Charles T. Manatt, former chairman of Democratic National Committee, dies at 75

 

Mr. Manatt organized training sessions around the country to prepare Democrats for future political battles and catered to Jewish voters by vocally opposing a Reagan deal to sell early warning radar planes to Saudi Arabia

He also arranged to bring more power within the committee to labor groups, who in return made significant contributions to the party’s coffers.

Leading up to the election, Mr. Manatt conducted a series of talks with civil rights activist and presidential candidate Jesse Jackson. By supporting Jackson’s bid for the White House, Mr. Manatt was credited with helping to raise awareness about diversity issues within the party.

Walter Mondale, a former U.S. senator from Minnesota who had been Jimmy Carter's vice president, became the Democratic party’s presidential nominee in 1984. But Mondale stumbled when he briefly tried to replace Mr. Manatt with Bert Lance, a Georgia native who also had served in the Carter administration, in part to improve his electoral chances in the South.

Ultimately, party donors rebelled at the effort to oust Mr. Manatt, and Mondale was attacked by opponents as an indecisive leader. Mr. Manatt maintained his chairmanship, but the Mondale campaign lost momentum, political analysts said at the time.

That November, Reagan won a second term in a victory even more overpowering than his first in 1980. Reagan carried 49 states to Mondale’s single triumph, in Minnesota.

Charles Taylor Manatt was born June 9, 1936, in Chicago. He grew up on a farm outside Audubon, Iowa, where his daily chores included feeding a passel of Hereford hogs. He was an Eagle Scout and a member of the Future Farmers of America.

He entered Iowa State University in 1954 and three years later married

classmate Kathleen Klinkefus. Besides his wife, of Washington, surviv
ors include three children, Michele Manatt of McLean, Father Timothy Manatt, a Jesuit priest inMinneapolis, and Daniel Manatt of Bethesda; a brother; and three grandchildren.

 

Mr. Manatt graduated from college in 1958 and from George Washington University law school in 1962. From 2001 to 2007, he served as chairman of George Washington University’s board of trustees.

In 1965, Mr. Manatt and an Iowa State classmate, Thomas Phelps, started their law firm in California. What began as a six-man group of savings and loans lawyers swelled to more than 100 lawyers by the early 1980s. Today, there are 350 spread across offices in New York, California and Washington.

After Mr. Manatt left the Democratic chairmanship, he remained involved with party causes. He was campaign chief for the failed White House candidacies of U.S. Sens. Gary Hart (Colo.) and Paul Simon (Ill.) in the 1988 race.

He was named a chairman of the successful Clinton-Gore presidential election team in 1992. Clinton rewarded Mr. Manatt with the ambassadorship to the Dominican Republic from 1999 to 2001.