- Bruce Morrison
Infobox_Congressman
name =Bruce A. Morrison
date of birth=birth date and age |1944|10|08
place of birth =New York, New York
state =Connecticut
district = 3rd
term_start =1983
term_end =1991
preceded =Lawrence J. DeNardis
succeeded =Rosa DeLauro
party =Democrat
religion =Lutheran
spouse = Nancy A. MorrisonBruce Andrew Morrison (b.
October 8 ,1944 inNew York City ) is a former U.S. politician who was a Congressman fromConnecticut and candidate for Connecticut governor. He is a member of the Democratic Party.Youth
At a young age, he was adopted by George and Dorothea Morrison who lived in
Northport ,Long Island . As a child, he attended public schools and graduated fromNorthport High School second in his class. [cite web
title = MORRISON, Bruce Andrew, (1944 - )
work =
publisher = Biography Directory of the U.S. Congress
url = http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=M000992
accessdate = 2008-07-27] He had also been an all-state French-horn player during his term at Northport High.After showing an interest in science in high school, he attended
Massachusetts Institute of Technology , and graduated in three years with a degree in chemistry. He then moved on to theUniversity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for graduate school.After five years of scientific study, he attended
Yale Law School . His classmates included future PresidentBill Clinton , future First Lady and SenatorHillary Rodham Clinton , future US Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton, and future Supreme Court JusticeClarence Thomas .Political career
Once he graduated, Morrison began to work for New Haven Legal Services. In 1982, Bruce Morrison, then the head of New Haven Legal Services and an adjunct professor at Yale Law School, decided to run for U.S. Congress. After running a grass roots campaign, he narrowly defeated his Democratic opponent in a primary and then defeated Republican incumbent Lawrence J. DeNardis by fewer than 2,000 votes and became the U.S. Representative from the 3rd district of
Connecticut . After narrowly defeating DeNardis in 1984, he won two easy re-elections.In Congress, he served on the Banking and Judiciary Committees and served as chairman of the Immigration Subcommittee from 1989-1991. He was involved in human rights issues, visiting
Cuba to demand the release of prisoners,Paraguay to inspect elections, andChile to inspect the human rights situation there. He was a co-sponsor of the Immigration Act of 1990 or H.R. 4300 and a provision of the bill became known as the Morrison Visa Program. It allotted 40,000 visas each year for 3 years, with 40% (48,000 total) set aside for people from the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. For his efforts, Morrison received criticism from some anti-immigration groups (see for example (see [http://grades.betterimmigration.com/retired/testgrades.php3?District=CT&VIPID=153] ).Governor's race and beyond
Morrison announced his candidacy for governor of Connecticut in 1990. In the race, Morrison finished third, behind Republican
John G. Rowland and the eventual winner, Independent Lowell Weicker. After losing, he started his own law firm in Hamden,Connecticut .As a member of the group Irish Americans for Clinton-Gore (later the nonpartisan Americans for a New Irish Agenda), Morrison became involved in the Irish peace process. With Irish Voice publisher
Niall O'Dowd , Morrison acted as a key intermediary betweenGerry Adams 'Sinn Féin , theWhite House , and theFianna Fáil government led byAlbert Reynolds . Morrison, O'Dowd, and Bill Flynn (former CEO of Mutual of America Insurance Co.) were crucial in paving the way for Adams's controversial visa into the U.S. in February 1994 to address theNational Committee on American Foreign Policy and for theProvisional Irish Republican Army 's ceasefire declaration of August 1994.He was appointed the director of the
Federal Housing Finance Board by PresidentBill Clinton in 1995. He left office in July 2000 and has since worked as alobbyist and immigration lawyer.He resides with his family in Bethesda,
Maryland .Election results
Congressional elections
Gubernatorial election
References
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