Michael Dukakis
Governor Michael Dukakis
October 19, 2000
Michael S. Dukakis, the 1988 Democratic nominee for president and former Governor of Massachusetts, is currently a distinguished professor of political science at Northeastern University, and a visiting professor at the School of Public Policy at UCLA. He travels to Hobart and William Smith Colleges to discuss his perspective of the upcoming election.
Dukakis is well known for conducting research on national health care policy reform and the lessons that national policy makers can learn from state reform efforts. Dukakis also holds the position of vice-chairman of the Amtrak Reform Board.
Dukakis began his political career as an elected town meeting member in the town of Brookline, Massachusetts, in 1960. He was a Democratic member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives (1963-70) and was twice elected governor of Massachusetts (1975-79; 1983-91). As a member of the state legislature he sponsored the nation's first no-fault auto insurance bill. As governor his policies included tax amnesty, and his Employment and Training Program to help welfare recipients secure paying jobs. He defeated a crowded field for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1988, named Senator Lloyd Bentsen as his running mate, but was defeated by George Bush.
Dukakis is a graduate of Swarthmore College and Harvard Law School. He served for two years in the U.S. Army, primarily in Munsan, Korea. He has authored articles on the nation's health care system for the Journal of American Health Policy; the Yale Law and Policy Review; the New England Journal of Medicine; and Compensation and Benefits Management.
This information is accurate for the time period that this person(s) spoke at Hobart and William Smith.