Meet Bob

Robert Reich has spent his life fighting for working people and their families. As U.S. Secretary of Labor during President Clinton's first term, Reich was part of an Administration that presided over the longest economic expansion in history and created more than 22 million jobs nationwide, with more than 450,000 created in Massachusetts alone.

Born in Scranton, Pennsylvania in 1946, Robert Reich grew up in the rural community of South Salem, New York. His parents owned two retail clothing stores. He graduated from Dartmouth College in 1968, obtained an M.A. as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University and a J.D. from Yale Law School in 1973. For more than 20 years, he has lived in Cambridge with his wife, Clare Dalton, a law professor at Northeastern University who started and runs Northeastern University’s Center on Domestic Violence, and their sons Sam and Adam.

A leader committed to excellence, integrity and innovation

As Labor Secretary, Reich managed a federal agency with more than 16,000 full-time employees and an annual budget greater than the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Reich was able to downsize the agency by 12 percent through attrition, and did more with less. His leadership earned the Department of Labor more than 30 awards for innovation and government reinvention. A 1996 poll of Cabinet experts conducted by Hearst Newspapers rated Reich the most effective Cabinet secretary during the Clinton Administration.

Reich transformed the Labor Department into a powerhouse of ideas, action and innovation, leading the way on important initiatives such as:

Implementing the Family and Medical Leave Act
Fighting against sweatshops in the United States and illegal child labor around the world
Increasing the minimum wage for the first time since 1989 -- benefiting approximately 91,000 workers in Massachusetts
Protecting workers' pensions by ensuring that companies fully funded their pension plans
Launching job training programs, one-stop career centers, and school-to-work initiatives, all of which helped Americans earn higher incomes

A leader with vision and experience

Reich resigned as Secretary of Labor in 1997 and returned to Massachusetts to spend more time with his sons during their teenage years. He is currently a Professor of Social and Economic Policy at Brandeis University, and is the author of nine books, including The Work of Nations, which is one of the most influential books on the economy and workforce and has been translated into 22 languages, and his newly-released I'll Be Short: Essentials for a Decent Working Society. All proceeds from I'll Be Short will be donated to the Boston Medical Center Domestic Violence Project.

In 1992, Reich headed President Clinton's economic transition team. Before that, he served as a faculty member at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government. Reich worked in the Carter Administration, as Director of the Policy Planning Staff of the Federal Trade Commission. He also served as an assistant to the Solicitor General at the U.S. Department of Justice, representing the United States before the Supreme Court, during the Ford Administration.

Reich is a co-founder and former chairman of the political magazine The American Prospect, and serves on the Board of Directors of the Cambridge Community Foundation.

A leader who will stand up for our values

As governor, Reich will fight to clean up patronage and waste on Beacon Hill, and will use his experience in financial and workforce issues to restart our economy and fix the current budget crisis. Most importantly, Reich will stand up for the fundamental values that have shaped Massachusetts and contributed immeasurably to our Commonwealth's prosperity-supporting education, health care, and affordable housing, and protecting our environment.

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