Jack French Kemp was an American politician and a
collegiateCollege football refers to American football played by teams of student athletes fielded by American universities, colleges, and military academies, or Canadian football played by teams of student athletes fielded by Canadian universities...
and professional football player. A
RepublicanThe Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
, he served as
Housing SecretaryThe United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development is the head of the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, a member of the President's Cabinet, and thirteenth in the Presidential line of succession. The post was created with the formation of the Department of Housing...
in the administration of
PresidentThe President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
George H. W. BushGeorge Herbert Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 41st President of the United States . He had previously served as the 43rd Vice President of the United States , a congressman, an ambassador, and Director of Central Intelligence.Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts, to...
from 1989 to 1993, having previously served nine terms as a
congressmanThe United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
for
Western New YorkWestern New York is the westernmost region of the state of New York. It includes the cities of Buffalo, Rochester, Niagara Falls, the surrounding suburbs, as well as the outlying rural areas of the Great Lakes lowlands, the Genesee Valley, and the Southern Tier. Some historians, scholars and others...
's
31st congressional districtThe 31st Congressional District of New York was a congressional district for the United States House of Representatives in New York. It was eliminated as a result of the 2000 Census...
from 1971 to 1989. He was the Republican Party's nominee for
Vice PresidentThe Vice President of the United States is the holder of a public office created by the United States Constitution. The Vice President, together with the President of the United States, is indirectly elected by the people, through the Electoral College, to a four-year term...
in the 1996 election, where he was the running mate of presidential nominee
Bob DoleRobert Joseph "Bob" Dole is an American attorney and politician. Dole represented Kansas in the United States Senate from 1969 to 1996, was Gerald Ford's Vice Presidential running mate in the 1976 presidential election, and was Senate Majority Leader from 1985 to 1987 and in 1995 and 1996...
. Kemp had previously contended for the presidential nomination in the 1988 Republican primaries.
Before entering politics, Kemp was a professional
quarterbackQuarterback is a position in American and Canadian football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive team and line up directly behind the offensive line...
for 13 years. He played briefly in the
National Football LeagueThe National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...
(NFL) and the
Canadian Football LeagueThe Canadian Football League or CFL is a professional sports league located in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football, a form of gridiron football closely related to American football....
(CFL), but became a star in the
American Football LeagueThe American Football League was a major American Professional Football league that operated from 1960 until 1969, when the established National Football League merged with it. The upstart AFL operated in direct competition with the more established NFL throughout its existence...
(AFL). He served as
captainIn team sports, a captain is a title given to a member of the team. The title is frequently honorary, but in some cases the captain may have significant responsibility for strategy and teamwork while the game is in progress on the field...
of both the
San Diego ChargersThe San Diego Chargers are a professional American football team based in San Diego, California. they were members of the Western Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
and
Buffalo BillsThe Buffalo Bills are a professional football team based in Buffalo, New York. They are currently members of the East Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
and earned the
AFL Most Valuable PlayerDuring its ten-year existence , the American Football League's best player for each year was called the Most Valuable Player by some sports-news sources and the Player of the Year by others...
award in 1965 after leading the Bills to a second consecutive championship. He played in the AFL for all 10 years of its existence, appeared in its All-Star game seven times, played in its championship game five times, and set many of the league's career passing records. Kemp also co-founded the AFL Players Association, for which he served five terms as president. During the early part of his football career, he served in the
United States Army ReserveThe United States Army Reserve is the federal reserve force of the United States Army. Together, the Army Reserve and the Army National Guard constitute the reserve components of the United States Army....
.
As an economic conservative, Kemp advocated low taxes and supply-side policies during his political career. His positions spanned the social spectrum, ranging from his conservative opposition to
abortionAbortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability. An abortion can occur spontaneously, in which case it is usually called a miscarriage, or it can be purposely induced...
to his more libertarian stances advocating
immigration reformImmigration reform is a term used in political discussion regarding changes to current immigration policy of a country. In its strict definition, "reform " means to change into an improved form or condition, by amending or removing faults or abuses....
. As a proponent of both
Chicago schoolThe Chicago school of economics describes a neoclassical school of thought within the academic community of economists, with a strong focus around the faculty of The University of Chicago, some of whom have constructed and popularized its principles...
and supply-side economics, he is notable as an influence upon the
ReaganRonald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
agenda and the architect of the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981, which is known as the Kemp–
RothWilliam Victor "Bill" Roth, Jr. was an American lawyer and politician from Wilmington in New Castle County, Delaware. He was a veteran of World War II and a member of the Republican Party, who served as U.S. Representative and U.S...
tax cut.
After his days in political office, Kemp remained active as a political advocate and commentator, and served on corporate and
nonprofit organizationNonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...
boards. He also authored, co-authored, and edited several books. He promoted American football and advocated for retired professional football players. Kemp was posthumously awarded the
Presidential Medal of FreedomThe Presidential Medal of Freedom is an award bestowed by the President of the United States and is—along with thecomparable Congressional Gold Medal bestowed by an act of U.S. Congress—the highest civilian award in the United States...
in 2009 by President
Barack ObamaBarack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
.
Youth
Born, raised, and educated in
Los Angeles, CaliforniaLos Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
, Kemp was the third of four sons of Frances Elizabeth (née Pope) and Paul Robert Kemp, Sr. Both the Kemp and Pope surnames are of
CornishThe Cornish are a people associated with Cornwall, a county and Duchy in the south-west of the United Kingdom that is seen in some respects as distinct from England, having more in common with the other Celtic parts of the United Kingdom such as Wales, as well as with other Celtic nations in Europe...
origin. Paul turned his motorcycle
messenger serviceMessenger Service is a network-based system notification service included in some versions of Microsoft Windows. This service, although it has a similar name, is not related in any way to the .NET Messenger Service or the Windows Messenger and MSN Messenger/Windows Live Messenger instant messaging...
into a trucking company that grew from one to 14 trucks. Frances was a well-educated social worker and
SpanishSpanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
teacher. Kemp grew up in the heavily-Jewish
WilshireWilshire is an area in Los Angeles, California, north of I-10, east of Beverly Hills and the Westside, west of Downtown LA and south of Hollywood, and contains, or abuts the districts of Mid-City West and Mid-Wilshire....
district of West Los Angeles, but his tight-knit
middle classThe middle class is any class of people in the middle of a societal hierarchy. In Weberian socio-economic terms, the middle class is the broad group of people in contemporary society who fall socio-economically between the working class and upper class....
family practiced in the
Church of Christ, ScientistThe Church of Christ, Scientist was founded in 1879 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, by Mary Baker Eddy. She was the author of the book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. Christian Science teaches that the "allness" of God denies the reality of sin, sickness, death, and the material world...
. In his youth, sports consumed Kemp, who once chose the
forward passIn several forms of football a forward pass is when the ball is thrown in the direction that the offensive team is trying to move, towards the defensive team's goal line...
as the subject of a school essay on important inventions, although his mother attempted to broaden his horizons with piano lessons and trips to the
Hollywood BowlThe Hollywood Bowl is a modern amphitheater in the Hollywood area of Los Angeles, California, United States that is used primarily for music performances...
.
Kemp attended
Melrose AvenueMelrose Avenue is an internationally renowned shopping, dining and entertainment destination in Los Angeles that starts from Santa Monica Boulevard at the border between Beverly Hills and West Hollywood and ends at Lucille Avenue in Silver Lake...
's
Fairfax High SchoolFairfax High School is a Los Angeles Unified School District high school located in Los Angeles, USA, near the border of West Hollywood in the Fairfax District of Los Angeles...
, which was, at the time, known both for its high concentration of Jewish students and concentration of celebrities' children. Over 95% of Kemp's classmates were Jewish, and he later became a supporter of Jewish causes. His classmates included
Herb AlpertHerbert "Herb" Alpert is an American musician most associated with the group variously known as Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass, Herb Alpert's Tijuana Brass, or TJB. He is also a recording industry executive — he is the "A" of A&M Records...
,
Larry SherryLawrence Sherry was an American right-handed relief pitcher in Major League Baseball who spent most of his career with the Los Angeles Dodgers and Detroit Tigers...
, and
Judith A. ReismanJudith A. Reisman is an American cultural conservative writer best known for her criticism and condemnation of the work and legacy of Alfred Kinsey...
. During his years in high school, Kemp worked with his brothers at his father's trucking company in downtown Los Angeles. In his spare time, he became a rigorous reader, preferring history and philosophy books.
College
After graduating from high school in 1953, he attended
Occidental CollegeOccidental College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college located in the Eagle Rock neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. Founded in 1887, Occidental College, or "Oxy" as it is called by students and alumni, is one of the oldest liberal arts colleges on the West Coast...
, a founding member of the NCAA Division III
Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic ConferenceThe Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference is a college athletic conference that operates in the NCAA's Division III. The conference was founded in 1915 and it consists of twelve small private schools which are located in Southern California and organized into nine athletic programs...
. Kemp selected Occidental because its football team used professional
formationA formation in American football refers to the position players line up in before the start of a down. There are both offensive and defensive formations and there are many formations in both categories.-Offense:...
s and plays, which he hoped would help him to become a professional quarterback. At and 175 pounds (79.4 kg), he considered himself too small to play for the USC Trojans or
UCLA BruinsThe UCLA Bruins football program represents the University of California, Los Angeles in college football as members of the Pacific-12 Conference at the NCAA Division I FBS level. The Bruins have enjoyed several periods of success in their history, having been ranked in the top ten of the AP Poll...
, the major
Southern CaliforniaSouthern California is a megaregion, or megapolitan area, in the southern area of the U.S. state of California. Large urban areas include Greater Los Angeles and Greater San Diego. The urban area stretches along the coast from Ventura through the Southland and Inland Empire to San Diego...
college footballCollege football refers to American football played by teams of student athletes fielded by American universities, colleges, and military academies, or Canadian football played by teams of student athletes fielded by Canadian universities...
programs.
At Occidental, Kemp was a record-setting
javelinThe javelin throw is a track and field athletics throwing event where the object to be thrown is the javelin, a spear approximately 2.5 metres in length. Javelin is an event of both the men's decathlon and the women's heptathlon...
hurler and played several positions on the football team: quarterback,
defensive backIn American football and Canadian football, defensive backs are the players on the defensive team who take positions somewhat back from the line of scrimmage; they are distinguished from the defensive line players and linebackers, who take positions directly behind or close to the line of...
, place kicker, and punter. Although he was near-sighted, Kemp was tenacious on the field. During his years as starting quarterback the team posted 6–2 and 3–6 records. Kemp was named a Little
All-AmericaAn All-America team is an honorary sports team composed of outstanding amateur players—those considered the best players of a specific season for each team position—who in turn are given the honorific "All-America" and typically referred to as "All-American athletes", or simply...
player one year in which he threw for over 1,100 yards. That year, he led the nation's small colleges in passing. He and close friend
Jim MoraJames Earnest Mora is the former head coach of the USFL's Philadelphia/Baltimore Stars and the NFL's New Orleans Saints and Indianapolis Colts. He played football at Occidental College where he was also a member of the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity. His son Jim L...
, who later became an NFL
head coachA head coach, senior coach or manager is a professional at training and developing athletes. They typically hold a more public profile and are paid more than other coaches...
, were members of the
Alpha Tau OmegaAlpha Tau Omega is a secret American leadership and social fraternity.The Fraternity has more than 250 active and inactive chapters, more than 200,000 initiates, and over 7,000 active undergraduate members. The 200,000th member was initiated in early 2009...
fraternity. Another teammate in college was
Ron BotchanRonald Leslie "Ron" Botchan is a retired American football official from the National Football League . Prior to that he was an American football linebacker in the American Football League from 1960 to 1962. As an official, Botchan worked as an umpire for nearly his entire NFL career and wore the...
, who was a NFL umpire for years (record five Super Bowls). Kemp declined to become involved in student government. After graduating from Occidental with a degree in
physical educationPhysical education or gymnastics is a course taken during primary and secondary education that encourages psychomotor learning in a play or movement exploration setting....
, he pursued postgraduate studies in economics at
Long Beach State UniversityCalifornia State University, Long Beach is the second largest campus of the California State University system and the third largest university in the state of California by enrollment...
and California Western University, and served in the military from 1958 to 1962.
Marriage and family
Kemp graduated from Occidental in 1957 and married Joanne Main, his college sweetheart, after she graduated from Occidental in 1958. Main had grown up in
Fillmore, CaliforniaFillmore is a city in Ventura County, California, United States. The population was 15,002 at the 2010 census, up from 13,643 at the 2000 census.- History :...
, and attended
Fillmore High SchoolFillmore High is a secondary school that is located in the Santa Clara River Valley in Fillmore, California. It can be found by the middle of State Route 126 between Ventura and Valencia, California.-Academics:...
in
Ventura CountyVentura County is a county in the southern part of the U.S. state of California. It is located on California's Pacific coast. It is often referred to as the Gold Coast, and has a reputation of being one of the safest populated places and one of the most affluent places in the country...
. Her father was a teacher and football coach in the Fillmore Unified School District before becoming vice principal and eventually superintendent of the district. Kemp's Biblical Literature professor, Keith Beebe, presided over the wedding, after which Kemp converted to his wife's Presbyterian faith. Jack Kemp was a 33rd degree Freemason in the Northern Masonic Jurisdiction.
They had two sons, who were both professional football quarterbacks:
Jeff KempJeffrey Allan Kemp is a former professional American football quarterback in the National Football League for the Los Angeles Rams, San Francisco 49ers, Seattle Seahawks, and the Philadelphia Eagles. He played college football at Dartmouth College. In 1984, Kemp led the Rams with 13 touchdowns...
played in the NFL from 1981 to 1991, and
Jimmy KempJimmy Kemp is a former CFL quarterback. He is the brother of former NFL quarterback Jeff Kemp and the son of the late American Football League Most Valuable Player and U.S. Congressman Jack Kemp...
played in the CFL from 1994 to 2002. Significantly for a man with his demanding schedule, Jack never missed one of their games as children or in college. They also had two daughters: Jennifer Kemp Andrews and Judith Kemp. Joanne once suffered a
miscarriageMiscarriage or spontaneous abortion is the spontaneous end of a pregnancy at a stage where the embryo or fetus is incapable of surviving independently, generally defined in humans at prior to 20 weeks of gestation...
, which Kemp later said made him re-evaluate the sanctity of human life and affected his opposition to abortion. Kemp is survived by his wife of fifty years, his four children and 17 grandchildren.
Football career
After being drafted by the
Detroit LionsThe Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit, Michigan. They are members of the North Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League , and play their home games at Ford Field in Downtown Detroit.Originally based in Portsmouth, Ohio and...
in the 17th round of the
1957 NFL DraftThe 1957 National Football League Draft was held on November 27, 1956.-Player selections:-Round one:-Round two:-Round three:-Round four:-Round five:-Round six:-Round seven:-Round eight:-Round nine:-Round ten:...
, Kemp was cut from the team before the
1957 NFL seasonThe 1957 NFL season was the 38th regular season of the National Football League. The season ended when the Detroit Lions crushed the Cleveland Browns in the NFL Championship Game, 59–14.-Major rule changes:...
began. He spent 1957 with the
Pittsburgh SteelersThe Pittsburgh Steelers are a professional football team based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The team currently belongs to the North Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League . Founded in , the Steelers are the oldest franchise in the AFC...
and
1958The 1958 NFL season was the 39th regular season of the National Football League.The Baltimore Colts defeated the New York Giants, 23–17, in the first sudden-death overtime in an NFL Championship Game...
on the taxi squads of the
San Francisco 49ersThe San Francisco 49ers are a professional American football team based in San Francisco, California, playing in the West Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League . The team was founded in 1946 as a charter member of the All-America Football Conference and...
and
New York GiantsThe New York Giants are a professional American football team based in East Rutherford, New Jersey, representing the New York City metropolitan area. The Giants are currently members of the Eastern Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League...
