Cameron Kerry

Cameron Forbes Kerry (born September 6, 1950) is the younger brother and political confidant of John F. Kerry.

The fourth child of U.S. diplomat Richard J. Kerry and his wife, Rosemary Winthrop Forbes, Cameron Kerry graduated from Harvard University in 1972, and Boston College Law School in 1978. Cameron Kerry was associated with Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr in Washington, D.C. and served as law clerk to U.S. Senior Circuit Judge Elbert Tuttle, former Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit (now the Eleventh Circuit). He has been an Adjunct Professor of Telecommunications Law at Suffolk University Law School and has written on First Amendment and cable television issues.^[1] Since 1983, he has worked at Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky, and Popeo, focusing on civil litigation, environmental issues, and communications regulation.

In 2004, he served as an influential advisor in his brother’s presidential campaign. Cameron Kerry played a role in decisions behind the scenes and as a campaign surrogate.^[2]

On September 18, 1972, the day before the primary election in which John Kerry was seeking his district's nomination in his race for the U.S. House of Representatives, Cameron Kerry and Thomas J. Vallely were caught in the basement of the building that housed both John Kerry's and opponent Anthony R. DiFruscia's campaign headquarters. Cameron was charged with breaking and entering. One month later, the charges were dropped after the Kerry campaign explained that Cameron was in the building to investigate rumors that his brother's campaign telephone lines were being wiretapped.^[3]

During his brother's presidential campaign, it emerged that their grandfather, Fritz Kohn, was a Jewish immigrant from what is today the Czech Republic who had changed his name to Frederick Kerry and converted to Roman Catholicism. Cameron Kerry traveled across the country speaking to his brother’s views on Israel campaigning with Harvard Law School professor Alan Dershowitz, writer-comedian Larry David, and other Jewish elected officials.^[4] In 1983, Cameron Kerry converted to Judaism before marrying Kathy Weinman.^[5]

In 2006, Cameron Kerry explored a run for Massachusetts Secretary of State^[6] deciding not to run when the Democrat incumbent, William F. Galvin, announced that he would seek reelection.

Cameron Kerry is the Vice-Chair of the National Jewish Democratic Council and defended Barack Obama in the Jewish press during the 2008 presidential campaign.^[7]

Cameron Kerry was picked to be Barack Obama's general counsel of the Commerce Department.[1]

References

v • d • e John Kerry Career Military career · 2004 campaign · VP selection process · Iraq policy · Kerry-Feingold Amendment · Sponsored legislation Elections Senate election, 1984 · Senate election, 1990 · Senate election, 1996 · Senate election, 2002 · United States presidential election, 2004 Family Forbes family · Dudley–Winthrop family · Teresa Heinz · Julia Thorne · Alexandra Kerry · Vanessa Kerry · Rosemary Forbes Kerry · Cameron Kerry

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