Josh Gottheimer
Joshua S. Gottheimer[1] (/ˈɡɒthaɪmər/ GOT-hy-mər; born March 8, 1975) is an American attorney, writer, and public policy adviser who has served as the U.S. representative for New Jersey's 5th congressional district since 2017. The district stretches along the northern border of the state from New York City's densely populated metropolitan suburbs in Bergen County northwest through exurban and rural territory in northern Passaic and Sussex Counties.
Josh Gottheimer
A member of the Democratic Party, Gottheimer was a speechwriter for Bill Clinton and served as an adviser to the presidential campaigns of Wesley Clark, John Kerry, and Hillary Clinton. He has also worked for Burson Cohn & Wolfe, the Federal Communications Commission, Ford Motor Company, and Microsoft.
Early career[edit]
Gottheimer joined the Clinton administration as a speechwriter in 1998, at age 23,[5] working in the administration until its end in 2001. While attending law school, he worked as an adviser for Wesley Clark's 2004 presidential campaign, John Kerry's 2004 presidential campaign, and Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign.[6] After the 2004 election, Gottheimer worked for the Ford Motor Company, then became an executive vice president at Burson Cohn & Wolfe.[5] From 2010 to 2012, he worked for the Federal Communications Commission,[7] where he led an initiative related to broadband internet.[8] He subsequently became a strategist at Microsoft.[9]
Books[edit]
Gottheimer is the editor of Ripples of Hope (2003), a collection of American civil-rights speeches. The text of one of the speeches included in the book, which was delivered by Martin Luther King Jr. in Selma on January 25, 1965, was previously unpublished. Gottheimer acquired the text from an Alabama police consultant who had transcribed it from FBI surveillance tapes.[310]
Despite not working on any of the Obama campaigns, Gottheimer also co-authored Power of Words (2011) with Mary Frances Berry, a book about Barack Obama's speeches.[311] Power of Words sold poorly, with less than 1,000 copies purchased across all formats, and was upsetting to former Obama campaign staffers, given Gottheimer's position and actions in the 2008 Clinton campaign.[312]
Personal life[edit]
Gottheimer is a native of North Caldwell, and he currently resides in Wyckoff.[313] He is Jewish and a member of the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity.[5] He married Marla Tusk in 2006.[3] Together, they have two children.[5]