. The 1958 New York Giants played in
that year's NFL Championship GameThe 1958 National Football League Championship Game was played on December 28, 1958 at Yankee Stadium in New York City. It was the first ever National Football League playoff game to go into sudden death overtime. The final score was Baltimore Colts 23, New York Giants 17. The game has since...
, known as the "Greatest Game Ever Played" and the first
overtimeOvertime or extra time is an additional period of play specified under the rules of a sport to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw. In most sports, this extra period is only played if the game is required to have a clear winner, as in single-elimination...
NFL playoff game, but, as a third-string quarterback member of the taxi squad, Kemp did not take the field.
After his time in the NFL, Kemp served a year as a
privateA Private is a soldier of the lowest military rank .In modern military parlance, 'Private' is shortened to 'Pte' in the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth countries and to 'Pvt.' in the United States.Notably both Sir Fitzroy MacLean and Enoch Powell are examples of, rare, rapid career...
in the
United States Army ReserveThe United States Army Reserve is the federal reserve force of the United States Army. Together, the Army Reserve and the Army National Guard constitute the reserve components of the United States Army....
. During his service, he played one game for the
Calgary StampedersThe Calgary Stampeders are a Canadian Football League team based in Calgary, Alberta and named in reference to the Calgary Stampede. The Stampeders play their home games at McMahon Stadium...
of the
Canadian Football LeagueThe Canadian Football League or CFL is a professional sports league located in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football, a form of gridiron football closely related to American football....
, which made him ineligible for the NFL in 1959. According to his older brother Tom, his parents drove him from California to Calgary, Alberta only to see him cut. By this time Kemp had been cut from five professional teams (Lions, Steelers, Giants, 49ers, and Stampeders) and his family encouraged him to get on with his life.
On February 9 and February 11, 1960, the newly formed
AFLThe American Football League was a major American Professional Football league that operated from 1960 until 1969, when the established National Football League merged with it. The upstart AFL operated in direct competition with the more established NFL throughout its existence...
agreed to "no tampering" policies with the NFL and CFL respectively, protecting each league's players. Players like Kemp, with modest NFL experience, were often signed by the AFL at the time. Kemp signed as a
free agentIn professional sports, a free agent is a player whose contract with a team has expired and who is thus eligible to sign with another club or franchise....
with the AFL's
Los Angeles ChargersThe San Diego Chargers are a professional American football team based in San Diego, California. they were members of the Western Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
.
Sid Gillman era (1960–1962)
In
1960The 1960 American Football League season was the inaugural regular season of the American Football League.The season ended when the Houston Oilers defeated the Los Angeles Chargers in the inaugural AFL Championship game.-Division races:...
, Kemp led the Chargers to a Western Division Championship with a 10–4 record. He finished second in the league to
Frank TripuckaFrancis Joseph Tripucka is a former American collegiate and Professional Football quarterback, at Notre Dame, in the National Football League, in the Canadian Football League, and in the early American Football League.-Notre Dame Fighting Irish:Tripucka was backup quarterback to Heisman Trophy...
in
passingIn several forms of football a forward pass is when the ball is thrown in the direction that the offensive team is trying to move, towards the defensive team's goal line...
attempts, completions, and yards (making him and Tripucka the league's first 3,000-yard passers), led the AFL in yards per completion and times
sackedIn American football and Canadian football, a sack occurs when the quarterback is tackled behind the line of scrimmage before he can throw a forward pass, or when the quarterback is tackled behind the line of scrimmage in the "pocket" and the intent of what he was going to do is unclear...
, and finished one rushing touchdown short of the league lead. Under Kemp, the Chargers' offense averaged 46 points over its last four games and scored more than 41 points in five of its last nine games. In the
1960 AFL Championship GameThe 1960 American Football League Championship Game was the first AFL title game. The game was played on New Year's Day 1961 at Jeppesen Stadium in Houston, Texas.-Background:...
, he led the team to
field goalA field goal in American football and Canadian football is a goal that may be scored during general play . Field goals may be scored by a placekick or the now practically extinct drop kick.The drop kick fell out of favor in 1934 when the shape of the ball was changed...
s on its first two possessions, but after the
Houston OilersThe Tennessee Titans are a professional American football team based in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. They are members of the South Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League . Previously known as the Houston Oilers, the team began play in 1960 as a charter...
posted a
touchdownA touchdown is a means of scoring in American and Canadian football. Whether running, passing, returning a kickoff or punt, or recovering a turnover, a team scores a touchdown by advancing the ball into the opponent's end zone.-Description:...
in the second quarter for a 7–6 lead, the Chargers never recovered.
In
1961The 1961 American Football League season was the second regular season of the American Football League. The Los Angeles Chargers moved to San Diego, California following the 1960 season, retaining the Chargers name....
,
San Diego Union editor
Jack MurphyJack Murphy was a sports editor and columnist for the San Diego Union newspaper from 1951-1980 and the brother of New York Mets broadcaster Bob Murphy...
convinced
Barron HiltonWilliam Barron Hilton I is an American business magnate, socialite, and hotel heir. He is the former co-chairman of the Hilton Hotels chain, and the original owner of the Los Angeles Chargers...
to move the Chargers from Los Angeles to San Diego. Kemp led the relocated team to a 12–2 record and a repeat Western Division Championship. He again finished second in passing yards (this time to
George BlandaGeorge Frederick Blanda was a collegiate and professional football quarterback and placekicker...
). The Chargers earned an
AFL Championship GameThe 1961 American Football League Championship Game was a repeat the first AFL title game, between the Houston Oilers and the San Diego Chargers...
rematch against the Oilers. However, this time the Chargers were unable to score until a fourth quarter field goal in a 10–3 loss.
The
Berlin WallThe Berlin Wall was a barrier constructed by the German Democratic Republic starting on 13 August 1961, that completely cut off West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin...
was erected in August 1961. On October 15, 1961, President
John F. KennedyJohn Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
activated Kemp's San Diego-based 977th Transportation Company reserves unit for duty in response. In September, the right-handed Kemp had injured his left shoulder while playing football.
Medical examinerA medical examiner is a medically qualified government officer whose duty is to investigate deaths and injuries that occur under unusual or suspicious circumstances, to perform post-mortem examinations, and in some jurisdictions to initiate inquests....
s found swelling and muscle spasms and described his voluntary
range of motionRange of motion , is the distance that a movable object may normally travel while properly attached to another object. It is also called range of travel, particularly when talking about mechanical devices and in mechanical engineering fields...
at 80%. In a decision that was reviewed and upheld by the Surgeon General of the United States Army, Army doctors found him as unfit for active duty. That year, he led the Chargers to a division title, passing for 2,686 yards and 15 touchdowns. Years later, Kemp's 1961 Chargers roommate,
Ron MixRonald Jack Mix , in Los Angeles, California was an American football player.Mix attended USC, and upon graduation played right tackle and guard for the American Football League's Los Angeles/San Diego Chargers and the NFL Oakland Raiders .- College career :A graduate of the University of Southern...
, recalled that Kemp needed "ten or so" shots of painkillers before each game and commented that "it sounds weird, but he could play football and not be fit to serve in the Army."
In 1962, Kemp broke his middle finger two games into the season and was unable to play. He persuaded his doctors to set his broken finger around a football, so that his grip would not be affected once the finger healed. Chargers coach
Sid GillmanSidney "Sid" Gillman was an American football player, coach, executive, and innovator. Gillman's insistence on stretching the football field by throwing deep downfield passes, instead of short passes to running backs or wide receivers at the sides of the line of scrimmage, was instrumental in...
put Kemp on
waiversWaivers is a National Football League labor management procedure by which a team makes an American football player contract or NFL rights available to all other teams...
to try to "hide" him.
Buffalo BillsThe Buffalo Bills are a professional football team based in Buffalo, New York. They are currently members of the East Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
coach
Lou SabanLouis Henry Saban was an American football player and coach. Saban played for Indiana University in college and as a pro for the Cleveland Browns of the All-America Football Conference...
noticed that Kemp was available and claimed him for a $100 waiver fee on September 25, 1962, in what sportswriter Randy Schultz has called one of the biggest bargains in professional football history. The
Dallas TexansThe Kansas City Chiefs are a professional American football team based in Kansas City, Missouri. They are a member of the Western Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League . Originally named the Dallas Texans, the club was founded by Lamar Hunt in 1960 as a...
and
Denver BroncosThe Denver Broncos are a professional American football team based in Denver, Colorado. They are currently members of the West Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
also attempted to claim Kemp, but he was awarded to Buffalo by AFL commissioner
Joe FossJoseph Jacob "Joe" Foss was the leading fighter ace of the United States Marine Corps during World War II and a 1943 recipient of the Medal of Honor, recognizing his role in the air combat during the Guadalcanal Campaign...
.
Lou Saban era (1962–1965)
According to
Billy ShawWilliam Lewis "Billy" Shaw is an American former college and professional football player.Drafted in 1961 by the American Football League's Buffalo Bills, Billy Shaw of Georgia Tech was the prototypical "pulling guard" who despite his size held his own against much bigger defensive linemen like...
, Kemp's acquisition solved the Bills' quarterback problem, but Kemp was not excited about coming to Buffalo. According to
Van MillerVan Miller is a retired former radio and television sports announcer from Dunkirk, New York, where he began his career at Dunkirk radio station WFCB calling play-by-play for high school football games...
, "Jack's a skier, and he wanted to go to Denver and play for the Broncos. He hated the thought of coming to Buffalo." In Buffalo, he would become known for his love of reading a broad range of books including those by Henry Thoreau, which led to chidings from Saban.
Injuries, including the broken finger, kept Kemp from playing for most of 1962. That season, Kemp received a military draft notice for service in the
Vietnam WarThe Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
but was granted a draft
waiverA waiver is the voluntary relinquishment or surrender of some known right or privilege.While a waiver is often in writing, sometimes a person's actions can act as a waiver. An example of a written waiver is a disclaimer, which becomes a waiver when accepted...
because of a knee problem. The injuries healed, and Kemp debuted for Buffalo on November 18, 1962, by directing the only touchdown drive in a 10–6 win over the
Oakland RaidersThe Oakland Raiders are a professional American football team based in Oakland, California. They currently play in the Western Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
. He played only four games for Buffalo in 1962, but made the
AFL All-Star-All-League Teams:The Sporting News published American Football League All-League Teams for each season played by the American Football League, 1960 through 1969...
team. The Bills won three of their last four games to finish 7–6–1.
On December 14, 1962, the Bills outbid the
Green Bay PackersThe Green Bay Packers are an American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. They are members of the North Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League . The Packers are the current NFL champions...
for
Notre DameNotre Dame Fighting Irish football team is the football team of the University of Notre Dame. The team is currently coached by Brian Kelly.Notre Dame competes as an Independent at the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision level, and is a founding member of the Bowl Championship Series coalition. It is an...
quarterback
Daryle LamonicaDaryle Pat Lamonica is a former American collegiate and professional football quarterback who played in the American Football League, and later in the NFL....
. In
1963The 1963 American Football League season was the fourth regular season of the American Football League.The season ended when the San Diego Chargers defeated the Boston Patriots in the AFL Championship game.-Division Races:...
, a four-season starting quarterback battle began that continued until Lamonica left for the Raiders. Lamonica felt he "... learned a lot from Jack about quarterbacking. And I truly believe that we were a great one-two punch at the position for the Bills." In 1963, Kemp led the Bills from a slow start to a tie for the AFL Eastern Division lead with a 7–6–1 record. Kemp again placed second in passing attempts, completions, and yards, and he also finished second to teammate
Cookie GilchristCarlton Chester "Cookie" Gilchrist was a gridiron football player in the American Football League and Canadian Football League.-Career:...
in rushing touchdowns. The Bills played the
Boston PatriotsThe New England Patriots, commonly called the "Pats", are a professional football team based in the Greater Boston area, playing their home games in the town of Foxborough, Massachusetts at Gillette Stadium. The team is part of the East Division of the American Football Conference in the National...
in an
Eastern Division playoff game*Eastern Division playoff*:Boston Patriots 26, Buffalo Bills 8, December 28, 1963, War Memorial Stadium, Buffalo, New York*AFL Championship Game*:San Diego Chargers 51, Boston Patriots 10, January 5, 1964, Balboa Stadium, San Diego, California-1963 Championship:...
to determine the division title on December 28, 1963, at
War Memorial StadiumWar Memorial Stadium is the name of a stadium that formerly stood in Buffalo, New York. The stadium was on a rectangular block near the downtown area. Its main entrance was at Jefferson Avenue to the east and Best Street to the south...
in
Buffalo, New YorkBuffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...
, in 10 °F (-12.2 °C) weather. During the game, Buffalo replaced Kemp with Lamonica after falling behind 16–0, but still lost 26–8.
Kemp was said to be the "clubhouse lawyer" for the Bills because of his role in mediating conflicts. In
1964The 1964 American Football League season was the fifth regular season of the American Football League.The season ended when the Buffalo Bills defeated the San Diego Chargers in the AFL Championship game...
, he managed personalities such as Gilchrist, who walked off the field when plays were not being called for him, and Saban, who he kept from cutting Gilchrist the following week. He also managed the politics of his quarterback battle with Lamonica, who engineered four winning touchdown drives in the Bills' first seven games. Kemp was the first and only
Professional FootballIn the United States and Canada, the term professional football includes the professional forms of American and Canadian gridiron football. In common usage, it refers to former and existing major football leagues in either country...
player to pass for three touchdowns in the first quarter of a season-opening game, against the Kansas City Chiefs in the 1964 AFL season, until the record was tied but not broken, 57 years later in 2011 by
Aaron RodgersAaron Charles Rodgers is an American football quarterback for the Green Bay Packers of the National Football League . Rodgers was selected in the first round of the 2005 NFL Draft by the Packers...
. The 1964 team won its first nine games and went 12–2 for the regular season, winning the Eastern Division with a final game victory over the Patriots at
Fenway ParkFenway Park is a baseball park near Kenmore Square in Boston, Massachusetts. Located at 4 Yawkey Way, it has served as the home ballpark of the Boston Red Sox baseball club since it opened in 1912, and is the oldest Major League Baseball stadium currently in use. It is one of two "classic"...
. Kemp led the league in yards per attempt and finished one rushing touchdown short of the league lead, which was shared by Gilchrist and
Sid BlanksSid Blanks is a retired American college and professional football player. A halfback, he played college football at Texas A&I University, and played professionally in the American Football League for the Houston Oilers from 1964 through 1968. He also played for the Boston Patriots on the AFL in...
. In the 1964 AFL Championship Game, he scored the final touchdown with just over nine minutes left in a 20–7 victory.
