[169] In November 1998, she was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a form of blood cancer where plasma cells secrete abnormal antibodies known as Bence-Jones proteins, which can cause bones to disintegrate and dump toxic amounts of calcium into the bloodstream. [148] Regarding a previous China motion that had failed, Ferraro had told the commission, "Let us do what we were sent here to dodecide important questions of human rights on their merits, not avoid them. In Ferraros home state of New York, the incumbents won by 7.5 points. [188] Ferraro became livid and distraught when one of her daughters voted for Obama in the Massachusetts primary, saying "What is the matter with you? Ferraro had been eight or nine at the time of her parent's arrest and only learned of the charges from the Post story. It wouldnt be until June that Mondale, the former Minnesota senator who had served President Carter as vice president, would lock up the race he was an early favorite for, outlasting Colorado senator Gary Hart and civil rights leader Jesse Jackson after a grueling primary. Terms of Use "[106] Ferraro speculated that the pick might win Republican presidential nominee John McCain the election,[204] but said that she was supporting Obama now due to his running mate selection of Joe Biden having resolved her concerns about Obama's lack of experience in certain areas. In 1984, I couldn't say, Stop it, she explained to Newsweek. Once Mondale became the presumptive nominee in June, he began interviewing a roster of Democratsincluding Ferraro, then-mayor of San Francisco Dianne Feinstein, Los Angeles mayor Tom Bradley and San Antonio mayor Henry Cisnerosfrom significantly more diverse backgrounds than all of the white men elected vice president to date. Sprengelmeyer's interview with Walter Mondale", "Ferraro: 'Wonderful To See Woman On Natl. Through his eyes, the selection was a last-ditch, long-shot political calculation but also a brave departure. There was no artifice to Ferraro, remembers Koshgarian, her staffer. In his memoir, Mondale himself discussed the two threads of the decision to renovate the image of the white, male vice president. Many expected her to run in the 1986 United States Senate election in New York against first-term Republican incumbent Al D'Amato,[111] and during 1985 she did Upstate New York groundwork towards that end. Barnett, whod go on to ready many other Democratic candidatesincluding both Clintonsfor debates, says Ferraro would joke about throwing Bush off-kilter: For the opening handshake, she threatened to kiss the vice president full on the lips, he remembers. But I know full well the only reason Im on that short list is because Im a woman, she told the Washington Post), feather-duster platinum hair, her figure. [112], Holtzman, who was trailing in polls, borrowed over $400,000 from Fleet Bank to run a negative ad accusing Ferraro and Zaccaro of taking more than $300,000 in rent in the 1980s from the DiBernardo-run pornography company whose presence in Zaccaro's building had been raised during her 1984 vice-presidential campaign. [17][29] She was named head of the unit in 1977, with two other assistant district attorneys assigned to her. Their campaign made history, with Ms Ferraro the first female running mate on a major party ticket for the presidency. [105], Ferraro is one of only four U.S. women to run on a major party national ticket. Safire wrote in August 1984 that it would be equally incorrect to call her "Miss Ferraro" (as she was married) or "Mrs. Ferraro" (as her husband was not "Mr. Ferraro", although this is the formulation the Times used), and that calling her "Mrs. Zaccaro" would confuse the reader. You have seen my involvement with her." Mondale, with Ferraro at his side after a covert late-night flight, told the assembled press in St. Paul, I looked for the best vice president, and I found her in Gerry., Thank you, Vice President Mondale, said Ferraro after his speech. [170] As she passed the age of 70, she was thankful for still being alive, and said "This is about as retired as I get, which is part time,"[170] and that if she fully retired, she would "go nuts". Geraldine A. Ferraro, who rose from a U.S congressional seat in Queens to a place in history as the first woman to run on a major party national ticket for vice president, has died. The womens vote, a powerful new voting bloc, will make the difference in political contests, wrote Smeal in her 1984 book, Why Women Will Elect the Next President. [55][210] In addition to her husband and three children, who were all present, she was survived by eight grandchildren. [112], Despite the one-sided national loss in 1984, Ferraro was still viewed as someone with a bright political future. And the country is caught up in the concept. [31] As she later wrote, "I had created a monster. (Many of these discussions, it should be said, happened while the Democrats had yet to choose a suitable man for the top of the ticket.) [170] She did not publicly disclose the illness until June 2001, when she went to Washington to successfully press in Congressional hearings for passage of the Hematological Cancer Research Investment and Education Act. [201] In a friendly joint retrospective of her 1984 debate with George H. W. Bush, Ferraro said she had had more national issues experience in 1984 than Palin did now, but that it was important that Palin make a good