From NBC:Geraldine A. Ferraro, who earned a place in history in 1984 as the first woman to run on a major party national ticket for vice president, has died. She was 75-years-old.
Ferraro, who was born in Newburgh, New York, passed away today at Massachusetts General Hospital, surrounded by her loved ones, a statement from her family read.
The cause of death was complications from multiple myeloma, a blood cancer that she had battled for twelve years, her family said.
Ms. Ferraro was first elected to Congress from New York's Ninth Congressional District in Queens in 1978, and served three terms in the House of Representatives before being tapped for the Vice Presidential run.
35 comments:
It's too bad Queens doesn't have any more bridges left to name this QUEENSITE for.
Agree with GtA, I would be less adverse to a Ferraro Bridge!
She was a very nice person, though I knew her before I could vote, so didn't really know her political views. I worked in Forest Hills and she would come in each week and shop just like everyone else even though she would have a "detail" with her and her family the whole time.
RIP Ms. Ferraro. Isn't a Post Office already named for her?
May you RIP. You made a different in the lives of women, who learned that they could aim for ever higher public office. Bless you for all the good work that you did.
Yikes! I am reading “City For Sale” by Jack Newfield & Wayne Barrett and when Queens Borough president Manes know he is going to be busted for major theft, kick backs he stabs himself and slits his wrists. He tells the NYPD he was attacked. The NYPD investigates and states the wounds are self inflicted. Geraldine Ferraro being loyal stood up for Manes and said the NYPD was lying. The NYPD was in fact correct. This book is shocking and Queens politicos are a big part of this story including Jimmy Breslin’s coverage. Koch attacked Breslin as well as Manes but before the story broke he visited Manes in the hospital, kissed him and declared his support.
Let's not forget that her hubby real estate maven John Zacarro was allegedly hooked up good with the mob!
Let Forest Hills Gardens name a street after her...maybe the one on which she lived there.
I hope she rests in peace despite the fact that I never liked her.
in City for Sale, who was the local politician slated for prison time soon, who did Manes's eulogy ?
Alan Hevesi delivered Manes' eulogy!
This woman's family was involved in 'stuff' since she was a little girl.
When all the baggage was discovered, it sunk Mondale and ushered in four years of Regan and Bush.
Her run for the Senate was a disaster.
After her unfortunate comments about Obama she was persona non grata.
Funny seeing the pols praise her with a record like that - starting with fellow cohort former Mayor Krock.
The Queens politician is like a mushroom: a mold that survives in the dark and romps in shit. When you bring it out into the sun it withers.
the sad story is that none of the comments ,or the lead story will state which political party is taking the credit for the queens dictatorship we live in ?
Sending sincere sympathies to the family of Ms Ferraro she will be missed. Ferraro was an intelligen¬¬t, articulate¬¬, passionate caring person, a good lawyer, and a forceful politician¬. RIP!
Rename Koch bridge to Ferraro - way better - she was scrappy and put up with alot of BS. They went after her husband and then her son - she made it through it all because she was strong and resembled being a Queens resident!
I love Queens Crap. Even the hacks can post their perspectives here.
Nothing, folks, nothing justifies giving the open door to Reagan and Bush. In doing so, and sinking the Mondale ticket, this woman did more damage the to Democratic organization and its constituents than anything else in our generation.
Ferraro was a female politician who happened to be in the right place at the right time, but her luck ran out when the electorate got a good luck at her sleazy hubby.
She was part of the tired democratic machine of yesterday that is vanishing as I write this. Its only left in a few backward places like Queens.
Look what she said about Obama (from the L.A. Times):
"If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position," she said for an article aptly headlined "Geraldine Ferraro lets her emotions do the talking."
She went on: "And if he was a woman (of any color) he would not be in this position. He happens to be very lucky to be who he is. And the country is caught up in the concept."
Yes, I remember that - and she was a senior democratic operative in NY.
They showed her the door before you could say 'booo.'
But then, again, look at Claire and Toby and Karen and the lot. Do you really thing these battlewagons believe anything they say about diversity?
"They went after her husband and then her son - she made it through it all because she was strong and resembled being a Queens resident!"
Yea - right.
"Nothing, folks, nothing justifies giving the open door to Reagan and Bush."
Get over it. Live with the big O. And the next Republican President.
Ferraro can hardly be blamed for Mondale's loss, he had little chance of winning.
Ferraro's point about Obama was that it was a shrewd move to split the "dream" vote (women dreaming of the first woman president and blacks dreaming of the first black ((or bi-racial)) president.
It is certainly true that Clinton was popular with Blacks, and but for Obama's entry into the race, would have won the nomination. It was also true that there was probably no other woman who could have successfully run against her (Clinton paid dues for years in the Democratic party and did fundraising for many other politicians, she had plenty of chits to collect), and without the split in the black/women (also young/old) vote, it is unlikely that a white man would have defeated her in the primary. So, what Ferraro said was a true evaluation of the political process (Obama carried the black vote by over 90%, somewhere around 97% if I remember correctly). Although there was sexism, racism, and ageism aplenty in all the campaigns, I think it was unfair to Ferraro isolate that line, out of context, and mark it on her gravestone (although her reaction to the blowback was less defensible).
