But Ferraro earned respect in the office and was soon tapped the lead its newly created special victims bureau, dealing with rape and child abuse cases. She, her husband and three kids lived in Forest Hills, Queens , and she became involved in local politics. Mario Cuomo, another Queens resident who would later be elected governor, was a mentor, and encouraged her to run for office.
So when former Rep. James Delaney announced his retirement in , Ferraro jumped into the race and won her first-ever campaign as a self-professed conservative Democrat in a district stretching from Astoria on the East River to Central Queens. One highlight was her lead sponsorship of a bill that made it easier to access spousal retirement benefits under employee pension plans, an issue of particular concern to women at the time.
She voted on the party line and was close to party leadership. When Mondale made his announcement, it seemed like the whole country liked Ferraro as much as Democratic insiders did. You would think we would be different, but we're not.
Children walk to school in Elmore past grain elevators; in Queens, they pass by subway stops. But, no matter where they live, their future depends on education — and their parents are willing to do their part to make those schools as good as they can be. The choice was also something that Queens could be proud of, remembered Mark Weprin, a former City Council member from Queens and now an attorney at Greenberg Traurig. Zaccaro had been fined by the Federal Election Commission for illegal loans to an earlier Ferraro campaign.
Apartments owned by Zaccaro were riddled with building violations, and one of his commercial tenants was a pornography distributor who may have had mafia ties.
Ferraro may have first appeared as a humble working mom, but she and her husband were also millionaires with a condo in St. But it was a more innocent time back then. One relative high point was the vice presidential debate.
Ferraro entered as the underdog, but the three-term congresswoman fought the former United Nations ambassador and sitting vice president George H. Bus to a draw. A win for the Democrats is more important than having a VP pick that represents any particular demographic group, Rep. Doing so might have led Mondale to choose a different vice presidential pick, or it might have just allowed the campaign to better prepare for the inevitable inquiries and stories.
And of course, any defense of Ferraro has to note that sexism and anti-Italian racism played a role in the harsh scrutiny she received, like the apparently unfounded accusation that her parents ran numbers for the mob. For that, she denounced Rupert Murdoch, whose papers ran the story, as unfit "to wipe the dirt beneath my mother's feet. And Mondale made his own strategic errors. She ran in the Democratic primary for U. Senate and finished a close second to then-state Attorney General Bob Abrams, who would fail to unseat then-Sen.
Chuck Schumer, who would go on to win the seat. Her son John Zaccaro Jr. When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer.
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In Ferraro became the first woman to chair the Democratic platform committee. Although she faced the arduous task of creating a unified platform for the upcoming presidential contest, the position afforded Ferraro invaluable media exposure and distinction in the Democratic Party. During the presidential campaign, political strategists and feminist groups pressured the Democratic Party to nominate a woman to the ticket. The movement, which hinged on the belief that selecting a woman as the vice presidential candidate would energize the party and help Democrats compete against popular incumbent President Ronald Reagan by attracting women voters, gained momentum in the months preceding the convention.
Senator Dianne Feinstein. Ultimately, her characteristic pragmatism won her the nomination. John Zaccaro later was convicted in February of conducting fraudulent real estate transactions. After the defeat, Geraldine Ferraro returned to practicing law. She served as a fellow at the Harvard Institute of Politics from until In addition, she authored three books about her political career.
Ferraro re-entered electoral politics when she ran for the U. Senate in and In President William J. Ferraro also was appointed vice chair of the U. After being diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a dangerous form of blood cancer, in , Ferraro spoke publicly about her illness and her use of the drug Thalidomide to treat her condition. Wilson Company, : Apple Jr. Hall, : ; see Joan A. View Record in the Biographical Directory of the U.
Baaske, Kevin Timothy. Ferraro and the Vice-Presidential Campaign. Breslin, Rosemary and Joshua Hammer. Introduction by Gloria Steinem. New York: Pinnacle Books, Elmes-Crahall, Jane Matilda. Ferraro, Geraldine A.
Changing History: Women, Power, and Politics. Introduction by Ann Richards. Standing up there all in white, looking like this tiny little figure, but looking beautiful and looking female. And, all of a sudden, I looked down. They were all women and children. And so many of them were crying. I remember thinking, I just don't want to make a mistake. I have to talk slowly. I tried — I had never used prompters before then.
I also took my speech, because I wanted to be sure, if the prompters went out, so that I could look down and read it, and tell my daughters, whatever you do, don't cry, because we can't.
Women can't cry over the things. It's too emotional, and it's a tough job. And you have to be tough to be vice president of the United States. I got two words out of my mouth, and they would applaud and yell, "Gerry, Gerry. I stand before you to proclaim tonight, America is a land where dreams can come true for all of us.
You were there. What was that night like? Well, obviously, it was a night that none of us had experienced before, but I think people who were there — and you heard Leader Pelosi talking about how — and Cokie Roberts talking about how people who were there knew that it was something special, that there was just this, like, electricity.
And it wasn't like anything that had ever been experienced before. I actually was there too. And I remember. It was a special moment for women in — no matter who you were, what party you were in. You know, I wanted to both clarify and preserve her legacy, but I also wanted to introduce her and this part of women's history to younger generations today, because people — we know what happened then. We might not understand what her impact was or the impact of a candidacy that, frankly, didn't win had.
But I think younger people today don't have any idea what it was like before. And so I really do want it to be used as an educational tool, so generations to come can know. Well, I think anyone who is over 35 certainly has no awareness of it. Anyone who is — sorry, the reverse of that. Anyone who is under 35 doesn't know. People who over 35 do remember, but again they might not remember much, other than the fact that she was nominated. They might not remember what it was like before there was a woman who had run and shown that you could be a credible candidate.
You — in telling the story of that campaign, you tell the highlights, but you also tell about the tough moments, the time when your family's finances were under enormous scrutiny. Your father for a time didn't want to reveal his tax returns. That had to be a really difficult time for your mother and for your whole family.
I have been a journalist my career as well.
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