John Sasso | |
|---|---|
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1946 or 1947 (age 76–77) New Jersey, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Education | Boston University (BA) |
John Sasso (born 1946/1947)[1] is an American Democratic political operative who ran the 1988 election bid by Michael Dukakis.
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NYum: John's Pizzeria
Transcription
Hello, and welcome, to the second edition of Yum! This week we're taking students Priya and Allison to John's Pizzeria on Bleecker Street. A popular eatery with great pizza, and long held traditions. John's Pizza was founded in 1929 by John Sasso, and the restaurant is still standing in its original location. The specialty here is coal-fired, brick oven pizza with a thin crust and your choice of toppings. This is real-deal no-nonsense New York pizza. To complement the food, you'll find John's replete with a grungy yet reminiscent atmosphere, still stuck in an older New York. Signed pictures with celebrities adorn the walls, and this is still one of the few restaurants in the city where patrons are actually encouraged to carve messages into the wooden booths and walls. This carving-filled eatery is a living, breathing testament to the people of New York, who continue to record history through their real physical impact on the city's age-old structures. Alright, well thank you guys for coming! Thank you for having us! And thank you for watching this edition of Yum! To find out more, be sure to like HashtagNYU on Facebook, and check out our twitter. Until next time, this has been Valerie Quirk for HashtagNYU!
Life and career
Sasso was born in New Jersey. Initially a teacher, he began his political career as an organizer for Congressman Gerry Studds, and gained note as an organizer for Ted Kennedy in the 1980 Iowa primaries. Having worked on Michael Dukakis's 1982 campaign for Massachusetts Governor, Sasso served as his Chief of Staff from 1983 to 1987; Dukakis then appointed him as campaign manager for his presidential bid, after Sasso persuaded the governor that he could win nationally. Sasso was primarily responsible for creating the strategy and organization that allowed Dukakis to win the Democratic nomination in a crowded field.
Before the first primaries, however, Sasso was identified as the person responsible for the distribution of a videotape showing similarities between a speech by Sen. Joseph Biden, a Dukakis rival for the nomination, and British politician Neil Kinnock, leading to Sasso's forced resignation from the Dukakis campaign.
With Dukakis trailing George H. W. Bush by double digits in the polls, however, Dukakis recalled Sasso to the campaign just before Labor Day. Ultimately, resistance to Sasso's resuming management of the campaign from the still official "campaign manager", Susan Estrich, a Harvard Law School Professor, hampered Sasso's efforts to turn the campaign's fortunes around. Still, the gap was closed to around 53–47 by voting day.
Following the campaign, Sasso became a consultant with an array of major national clients, while continuing to be called upon as a top strategist within the Democratic Party. He was reputed to be ready to head up New York Governor Mario Cuomo's presidential campaign had Cuomo run in 1992, but Cuomo declined to enter the race.
2004 Campaign season
In 2004 John Kerry brought Sasso in as "the man on the plane" during his own ill-fated presidential campaign, and Sasso emerged from the campaign as one of the few campaign operatives whose reputations were burnished by his role on the campaign. Just prior to that involvement, also at Kerry's request, Sasso had taken on a major role for the Democratic National Committee.
References
- ^ Stengel, Richard (3 October 1988). "The Natural: A Feel for Politics". Time.
External links
- Road to the White House paved with dirty tricks
- Joseph Biden's Plagiarism; Michael Dukakis's 'Attack Video' - 1988
- Kerry picks senior campaign aide
- Researcher Alleges Potential Plagiarism in 11 Passages of Kerry's Writings
This page was last edited on 17 November 2023, at 18:16