Fredric Michael Wertheimer was born on January 9,1939 and is an American attorney, lobbyist, and activist notable for his work on campaign finance reform and other government integrity, transparency, and accountability issues.
17 Facts About Fred Wertheimer
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Fred Wertheimer is a graduate of the University of Michigan and Harvard Law School.
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From 1967 to 1970 Wertheimer was Legislative Counsel to Representative Silvio Conte and Minority Counsel to the House Small Business Committee.
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In 1976, Wertheimer was legal counsel for Common Cause during the Buckley v Valeo case.
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Fred Wertheimer worked there until 1995, serving as Legislative Director, Vice President for Program Operations and as President from 1981 to 1995.
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Fred Wertheimer led Common Cause's successful battles to enact comprehensive ethics and open government laws for Congress and the executive branch, and was a "key architect" of the nuclear arms control coalition in the 1980s, according to Congressional Quarterly.
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Fred Wertheimer helped to create and publish Common Cause magazine, which won the National Magazine Award for general excellence in 1987.
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Fred Wertheimer was succeeded in 1995 by Ann McBride Norton.
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In 1996, Wertheimer was a Fellow at the Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University, and in 1997 he was the J Skelly Wright Fellow and Visiting Lecturer at Yale Law School.
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Fred Wertheimer has been a political analyst and consultant for CBS News, ABC News and ABC's Nightline.
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Fred Wertheimer is currently the President and CEO of Democracy 21, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization, which he founded in 1997.
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Fred Wertheimer was named as one of the 90 greatest Washington lawyers of the last 30 years by Legal Times and as one of Washington's top lobbyists by The Hill, a Capitol Hill newspaper.
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Democracy 21 and Fred Wertheimer played major roles in the enactment of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act in 2002, the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act in 2007, the establishment of the Office of Congressional Ethics in 2008, and House passage of the DISCLOSE Act in 2010.
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Fred Wertheimer is the coauthor of "Campaign Finance Reform: A Key to Restoring the Health of Our Democracy," published in The Columbia Law Review.
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Fred Wertheimer has received honorary degrees from Colby College, Grinnell College and the Claremont Graduate University.
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Fred Wertheimer is a recipient of the COGEL Award for outstanding service in the cause of open and democratic government, given by the Council on Governmental Ethics Laws, an organization of state and federal ethics enforcement officials.
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In 1969 Fred Wertheimer married Linda Fred Wertheimer, now Senior National Correspondent for National Public Radio, and former NPR national political correspondent and co-host of the NPR news magazine program All Things Considered.