I always liked her, her husband less so. But she helped to pass some very good legislation, and did honestly fight for her constituents more than I see most politicians doing so today (Was there backroom politics? Is there ever not backroom politics.)
May she rest in peace, condolences to those nearest and dearest to her.
As of this morning, still no makeshift memorial on the steps of the LIC post office, renamed last year in her honor.
Of course, I have yet to spot any signage acknowledging this long-overdue tribute, accorded a woman who stopped serving the district a quarter-century earlier after a whole six years in office.
When Congressman-for-life James Delaney retired in 1978, there was a popular district attorney named Nicholas Ferraro and his 43-year-old cousin, Geraldine, worked for him as an ADA. She ran a very ethnic campaign for Congress which fit the district's demographics at that time and the name recognition didn't hurt either. She didn't have to start in the Assembly or City Council before moving up the ladder.
Also, she was pro-choice and the people who she faced in that first primary were pro-life (Manton and Deignan) (as was James Delaney who had just retired). In 1978, there was still some diversity of opinion even inside the Democratic party in New York on just how far the government would go to fund and promote abortion. Ferraro's win helped cement the Democratic party as the pro-choice party.
The Catholic Church, and Cardinal O'Connor came after Ferraro with guns blazing, in a way they had never come after any candidate before (to try to stop her from getting the Italian and Irish Catholic vote).
They certainly never pursued the openly cheating/twice divorced pro-choice Giuliani with such vigor. . . .
Mainly because he didn't have a pro-life opponent.
Well, maybe, Crappy, but I have only heard the threat of ex-communication used against Democrats, and it seemed to start with women politicians (it seems to have lessened now to with-holding communion).
And, I am not sure about this, but didn't they always let Giuliani go to the Al Smith dinner, but then started blocking other pro-choice candidates/politicians? The Church certainly seems to target left-wing politicians, particularly women, much more than right-wing politicians . . . .
They haven't threatened excommunication against any pol in this city for years. Time to drop that axe you're grinding.
"The Church certainly seems to target left-wing politicians, particularly women, much more than right-wing politicians . . . ."
Dude, you haven't been to church lately and don't read the "Tablet". But for their stance on abortion, and "gay" marriage, the Roman Catholic Church is pro-labor, pro-social-justice and pro-immigration, legal and illegal. It is one of the biggest socialist entities outside of France. They never support local Republican candidates, when all the tweeding dems show up in Church.
She didn't have to start in the Assembly or City Council before moving up the ladder.
yea, well, there is the little problem we see time and again... whenever our little darlings leave the local sandbox even the rubes in Paducah don't seem to be as transfixed as the doormats in Flushing.
Yes, Crappy, I acknowledged that the Church generally no longer threatens ex-communication -- that it was a threat that was first used against politicians like Ferraro (although there was some push to ex-communicate Kerry). Actually that was part of my point, harsher penalties first arose when you started having viable, progressive, women candidates.
To Anon, I'll admit I don't read the Tablet, am not a dude, and haven't been to Church lately (unless escorting elderly relatives -- although I still do Mass cards and cemetery visits), but since most progressive women politicians are generally pro-choice and progressive on gay rights (some less so), the Catholic Church's unrelenting hostility to allowing a Catholic politician to say they recognize a woman's right to autonomy over her own body, even if they as a Catholic would not have an abortion, falls more harshly on women, and really, given all of its and the world's problems, that the Catholic Church would spend so much time obsessing over issues that get so little coverage in the actual Bible, shows maybe fraternal organizations should die a natural death . . . .
The Church favors immigration because it increases the size of its (dying) congregations and immigrants tend to be more conservative and respectful of Church authority than the native born (plus the majority of men and women seeking vocations within the Catholic Church these days come from South America and Africa).
Go to wikipedia to see what people have said about her family, effect political campaigns, and her legacy.
"that the Catholic Church would spend so much time obsessing over issues that get so little coverage in the actual Bible, shows maybe fraternal organizations should die a natural death"
Um, WTF are you talking about? You're connecting the Catholic church and the Masons on a Geraldine Ferraro post?
I am analogizing the all-male, purportedly celibate, Catholic Church clergy which spends so much of its time focusing on women's control of their bodies and people's private sexual practices to the other "fraternal" organizations discussed earlier, and saying that maybe their membership is dwindling because their message is unappealing to increasing numbers of people . . . .
Wrong post, genius.
What message do fraternal organizations have that's unappealing? Their main purpose is to do charity work. Sadly, we are moving away from performing charity and more toward selfishness.
Really? You can't reference an earlier post when you see a common theme?
The "fraternal" organization that was the Church went after Ferraro because it was not as sympathetic to women's issues that they did not understand and would never have to deal with as was Ferraro and they did not like their authority challenged (even in areas where they obviously have no experience).
I am a big fan of charitable organizations and volunteer work. The problem with fraternal organizations is they provide networking opportunities from which women are excluded (and by excluding women, also often wind up having a disproportionate voice in issues that effect women without understanding them).
I am off this thread now. Too time consuming, and we are getting off-thread . . . .
Condolences to the Ferraro family, and I, for one, appreciate the hit Geraldine Ferraro took for the women candidates that followed her
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