showing in her vice presidential debate so that "little girls [could] see someone there who can stand toe to toe with [Biden]. We [women] look at ourselves and think, I couldnt handle it so I dont know if she could, either, Tennessean Carol Roberts said to New York Times reporter Maureen Dowd, who was surveying everyday voters. "[91] Barbara Bush soon apologized, saying she had not meant to imply Ferraro was "a witch". [114] Then in October 1986, he was indicted on unrelated felony charges regarding an alleged 1981 bribery of Queens Borough President Donald Manes concerning a cable television contract. She kept her brassy, rapid-fire speech and New York accent intact, and her trial experience from her prosecutor days was a good fit for the program's format. [158] Schumer would go on to decisively unseat D'Amato in the general election. The gender gap first appearance of the term in the media, Washington Post, 1981. . and then move on, but decades later, she labelled the medias treatment of her and her family as sexist. In her magazine, Ms., Steinem wrote, Im struck again by the difference between this reality of huge, cheering crowds touched by Ferraros magic, and the rest of the world that barely knows who she is.. Abrams was considered the early front-runner. [171] Ferraro became a frequent speaker on the disease,[172] and an avid supporter and honorary board member of the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation. [69] On August 12, Ferraro announced that her husband would not in fact be releasing his tax returns, on the grounds that to do so would disadvantage his real estate business and that such a disclosure was voluntary and not part of election law. Because I couldn't look like I was whining or upset about it. Within the campaign, tensions arose; after she wasnt given the chance to weigh in on their campaign schedule in an early strategy meeting, Ferraro suggested Mondales staffers imagine her as a grey-haired Southern gentleman and treat her accordingly. [17] In this role, she became a strong advocate for abused children. [60], Ferraro gained immediate, large-scale media attention. Shes too bitchy, his press secretary Peter Teeley told the Wall Street Journal. [77] The full statements included notice of payment of some $53,000 in back federal taxes that she owed due to what was described as an accountant's error. [63] Ted Koppel questioned her closely about nuclear strategy[64] and during Meet the Press she was asked, "Do you think that in any way the Soviets might be tempted to try to take advantage of you simply because you are a woman? [199], During September 2008, Ferraro gained attention yet again after the announcement of Sarah Palin as the Republican vice-presidential nominee, the first such major party bid for a woman since her own in 1984. [36] The media also reported on the FEC's past investigation into Ferraro's 1978 campaign funds. 57 during the day. The womens movement had just lost a hard-fought battle to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment before its deadline expired; the Supreme Courts 1973 ruling on abortion rights in Roe v. Wade was still fresh. [78][79] No campaign issue during the entire 1984 presidential campaign received more media attention than Ferraro's finances. [55][211], President Obama said upon her death that "Geraldine will forever be remembered as a trailblazer who broke down barriers for women, and Americans of all backgrounds and walks of life", and said that his own two daughters would grow up in a more equal country because of what Ferraro had done. Editor's Note, August 11, 2020: This article has been updated to reflect the selection of Kamala Harris as Joe Biden's running mate. [9][10] At Marymount Ferraro was a member of the honor society, active in several clubs and sports, voted most likely to succeed,[4] and graduated in 1952. Popular consensus before the 80s held that for the most part, women cast their ballots along the same lines as men, explains Susan Carroll, a senior scholar at the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers. [222] In 2009, legislation passed the House of Representatives calling for a post office in Long Island City in Queens to be renamed for Ferraro,[223] and in 2010, the Geraldine A Ferraro Post Office was accordingly rededicated. [167], Framing a Life: A Family Memoir was published by Ferraro in November 1998. Cookie Settings, Wally McNamee / CORBIS / Corbis via Getty Images, National Air and Space Museum, gift of Tam O'Shaughnessy (2); National Museum of American History, And for Vice PresidentWhy Not a Woman? , The prospect of a Democrat putting a woman on the ticket was often placed in the context of electability: Would it help them unseat the incumbent President? Kamala Harris is the nation's third woman vice presidential candidate from a major party. Polls showed another gender gap: A majority of men viewed Bush as the victor, while women were split. In bracing for this onslaught, it's instructive to look to the first woman who ever ran for vice-president on a major-party ticket: Geraldine Ferraro. [166] During the 2000s she was on the board of advisors to the Committee to Free Lori Berenson. She felt tremendous responsibility, says her daughter Donna. [151] The show stayed strong in ratings for CNN,[152] and the job was lucrative. May her example of hard work and dedication to America continue to inspire all