29 Facts About Bruce Babbitt

1.

Bruce Edward Babbitt was born on June 27,1938 and is an American attorney and politician who served as the 47th United States Secretary of the Interior from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton.

2.

Bruce Babbitt previously served as the 16th governor of Arizona from 1978 to 1987 and was a candidate for President of the United States in the 1988 Democratic primaries.

3.

Bruce Babbitt won election as Arizona attorney general after graduating from Harvard Law School.

4.

Bruce Babbitt became Governor of Arizona after the death of his predecessor, Wesley Bolin.

5.

Bruce Babbitt focused on tax reform, health care, and water management.

6.

Bruce Babbitt helped found the Democratic Leadership Council and sought the 1988 Democratic presidential nomination, but dropped out of the race after the first set of primaries.

7.

From 1988 to 1992, Bruce Babbitt served as head of the League of Conservation Voters.

8.

Bruce Babbitt's family owned a department store in Flagstaff, a ranch in northern Arizona, and Indian trading posts.

9.

Bruce Babbitt graduated from the University of Notre Dame, attended Newcastle University in the United Kingdom on a Marshall Scholarship, and then received his JD degree at Harvard Law School.

10.

Bruce Babbitt has worked as an attorney in Arizona and Washington, DC, and served as United States Ambassador to the Organization of American States from 1993 to 1997, and as Deputy Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development from 1997 to 2001 during the Clinton Administration.

11.

Bruce Babbitt succeeded Wesley Bolin as governor when Bolin died in office on March 4,1978.

12.

Bruce Babbitt was elected for a full four-year term later in 1978, and again in 1982.

13.

Bruce Babbitt did not run for a third full term in 1986.

14.

In 1982, Bruce Babbitt intervened in negotiations between the Cochise County sheriff and leaders of the Christ Miracle Healing Church and Center over the release of church members whom the church was hiding from facing charges for assault.

15.

In 1983, Bruce Babbitt sent the Arizona National Guard to the strike against the Phelps Dodge mining company in Morenci, Arizona.

16.

In 1979, Bruce Babbitt was appointed by President Jimmy Carter to serve as a commissioner on the President's Commission on the Accident at Three Mile Island, a six-month investigation of the March 1979 accident at a commercial nuclear power plant at Middletown, Pennsylvania.

17.

Bruce Babbitt spoke at the 1980 Democratic National Convention, which nominated incumbent Jimmy Carter as the Democratic candidate for president.

18.

Bruce Babbitt enjoyed positive press attention, but after finishing out of the top tier of candidates in the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary, he dropped out of the race.

19.

Bruce Babbitt worked to protect scenic and historic areas of America's federal public lands.

20.

Bruce Babbitt tried to rally environmentalists and raise fees, but senators from Western states successfully blocked his proposals.

21.

In 1993, Bruce Babbitt was seriously considered by President Clinton to replace retiring United States Supreme Court Justice Byron White.

22.

Bruce Babbitt was passed over again, this time in favor of Stephen Breyer, due to Breyer's immense support in the US Senate, primarily because he was close to Sen.

23.

In 1998 Bruce Babbitt was the subject of a federal grand jury investigation into whether he had lied to Congress about having denied an Indian casino license in Wisconsin in return for political donations.

24.

Bruce Babbitt was cleared of wrongdoing in the special prosecutor's final report on the investigation the following year.

25.

Bruce Babbitt defended both projects, one on Hearst Corporation land in central California and the other on the Ahmanson Ranch north of Los Angeles.

26.

Bruce Babbitt has attracted the ire of some environmentalists and Native American groups for his representation of the Arizona Snowbowl ski resort and its effort to expand the resort and use waste water to make artificial snow.

27.

Bruce Babbitt serves as trustee of the World Wildlife Fund Secretariat Trustees in the US, and was a member of the Council on Foreign Relations until 2012.

28.

Bruce Babbitt has served on the Board of Directors since 2009 for the Amazon Conservation Association, whose mission is to conserve the biological diversity of the Amazon.

29.

Bruce Babbitt is a member of the ReFormers Caucus of Issue One.