According to Lamonica, the 1965 team had a new emphasis: "In '64 we had depended a lot on Gilchrist and our running attack to carry us. . .But that all changed in '65. The Bills had traded Gilchrist in the off season to the Denver Broncos. So we went to a pass-oriented game more that season than we ever had before. We not only went to our receivers, but we threw a lot to our
running backA running back is a gridiron football position, who is typically lined up in the offensive backfield. The primary roles of a running back are to receive handoffs from the quarterback for a rushing play, to catch passes from out of the backfield, and to block.There are usually one or two running...
s. And I really think it brought out the best in Jack that year." In 1965, the Bills finished with a 10–3–1 record. Kemp finished the season second in the league in pass completions. In the 1965 AFL Championship Game, Buffalo defeated the Chargers 23–0; for Kemp, the victory was special because it came against his former team. Kemp's role in leading the Bills to a repeat championship without Gilchrist and with star receiver
Elbert DubenionElbert Dubenion was an American football wide receiver. He played college football for Bluffton College in northwest Ohio....
playing only three games earned him a share of the
AFL MVPDuring its ten-year existence , the American Football League's best player for each year was called the Most Valuable Player by some sports-news sources and the Player of the Year by others...
awards that he split with former Charger teammate,
Paul LowePaul Edward Lowe is a retired American football running back who played for the Los Angeles/San Diego Chargers and Kansas City Chiefs of the American Football League from 1960 to 1969.-College career:...
. Kemp also won the
Associated PressThe Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
award and the Championship Game Most Valuable Player award.
Joe Collier and John Rauch eras (1966–1969)
Following the championship game, Saban resigned to coach the
Maryland TerrapinsThe Maryland Terrapins football team represents the University of Maryland in National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I Football Bowl Subdivision competition. The Terrapins compete within the Atlantic Division of the Atlantic Coast Conference...
and
defensive coordinatorA defensive coordinator typically refers to a coach on a gridiron football team who is in charge of the defense. Generally, along with his offensive counterpart, he represents the second level of command structure after the head coach...
Joe CollierJoel D. Collier is a former American football coach. He was head coach of the American Football League's Buffalo Bills from 1966 through part of 1968, compiiling a 13–16–1 record....
was promoted to head coach for the 1966 AFL season. That year, Kemp led the Bills to their third consecutive division title with a 9–4–1 record. However, in the 1966 AFL Championship Game, which was played for the right to represent the AFL in
Super Bowl IThe First AFL-NFL World Championship Game in professional American football, later known as Super Bowl I and referred to in some contemporary reports as the Supergame, was played on January 15, 1967 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles, California.The National Football League ...
, the Bills lost to the
Kansas City ChiefsThe Kansas City Chiefs are a professional American football team based in Kansas City, Missouri. They are a member of the Western Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League . Originally named the Dallas Texans, the club was founded by Lamar Hunt in 1960 as a...
31–7. Kemp was named an AFL All-Star for the sixth consecutive year. The 1967 Bills endured a 4–10 1967 AFL season, in which Kemp was not named to the All-Star game for the first time in his AFL career.
On August 23, 1968, the Bills suffered a
blowoutA blowout is an easy or one-sided victory. It occurs when one athletic team or individual performer outscores another by a large margin or in such a fashion that allows the second team or individual little chance of a victory from a point early in a competition, game, contest or event...
preseason loss to the Houston Oilers. On August 26, Collier put the Bills through a 40-play scrimmage. During the scrimmage,
Ron McDoleRoland Owen "Ron" McDole is a former American collegiate and Professional Football defensive end from the University of Nebraska, Buffalo Bills, and Washington Redskins.-Buffalo Bills:...
fell on Kemp's right knee and injured it, forcing Kemp to sit out the entire 1968 AFL season. The Bills went 1–12–1 without Kemp.
Despite Kemp's return from injury and the arrival of running back
O. J. SimpsonOrenthal James "O. J." Simpson , nicknamed "The Juice", is a retired American collegiate and professional football player, football broadcaster, and actor...
, the Bills only compiled a 4–10 record during the 1969 AFL season under new coach
John RauchJohn "Johnny" Rauch was an American football player and coach. He was head coach of the Oakland Raiders in the team's loss to the Green Bay Packers in Super Bowl II in 1968.-Early life:...
. Kemp was named an AFL All-Star in 1969 for the seventh time in the league's 10 years. He advocated recognition of the league, and in its last year, 1969, lobbied
Pete RozelleAlvin Ray "Pete" Rozelle was the commissioner of the National Football League from January 1960 to November 1989, when he retired from office. Rozelle is credited with making the NFL into one of the most successful sports leagues in the world....
to have AFL teams wear an
AFL patchThe Ten-Year AFL Patch is a shoulder patch adapted for use on American Football League team uniforms.-History:During the entire 1969 professional football season, all NFL players wore a shoulder patch on their uniforms, reading "50 NFL", marking the 50 years which had passed since the league's...
to honor it. In 1969, the
Erie CountyErie County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2010 census, the population was 919,040. The county seat is Buffalo. The county's name comes from Lake Erie, which in turn comes from the Erie tribe of American Indians who lived south and east of the lake before 1654.Erie...
Republican PartyThe Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
approached him about running for the
United States CongressThe United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
. After the January 17, 1970, AFL All-Star game, Kemp returned home and talked to his wife before deciding to enter politics. Kemp said, "I had a four-year no-cut contract with the Bills at the time. ... I figured that if I lost I could always come back and play. But the fans had their say and I was elected to Congress."
Career summary
Kemp led Buffalo to four straight years in the AFL playoffs, three consecutive Eastern Division titles and two straight AFL Championships. He led the league in career passes attempted, completions, and yards gained passing. He played in five of the AFL's 10 Championship Games, and holds the same career records (passing attempts, completions, and yardage) for championships. He is second in many other championship game categories, including career and single-game
passer ratingPasser rating is a measure of the performance of quarterbacks or any other passers in American football and Canadian football. There are at least two formulae currently in use: one officially used by the National Football League and the Canadian Football League, and one used in college football...
. A
Sporting News All-LeagueThe Sporting News published American Football League All-League Teams for each season played by the American Football League, 1960 through 1969...
selection at quarterback in 1960 and 1965, and the AFL MVP in 1965. He was the only AFL quarterback to be listed as a starter all 10 years of the league's existence and one of only 20 players to serve all 10 of those years. His number 15 was retired by the Bills in 1984.
However, despite his success and important AFL records, he is most prominently listed in the NFL record book for less flattering accomplishments, including his place as a former record holder for most
quarterback sackIn American football and Canadian football, a sack occurs when the quarterback is tackled behind the line of scrimmage before he can throw a forward pass, or when the quarterback is tackled behind the line of scrimmage in the "pocket" and the intent of what he was going to do is unclear...
s in a game. Despite Kemp's many records,
Joe NamathJoseph William "Joe" Namath , nicknamed "Broadway Joe" or "Joe Willie", is a former American football quarterback. He played college football for the University of Alabama under coach Paul "Bear" Bryant and his assistant, Howard Schnellenberger, from 1962–1964, and professional football in the...
and
Len DawsonLeonard Ray "Len" "Lenny" Dawson is a former American collegiate and Professional Football quarterback who attended Purdue University and went on to play for three professional teams, most notably the Dallas Texans/Kansas City Chiefs...
were selected as the quarterbacks for the All-time AFL team. Kemp is a member of the Greater Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame and the Buffalo Bills' Wall of Fame.
Kemp co-founded the AFL Players Association with
Tom AddisonTom Addison was a professional American football linebacker and sports labor leader, and is a member of the South Carolina Athletic Hall of Fame.- Playing career :...
of the Boston Patriots, and was elected its president five times. His founding of and involvement in the players' union contributed to his frequent siding with the
DemocratsThe Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
on labor issues later in his career.
The NCAA’s highest honor, the
Theodore Roosevelt AwardThe Theodore Roosevelt Award is the highest honor the National Collegiate Athletic Association may confer on an individual. The award is awarded annually to a graduate from an NCAA member institution who earned a varsity letter in college for participation in intercollegiate athletics, and who...
, was presented to Kemp in 1992, and he was named one of the Association’s 100 most influential student-athletes in 2006.
Political career
"Pro football gave me a good perspective. When I entered the political arena, I had already been booed, cheered, cut, sold, traded, and hung in effigyAn effigy is a representation of a person, especially in the form of sculpture or some other three-dimensional form.The term is usually associated with full-length figures of a deceased person depicted in stone or wood on church monuments. These most often lie supine with hands together in prayer,...
." |
| — Jack Kemp |
Kemp's political career began long before his 1970 campaign. In 1960 and 1961, Kemp was an editorial assistant to
San Diego Union editor and future
Richard NixonRichard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
aideAn aide-de-camp is a personal assistant, secretary, or adjutant to a person of high rank, usually a senior military officer or a head of state...
Herb Klein. Subsequently, Kemp became a volunteer in both
Barry GoldwaterBarry Morris Goldwater was a five-term United States Senator from Arizona and the Republican Party's nominee for President in the 1964 election. An articulate and charismatic figure during the first half of the 1960s, he was known as "Mr...
's
1964 presidential campaignThe United States presidential election of 1964 was held on November 3, 1964. Incumbent President Lyndon B. Johnson had come to office less than a year earlier following the assassination of his predecessor, John F. Kennedy. Johnson, who had successfully associated himself with Kennedy's...
and
Ronald ReaganRonald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
's successful 1966
California gubernatorialThe Governor of California is the chief executive of the California state government, whose responsibilities include making annual State of the State addresses to the California State Legislature, submitting the budget, and ensuring that state laws are enforced...
campaign. In the 1967 football off-season, Kemp worked on Reagan's staff in
SacramentoSacramento is the capital city of the U.S. state of California and the county seat of Sacramento County. It is located at the confluence of the Sacramento River and the American River in the northern portion of California's expansive Central Valley. With a population of 466,488 at the 2010 census,...
. In 1969 he was special assistant to the
Republican National CommitteeThe Republican National Committee is an American political committee that provides national leadership for the Republican Party of the United States. It is responsible for developing and promoting the Republican political platform, as well as coordinating fundraising and election strategy. It is...
chairman.
Kemp was a voracious reader, and his political beliefs were founded in early readings of Goldwater's
The Conscience of a ConservativeThe Conscience of a Conservative is a book published under the name of Arizona Senator and 1964 Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater in 1960. The book reignited the American conservative movement and made Barry Goldwater a political star...
,
Ayn RandAyn Rand was a Russian-American novelist, philosopher, playwright, and screenwriter. She is known for her two best-selling novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged and for developing a philosophical system she called Objectivism....
's libertarian novels, such as
The FountainheadThe Fountainhead is a 1943 novel by Ayn Rand. It was Rand's first major literary success and brought her fame and financial success. More than 6.5 million copies of the book have been sold worldwide....
, and Friedrich von Hayek's
The Constitution of LibertyThe Constitution of Liberty is a book by Austrian economist and Nobel Prize recipient Friedrich A. Hayek. The book was first published in 1960 by the University of Chicago Press and it is an interpretation of civilization as being made possible by the fundamental principles of liberty, which the...
. He also brought from his football career a belief in racial equality, which came from playing football with black teammates: Kemp said, "I wasn't there with
Rosa ParksRosa Louise McCauley Parks was an African-American civil rights activist, whom the U.S. Congress called "the first lady of civil rights", and "the mother of the freedom movement"....
or Dr. King or
John LewisJohn Robert Lewis is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 1987. He was a leader in the American Civil Rights Movement and chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee , playing a key role in the struggle to end segregation...
. But I am here now, and I am going to yell from the rooftops about what we need to do." Kemp's football colleagues confirmed this influence: John Mackey explained that "the
huddleIn sport, a huddle is when a team gathers together, usually in a tight circle, to strategise, motivate or celebrate. It is a popular strategy for keeping opponents insulated from sensitive information, and acts as a form of insulation when the level of noise in the venue is such that normal...
is colorblind."
Congress (1971–1989)
As a self-described "bleeding-heart conservative", Kemp represented a part of the suburban
BuffaloBuffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...
region that is known as the southtowns and that traditionally voted Democratic for the
United States House of RepresentativesThe United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
from 1971 to 1989. He is as fondly remembered for his good hair and handsome looks as for his athletic prowess and political savvy, and he is described as having the charisma of the earlier J.F.K. (
John F. KennedyJohn Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
)
David RosenbaumDavid E. Rosenbaum was an American journalist.After his education, Rosenbaum worked for a number of publications including the St. Petersburg Times and the Congressional Quarterly. He worked for the New York Times for thirty-five years beginning in 1968...
described Kemp as an independent politician who often legislated outside his
committeeA committee is a type of small deliberative assembly that is usually intended to remain subordinate to another, larger deliberative assembly—which when organized so that action on committee requires a vote by all its entitled members, is called the "Committee of the Whole"...
s' jurisdictions and often spoke in favor of ideals and principles rather than his party's political platforms. As a supply-sider, he was not a proponent of
balanced budgetA balanced budget is when there is neither a budget deficit or a budget surplus – when revenues equal expenditure – particularly by a government. More generally, it refers to when there is no deficit, but possibly a surplus...
ing and trivialized it while speaking of growth as an economic goal.
The
Erie County, New YorkErie County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2010 census, the population was 919,040. The county seat is Buffalo. The county's name comes from Lake Erie, which in turn comes from the Erie tribe of American Indians who lived south and east of the lake before 1654.Erie...
Republicans had drafted Kemp after incumbent congressman
Richard D. McCarthyRichard Dean McCarthy was a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives from New York, also known as Richard Max McCarthy or Max McCarthy.-Life:He served in the United States Navy from November 1945 until August 1946, and in the United States Army from November...
decided to run for the
United States SenateThe United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
. During his inaugural campaign, his district was in economic malaise, and
The New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
described him as a
John F. KennedyJohn Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
throwback who campaigned on
family valuesFamily values are political and social beliefs that hold the nuclear family to be the essential ethical and moral unit of society. Familialism is the ideology that promotes the family and its values as an institution....
,
patriotismPatriotism is a devotion to one's country, excluding differences caused by the dependencies of the term's meaning upon context, geography and philosophy...
, sports, and defense. Upon his election to the Congress in a class of sixty-two freshmen, he was one of six newcomers—along with Ronald Dellums,
Bella AbzugBella Savitsky Abzug was an American lawyer, Congresswoman, social activist and a leader of the Women's Movement. In 1971, Abzug joined other leading feminists such as Gloria Steinem and Betty Friedan to found the National Women's Political Caucus...
,
Louise Day HicksAnna Louise Day Hicks was an American politician and lawyer from Boston, Massachusetts, best known for her staunch opposition to court-ordered busing in the 1960s and 1970s.-Early life:...
,
Robert DrinanRobert Frederick Drinan, S.J. was a Roman Catholic Jesuit priest, lawyer, human rights activist, and Democratic U.S. Representative from Massachusetts...
, and Pete du Pont—discussed in
TimeTime is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
. The article described him as a football fan like United States President Richard Nixon and as the recipient of advice from White House adviser Robert Finch and former Kemp boss Herb Klein, Nixon's director of communications. The Nixon aides encouraged Kemp to endorse the
Cambodian invasionOperation Menu was the codename of a covert United States Strategic Air Command bombing campaign conducted in eastern Cambodia and Laos from 18 March 1969 until 26 May 1970, during the Vietnam War...
and to oppose criticism of Nixon's war policies in order to firm up Kemp's support from military hawks.
Kemp championed several
Chicago schoolThe Chicago school of economics describes a neoclassical school of thought within the academic community of economists, with a strong focus around the faculty of The University of Chicago, some of whom have constructed and popularized its principles...
and
supply-side economicsSupply-side economics is a school of macroeconomic thought that argues that economic growth can be most effectively created by lowering barriers for people to produce goods and services, such as lowering income tax and capital gains tax rates, and by allowing greater flexibility by reducing...
issues:
economic growthIn economics, economic growth is defined as the increasing capacity of the economy to satisfy the wants of goods and services of the members of society. Economic growth is enabled by increases in productivity, which lowers the inputs for a given amount of output. Lowered costs increase demand...
, free markets,
free tradeUnder a free trade policy, prices emerge from supply and demand, and are the sole determinant of resource allocation. 'Free' trade differs from other forms of trade policy where the allocation of goods and services among trading countries are determined by price strategies that may differ from...