women. Geraldine Ferraro, in full Geraldine Anne Ferraro, married name Geraldine Zaccaro, (born August 26, 1935, Newburgh, New York, U.S.died March 26, 2011, Boston, Massachusetts), American Democratic politician who was the first woman to be nominated for vice president by a major political party in the United States; as such, she served as Walter [113] A Senate candidacy had been her original plan for her career, before she was named to Mondale's ticket. [19] They lived in Forest Hills Gardens, Queens, and in 1971, added a vacation house in Saltaire on Fire Island. Geraldine Ferraro and Walter Mondale during the 1984 Democratic National Convention. [51] Women mentioned for the role included Ferraro and Mayor of San Francisco Dianne Feinstein,[52] both of whom were on Mondale's five-person short list. Later, she vowed to help defend Clinton from being "swiftboated" in a manner akin to 2004 presidential candidate John Kerry. [41][50] She supported deployment of the PershingII missile and the Trident submarine, although she opposed funding for the MX missile, the B-1B bomber, and the Strategic Defense Initiative. [196][197][198] By early April, Ferraro said people were deluging her with negative comments and trying to get her removed from one of the boards she was on: "This has been the worst three weeks of my life. [179] Its goal was to advise corporations on how to develop more women leaders and make their workplaces more amenable to female employees. [46][47] In August 1984, she led passage of a Superfund renewal bill and attacked the Reagan administration's handling of environmental site cleanups. Like Joe Biden in 2020, Mondale considered several women as his running mate, including future California Senator Dianne Feinstein. Advertising Notice But this win wasn't easy. [144] Then in October 1993, Clinton promoted her to be United States Ambassador to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, saying that Ferraro had been "a highly effective voice for the human rights of women around the world. [187] Again speaking to the Breeze, Ferraro responded to the attacks by saying: "I really think they're attacking me because I'm white. [54], By the last week of July, however, questionsdue initially to reporting by The New York Times[37]began about Ferraro's finances, the finances of her husband, John Zaccaro, and their separately filed tax returns. Sani Konukolu Blv., No: 92/A, Sehitkamil, Gaziantep, 27090. The race for the White House was on. [35][57][78], Sharp criticism from Catholic Church authorities put Ferraro on the defensive during the entire campaign, with abortion opponents frequently protesting her appearances with a level of fervor not usually encountered by pro-choice Catholic male candidates such as Mario Cuomo and Ted Kennedy. [150][182][183] She republished Ferraro: My Story in 2004, with a postscript summarizing her life in the twenty years since the campaign. [50], While in the House, Ferraro's political self-description evolved to "moderate". [15] She also passed the city exam to become a licensed school teacher. All this unfolded amid an outpouring of feminist activism and shifting attitudes about women in politics. "[191]) Ferraro justified the statements by referring to her own run for vice president. He represented her memoirthe 1985 equivalent of Hillary Clintons What Happenedwhich sold for $1 million and became an early example of a politician-as-celebrity bestseller. In May, Tip ONeill endorsed Ferraro as a potential vice president in the Boston Globe. [129] In addition, a report by an investigator for the New York State Organized Crime Task Force found its way to the media via a tip from a Holtzman aide; it said that Zaccaro had been seen meeting with the DiBernardo in 1985. When. [134] Ferraro, enraged and bitter after the nature of the primary,[130][133] ignored Abrams and accepted Bill Clinton's request to campaign for his presidential bid instead. Oh wait. "[187][190] (Ferraro had made a similar comment in 1988 disparaging Jesse Jackson's candidacy in the party's presidential primaries, saying that because of his "radical" views, "if Jesse Jackson were not black, he wouldn't be in the race. Many of these stories appeared in the pages of the New York Post and Philadelphia Inquirer, which at one point had no fewer than 25 reporters investigating the familys finances. ), The Smithsonians National Museum of American History political historian Lisa Kathleen Graddy, who curated the museums exhibit on suffrage, says Ferraros candidacy mirrors the challenges women have faced professionally, in the 80s and today. Echoing a statement she wrote about herself in 1988,[31] Ferraro said that "I was talking about historic candidacies and what I started off by saying (was that) if you go back to 1984 and look at my historic candidacy, which I had just talked about all these things, in 1984, if my name was Gerard Ferraro instead of Geraldine Ferraro, I would have never been chosen as a vice-presidential candidate. 