Biography:
American politician, a former basketball star. While playing college
ball, he was generally considered too slow - but he ended up in the
Basketball Hall of Fame. As a politician, he may be regarded as too
plodding and too pure. Yet it was he who first put tax reform on the
national agenda, back in 1982 as a first-term Democratic Senator from New
Jersey. He kept plugging away in his dogged fashion, even publishing a
book, "The Fair Tax."
A former Rhodes scholar, Bradley always had a sense of where he wanted
to go, and once setting a goal, persistently and patiently achieved it. As
a high school basketball player in Crystal City, MO, he practiced over
three hours a day with lead weights in his sneakers. As a Princeton star,
he awed classmates by pumping in 30 points a game and then hitting the
library until midnight. As a Senator, he slightly unnerved some of his
colleagues by relentlessly writing in a small notebook that he kept in his
inside jacket pocket.
The son of a banker who was a Republican, Bradley grew up in a suburb
of St. Louis showing an independent streak from youth, a proclivity for
hard work and a thirst for perfection. By his junior year he was 6'5"
and hotly sought after for basketball. He was also a straight-A student.
While working the summer of 1964 on Capitol Hills, his interest in
politics was ignited. When he finished Princeton, virtually everyone
advised him to play pro ball, but he turned down a contract in favor of a
Rhodes scholarship in England. Only after his two years at Oxford were
completed did he sign with the Knicks, becoming the highest-paid
basketball player in the world. When he retired in 1977 with two
championship rings, Bradley went for a Senate seat in New Jersey.
Bradley's interest in tax reform began with his own experience. When he
had reached the six-figure income mark as a sports star, he found that he
was a depreciable asset, and in his own typical fashion, began to study
heavy economic tomes to explain his position. As his starring role in tax
reform illustrates, Bradley plays politics as he played basketball. He
never lets up.
He was re-elected to a second Senate term in 1984 and is one of the
most popular politicians in New Jersey history. Friendly with his
colleagues, he remained distant, passing up Washington's social scene and
eating a salad alone at his desk for lunch.
A voracious reader and a rumpled dresser, Bradley has a former
athlete's disdain for exercise as well as a fondness for junk food that
predictably added a few pounds in his 40s. He enjoys being unpredictable
but would also enjoy being less wooden in his speeches, which he writes
himself. Though he may appear standoffish, he jokes easily with voters and
has a wry sense of humor. In an era of slick politicians, his very
plainness is refreshing. Some call Bradley a plodder. He never acts rashly
but orients himself on issues before taking a stand. In Senate parlance,
he is a work horse, not a show horse. But once committed, Bradley acts
boldly. He is permissive on social issues such as abortion, supportive of
women's right and concerned about pollution.
A devoted family man, Bradley is married to Ernestine, a professor of
comparative literature at Montclair; they have a daughter, Theresa Anne,
born in 1977.
On 4/02/1990, still a young man in political terms, he announced that
he was running for his third six-year-term in the U.S. Senate. Bradley is
known for being concentrated, disciplined and polite. After 17 years on
Capitol Hill, the New Jersey Democratic Senator announced on 8/16/1995
that he was retiring, calling the U.S. political system
"broken." He was worn out by the need to spend so much time
raising money, and underwhelmed by the idea of working as a member of the
minority fighting the new conservatism. He plans to remain in the public
arena in some capacity, perhaps a third-party presidential candidate or as
a cerebral pathfinder outside the system.
His first book, "Life on the Run" was not so much a sports
book as the rumination of an innately private person who had to experience
an unwanted degree of fame in order to do something he loved. His latest
book (1996) is an exceptional memoir about growing up in Missouri, going
to Princeton, and, above all, serving in the Senate, "Time Present,
Time Past." Intelligent, surprisingly candid and exceptionally well
written, it is a love letter to American from one who is aware of the
country's weaknesses and contradictions, but is still optimistic about the
future.
On 12/11/1998, Bradley announced on his website that he was exploring a
run for the 2000 Democratic nomination. He made his first trip to New
Hampshire as an announced candidate the last week of January 1999.
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