, tax simplification and lower tax rates on both employment and investment income. He was a long-time proponent of the
flat taxA flat tax is a tax system with a constant marginal tax rate. Typically the term flat tax is applied in the context of an individual or corporate income that will be taxed at one marginal rate...
. He also defended the use of anti-Communist
contraThe contras is a label given to the various rebel groups opposing Nicaragua's FSLN Sandinista Junta of National Reconstruction government following the July 1979 overthrow of Anastasio Somoza Debayle's dictatorship...
forces in
Central AmericaCentral America is the central geographic region of the Americas. It is the southernmost, isthmian portion of the North American continent, which connects with South America on the southeast. When considered part of the unified continental model, it is considered a subcontinent...
, supported the
gold standardThe gold standard is a monetary system in which the standard economic unit of account is a fixed mass of gold. There are distinct kinds of gold standard...
, spoke for
civil rightsCivil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...
legislation, opposed
abortionAbortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability. An abortion can occur spontaneously, in which case it is usually called a miscarriage, or it can be purposely induced...
, and was the first lawmaker to popularize enterprise zones, which he supported to foster
entrepreneurAn entrepreneur is an owner or manager of a business enterprise who makes money through risk and initiative.The term was originally a loanword from French and was first defined by the Irish-French economist Richard Cantillon. Entrepreneur in English is a term applied to a person who is willing to...
ship and job creation and expand homeownership among
public housingPublic housing is a form of housing tenure in which the property is owned by a government authority, which may be central or local. Social housing is an umbrella term referring to rental housing which may be owned and managed by the state, by non-profit organizations, or by a combination of the...
tenants. During his career, he sometimes sounded like a liberal
DemocratThe Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
: he supported
affirmative actionAffirmative action refers to policies that take factors including "race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation or national origin" into consideration in order to benefit an underrepresented group, usually as a means to counter the effects of a history of discrimination.-Origins:The term...
and rights for illegal immigrants.
The New York Times described Kemp as the most proactive combatant in the war on poverty since Robert Kennedy. He differed from Rockefeller Republicans and earlier combatants such as Lyndon Johnson by supporting incentive-based systems instead of traditional social programs. For his commitment to inner city concerns from within the Republican party,
David GergenDavid Richmond Gergen is an American political consultant and former presidential advisor who served during the administrations of Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and Clinton. He is currently Director of the Center for Public Leadership and a professor of public service at Harvard Kennedy School. Gergen is...
heralded him as a "courageous voice in the wilderness." Although he was liberal on many social issues and supported civil liberties for homosexuals, he opposed certain gay rights such as the right to teach in schools. Kemp at times felt his role was that of "freewheeling,
entrepreneurAn entrepreneur is an owner or manager of a business enterprise who makes money through risk and initiative.The term was originally a loanword from French and was first defined by the Irish-French economist Richard Cantillon. Entrepreneur in English is a term applied to a person who is willing to...
ial, wildcatting backbencher."
Time magazine identified 38-year-old second-term congressman Kemp as a future leader in its 1974 "Faces for the Future" feature. Another early-career notable magazine appearance was in a 1978 issue of
EsquireEsquire is a men's magazine, published in the U.S. by the Hearst Corporation. Founded in 1932, it flourished during the Great Depression under the guidance of founder and editor Arnold Gingrich.-History:...
. The article explained allegations of homosexual activity among staffers in Ronald Reagan's Sacramento office in 1967; Kemp was not implicated.
Hugh SideyHugh Sidey was an American journalist and worked for Life magazine starting in 1955, then moved on to Time magazine in 1957.-Biography:...
mentioned him as a contender to unseat
Jimmy CarterJames Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...
in the
1980 presidential electionThe United States presidential election of 1980 featured a contest between incumbent Democrat Jimmy Carter and his Republican opponent, Ronald Reagan, as well as Republican Congressman John B. Anderson, who ran as an independent...
and was a front runner for the vice presidency at the
1980 Republican National ConventionThe 1980 National Convention of the Republican Party of the United States convened at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, Michigan, from July 14 to July 17, 1980. The 32nd Republican National Convention nominated former Governor Ronald W. Reagan of California for President of the United States and former...
, where he received 43 votes from conservative detractors of George H. W. Bush. After he was reelected for a sixth term in 1980, his Republican peers elected him to a party leadership position, and he served seven years as chairman of the House Republican Conference. This promotion occurred immediately after Kemp and
David StockmanDavid Alan Stockman is a former U.S. politician and businessman, serving as a Republican U.S. Representative from the state of Michigan and as the Director of the Office of Management and Budget ....
urged Reagan by memorandum to dedicate his first 100 days to working on an economic package with Congress. By 1984, many viewed Kemp as Reagan's heir apparent.
Kemp had his first encounter with supply-side economics in 1967, when
The Wall Street JournalThe Wall Street Journal is an American English-language international daily newspaper. It is published in New York City by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corporation, along with the Asian and European editions of the Journal....
s
Jude WanniskiJude Thaddeus Wanniski was an American journalist, conservative commentator, and political economist.- Early life and education :...
interviewed him at his Congressional office. Kemp questioned Wanniski all day (until midnight, at Kemp's
Bethesda, MarylandBethesda is a census designated place in southern Montgomery County, Maryland, United States, just northwest of Washington, D.C. It takes its name from a local church, the Bethesda Meeting House , which in turn took its name from Jerusalem's Pool of Bethesda...
home) and was eventually converted to
University of Southern CaliforniaThe University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...
professorA professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
Arthur LafferArthur Betz Laffer is an American economist who first gained prominence during the Reagan administration as a member of Reagan's Economic Policy Advisory Board . Laffer is best known for the Laffer curve, an illustration of the theory that there exists some tax rate between 0% and 100% that will...
's supply-side discipline. Thereafter, Kemp espoused supply-side economics freely, and in 1978 he and
William V. Roth, Jr.William Victor "Bill" Roth, Jr. was an American lawyer and politician from Wilmington in New Castle County, Delaware. He was a veteran of World War II and a member of the Republican Party, who served as U.S. Representative and U.S...
proposed tax-cutting legislation. Kemp has been credited as responsible for supply-side economics' inclusion in President Reagan's economic plan, although at the time of
Robert MundellRobert Mundell, CC is a Nobel Prize-winning Canadian economist. Currently, Mundell is a professor of economics at Columbia University and the Chinese University of Hong Kong....
's
Nobel Memorial Prize in EconomicsThe Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, commonly referred to as the Nobel Prize in Economics, but officially the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel , is an award for outstanding contributions to the field of economics, generally regarded as one of the...
recognition some attributed much of the credit to Mundell, Laffer, Robert Bartley, and Wanniski. In 1979, Kemp wrote An American Renaissance (ISBN 0-06-012283-8), to deliver his message that "A rising tide lifts all boats." Although the realization of early 1980s tax cuts are attributed to Reagan, they were initiated by Kemp and Roth through their 1981 Kemp–Roth Tax Cut legislation. Reagan's budget based on this legislation passed over the objection of
United States House Committee on Ways and MeansThe Committee of Ways and Means is the chief tax-writing committee of the United States House of Representatives. Members of the Ways and Means Committee are not allowed to serve on any other House Committees unless they apply for a waiver from their party's congressional leadership...
Chairman
Dan RostenkowskiDaniel David "Dan" Rostenkowski was a United States Representative from Illinois, serving from 1959 to 1995. Raised in a blue-collar neighborhood on the Northwest Side of Chicago, Rostenkowski rose to become one of the most powerful legislators in Washington. He was a member of the Democratic Party...
.
During the Reagan years, Kemp and his followers ignored budget balancing while promoting tax cuts and economic growth. These tax cuts have been credited by conservatives for the economic growth from 1983 to 1990, which by 1996 had become one of the longest expansions in American history. Kemp notes that
Federal Reserve ChairmanThe Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System is the head of the central banking system of the United States. Known colloquially as "Chairman of the Fed," or in market circles "Fed Chairman" or "Fed Chief"...
Paul VolckerPaul Adolph Volcker, Jr. is an American economist. He was the Chairman of the Federal Reserve under United States Presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan from August 1979 to August 1987. He is widely credited with ending the high levels of inflation seen in the United States in the 1970s and...
's success at stemming
inflationIn economics, inflation is a rise in the general level of prices of goods and services in an economy over a period of time.When the general price level rises, each unit of currency buys fewer goods and services. Consequently, inflation also reflects an erosion in the purchasing power of money – a...
and the favorable regulatory environment were also major factors. Detractors note that the expansion was fueled by undesirable sectors like
gamingGambling is the wagering of money or something of material value on an event with an uncertain outcome with the primary intent of winning additional money and/or material goods...
,
prisonA prison is a place in which people are physically confined and, usually, deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Imprisonment or incarceration is a legal penalty that may be imposed by the state for the commission of a crime...
s, medical treatment, and
credit cardA credit card is a small plastic card issued to users as a system of payment. It allows its holder to buy goods and services based on the holder's promise to pay for these goods and services...
use.
An early Kemp tax reform attempt was an unsuccessful 1979 proposal to index tax brackets for cost of living fluctuations, which was incorporated in Reagan's 1980 package. Kemp co-sponsored a legislative attempt at enterprise zones in 1980. One of Kemp's more trying times as a congressman came in 1982 when Reagan decided to reverse the tax cuts and promote tax increases. The reversal was controversial and stimulated opposition by Kemp. Nonetheless, the revised taxes passed. In 1983, Kemp opposed the policies of Chairman Volcker on multiple occasions. The debates included domestic monetary involvement and roles in funding the
International Monetary FundThe International Monetary Fund is an organization of 187 countries, working to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty around the world...
.
At several
Republican National ConventionThe Republican National Convention is the presidential nominating convention of the Republican Party of the United States. Convened by the Republican National Committee, the stated purpose of the convocation is to nominate an official candidate in an upcoming U.S...
s, Kemp has delivered speeches. He addressed the convention on July 15 at the 1980 Republican National Convention in
Detroit, MichiganDetroit is the major city among the primary cultural, financial, and transportation centers in the Metro Detroit area, a region of 5.2 million people. As the seat of Wayne County, the city of Detroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and serves as a major port on the Detroit River...
and on August 21 at the
1984 Republican National ConventionThe 1984 National Convention of the Republican Party of the United States convened on August 20 to August 23, 1984, at Reunion Arena in downtown Dallas, Texas. The convention nominated the incumbent Ronald Reagan of California for President of the United States and incumbent George H. W...
in
Dallas, TexasDallas is the third-largest city in Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States...
. During the 1984 Convention, with
Trent LottChester Trent Lott, Sr. , is a former United States Senator from Mississippi and has served in numerous leadership positions in the House of Representatives and the Senate....
as Republican Party Platform Committee Chairman, Congressmen Kemp and
Newt GingrichNewton Leroy "Newt" Gingrich is a U.S. Republican Party politician who served as the House Minority Whip from 1989 to 1995 and as the 58th Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1995 to 1999....
claimed control of the party platform to the consternation of G.O.P. senators
Bob DoleRobert Joseph "Bob" Dole is an American attorney and politician. Dole represented Kansas in the United States Senate from 1969 to 1996, was Gerald Ford's Vice Presidential running mate in the 1976 presidential election, and was Senate Majority Leader from 1985 to 1987 and in 1995 and 1996...
and
Howard BakerHoward Henry Baker, Jr. is a former Senate Majority Leader, Republican U.S. Senator from Tennessee, White House Chief of Staff, and a former United States Ambassador to Japan.Known in Washington, D.C...
. Kemp's official role was as the chairman of the platform subcommittee on foreign policy. However, the three platform planks that he proposed involved tax hikes, the gold standard and the role of the Federal Reserve. Despite Kemp's official role, his real influence as an author was on the grammatical structure of the plank on tax hikes. By 1985, Kemp was a leading contender for the 1988 Presidential nomination. He also delivered remarks on free enterprise zones at the
1992 Republican National Convention in
Houston, TexasHouston is the fourth-largest city in the United States, and the largest city in the state of Texas. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 2.1 million people within an area of . Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of , which is the ...
. Despite efforts and considerations of expanding his political domain, Kemp never held a fundraiser outside of his suburban Western New York district until well into his eighth term in Congress.
Kemp has been a critic of
footballFootball may refer to one of a number of team sports which all involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball with the foot to score a goal. The most popular of these sports worldwide is association football, more commonly known as just "football" or "soccer"...
known as 'soccer' in a number of
English-speaking countriesAnglosphere is a neologism which refers to those nations with English as the most common language. The term can be used more specifically to refer to those nations which share certain characteristics within their cultures based on a linguistic heritage, through being former British colonies...
. In 1986, during a House floor debate over whether the United States should host the
1994 FIFA World CupThe 1994 FIFA World Cup, the 15th staging of the FIFA World Cup, was held in nine cities across the United States from June 17 to July 17, 1994. The United States was chosen as the host by FIFA on July 4, 1988...
, Kemp proclaimed: "I think it is important for all those young out there — who someday hope to play real
footballAmerican football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
, where you throw it and kick it and run with it and put it in your hands — [that] a distinction should be made that football is democratic capitalism, whereas soccer is a European socialist sport." Kemp has compared his speech to
George Carlin'sGeorge Denis Patrick Carlin was an American stand-up comedian, social critic, actor and author, who won five Grammy Awards for his comedy albums....
1984 comedy routine on the differences between
baseballBaseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
and American football and has written that his "tongue was firmly planted in cheek" when making the speech. Despite the levity of the speech, it has garnered significant backlash. However, he continues to insist that soccer's main problem is "it doesn't have a quarterback". Kemp notes that about half of his grandchildren play or have played organized soccer and claims to have since 'changed' his position on soccer. He even attended the 1994 FIFA World Cup with long time soccer fan
Henry KissingerHeinz Alfred "Henry" Kissinger is a German-born American academic, political scientist, diplomat, and businessman. He is a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. He served as National Security Advisor and later concurrently as Secretary of State in the administrations of Presidents Richard Nixon and...
, although he wrote during the
2006 FIFA World CupThe 2006 FIFA World Cup was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which won the right to host the event in July 2000. Teams representing 198 national football associations from all six...
that soccer can be interesting to watch but is still a "boring game."
Presidential bid (1988)
In 1988, if Kemp had won his campaign for the
United States PresidencyThe President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
, it would have made him the first person to move from the United States House of Representatives to the White House since James Garfield. When he formed his exploratory committee, he signed
Ed RollinsEdward John "Ed" Rollins is a Republican campaign consultant and advisor who has worked on several high-profile political campaigns in the United States. In 1983-84, he was National Campaign Director for the Reagan-Bush '84 campaign, winning 49 of 50 states...
, Reagan's 1984 re-election political director, as an advisor. From the outset, Kemp had failed to position himself as the primary alternative to Vice President Bush. Except for a select few cognoscenti, the general public did not recognize Kemp's leadership ability, although he was a successful man of ideas. In fact, most of the Republican electorate found themselves unfamiliar with Kemp early in his campaign. Political pundits recognized him, however, as a visionary idea man. In addition, he was quickly perceived as a verbose speaker who sometimes lost contact with his audience. Although Kemp tried to appeal to the conservatives, his
libertarianLibertarianism, in the strictest sense, is the political philosophy that holds individual liberty as the basic moral principle of society. In the broadest sense, it is any political philosophy which approximates this view...
philosophies of tolerance and individual rights and his commitment to supporting minorities, women, blue-collar workers and organized labor clashed with conservative voters' social and religious values. To Democrats, Kemp's free-market philosophies were a form of
laissez-faireIn economics, laissez-faire describes an environment in which transactions between private parties are free from state intervention, including restrictive regulations, taxes, tariffs and enforced monopolies....
anarchy. However, as much as Kemp wanted to minimize government's role, he acknowledged that moves toward a more laissez-faire system should be well-thought out.
