Word: babbitt
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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After returning home to Arizona in 1967, Babbitt practiced law in Phoenix. A former colleague, Anne Bingaman, recalls that "in a firm of young workaholics, Bruce stood out as the one who never ate lunch and came in on Sundays." Babbitt donated many hours to pro bono cases, but was little involved in politics. Then another epiphany. While representing the Navajo tribe in a voting-rights case against the state, Babbitt realized, "My God, the attorney general has the largest law firm in Arizona, and it's devoted to the defense of racial discrimination. What it ought...
...Babbitt's own inheritance included an expensive and eclectic education and a strong sense of noblesse oblige. Where he grew up, the name Babbitt seldom reminded anyone of the bourgeois conformist of the Sinclair Lewis novel; rather, in Flagstaff, Ariz., it meant roughly what Rockefeller does in New York. Arriving a century ago in Flagstaff, a logging and ranching town south of the Grand Canyon, five Babbitt brothers turned a modest grubstake into a mercantile empire. As Bruce came of age, his family owned the grocery, drugstore and icehouse; a lumberyard and sawmill; and owned or controlled nearly a million...
They were also Catholic, which in that place and time meant they were not only inclined but well advised to share their bounty with those less fortunate and to wield their power with discretion. A boyhood chum, Bruce Leadbetter, says one reason Bruce Babbitt is uncomfortable addressing crowds is that "his family always emphasized leading quietly, influencing people, not jumping up on a box and talking down to them...
...Babbitt studied geology at Notre Dame and as a Marshall scholar in England. On a field trip to Bolivia, however, he got his first look at Third World poverty and experienced an epiphany. "I was doing fascinating research, but meanwhile we were surrounded by this incredible squalor," Babbitt says. Suddenly rocks seemed unimportant...
...Babbitt succeeded to the Governor's office through a fluke: the elected Governor stepped down, his replacement died, and the attorney general was left next in line. Babbitt then won election to two terms in his own right, proving himself a popular and shrewd executive in a deeply conservative state. He balanced his budgets, refused to throw money at problems and avoided fights he couldn't win. He pressed the legislature to improve health care for the poor, while holding taxes down and deregulating business. Says House Majority Whip Jane Hull, a conservative Republican and frequent Babbitt opponent, "I guess...