2 Walter Mondale and Geraldine Ferraro during the 1984 US election campaign Credit: Alamy Who was Geraldine Ferraro? [6] Her father died of a heart attack in May 1944, when she was eight. In doing so Ferraro also became the first widely recognized Italian American to be a major-party national nominee. "[121], Ferraro remained active in raising money for Democratic candidates nationwide, especially women candidates. Team A also made note of womens mobilization and wondered how they could expand the pool of women running for higher office. The Ferraro snowball, as one Washington Post reporter called it, had been set into motion in the months between Team As takeout meeting with the congresswoman and the summer of 1984. When Reagans popularity was at its nadir in early 1983, the electoral calculus went something like this: A woman might help clinch a Democratic victory in a close race. [168], Ferraro had felt unusually tired at the end of her second senate campaign. "[187] Her comments resonated with some older white women, but generated an immediate backlash elsewhere. Geraldine Anne Ferraro was born on Aug. 26, 1935, in the Hudson River city of Newburgh, N.Y., where she was the fourth child and only daughter of Dominick Ferraro, an Italian immigrant who owned a . Her husband John Zaccaro had pleaded guilty in January 1985, to fraudulently obtaining bank financing in a real estate transaction and had been sentenced to 150hours of community service. [38] By 1983, she was regarded as one of the up-and-coming stars of the party. In Mississippi, she was asked whether she could bake a blueberry muffin; in one "Meet the Press" interview, moderated Marvin Kalb questioned both Could you push the nuclear button? and whether Mondale would have chosen her if not for her gender. When, in mid-August, Ferraro made this known, it was a journalistic tripwire, spawning headline after headline. [213][214] She is buried in St. John Cemetery in Middle Village, Queens, within her old congressional district. [1] In 1982, she said her experiences as assistant district attorney had changed some of her views: " because no matter how concerned I am about spending, I have seen first hand what poverty can do to people's lives and I just can't, in good conscience, not do something about it. She also threatened to greet him by his not-favored nicknamePoppy. (For the real deal, Ferraro went with a handshake and no monikers. [81] At it, Ferraro criticized Reagan's initial refusal to support an extension to the Voting Rights Act. [24][32] She had been aided by $130,000 in campaign loans and donations from her own family, including $110,000 in loans from Zaccaro, of which only $4,000 was legal. VI. GERALDINE Ferraro ran for Vice President in Walter Mondale's bid for the White House in the 1984 US election. [212] Mondale called her "a remarkable woman and a dear human being She was a pioneer in our country for justice for women and a more open society. As the husband and business partner of Representative Geraldine A. Ferraro, the Democratic Vice-Presidential candidate, the 51-year-old Mr. Zaccaro and his business activities have been the. "[82][83] Ferraro was criticized by Cardinal John O'Connor, the Catholic Archbishop of New York, and James Timlin, the Bishop of Scranton, for misrepresenting the Catholic Church's position on abortion. In the Democratic attempt to unseat President Ronald Reagan, former Vice President Walter Mondale, lagging by some 12 to 19 points, selected Ferraro as his running mate. [178] G&L Strategies subsequently became part of Golin Harris International. It has 554 students in grades PK, K-5 with a student-teacher ratio of 15 to 1. [174] For much of the last decade of her life, Ferraro was not in remission, but the disease was managed by continually adjusting her treatments. Ferraros candidacy, however, showed the public that a woman could campaign stride-for-stride for national office. After the race, Ferraro was a prominent face for women in politics. [134] D'Amato won the election by a very narrow margin. Teeleys crass remark was far from the only overt sexism Ferraro faced. [21][23], While raising the children, Ferraro worked part-time as a civil lawyer in her husband's real estate firm for 13years. After studying gargantuan briefing books prepared by advisers like future secretary of state Madeleine Albright, she rehearsed rigorously. YES! the crowd would roar, she recounted in her memoir. And for Vice PresidentWhy Not a Woman? TIME Magazine headline, June 4, 1984. [45], Ferraro also worked on some environmental issues. [154] She had done no fundraising, out of fear of conflict of interest with her Crossfire job, but was nonetheless immediately perceived as the front-runner. [15] Ferraro received a Bachelor of Arts in English in 1956;[8] she was the first woman in her family to gain a college degree. Our guests praise the breakfast and the pool in our reviews. Held on October 11, the result was proclaimed mostly even by the press and historians;[58][89] women voters tended to think Ferraro had won, while men, Bush. [29] In 1984, she championed a pension equity law revision that would improve the benefits of people who left work for long periods and then returned, a typical case for women with families. [1], While in Congress, Ferraro focused much of her legislative attention on equity for women in the areas of wages, pensions, and retirement plans. In 1978 she was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, where she rose rapidly in the party hierarchy while focusing on legislation to bring equity for women in the areas of wages, pensions, and retirement plans. "[104] The scrutiny of her husband and his business dealings presaged a trend that women candidates would face in American electoral politics. Charismatic. "[16] She earned a Juris Doctor degree