After the May 1987
Gary HartGary Hart is an American politician, lawyer, author, professor and commentator. He served as a Democratic Senator representing Colorado , and ran in the U.S...
–
Donna RiceDonna Rice Hughes is the president and chair of Enough Is Enough, an American non-profit organization in the anti-pornography movement that seeks to make the Internet safer for families and children...
scandal, a
questionnaireA questionnaire is a research instrument consisting of a series of questions and other prompts for the purpose of gathering information from respondents. Although they are often designed for statistical analysis of the responses, this is not always the case...
by The New York Times
requested things such as psychiatric records and access to FBI files from all 14 presidential candidates. Candidates from each party expressed opinions on both sides of the personal privacy issue, and Kemp rejected the Times inquiry as "beneath the dignity of a presidential candidate". His campaign was on an early positive course with many key early endorsements in New Hampshire, but Bush held the support of much of the Republican establishment in New York. Although he had an eclectic mix of supporters, Kemp's campaign began borrowing against anticipated Federal matching funds because it had quickly spent itself into the red, which may have been due to the use of expensive
direct mailAdvertising mail, also known as direct mail, junk mail, or admail, is the delivery of advertising material to recipients of postal mail. The delivery of advertising mail forms a large and growing service for many postal services, and direct-mail marketing forms a significant portion of the direct...
fundraising techniques. To offset his socially moderate stances, Kemp clarified his opposition to abortion, his support of the
Strategic Defense InitiativeThe Strategic Defense Initiative was proposed by U.S. President Ronald Reagan on March 23, 1983 to use ground and space-based systems to protect the United States from attack by strategic nuclear ballistic missiles. The initiative focused on strategic defense rather than the prior strategic...
(SDI) and his support for a stronger military than that favored by
Secretary of StateThe United States Secretary of State is the head of the United States Department of State, concerned with foreign affairs. The Secretary is a member of the Cabinet and the highest-ranking cabinet secretary both in line of succession and order of precedence...
George Shultz. To position himself as Reagan's successor, Kemp called for Shultz's resignation based on claims that Shultz had neglected freedom fighters in
AfghanistanAfghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
and
NicaraguaNicaragua is the largest country in the Central American American isthmus, bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. The country is situated between 11 and 14 degrees north of the Equator in the Northern Hemisphere, which places it entirely within the tropics. The Pacific Ocean...
and had waffled on SDI. In an attempt to highlight his pro-freedom stands on key Reagan Era foreign policy initiatives, Kemp traveled in September 1987 to Costa Rica, Honduras and El Salvador to lobby the presidents of those nations against the Arias Peace Plan - a peace accord US conservatives felt too conciliatory to Central American communists. He was accompanied on the trip by 50-plus US conservative leaders.
Despite a platform covering the full range of political subjects, Kemp's primary campaign weapon was a fiscal policy based on tax cuts. As part of his fiscal policy, he opposed a
Social SecurityIn the United States, Social Security refers to the federal Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance program.The original Social Security Act and the current version of the Act, as amended encompass several social welfare and social insurance programs...
benefits freeze and endorsed a freeze on government spending. Some viewed Kemp's supply-side stance as an attempt to ignore the national budget deficit. In late 1987, political pundits saw that Kemp needed to gain support from the far right on non-social issues. Kemp was among the majority of Republican candidates in opposition to Reagan's INF Treaty agreement with the
Soviet UnionThe Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
's
Mikhail GorbachevMikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev is a former Soviet statesman, having served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991, and as the last head of state of the USSR, having served from 1988 until its dissolution in 1991...
despite general Republican voter approval of the treaty. With aspirations of support from right-wing voters, all candidates with low levels of poll support for the nomination took this same "sabre-rattling" stand. By early 1988, the moderates (Bush and Dole) were clearly the front-runners and Kemp was battling with
Pat RobertsonMarion Gordon "Pat" Robertson is a media mogul, television evangelist, ex-Baptist minister and businessman who is politically aligned with the Christian Right in the United States....
as the conservative alternative to the moderates.
He used a somewhat negative advertising campaign that seemed to have the intended initial effect of boosting him to serious contention. His 1988 campaign was based on the platform of supply-side economics and inner-city enterprise zones. In Bare Knuckles and Back Rooms: My Life in American Politics, campaign chairman Rollins described Kemp as a candidate with foibles. Kemp's campaign managers say he was unmanageable: he ignored timers on his speeches, refused to call contributors, and refused to practice for debates. A humbling
Super TuesdayIn the United States, Super Tuesday, in general, refers to the Tuesday in February or March of a presidential election year when the greatest number of states hold primary elections to select delegates to national conventions at which each party's presidential candidates are officially nominated...
, in which his 39 delegate total was fewer than eventual nominee and President Bush and both Dole and Pat Robertson, ended his campaign. After withdrawing from the race, he was still considered a contender for the Vice President nomination. In 1989, the Kemps switched their official residence from
HamburgHamburg is a town in Erie County, New York, United States. As of the 2000 census, the town had a total population of 56,259.The Town of Hamburg is on the western border of the county and is south of Buffalo, New York. Hamburg is one of the "Southtowns" in Erie County...
,
New YorkNew York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
to
Bethesda, MarylandBethesda is a census designated place in southern Montgomery County, Maryland, United States, just northwest of Washington, D.C. It takes its name from a local church, the Bethesda Meeting House , which in turn took its name from Jerusalem's Pool of Bethesda...
, their residence at the time of his death. In 1994, Kemp's 1988 campaign reached a settlement with the
Federal Election CommissionThe Federal Election Commission is an independent regulatory agency that was founded in 1975 by the United States Congress to regulate the campaign finance legislation in the United States. It was created in a provision of the 1975 amendment to the Federal Election Campaign Act...
by agreeing to pay $120,000 in
civil penaltiesA civil penalty or civil fine is a term used to describe when a state entity, government agency, or private party seeks monetary relief against an individual as restitution for wrongdoing by the individual. The wrongdoing is typically defined by a codification of legislation, regulations, and decrees...
for 1988 campaign election law violations for, among other things, excessive contributions, improper direct corporate donations, press overbilling, exceeding spending limits in
IowaIowa is a state located in the Midwestern United States, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland". It derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many American Indian tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa was a part of the French colony of New...
and
New HampshireNew Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state was named after the southern English county of Hampshire. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian...
, and failure to reimburse corporations for providing air transportation.
Cabinet (1989–1993)
As a so-called "bleeding-heart conservative", Kemp was a logical choice for Bush as the
Secretary of Housing and Urban DevelopmentThe United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development is the head of the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, a member of the President's Cabinet, and thirteenth in the Presidential line of succession. The post was created with the formation of the Department of Housing...
, whose job would be to foster
public sectorThe public sector, sometimes referred to as the state sector, is a part of the state that deals with either the production, delivery and allocation of goods and services by and for the government or its citizens, whether national, regional or local/municipal.Examples of public sector activity range...
and
private sectorIn economics, the private sector is that part of the economy, sometimes referred to as the citizen sector, which is run by private individuals or groups, usually as a means of enterprise for profit, and is not controlled by the state...
methods to meet the demands of
public housingPublic housing is a form of housing tenure in which the property is owned by a government authority, which may be central or local. Social housing is an umbrella term referring to rental housing which may be owned and managed by the state, by non-profit organizations, or by a combination of the...
. However, the scandals of Reagan's Secretary of Housing and Urban Development
Samuel PierceSamuel Riley Pierce, Jr. was Ronald Reagan's Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.-Early life:Pierce was an Eagle Scout and recipient of the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award from the Boy Scouts of America. Pierce was a member of Alpha Phi Alpha social fraternity and Alpha Phi Omega service...
and the neglect of the president were obstacles from the start, and Kemp was unsuccessful at either of his major initiatives: enacting enterprise zones and promoting public housing tenant ownership. The goal of these two plans was to change public housing into tenant-owned residences and to lure industry and business into inner cities with federal incentives. Although Kemp did not affect much policy as HUD's director, he cleaned up HUD's reputation, and developed a plan to salvage the troubled
Federal Housing AdministrationThe Federal Housing Administration is a United States government agency created as part of the National Housing Act of 1934. It insured loans made by banks and other private lenders for home building and home buying...
. He halted or revamped corrupt programs and developed an antidrug offensive, which enabled him to collaborate with Director of the National Drug Control Policy
Bill BennettWilliam John "Bill" Bennett is an American conservative pundit, politician, and political theorist. He served as United States Secretary of Education from 1985 to 1988. He also held the post of Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy under George H. W...
. He supported "Operation Clean Sweep" and similar movements to prohibit firearm possession in public housing.
Although Kemp coaxed Bush to support a $4 billion housing program that encouraged public housing tenants to buy their own apartments, the
DemocraticThe Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
Congress allocated only $361 million to the plan. In addition to opposition in Congress, Kemp fought White House Budget Director
Richard DarmanRichard Gordon Darman , known as Dick Darman, was an American economist and businessman who served under five U.S. presidents but is best remembered as the Director of the Office of Management and Budget during the administration of George H. W...
, who opposed Kemp's pet project HOPE (Homeownership and Opportunity for People Everywhere). The project involved selling public housing to its tenants. Darman also opposed Kemp's proposed welfare adjustment of government offsets. HOPE was first proposed to White House chief of staff
John SununuJohn Henry Sununu is a former Governor of New Hampshire and former White House Chief of Staff under President George H. W. Bush. He is the father of John E. Sununu, a former senator from New Hampshire, and formerly a U.S. Representative...
in June 1989 to create enterprise zones, increase subsidies for low-income renters, expand social services for the homeless and elderly, and enact tax changes to help first-time home buyers. Sununu opposed it at first as did most of the
CabinetThe Cabinet of the United States is composed of the most senior appointed officers of the executive branch of the federal government of the United States, which are generally the heads of the federal executive departments...
, but in August 1990 Sununu, at the urging of
United States Attorney GeneralThe United States Attorney General is the head of the United States Department of Justice concerned with legal affairs and is the chief law enforcement officer of the United States government. The attorney general is considered to be the chief lawyer of the U.S. government...
Dick ThornburghRichard Lewis "Dick" Thornburgh is an American lawyer and Republican politician who served as the 41st Governor of Pennsylvania from 1979 to 1987, and then as the U.S...
, encouraged President Bush to endorse Kemp's Economic Empowerment Task Force. However, the
Persian Gulf WarThe Persian Gulf War , commonly referred to as simply the Gulf War, was a war waged by a U.N.-authorized coalition force from 34 nations led by the United States, against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait.The war is also known under other names, such as the First Gulf...
and the budget negotiations overshadowed Kemp's new project. Darman battled Kemp and his allies such as Gingrich,
James PinkertonJames Pinkerton is a columnist, author, and political analyst. A graduate of Peter Vanleslie High School and Stanford University, he served on the White House staff under both Ronald Reagan and George H.W...
, and
Vin WeberJohn Vincent Weber is a former Republican Congressman from Minnesota. Weber attended the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities from 1970 to 1974. He had been the co-publisher of Murray County newspaper and the president of Weber Publishing Company...
. The budget left him with $256 million for his plan, which Kemp increased during some appropriations battles. Soon after Clayton Yeutter was appointed chief White House domestic policy advisor, Kemp's Economic Empowerment Task Force was abolished.
President Bush avoided federal antipoverty issues, and instead used Kemp as a mouthpiece to speak on the administration's low priority conservative activist agenda. Bush's contribution to the urban agenda had been volunteerism through his "Points of Light" theme, and Kemp received stronger support for his ideas from Presidential candidate
Bill ClintonWilliam Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
. By the time of the Los Angeles riots of 1992, Bush was a bit late in supporting enterprise zones, tenant ownership and welfare reform: Mort Zuckerman compared Bush's vision on racial issues to that of a man riding backwards in a railroad car. Nonetheless, the riots made Kemp a focal point of the administration, even though at first, Kemp had been overlooked. However, Charles E. Schumer had probably summarized the prospects of Kemp's success in advance best when he said in 1989, "Good ideas with money can do a whole lot. Good ideas without money aren't probably going to do a whole lot," and the issue here was the decision not to fund Kemp's ideas. Although Kemp was unable to procure money for his visions, he was among the administration's leading users of
first classFirst class is a luxury travel class on some airliners that exceeds business class, premium economy, and economy class. On a passenger jetliner, first class refers to a limited number of seats or cabins located in the front of the aircraft which are notable for their comfort, service, and privacy...
corporate jets. He cited lingering effects from a knee injury as the reason he had to fly first class at government expense as the Housing Secretary.
Generally, his time as housing secretary was considered unsuccessful. However, although he could not get federal funding for empowerment zones passed during his tenure, by 1992 38 states had created empowerment zones, and in 1994 $3.5 billion was approved for them under President Clinton. A free market Kemp initiative to allow homeowners to subdivide their houses for the purpose of creating rental units without inordinate bureaucracy did not get executed under the Clinton administration, however. In 1992, with H. Ross Perot mounting a formidable campaign, Kemp was again considered a Vice Presidential candidate.
Kemp was partly at fault for not achieving either of his primary goals because he did not get along with the rest of the Cabinet. At one point, Kemp told
James BakerJames Addison Baker, III is an American attorney, politician and political advisor.Baker served as the Chief of Staff in President Ronald Reagan's first administration and in the final year of the administration of President George H. W. Bush...
,
White House Chief of StaffThe White House Chief of Staff is the highest ranking member of the Executive Office of the President of the United States and a senior aide to the President.The current White House Chief of Staff is Bill Daley.-History:...
, that Bush's best chance to win reelection was to dump his economic advisors in dramatic fashion. Before the
1992 Republican National Convention, Kemp and six prominent Republican conservatives prepared a controversial memo urging Bush to revise his economic policy. Contemporaneously, conservative Republicans in office and in the media such as
William F. Buckley, Jr.William Frank Buckley, Jr. was an American conservative author and commentator. He founded the political magazine National Review in 1955, hosted 1,429 episodes of the television show Firing Line from 1966 until 1999, and was a nationally syndicated newspaper columnist. His writing was noted for...
and
George WillGeorge Frederick Will is an American newspaper columnist, journalist, and author. He is a Pulitzer Prize-winner best known for his conservative commentary on politics...
felt
Dan QuayleJames Danforth "Dan" Quayle served as the 44th Vice President of the United States, serving with President George H. W. Bush . He served as a U.S. Representative and U.S. Senator from the state of Indiana....
should be ousted in favor of Kemp. This followed Kemp's reference to parts of the President's economic policy as "gimmicks" after the 1992
State of the Union AddressThe State of the Union is an annual address presented by the President of the United States to the United States Congress. The address not only reports on the condition of the nation but also allows the president to outline his legislative agenda and his national priorities.The practice arises...
. Kemp was respected within the party for opposing Bush, and towards the end of Bush's administration insiders recognized his value. In late 1991, 81 of the 166 Republican Congressmen signed a letter co-authored by
Curt WeldonWayne Curtis "Curt" Weldon is an American politician. He served as a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from 1987 to 2007, representing the 7th district of Pennsylvania. He was defeated in November 2006 for reelection by Joe Sestak. Weldon was vice-chair of the Armed...
and
Dan BurtonDanny "Dan" Lee Burton is the U.S. Representative for , and previously the , serving since 1983. He is a member of the Republican Party....
requesting that Bush cede some domestic authority to Kemp as a "domestic policy czar." The letter, highlighting Kemp's "energy, enthusiasm and national clout", insulted Bush. Kemp was a bit of a surprise to stay in the for the duration of his presidency, and he was described as one of the few Bush Administration members who would take tough stands. Kemp did not expect to be retained if the Republicans were reelected in 1992, and some pundits agreed with him.
