Bruce Babbitt
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Bruce Edward Babbitt (born June 27, 1938), a Democrat, served as United States Secretary of the Interior and as Governor of Arizona.
Born in Los Angeles, California, Babbitt graduated from the University of Notre Dame, and attended the University of Newcastle upon Tyne in England on a Marshall Scholarship, and then received his law degree at Harvard Law School.
Babbitt was elected Attorney General of Arizona. When Governor Wesley Bolin died in office, Babbitt succeeded to the governorship.
Normally the Arizona Secretary of State would have been next in line to become governor, but Bolin had held that office before succeeding his predecessor, who resigned to accept an ambassadorship.
He married Harriet Coons (known as Hattie) in 1968.
In 1979, Babbitt was appointed by President Jimmy Carter to serve as a Commissioner on the President's Commission on the Accident at Three Mile Island, a six month investigation of the March, 1979 accident at a commercial nuclear power plant at Middletown, Pennsylvania.
Babbitt proved popular as governor and election to two full terms for the office despite his Democratic affiliation in a Republican state. Babbitt served as governor of Arizona from 1978 to 1987.
In 1988 Babbitt sought the Democratic Party nomination for President of the United States. Among his proposals was a national sales tax to remedy the then-record budget deficits piled up during the administration of Ronald Reagan. After finishing out of the top tier of candidates in early contests, Babbitt wound down his campaign.
Babbitt later served for eight years, 1993-2001, as the United States Secretary of the Interior during Bill Clinton's administration.
In 1994, Babbitt was very seriously considered by President Clinton to replace retiring United States Supreme Court Justice Byron White. Clinton nominated Ruth Bader Ginsburg instead. Clinton again considered Babbitt for the high court in 1994 when Harry Blackmun announced his retirement. Babbitt was passed over again, this time in favor of Stephen Breyer.
Babbitt's brother, Paul Babbitt, was an unsuccessful candidate for the United States House of Representatives in 2004.
Babbitt is currently the lawyer for the Snowbowl ski resort's proposed expansion. Located on the San Francisco Peaks near Flagstaff, Arizona, Snowbowl's plan is to clearcut 74 acres of alpine habitat to create new ski runs and use up to 1½ million gallons of wastewater per day to make artificial snow. At the trial, Babbitt will be arguing against numerous Native American tribes and environmental groups.
Babbitt has just written Cities in the Wilderness: A New Vision of Land Use in America, a book published by Island Press where he proposes, among other things, to amend the Endangered Species Act so that it is used to identify, conserve and protect landscapes, watersheds and ecosystems whether or not an endangered species happens to be there. Making a parallel with preventive medicine, he thinks it should promote the protection of open space and ecosystems before the downward spiral to extinction begins.
Though he is a strong supporter of the environment, Union supporters will long remember him as a Democratic Governor who broke the United Steelworkers Union during the Morenci strike against Phelps-Dodge. More than twenty years later, the scars of this strike have not healed in Arizona.
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