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(Photo: AP Photo)
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Vilsack announced on Friday, Feb. 23, 2007, that he was ABANDONING HIS BID for the presidency.
Age: 56
Born: December 13, 1950; Pittsburgh, Pa.
Education: Hamilton College, B.A. (1972); Union University, Albany Law School, J.D. (1975)
Military: None
Family: Married (Christie); Two children
Hometown: Mt. Pleasant, Iowa
Religion: Catholic
Career: Governor (1998-present); State Senate (1993-98); Mayor of Mt. Pleasant (1987-92); Practicing attorney (1975-86).
Vilsack is Iowa’s first Democratic Governor since 1968.
Was considered by the Kerry campaign for the VP slot in 2004.
As Governor, Vilsack vetoed a waiting period for abortions and signed a health insurance regulation law without the right to sue.
Vilsack was abandoned at birth at a Catholic orphanage. He was adopted when he was four months old by Bud and Dolly Vilsack and raised in Pittsburgh. His new home was not trouble-free. His adoptive mother was an alcoholic and abused prescription drugs, and his parents separated when Tom was 13. When he was in high school, his mother joined Alcoholics Anonymous and his parents reunited.
Vilsack attended Hamilton College, where he met his wife, Christie. He met her on a dare when he approached her in a college cafeteria and asked her who she was going to vote for in the upcoming election.
Vilsack and his wife moved to Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, his wife’s home town, after he finished law school, and he joined his father-in-law’s practice in Mt. Pleasant. One of his major successes was winning a class action lawsuit against major health insurance companies, which were forced to return $13 million to 86,000 Iowa policyholders. Vilsack also became involved in the Iowa Trial Lawyers Association and served as president in 1985.
In December 1986, the mayor of Mt. Pleasant was shot and killed by a disgruntled citizen at a City Council meeting. At the urging of the deceased mayor’s father, Vilsack ran for the position and won. He was re-elected in 1989, but did not seek a third term in 1991. Yet 90% of the voters wrote in his name in that election, and he continued to serve as mayor. He did not complete the term and resigned to run for State Senate.
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