Post-HUD years (1993–1996)
Kemp gave public speeches for $35,000 apiece between his time as Housing Secretary and his Vice Presidential nomination. By 1994, Kemp had embarked on 241 fund-raising dinners to raise $35 million for a 1996 Presidential bid and to pay off his 1988 campaign debts. After stepping down from his $189,000 Secretary of Housing and Urban Development job, Kemp personally earned $6.9 million in the next three years, primarily for speaking on behalf of local Republican candidates. During the
Super Bowl XXVIIISuper Bowl XXVIII was an American football game played on January 30, 1994, at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, Georgia, to decide the National Football League champion following the 1993 regular season. The National Football Conference champion Dallas Cowboys defeated the American Football...
festivities, Kemp hosted a notable fundraiser series.
Kemp was considered the star of the 1992 Republican National Convention. In 1992 and 1993, Kemp was considered the favorite or co-favorite for the 1996 Presidential nomination. At the time of the 1994 mid-term elections, Kemp was widely anticipated to announce his candidacy for 1996, and his supporters wanted a formal announcement by the end of the year. In January 1995, Kemp's stated reason for not entering the
1996 Republican Party presidential primariesThe 1996 Republican presidential primaries were the selection process by which voters of the Republican Party chose its nominee for President of the United States in the 1996 U.S. presidential election...
was that his personal beliefs were out of balance with the contemporary Republican political landscape: Kemp opposed
term limitA term limit is a legal restriction that limits the number of terms a person may serve in a particular elected office. When term limits are found in presidential and semi-presidential systems they act as a method to curb the potential for monopoly, where a leader effectively becomes "president for...
s, he always preferred tax cuts to anything resembling a
balanced budget amendmentA balanced-budget amendment is a constitutional rule requiring that the state cannot spend more than its income. It requires a balance between the projected receipts and expenditures of the government....
and, unlike most Republicans, favored federal incentives to combat urban poverty. In 1995,
Gloria BorgerGloria Anne Borger is a political pundit, American journalist, and columnist. Borger is presently a contributing editor and columnist for US News and World Report magazine and a Senior Political Analyst at CNN. She was formerly the National Political Correspondent for CBS News...
noted Kemp was not in step with the 1994
Contract with AmericaThe Contract with America was a document released by the United States Republican Party during the 1994 Congressional election campaign. Written by Larry Hunter, who was aided by Newt Gingrich, Robert Walker, Richard Armey, Bill Paxon, Tom DeLay, John Boehner and Jim Nussle, and in part using text...
. Kemp also noted a distaste for the vast fundraising necessary for a Presidential campaign. Gergen stated that by 1996 the selection process had become so expensive, mean and personally invasive that it discouraged several top Republicans from running. In 1995, while the world awaited the campaign decision announcement by
Colin PowellColin Luther Powell is an American statesman and a retired four-star general in the United States Army. He was the 65th United States Secretary of State, serving under President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2005. He was the first African American to serve in that position. During his military...
, Kemp had positive thoughts on the prospect of such a campaign.
Senate Majority Leader Dole and Gingrich appointed Kemp to head a tax reform commission in response to voter concern that the
tax codeIn the UK, every person paid under the PAYE scheme is allocated a tax code by HM Revenue and Customs. This is usually in the form of a number followed by a letter suffix, though other 'non-standard' codes are also used. This code describes to employers how much tax to deduct from an employee. The...
had become too complicated. Kemp championed many issues including the flat tax, which he formally proposed after he was appointed. The proposal included some politically popular income
tax deductionIncome tax systems generally allow a tax deduction, i.e., a reduction of the income subject to tax, for various items, especially expenses incurred to produce income. Often these deductions are subject to limitations or conditions...
s, such as mortgage interest, but it remained fairly general. Among the 1996 Republican Party candidates, both
Steve ForbesMalcolm Stevenson "Steve" Forbes, Jr. is an American editor, publisher, and businessman. He is the editor-in-chief of business magazine Forbes as well as president and chief executive officer of its publisher, Forbes Inc. He was a Republican candidate in the U.S. Presidential primaries in 1996...
and
Phil GrammWilliam Philip "Phil" Gramm is an American economist and politician, who has served as a Democratic Congressman , a Republican Congressman and a Republican Senator from Texas...
proposed the flat tax.
During the campaign, Kemp's endorsement was highly coveted. Forbes had tried to get Kemp to run in the 1996 campaign, but Kemp declined and in fact endorsed Forbes just as Dole was closing in on the nomination, and just after Dole gained the endorsements of former contenders
Lamar AlexanderAndrew Lamar Alexander is the senior United States Senator from Tennessee and Conference Chair of the Republican Party. He was previously the 45th Governor of Tennessee from 1979 to 1987, United States Secretary of Education from 1991 to 1993 under President George H. W...
and Richard Lugar. Some feel the primary reason for the endorsement was to keep the flat tax idea and other supply-side views alive. Many thought Kemp had destroyed his own political future with the endorsement, and Kemp profusely apologized to Dole's campaign offices. After it became clear Dole would be the nominee, Kemp attempted to form a bipartisan seminar with
Felix RohatynFelix George Rohatyn is an American investment banker known for his role in preventing the bankruptcy of New York City in the 1970s, who also served as United States Ambassador to France. He was a long term advisor to the U.S...
to produce a fiscal plan that could be endorsed by both parties.
Kemp was also outspoken on immigration on around this time: according to Kemp's interpretation of a scientific index that he and Bennett support, "immigrants are a blessing, not a curse." In 1994, Kemp and Bennett opposed California ballot Proposition 187, a measure to bar illegal immigrants from obtaining public services, in direct opposition to first-term Republican California Governor
Pete WilsonPeter Barton "Pete" Wilson is an American politician from California. Wilson, a Republican, served as the 36th Governor of California , the culmination of more than three decades in the public arena that included eight years as a United States Senator , eleven years as Mayor of San Diego and...
, one of its endorsers who was running for re-election. Republican Senate candidate
Michael HuffingtonMichael Huffington is an American politician, bisexual activist, and film producer. He was a member of the Republican Party, and a member of the United States House of Representatives for one term, 1993–1995, from California...
had also endorsed the proposition. Kemp supported rights for illegal immigrants, but opposed
Lamar SmithLamar Seeligson Smith is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 1987. The district includes most of the wealthier sections of San Antonio and Austin, as well as nearly all of the Texas Hill Country...
and
Alan SimpsonAlan Kooi Simpson is an American politician who served from 1979 to 1997 as a United States Senator from Wyoming as a member of the Republican Party. His father, Milward L. Simpson, was also a member of the U.S...
's proposed restrictions on legal immigration.
Vice Presidential nomination (1996)
Kemp had a reputation as the highest-profile progressive Republican. When Dole declined an invitation to speak to the
National Association for the Advancement of Colored PeopleThe National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, usually abbreviated as NAACP, is an African-American civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909. Its mission is "to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to...
, he suggested Kemp as a substitute even before Kemp had become the Vice Presidential nominee. On August 5, 1996, Dole announced a 15% flat tax in response to both the Forbes campaign and Kemp's tax reform commission. Several of Dole's other campaign ideas came from Kemp and Bill Bennett's Empower America, which had
Jeane KirkpatrickJeane Jordan Kirkpatrick was an American ambassador and an ardent anticommunist. After serving as Ronald Reagan's foreign policy adviser in his 1980 campaign and later in his Cabinet, the longtime Democrat-turned-Republican was nominated as the U.S...
, Weber, Forbes and Alexander as principals. For example, Dole borrowed Kirkpatrick's tough
foreign policyA country's foreign policy, also called the foreign relations policy, consists of self-interest strategies chosen by the state to safeguard its national interests and to achieve its goals within international relations milieu. The approaches are strategically employed to interact with other countries...
, Bennett's "right conduct" and even Alexander's school choice interest.
Bennett declined the offer to be Dole's running mate but suggested Kemp, a man described as Dole's antagonist. On August 16, 1996, the
Republican PartyThe Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
chose Kemp as its
vice presidentialThe Vice President of the United States is the holder of a public office created by the United States Constitution. The Vice President, together with the President of the United States, is indirectly elected by the people, through the Electoral College, to a four-year term...
nominee, running alongside former Senator Dole. Kemp was seen as a means to attract conservative and
libertarianLibertarianism, in the strictest sense, is the political philosophy that holds individual liberty as the basic moral principle of society. In the broadest sense, it is any political philosophy which approximates this view...
-minded voters like those of tough nomination-challengers Forbes and
Pat BuchananPatrick Joseph "Pat" Buchanan is an American paleoconservative political commentator, author, syndicated columnist, politician and broadcaster. Buchanan was a senior adviser to American Presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and Ronald Reagan, and was an original host on CNN's Crossfire. He sought...
. Kemp was chosen over
Connie MackCornelius Alexander McGillicuddy III , popularly known as Connie Mack, is a former Republican politician. He served as a member of the United States House of Representatives from Florida from 1983 to 1989 and then as a Senator from 1989 to 2001. He served as chairman of the Senate Republican...
,
John McCainJohn Sidney McCain III is the senior United States Senator from Arizona. He was the Republican nominee for president in the 2008 United States election....
, and Carroll Campbell, and it is assumed that this was partly because Kemp had several former staffers in influential positions as Dole's senior advisors. Dole had had a long history of representing the budget-balancing faction of the Party, while Kemp had had a long history of representing the tax-cutting advocates, and Kemp's tax-cutting fiscal track record was seen as the perfect fit for the ticket. When Kemp became Dole's running mate in 1996, they appeared on the cover of the August 19, 1996 issue of
Time magazineTime is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
, but the pair barely edged out a story on the reported discovery of
extraterrestrial lifeExtraterrestrial life is defined as life that does not originate from Earth...
on
MarsMars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after the Roman god of war, Mars. It is often described as the "Red Planet", as the iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance...
, which was so close to being the cover story that Time inset it on the cover and wrote about how difficult the decision was.
The two politicians had a storied history stemming from alternative perspectives and objectives. Dole was a longstanding conservative deficit hawk who had even voted against
John F. KennedyJohn Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
's tax cuts, while Kemp was an outspoken supply-sider. In the early 1980s, according to
David StockmanDavid Alan Stockman is a former U.S. politician and businessman, serving as a Republican U.S. Representative from the state of Michigan and as the Director of the Office of Management and Budget ....
, Kemp persuaded Reagan to make a 30% across-the-board tax cut a central
1980 presidential campaignThe United States presidential election of 1980 featured a contest between incumbent Democrat Jimmy Carter and his Republican opponent, Ronald Reagan, as well as Republican Congressman John B. Anderson, who ran as an independent...
feature. Once Reagan was elected, Dole was the Senate Finance Committee chairman who Kemp claims resisted the plan every step of the way. Dole concedes he expressed reservations about the 1981 plan. The big confrontation came after the tax plan was approved and after Dole subsequently proposed tax increases that he referred to as reforms. Kemp was vocal in his opposition to the reforms and even penned an
op-edAn op-ed, abbreviated from opposite the editorial page , is a newspaper article that expresses the opinions of a named writer who is usually unaffiliated with the newspaper's editorial board...
piece in The New York Times, which enraged Dole. Reagan supported the reforms at Dole's request, causing Kemp to summon allies to meetings to stop the act, which eventually passed in 1982. At the 1984 Republican National Convention, Kemp, along with allies such as Gingrich and Lott, added a plank to the party platform that put President Reagan on record as ruling out tax increases. Gingrich called this action "Dole proofing" the platform, and the plank passed over Dole's opposition. Then, in 1985, Dole proposed an austere budget that barely passed in the senate with appendectomy patient
Pete WilsonPeter Barton "Pete" Wilson is an American politician from California. Wilson, a Republican, served as the 36th Governor of California , the culmination of more than three decades in the public arena that included eight years as a United States Senator , eleven years as Mayor of San Diego and...
casting the tying vote and Vice President Bush casting the deciding vote. In meetings with the president that excluded Dole, Kemp reworked the budget to exclude crucial
Social SecurityIn the United States, Social Security refers to the federal Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance program.The original Social Security Act and the current version of the Act, as amended encompass several social welfare and social insurance programs...
cutbacks. This is said to have been Dole's most crushing political defeat and to have contributed to the Republican loss of control of the Senate. During the 1988 presidential election, the two antagonized each other. After Bush won and Kemp left Congress for the Cabinet, the two did not really cross paths again until 1996, when Kemp endorsed Dole's opponent Forbes on the eve of the New York Primary in March.
Dole despised Kemp's economic theories, but he felt Kemp-like tax cuts offered his best chance at electoral success. For his part, Kemp had to make concessions as well: he had to back expelling the children of illegal immigrants from public schools despite his longstanding opposition to Proposition 187 and mute his opposition to abolishing affirmative-action programs in California. Some derided Kemp for his compromise and referred to him as a "con artist". From the outset of their campaign, Dole-Kemp trailed, and they faced skeptics even from within the party. However, Kemp was able to use the nomination to promote his opposition to Clinton's partial birth abortion ban veto. During the campaign, Kemp and Forbes advocated for a stronger stand on tax cutting than Dole used. However, in general, the opinion was that Kemp was helpful to the ticket's chances of catching
Bill ClintonWilliam Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
, and Kemp's advocacy gave a clear picture of the tax reforms that would likely occur on the condition of a successful campaign. Kemp was seen as likely to influence several types of swing voters, especially those of his native state of California, and even the Democrats feared Kemp might lure voters.
After receiving the nomination, Kemp became the ticket’s spokesman for minorities and the inner-city. Due to agreement on the self-help policy that
Louis FarrakhanLouis Farrakhan Muhammad, Sr. is the leader of the African-American religious movement the Nation of Islam . He served as the minister of major mosques in Boston and Harlem, and was appointed by the longtime NOI leader, Elijah Muhammad, before his death in 1975, as the National Representative of...
has endorsed in many fora including the
Million Man MarchThe Million Man March was a gathering of social activists, en masse, held on and around the National Mall in Washington, D.C. on October 16, 1995...
, Kemp in a sense aligned himself with Farrakhan. However, Farrakhan is perceived as being anti-Semitic, and Kemp is considered an ally of Republican Jews. This issue necessitated some political sidestepping. As the nominee, Kemp at times overshadowed Dole. In fact, more than once, Kemp was described as if he was the Presidential nominee. In addition to having overshadowed Dole, despite the negative ad campaigns that the ticket used, Kemp was a very positive running mate who relied on a
pep rallyPep rallies are events that occur primarily in the United States and Canada. A pep rally is a gathering of people, typically students of middle school, high school and college age, before a sports event. The purpose of such a gathering is to encourage school spirit and to support members of the...
type of campaign tour full of football-related metaphors and hyperbole. Although some enjoyed Kemp's style, referring to him as the Good Shepherd, his detractors, such as
U.S. News & World ReportU.S. News & World Report is an American news magazine published from Washington, D.C. Along with Time and Newsweek it was for many years a leading news weekly, focusing more than its counterparts on political, economic, health and education stories...
writer
Steven V. RobertsSteven V. Roberts is an American journalist, writer, political commentator.Roberts grew up in Bayonne, New Jersey and graduated from Bayonne High School. He attended Harvard where he served as editor of the student newspaper, The Harvard Crimson. After graduating with a B.A...
