Rudolph Giuliani biography

Synopsis

Profile

Giuliani was educated at Manhattan College (A.B., 1965) and New York University (J.D., 1968). Beginning in 1970, he worked for the U.S. government, holding positions in the office of the U.S. attorney and in the Department of Justice. From 1977 to 1981 he practiced law privately but in 1981 returned to the Justice Department as associate attorney general. In 1983 he was appointed U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York.

Early in his political career Giuliani became affiliated with the Republican Party. After being narrowly defeated in 1989, he won election as mayor in 1993, the first Republican to hold the position in two decades. He promised to reform the city's finances and to crack down on crime, and he was credited with success in both areas. He cut expenditures by, among other things, trimming the city's workforce and winning concessions from unions. The mayor encouraged the police to take an aggressive stance against even minor infractions of the law—even litterers, jaywalkers, and reckless cabdrivers were ticketed as lawbreakers. This campaign earned him the sobriquet “the Nanny of New York.” However, the crime rate fell, and the mayor claimed that New York had become a more civilized place.

Giuliani had his detractors, however. Critics pointed out that he was taking credit for a crime decrease that was part of a nationwide trend. Further, in several incidents involving charges of police brutality, the mayor seemed to be defending officers' misconduct. To some critics the mayor's actions could be petty, as when he refused to meet visiting dignitaries if he disagreed with their policies. In a highly publicized incident in 1999, the mayor denounced a controversial exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum of Art that included works that many observers found offensive or sacrilegious. He attempted to withdraw funding for the museum but was overruled in court. Nonetheless, the mayor generally maintained high approval ratings, and there was speculation that he would run for the U.S. Senate in 2000. However, following the disclosures that he had prostate cancer and that he was separating from his wife, Donna Hanover, Giuliani announced in May 2000 that he would not run.

On September 11, 2001, New York City became the scene of the deadliest terrorist attack in the United States after hijackers flew commercial airplanes into the twin towers of the World Trade Center, killing some 2,800 people ( September 11 attacks). Giuliani drew high