with honors from Fordham University School of Law in 1960,[11][17] going to classes at night while continuing to work as a second-grade teacher at schools such as P.S. [8] She became a protg of House Speaker Tip O'Neil,[39] established a rapport with other House Democratic leaders,[29] and rose rapidly in the party hierarchy. [31][55] In turn, Mondale accepted the risk that came with her inexperience. [29] She also served on the Public Works and Transportation Committee[1] and the Post Office and Civil Service Committee,[41] both of which allowed Ferraro to push through projects to benefit her district. Afterward, the press asked whether shed cried when reading the news. [9] Beginning in 1947, she attended and lived at the parochial Marymount Academy in Tarrytown, New York, using income from a family rental property in Italy and skipping seventh grade. After the convention, the polls sloped up momentarily, offering a glimmer of hope. Ferraro, a fundraiser and outspoken supporter for Clinton, was Walter Mondale's 1984 Democratic vice-presidential nominee the first woman nominated by a major political party as its candidate for vice president of the United States. [57] Mondale himself would later reflect that "I knew that I was in for it with Reagan" and that he had no regrets about choosing Ferraro. [119] He was convicted, and in June 1988, sentenced to four months' imprisonment; Ferraro broke down in tears in court relating the stress the episode had placed on her family. These articles didnt necessarily pass journalistic muster at papers like the New York Times, but they still catalyzed the news cycle. [181] She continued there as a senior advisor working about two days a month. Team As maneuvering helped Ferraro become the first woman Democratic platform committee chair, tasked with wrangling her partys factions into articulating a single policy vision for the election. Always a realist, she was convinced after the interview with Mondale that it wasnt going to happen, remembers McLean; according to reports, Feinstein had impressed the Minnesotan, while a Southern moderate like Texas senator Lloyd Bentsen made electoral sense. [130][131] In an unusual election-eve television broadcast, Ferraro talked about "the ethnic slur that I am somehow or other connected to organized crime. There was no good evidence one way or the other about what difference it would make to put women on the ticket, says Carroll. [126] Ferraro drew renewed attacks during the primary campaign from the media and her opponents over Zaccaro's finances and business relationships. Men dont do that., White women have got their representative, a black woman delegate to the convention told Gloria Steinem for Ms. magazine, and that makes me proud as a woman, but I need to know that shes going to fight and stand for me.. [48], Ferraro took a congressional trip to Nicaragua at the start of 1984, where she spoke to the Contras. There she worked with corporations, non-profit organizations, state governments and political figures. Ferraro, whod once confessed her weak spot was foreign policy, would be going toe-to-toe with the current vice president, ex-CIA director and former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, George H.W. Mar 16 - Mar 17. [218], Ferraro received honorary degrees during the 1980s and early 1990s, from Marymount Manhattan College (1982), New York University Law School (1984), Hunter College (1985), Plattsburgh College (1985), College of Boca Raton (1989), Virginia State University (1989), Muhlenberg College (1990), Briarcliffe College for Business (1990), and Potsdam College (1991). In 1984, Geraldine Ferraro made history as the first woman to run for Vice President on a major party ticket alongside Democratic candidate Walter Mondale (via Time ). She had far less experience than the other Democrats . [49] She decided that the Reagan Administration's military interventions there and in El Salvador were counterproductive towards reaching U.S. security goals, and that regional negotiations would be better. The single vice-presidential debate in late October offered the campaign a high-stakes chance to familiarize the public with the magnetic, witty Ferraro that the media often captured as well as a woman who was serious and prepared to be president. [61] At first, journalists focused on her novelty as a woman and her poor family background, and their coverage was overwhelmingly favorable. Ferraro twice ran campaigns for a seat in the United States Senate from New York, in 1992 and in 1998, both times starting as the front-runner for her party's nomination before losing in the primary election. But his liberal view of the country won out. And all this unfolded before the Democrats had even settled on a nominee. [17], Ferraro became engaged to Zaccaro in August 1959[10] and married him on July 16, 1960. In one, a medical worker in New York wrote: While on my way to work this morning, I turned on the car radio and heard what has got to be some of the best news Ive heard in a long time. [141] Ferraro's second book, a collection of her speeches, was titled Changing History: Women, Power and Politics and was published in 1993. Bettman via Getty Images; National Museum of American History, The Ferraro Factor: The Womens Movement, the Polls, and the Press, Colorado senator Gary Hart and civil rights leader Jesse Jackson, speaking at an Alpha Kappa Alpha convention.