, criticized the extensive use of recounting stories of passing
ballsA football is an inflated ball used to play one of the various sports known as football.The first balls were made of natural materials, such as an inflated pig bladder, sometimes inside a leather cover...
relative to the use of recounting stories of passing
billsA bill is a proposed law under consideration by a legislature. A bill does not become law until it is passed by the legislature and, in most cases, approved by the executive. Once a bill has been enacted into law, it is called an act or a statute....
. During the campaign, Kemp expressed the opinion that the Republican party leaders did not stand behind the ticket wholeheartedly. Despite Kemp's voice on minority issues, Colin Powell's support and polls that showed about 30% of blacks identified themselves as conservatives on issues such as
school prayerSchool prayer in its common usage refers to state-approved prayer by students in state schools. Depending on the country and the type of school, organized prayer may be required, permitted, or prohibited...
, school vouchers and
criminal justiceCriminal Justice is the system of practices and institutions of governments directed at upholding social control, deterring and mitigating crime, or sanctioning those who violate laws with criminal penalties and rehabilitation efforts...
, the Republicans were unable to improve upon historical support levels from African-American voters.
Both
Al GoreAlbert Arnold "Al" Gore, Jr. served as the 45th Vice President of the United States , under President Bill Clinton. He was the Democratic Party's nominee for President in the 2000 U.S. presidential election....
and Kemp had Presidential aspirations, which induced pursuit of debate on a higher plane. In addition, Gore and Kemp were long-time friends, unlike Gore and his previous vice presidential opponent
Dan QuayleJames Danforth "Dan" Quayle served as the 44th Vice President of the United States, serving with President George H. W. Bush . He served as a U.S. Representative and U.S. Senator from the state of Indiana....
. Thus, as debaters they avoided personal attacks. However, some felt Kemp failed to counter substantive attacks. In the final October 9, 1996 Vice Presidential Debate against
Al GoreAlbert Arnold "Al" Gore, Jr. served as the 45th Vice President of the United States , under President Bill Clinton. He was the Democratic Party's nominee for President in the 2000 U.S. presidential election....
(held as the Dole–Kemp ticket trailed badly in the national polls), Kemp was soundly beaten, and Al Gore's performance is considered one of the best modern debate performances. The debate topics ranged broadly from the usual such as abortion and foreign policy to the unusual such as an incident preceding the then-current
baseballBaseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
playoffs, in which
Roberto AlomarRoberto "Robbie" Alomar Velázquez is a former Major League Baseball player , regarded by many as one of the best second basemen in MLB history. During his career he won more Gold Gloves than any other second baseman in history, and also won the second-most Silver Slugger Awards for a second...
, the
Baltimore OriolesThe Baltimore Orioles are a professional baseball team based in Baltimore, Maryland in the United States. They are a member of the Eastern Division of Major League Baseball's American League. One of the American League's eight charter franchises in 1901, it spent its first year as a major league...
'
second basemanSecond base, or 2B, is the second of four stations on a baseball diamond which must be touched in succession by a base runner in order to score a run for that player's team. A second baseman is the baseball player guarding second base...
, cursed and spat on an
umpireIn baseball, the umpire is the person charged with officiating the game, including beginning and ending the game, enforcing the rules of the game and the grounds, making judgment calls on plays, and handling the disciplinary actions. The term is often shortened to the colloquial form ump...
. The Mexico policy debate was one of the more interesting topics for critical review. The Gore victory was not a surprise since Kemp had been outmatched by Gore in previous encounters, and Gore had a reputation as an experienced and vaunted debater.
Legacy
His legacy includes the
Kemp–Roth Tax CutThe Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 , also known as the ERTA or "Kemp-Roth Tax Cut," was a federal law enacted in the United States in 1981...
of the 1980s, also known as the first of two "
ReaganRonald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
tax cuts." These served as the foundation of supply-side economics, known as
ReaganomicsThe Domestic policy of the Ronald Reagan administration was the domestic policy in the United States from 1981 to 1989 under President Ronald Reagan. It retained conservative values economically, beginning with the president's implementation of his supply-side economic policies, dubbed Reaganomics...
. Many Republicans have endorsed this
Laffer CurveIn economics, the Laffer curve is a theoretical representation of the relationship between government revenue raised by taxation and all possible rates of taxation. It is used to illustrate the concept of taxable income elasticity . The curve is constructed by thought experiment...
view that tax cuts spur
economicAn economy consists of the economic system of a country or other area; the labor, capital and land resources; and the manufacturing, trade, distribution, and consumption of goods and services of that area...
growth and reduce deficits. Although George H. W. Bush called this philosophy
voodoo economicsThe Domestic policy of the Ronald Reagan administration was the domestic policy in the United States from 1981 to 1989 under President Ronald Reagan. It retained conservative values economically, beginning with the president's implementation of his supply-side economic policies, dubbed Reaganomics...
,
George W. BushGeorge Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
and his
Treasury SecretaryThe Secretary of the Treasury of the United States is the head of the United States Department of the Treasury, which is concerned with financial and monetary matters, and, until 2003, also with some issues of national security and defense. This position in the Federal Government of the United...
,
John W. Snow| image=John W. Snow.jpg|imagesize = 250px| order=73rd| title=United States Secretary of the Treasury| term_start=February 3, 2003| term_end=June 28, 2006| predecessor=Paul O'Neill| successor=Henry Paulson| birth_date=| birth_place=Toledo, Ohio...
, were believers. Kemp is also remembered alongside
George WallaceGeorge Corley Wallace, Jr. was the 45th Governor of Alabama, serving four terms: 1963–1967, 1971–1979 and 1983–1987. "The most influential loser" in 20th-century U.S. politics, according to biographers Dan T. Carter and Stephan Lesher, he ran for U.S...
and
William Jennings BryanWilliam Jennings Bryan was an American politician in the late-19th and early-20th centuries. He was a dominant force in the liberal wing of the Democratic Party, standing three times as its candidate for President of the United States...
for influencing history by changing the direction of presidential elections despite their defeats.
In the early 21st century, Kemp continued to be considered along with Reagan as the politician most responsible for the implementation of supply-side tax cuts and along with
Steve ForbesMalcolm Stevenson "Steve" Forbes, Jr. is an American editor, publisher, and businessman. He is the editor-in-chief of business magazine Forbes as well as president and chief executive officer of its publisher, Forbes Inc. He was a Republican candidate in the U.S. Presidential primaries in 1996...
as the political figure most responsible for their continued place in the marketplace of political ideas. He has been described as a beacon of economic conservatism and a hero for his urban agenda. Today, he continues to be described as a hero to
fiscalIn economics and political science, fiscal policy is the use of government expenditure and revenue collection to influence the economy....
conservatives who believe that free markets and low taxes work better than government bureaucracies. Kemp was considered the leader of the progressive conservatives who adhere to the hard right on social issues, but avoid
protectionistProtectionism is the economic policy of restraining trade between states through methods such as tariffs on imported goods, restrictive quotas, and a variety of other government regulations designed to allow "fair competition" between imports and goods and services produced domestically.This...
fiscal and trade policy.
In addition to Roth, he has had numerous political allies. At times, he collaborated with Gingrich and Lott on deregulation and tax cuts, collaborated with McCain and
Phil GrammWilliam Philip "Phil" Gramm is an American economist and politician, who has served as a Democratic Congressman , a Republican Congressman and a Republican Senator from Texas...
on tax cuts and spending restraints, legislated with and campaigned for Joseph Lieberman, and fought poverty with
James PinkertonJames Pinkerton is a columnist, author, and political analyst. A graduate of Peter Vanleslie High School and Stanford University, he served on the White House staff under both Ronald Reagan and George H.W...
. Pete du Pont was a progressive conservative ally. After retiring from Congress and serving in the Cabinet, Kemp remained close to Gingrich, Lott, Weber, and Mack. Kemp was a member of the federal committee to promote Martin Luther King, Jr. Day as a
national holidayA public holiday, national holiday or legal holiday is a holiday generally established by law and is usually a non-working day during the year....
. As a progressive voter, he has
civil rightsCivil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...
leaders such as
Benjamin HooksBenjamin Lawson Hooks was an American civil rights leader. A Baptist minister and practicing attorney, he served as executive director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People from 1977 to 1992, and throughout his career was a vocal campaigner for civil rights in the...
,
Andrew YoungAndrew Jackson Young is an American politician, diplomat, activist and pastor from Georgia. He has served as Mayor of Atlanta, a Congressman from the 5th district, and United States Ambassador to the United Nations...
and
Coretta Scott KingCoretta Scott King was an American author, activist, and civil rights leader. The widow of Martin Luther King, Jr., Coretta Scott King helped lead the African-American Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s.Mrs...
and conservative black
intellectualAn intellectual is a person who uses intelligence and critical or analytical reasoning in either a professional or a personal capacity.- Terminology and endeavours :"Intellectual" can denote four types of persons:...
s like Glenn C. Loury and Robert L. Woodson as supporters and friends. He boasted of having Democratic friends such as William H. Gray III,
Charles B. RangelCharles Bernard "Charlie" Rangel is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 1971. A member of the Democratic Party, he is the third-longest currently serving member of the House of Representatives. As its most senior member, he is also the Dean of New York's congressional delegation...
and Robert Garcia.
Ken BlackwellJohn Kenneth Blackwell is an American politician and activist who served as the mayor of Cincinnati, Ohio from 1979 to 1980 and Ohio Secretary of State from 1999 to 2007. A Republican, he was the first African-American to be the candidate for governor of a major party in Ohio. In 2006, Blackwell...
was a Deputy Secretary under Kemp. During the Reagan presidency, when Kemp was able to effect tax cutting, a leading
United States SenateThe United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
tax-cutting proponent was Democrat
Bill BradleyWilliam Warren "Bill" Bradley is an American hall of fame basketball player, Rhodes scholar, and former three-term Democratic U.S. Senator from New Jersey. He ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic Party's nomination for President in the 2000 election.Bradley was born and raised in a suburb of St....
, a former
basketballBasketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
star. Several American football players have followed Kemp to Congress:
Steve LargentSteven Michael "Steve" Largent is a retired American football player, enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and a former U.S. Congressman, having served in the U.S. House of Representatives for Oklahoma from 1994 until 2002...
, J. C. Watts, and
Heath ShulerJoseph Heath Shuler is a businessman, a former NFL quarterback, and the U.S. Representative for , serving since 2007. He is a member of the Democratic Party....
.
Late career
In 1993, Kemp, Bennett, Kirkpatrick and financial backer Theodore Forstmann co-founded the
free marketA free market is a competitive market where prices are determined by supply and demand. However, the term is also commonly used for markets in which economic intervention and regulation by the state is limited to tax collection, and enforcement of private ownership and contracts...
advocacy groupAdvocacy groups use various forms of advocacy to influence public opinion and/or policy; they have played and continue to play an important part in the development of political and social systems...
Empower America, which later merged with
Citizens for a Sound EconomyCitizens for a Sound Economy was a conservative political group operating in the United States, whose self-described mission was "to fight for less government, lower taxes, and less regulation." In 2004, Citizens for a Sound Economy split into two new organizations, with Citizens for a Sound...
to form Freedom Works. Empower America represented the
populistPopulism can be defined as an ideology, political philosophy, or type of discourse. Generally, a common theme compares "the people" against "the elite", and urges social and political system changes. It can also be defined as a rhetorical style employed by members of various political or social...
wing of the party: while avoiding divisive issues such as abortion and gay rights, it promoted free markets and growth over balancing the budget and cutting the deficit. He resigned as Co-Chairman of Freedom Works in March 2005 after the
Federal Bureau of InvestigationThe Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
(FBI) questioned his ties to Samir Vincent, a
Northern VirginiaNorthern Virginia consists of several counties and independent cities in the Commonwealth of Virginia, in a widespread region generally radiating southerly and westward from Washington, D.C...
oil trader implicated in the U.N. Oil-for-food scandal who pled guilty to four criminal charges, including illegally acting as an unregistered lobbyist of the Iraqi government of
Saddam HusseinSaddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003...
. Testimony about Kemp became prominent in the trial. Also, FBI
informantAn informant is a person who provides privileged information about a person or organization to an agency. The term is usually used within the law enforcement world, where they are officially known as confidential or criminal informants , and can often refer pejoratively to the supply of information...
Richard Fino tied Kemp to James Cosentino just weeks before the 1996 election.
By 1996, Kemp had been named a
directorA board of directors is a body of elected or appointed members who jointly oversee the activities of a company or organization. Other names include board of governors, board of managers, board of regents, board of trustees, and board of visitors...
of six corporate boards. He was a director for Hawk Corporation, IDT Corporation, CNL Hotels and Resorts,
InPhonicInPhonic Inc was an American company which sold wireless services and devices online, both through its own electronic commerce sites and through private labeled websites it created and managed for online retailers. InPhonic was founded by David A. Steinberg who resigned in 2007 due to poor debt...
,
CyrixCyrix Corporation was a microprocessor developer that was founded in 1988 in Richardson, Texas as a specialist supplier of high-performance math coprocessors for 286 and 386 microprocessors. The company was founded by former Texas Instruments staff members and had a long but troubled relationship...
Corporation and American Bankers Insurance Group. Kemp served on the board of
Oracle CorporationOracle Corporation is an American multinational computer technology corporation that specializes in developing and marketing hardware systems and enterprise software products – particularly database management systems...
, CEO is friend
Larry EllisonLawrence Joseph "Larry" Ellison is the co-founder and chief executive officer of Oracle Corporation, one of the world's leading enterprise software companies. As of 2011, he is the third wealthiest American citizen, with an estimated worth of $33 billion.- Early life :Larry Ellison was born in the...
, since 1996 and was named to the board of
Six Flags, Inc.Six Flags Entertainment Corp. is the world's largest amusement park corporation based on quantity of properties and the fifth most popular in terms of attendance. The company maintains 14 properties located throughout North America, including theme parks, thrill parks, water parks and family...
in December 2005. Kemp opted not to stand for re-election to IDT's board in 2006. He also served on the Habitat for Humanity Board of Directors, and served on the board of Atlanta-based software maker EzGov Inc. Kemp also served on the Board of Directors of Election.com, which was the private company that ran the world's first election on the internet (won by Al Gore), the 2000 Arizona Democratic Primary. Kemp was also a business partner with Edra and
Tim BlixsethTimothy Lee "Tim" Blixseth is an American real estate developer, record producer, songwriter and timber baron who is best known for co-founding the Yellowstone Club in Montana. Raised in Roseburg, Oregon, Blixseth amassed a fortune in real estate and timber holdings and, in 2006, was featured in...
promoting membership in the elite private ski and golf
Yellowstone ClubThe Yellowstone Club, also Yellowstone Ski Resort, is an invitation-only residential club, ski resort, and golf resort located in the state of Montana, USA. The Rocky Mountain ski and golf club is located in eastern Madison County, just west of Big Sky, Montana, south of Bozeman and northwest of...
. Kemp also partnered with the Blixseths in a failed anti-terrorism software venture called Blxware which was investigated for "conning" the federal government out of $20 million in contracts for software which fraudulently claimed to detect secret messages from Alqaeda in television broadcast signals. Kemp was the founder and chairman of Kemp Partners, a strategic consulting firm that helps clients achieve both business and public policy goals.
In addition to corporate
boards of directorsA board of directors is a body of elected or appointed members who jointly oversee the activities of a company or organization. Other names include board of governors, board of managers, board of regents, board of trustees, and board of visitors...
, Kemp served on several advisory boards such as the
UCLA School of Public PolicyThe UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs is the public affairs/public service graduate school at UCLA. The school consists of three departments -- Public Policy, Social Welfare, and Urban Planning -- offering two undergraduate minors, three master's degrees, and two doctoral degrees...
