in 1988 at the request of Dukakis' father-in-law Harry Ellis Dickson. Dukakis used Neil Diamond's immigrant song "America" as a theme song for his 1988 campaign. Dukakis is mentioned in the movie Celtic Pride as a reference of pop-cultural time in the city of Boston when Dan Aykroyd's character Jimmy Flaherty states; That old Celtics lighter hasn't worked since Dukakis was governor" Dukakis' height is 5'8". Dukakis and his wife Kitty have spent many summers vacationing at the summer home in Tyringham, Massachusetts of Kitty's father, Boston Pops musician Harry Ellis Dickson. Had Dukakis won the Presidency, this home likely would have been the 'summer' White House, according to The Berkshire Eagle.Personal info
Dukakis is an Eagle Scout and recipient of the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award from the Boy Scouts of America.
Dukakis is married to Katherine D. (Kitty) Dukakis. The Dukakises continue to reside in his boyhood home in Brookline, Massachusetts, but live in Los Angeles, California during the winter while Dukakis teaches at UCLA.
He is the cousin of actress Olympia Dukakis.
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