Harrison A. Williams
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Harrison Arlington "Pete" Williams Jr. (December 10, 1919 – November 17, 2001) was a Democrat who represented New Jersey in both the United States House of Representatives (1953-1957) and the United States Senate (1959-1982). Williams was convicted in 1980 for taking bribes in the Abscam sting operation, and resigned from the U.S. Senate in 1982 before a planned expulsion vote. Williams is one of numerous public officials known to have acknowledged drinking problems during the time.[1]
Williams was born in Plainfield, New Jersey and graduated from Oberlin College in 1941. He engaged in newspaper work in Washington, D.C., and studied at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service of Georgetown University until called to active duty as a seaman in the United States Naval Reserve in 1941. He became a naval aviator and was discharged as a Lieutenant, junior grade in 1945. After being employed in the steel industry for a short time, he graduated from Columbia Law School in 1948, and was admitted to the bar and commenced practice in New Hampshire. He returned to Plainfield in 1949 and continued to practice law, and was an unsuccessful candidate for the New Jersey General Assembly in 1951 and for city councilman in 1952.
Williams was elected to the House of Representatives in a special election in 1953, and was re-elected in 1954 but defeated for re-election in 1956. He was elected to the Senate in 1958 and re-elected in 1964, 1970, and 1976. In 1976, he defeated David A. Norcross, who went on to serve the Republican Party in state and national leadership roles.
He became the first Democratic senator in the history of New Jersey to ever be elected to four terms. Known as "Pete," Williams fought for a range of social welfare laws and urban transit programs. He was instrumental in passage of such landmark laws as the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, which protects worker pensions, and the 1969 Coal Mine Safety and Health Act.
He also helped pass legislation that created the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and had a major role in passage of the Urban Mass Transportation Act of 1964, the first federal law to provide mass transportation assistance to states and cities. He also was the first chairman of the United States Senate Special Committee on Aging .
In 1980, Williams was convicted of bribery and conspiracy in the Abscam scandal for taking bribes in a sting operation by the FBI. The Senate Committee on Ethics recommended that Williams be expelled because of his "ethically repugnant" conduct. Prior to a Senate vote on his expulsion, Williams resigned on March 11, 1982. He served time in Federal prison as Inmate #06089-050, and was released on January 31, 1986.
[edit] References
- ^ Governing under the influence; Washington alcoholics: their aides protect them, the media shields them, Washington Monthly, June 1988. "Former senators who have acknowledged alcoholism included the chairman of the Agriculture Committee (Herman Talmadge); the chairman of the Finance Committee (Russell Long), who went on the wagon in the 1970s; and a senior liberal (Harrison Williams), who later went to prison after an Abscam sting caught him taking bribes.
| Preceded by Clifford P. Case |
U.S. House of Representatives, New Jersey 6th District 1953–1957 |
Succeeded by Florence Dwyer |
| Preceded by Howard A. Smith |
U.S. Senator (Class 1) from New Jersey 1959–1982 |
Succeeded by Nicholas F. Brady |
Categories: 1919 births | 2001 deaths | People from Plainfield, New Jersey | American Episcopalians | Columbia Law School alumni | Members of the New Jersey General Assembly | Members of the United States House of Representatives from New Jersey | New Hampshire lawyers | New Jersey lawyers | Oberlin College alumni | United States Navy officers | United States Senators from New Jersey