Advisory Board, and the Toyota Diversity Advisory Board as well as the
Howard UniversityHoward University is a federally chartered, non-profit, private, coeducational, nonsectarian, historically black university located in Washington, D.C., United States...
Board of Trustees, on which he served since 1993. On March 25, 2003, Kemp was selected as Chairman of the
Board of DirectorsA board of directors is a body of elected or appointed members who jointly oversee the activities of a company or organization. Other names include board of governors, board of managers, board of regents, board of trustees, and board of visitors...
of
USA FootballUSA Football is the national governing body of American football at the youth and amateur levels. An independent non-profit based in Indianapolis, USA Football, which hosts more than 100 training events annually, offers education programs for coaches and game officials as well as skill development...
, a national advocacy group for amateur football created by the
National Football LeagueThe National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...
(NFL) and the NFL Players Association. The organization supports
Pop WarnerPop Warner Little Scholars is a non-profit organization that provides youth football, cheerleading, and dance programs for participants in 43 U.S. states and several countries around the world. It is headquartered in Langhorne, Pennsylvania...
,
American Youth FootballAmerican Youth Football was established in 1996, as an international youth football organization that promotes the development of youth through their association with adult leaders in the sport of American football. Rules and regulations are established to ensure that players are in a safe...
,
Boys and Girls Clubs Of America,
National Recreation and Park AssociationThe National Recreation and Park Association provides information and services to communities in the United States attempting to make them conscious of the environment around them. It supports the construction of parks and recreational facilities around the United States...
,
Police Athletic LeagueThe Police Athletic League is an organization in many American police departments in which members of the police force coach young people, both boys and girls, in sports, and help with homework and other school-related activities. The purpose is to build character, help strengthen police-community...
,
YMCAThe Young Men's Christian Association is a worldwide organization of more than 45 million members from 125 national federations affiliated through the World Alliance of YMCAs...
, and the
Amateur Athletic UnionThe Amateur Athletic Union is one of the largest non-profit volunteer sports organizations in the United States. A multi-sport organization, the AAU is dedicated exclusively to the promotion and development of amateur sports and physical fitness programs.-History:The AAU was founded in 1888 to...
. He was also vice president of
NFL CharitiesNFL Charities is a non-profit making charitable organization, established by the member clubs of the National Football League in 1973. It enables the clubs to collectively make grants to charitable and worthwhile causes at the national level....
.
In the late 1990s, Kemp remained outspoken on political issues: he was critical of Clinton's
International Monetary FundThe International Monetary Fund is an organization of 187 countries, working to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty around the world...
lax policies toward South Korea. In early 1998, he was a serious contender for the
2000 United States presidential electionThe United States presidential election of 2000 was a contest between Republican candidate George W. Bush, then-governor of Texas and son of former president George H. W. Bush , and Democratic candidate Al Gore, then-Vice President....
, but his campaign possibilities faltered, and he instead endorsed eventual winner George W. Bush. Kemp continued his political advocacy for reform of taxation, Social Security and education. When a 1997 budget surplus was earmarked for debt repayment, Kemp opposed the plan in favor of tax cuts. Along with
John AshcroftJohn David Ashcroft is a United States politician who served as the 79th United States Attorney General, from 2001 until 2005, appointed by President George W. Bush. Ashcroft previously served as the 50th Governor of Missouri and a U.S...
and Alan Krueger, he endorsed reform of payroll taxes to eliminate
double taxationDouble taxation is the systematic imposition of two or more taxes on the same income , asset , or financial transaction . It refers to taxation by two or more countries of the same income, asset or transaction, for example income paid by an entity of one country to a resident of a different country...
. In addition to his fiscal and economic policies, Kemp advocated against
abortionAbortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability. An abortion can occur spontaneously, in which case it is usually called a miscarriage, or it can be purposely induced...
when Congress was considering a bill banning
intact dilation and extractionIntact dilation and extraction is a procedure done in late term abortion. It is also known as intact dilation and evacuation, dilation and extraction , intrauterine cranial decompression and, vernacularly in the United States, as partial birth abortion...
s. He also advocates for retired NFL veterans on issues such as cardiovascular screening,
assisted livingAssisted living residences or assisted living facilities provide supervision or assistance with activities of daily living ; coordination of services by outside health care providers; and monitoring of resident activities to help to ensure their health, safety, and well-being.Assistance may...
, disability benefits, and the 2007
joint replacementReplacement arthroplasty [from Greek arthron, joint, limb, articulate, + -plassein, to form, mould, forge, feign, make an image of], or joint replacement surgery, is a procedure of orthopedic surgery in which the arthritic or dysfunctional joint surface is replaced with an orthopaedic prosthesis...
program. He has argued in support of reforming immigration laws. In the late 1990s, Kemp also was a vocal advocate for free market reform in
AfricaAfrica is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
, arguing that the continent had great economic growth potential if it could shed autocratic and statist governmental policies.
In 1997, when Gingrich was embroiled in a House ethics controversy, Kemp served as an
intermediaryAn intermediary is a third party that offers intermediation services between two trading parties. The intermediary acts as a conduit for goods or services offered by a supplier to a consumer...
between Dole and Gingrich to save the Republican Party leader. Later, in 2002, when Lott made caustic remarks about
Strom ThurmondJames Strom Thurmond was an American politician who served as a United States Senator. He also ran for the Presidency of the United States in 1948 as the segregationist States Rights Democratic Party candidate, receiving 2.4% of the popular vote and 39 electoral votes...
, Kemp was upset, and he supported Lott's apology, saying he had encouraged him to "repudiate segregation in every manifestation." Kemp was among the prominent leaders who pledged to raise money in 2005 for Scooter Libby's defense when he was charged with
perjuryPerjury, also known as forswearing, is the willful act of swearing a false oath or affirmation to tell the truth, whether spoken or in writing, concerning matters material to a judicial proceeding. That is, the witness falsely promises to tell the truth about matters which affect the outcome of the...
and
obstruction of justiceThe crime of obstruction of justice, in United States jurisdictions, refers to the crime of interfering with the work of police, investigators, regulatory agencies, prosecutors, or other officials...
in a case regarding the release of
Central Intelligence AgencyThe Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
information.
In 2006 Kemp, along with 2004 vice-presidential nominee
John EdwardsJohnny Reid "John" Edwards is an American politician, who served as a U.S. Senator from North Carolina. He was the Democratic nominee for Vice President in 2004, and was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2004 and 2008.He defeated incumbent Republican Lauch Faircloth in...
, co-chaired the
Council on Foreign RelationsThe Council on Foreign Relations is an American nonprofit nonpartisan membership organization, publisher, and think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy and international affairs...
task force on Russia, producing a document called "Russia’s Wrong Direction: What the United States Can and Should Do". After their task force roles ended, the pair advocated solutions to poverty in America at various fora.
On January 6, 2008, Kemp endorsed McCain in the
2008 Republican presidential primariesThe 2008 Republican presidential primaries were the selection process by which voters of the Republican Party chose its nominee for President of the United States in the 2008 U.S. presidential election...
shortly before the
New Hampshire primaryThe New Hampshire primary is the first in a series of nationwide political party primary elections held in the United States every four years , as part of the process of choosing the Democratic and Republican nominees for the presidential elections to be held the subsequent November.Although only a...
, which surprised conservative Republican tax cutters. However, as McCain neared the official nomination, the press associated McCain with Kemp more and more. Kemp prepared an open letter to
Sean HannitySean Hannity is an American radio and television host, author, and conservative political commentator. He is the host of The Sean Hannity Show, a nationally syndicated talk radio show that airs throughout the United States on Premiere Radio Networks. Hannity also hosts a cable news show, Hannity,...
,
Rush LimbaughRush Hudson Limbaugh III is an American radio talk show host, conservative political commentator, and an opinion leader in American conservatism. He hosts The Rush Limbaugh Show which is aired throughout the U.S. on Premiere Radio Networks and is the highest-rated talk-radio program in the United...
,
Laura IngrahamLaura Anne Ingraham is an American radio host, author, and conservative political commentator. Her nationally syndicated talk show, The Laura Ingraham Show, airs throughout the United States on Talk Radio Network...
and other conservative
talk showA talk show or chat show is a television program or radio program where one person discuss various topics put forth by a talk show host....
hosts on McCain's behalf to quell their dissatisfactions. In addition, Kemp and Phil Gramm advised McCain on economic policy.
In February 2008, Kemp was associated with a group called "Defense of Democracies" that was advocating an electronic surveillance bill that failed in the House of Representatives. The group's television ad caused such controversy that some of its advisors, including Schumer and
Donna BrazileDonna Brazile is an American author, professor, and political analyst affiliated with the Democratic Party. She was the first African American to direct a major presidential campaign, for Al Gore in 2000...
, resigned.
Kemp announced in April of 2008 plans to establish the Jack F. Kemp Institute of Political Economy at
Pepperdine UniversityPepperdine University is an independent, private, medium-sized university affiliated with the Churches of Christ. The university's campus overlooking the Pacific Ocean in unincorporated Los Angeles County, California, United States, near Malibu, is the location for Seaver College, the School of...
's School of Public Policy.
Wayne AngellWayne Angell is an Economist and was Governor of the Federal Reserve Board.-Biography:He graduated from Ottawa University, from the University of Kansas with an M.A. in 1953, and a Ph.D...
,
James BakerJames Addison Baker, III is an American attorney, politician and political advisor.Baker served as the Chief of Staff in President Ronald Reagan's first administration and in the final year of the administration of President George H. W. Bush...
, Bennett,
Michael BoskinMichael Jay Boskin is the T. M. Friedman Professor of Economics and senior fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution. He also is Chief Executive Officer and President of Boskin & Co., an economic consulting company.Boskin holds B.A. with highest honors, M.A., and Ph.D...
,
Edwin FeulnerEdwin John Feulner Jr. is President of the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation, a position he has held since 1977....
, Forbes,
George GilderGeorge F. Gilder is an American writer, techno-utopian intellectual, Republican Party activist, and co-founder of the Discovery Institute...
, Carla Hills, Larry Kudlow, Laffer, Ed Meese, Mundell,
Michael NovakMichael Novak is an American Catholic philosopher, journalist, novelist, and diplomat. The author of more than twenty-five books on the philosophy and theology of culture, Novak is most widely known for his book The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism...
, and Watts endorsed the institute and agreed to lecture at Pepperdine and to serve on an advisory committee. The institute would create The Jack F. Kemp Library to house Kemp's papers; establish the Jack F. Kemp Distinguished Visiting Chair; and fund annual public lectures and conferences at the School. After Kemp's death, Pepperdine and the Kemp family agreed to shelf plans for the institute.
He was a member of the advisory council of the
Victims of Communism Memorial FoundationThe Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation is a non-profit educational organization in the United States, established as a result of an Act of Congress in 1993 with the purpose to commemorate "the deaths of over 100,000,000 victims in an unprecedented imperial communist holocaust"...
and served as Co-Chair of the
Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial CommissionThe Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission was the Congressionally created 14-member federal commission focused on planning and commemorating the 200th birthday of the United States' 16th president on February 12, 2009. The commission served for ten years, from 2000 to 2010...
Cabinet.
Illness and death
On January 7, 2009, Kemp's office issued a statement announcing that he was battling
cancerCancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...
; the type of cancer and the anticipated treatment were not announced. His
diagnosisMedical diagnosis refers both to the process of attempting to determine or identify a possible disease or disorder , and to the opinion reached by this process...
and
prognosisPrognosis is a medical term to describe the likely outcome of an illness.When applied to large statistical populations, prognostic estimates can be very accurate: for example the statement "45% of patients with severe septic shock will die within 28 days" can be made with some confidence, because...
were never publicly disclosed. However, he continued to serve as chairman of his Washington-based Kemp Partners consulting firm and continued his involvement in charitable and political work until his death.
On May 2, 2009, Kemp died at his home in Bethesda, Maryland, from cancer; he was 73. President
Barack ObamaBarack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
praised Kemp's work on race, adding that Kemp understood that divisions involving race and class stood in the way of the country's common goals. Former President
George W. BushGeorge Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
said that Kemp "will be remembered for his significant contributions to the Reagan Revolution and his steadfast dedication to conservative principles during his long and distinguished career in public service."
Books
In addition to authoring significant legislation as a congressman, Kemp has authored or co-authored several books:
- An American Idea: Ending Limits to Growth, (Washington, DC: American Studies Center, 1984, no ISBN)
- Tax policy and the economy : a debate between Michael Harrington and Representative Jack Kemp, April 25, 1979., (New York, N.Y. : Institute for Democratic Socialism, 1979, no ISBN)
- An American Renaissance: Strategy for the 1980s, (ISBN 0-06-012283-8, Harper & Row, 1979)
- The IRS v. The People, (ISBN 0-891-95077-X, Heritage Books, 2005) Authored by Ken Blackwell
John Kenneth Blackwell is an American politician and activist who served as the mayor of Cincinnati, Ohio from 1979 to 1980 and Ohio Secretary of State from 1999 to 2007. A Republican, he was the first African-American to be the candidate for governor of a major party in Ohio. In 2006, Blackwell...
and edited by Kemp
- Trusting the People : The Dole-Kemp Plan to Free the Economy and Create a Better America, (ISBN 0-694-51804-2 audiobook, ASIN B000OEV5RE HarperCollins, 1996) coauthored with Bob Dole, narrated by Christine Todd Whitman
Christine Todd "Christie" Whitman is an American Republican politician and author who served as the 50th Governor of New Jersey from 1994 to 2001, and was the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency in the administration of President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2003. She was New...
- Together We Can Meet the Challenge : Winning the Fight Against Drugs, (ISBN 9780788102721, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, 1994)
- Pro Sports: Should the Government Intervene?, (ISBN 9780844720975, American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, 1977)
- 'U.S. By the Numbers: What's Left, Right & Wrong with America, (ISBN 9781892123145, Capital Books, Incorporated, 2000) with Raymond J. Keating, and Thomas N. Edmonds
- Our Communities, Our Homes: Pathways to Housing and Homeownership in America's Cities and States, (ISBN 9780976148111, Joint Center for Housing Studies, 2007) with Henry G. Cisneros, Kent W. Colton, and Nicolas P. Retsinas
Kemp also wrote the
forewordA foreword is a piece of writing sometimes placed at the beginning of a book or other piece of literature. Written by someone other than the primary author of the work, it often tells of some interaction between the writer of the foreword and the book's primary author or the story the book tells...
to several books:
- Reaganomics: Supply Side Economics in Action (ISBN 0-87000-505-7, Westport, Conn. : Arlington House, 1981) by Bruce R Bartlett with Arthur Laffer
- Raoul Wallenberg
Raoul Wallenberg was a Swedish businessman, diplomat and humanitarian. He is widely celebrated for his successful efforts to rescue thousands of Jews in Nazi-occupied Hungary from the Holocaust, during the later stages of World War II...
: Angel of Rescue by Harvey Rosenfeld (ISBN 0879751770, Prometheus Books, 1982)
- Best Editorial Cartoons of the Year: 1986 Edition by Charles Brooks (ed.) (ISBN 9780882896052, Pelican Publishing Company, Incorporated, 1986)
- Leadership Is Common Sense by Herman Cain (ISBN 9781930819023, Tapestry Press, 2001)
- Whole World's Watching: Decarbonizing the Economy and Saving the World by Martyn Turner and Brian O'Connell (ISBN 9780471499817, Wiley, John & Sons, Incorporated, 2001)
External links
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